Commonwealth of Pyrate's First Revolution

Read the quote above one more time. Those few words carry great meaning and may have been Capt. Charles Johnson's (pseudonym for Nathaniel Mist) crowning achievement in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates. Mist warned the whole of the British Empire of that insane world across the seas, that provincial wilderness of America – a lascivious world "beyond the lines of amity" that had long filled with villains and desperadoes kicked out of civilization – a collection of criminals who had completely lost all veneer of civilization. These people had forsaken God and goodness, king and country, privilege and right. 

“Commonwealth of Pyrates” alluded directly to America, a forsaken land where “Wickedness” equates to “Gallantry.” Americans, colonials, provincials, or simply... “them” envied this “Wickedness.” And, this commonwealth attempted its first revolt during the Golden Age of Piracy.

What went wrong in America? 

For nearly a century, America developed under the more imperialistic and conservative Stuarts. In 1688, the Glorious Revolution occurred and more liberal Whigs slowly came to power. Eventually, England's Parliament forced a German ruler to the throne, still trying to reduce the power of the monarchy and resist the old Tory conservatism of the Stuart Dynasty. Americans had been growing apart from their mother country for a century, but these actions accelerated the widening gap. They wholly resented the change. Britain began enacting legislation against piracy, but Americans resisted them. Americans still viewed their domain from the old Stuart perspective - militarily, a martial land of feudalism where Christianity became a force of evil intent upon subjugating slaves. They still revered and needed piracy. Americans frightened the liberalizing, civilizing world. They learned to depend upon and even worship their pirates and resent British efforts against them! The British rightly worried of the loss of their tremendous investment in America - a land previously stolen from Spain... and soon to be lost to the wickedness across the sea.

Even by 1700, Americans were no longer British...

The Johnson-Mist quote described a rogue population of criminality - indeed, England had exiled their criminal population to America for decades. The quote did not inspire patriotic unity under the Union Jack. At best, it expressed division. This evil, villainous band of miscreants across the ocean needed to be corrected – and their society as well. America had to be righted – brought to heel. Blackbeard and his society needed to face the king’s justice or be removed!  

Blackbeard may have been the George Washington of the first American Revolution... one that failed and devolved into rebellion...

None of the political speculation or depth appeared in A General History, but then, that might detract from its direct point – its ghastly charm - of America as a place where uncouth degenerates lived. The argument was easy to make that America had become an evil place - pirates and slavery were everywhere. Stuart conservatives continued to conduct their business without regulation. 

Nathaniel Mist wrote this book as historical fiction - and made some good points like this one - still, he sold the book as history, fact – a popular criminal biography based on recent events, and sold to a hungry audience of mariners sure to be at sea for weeks at a time. It was liberal propaganda to reduce piracy and its accompanying evils so that Britain could regain control. 

These travelers to the virtual "hell" across the seas had time to absorb his infectious words, craving entertainment, and would spread the word that pirates there were evil and "notorious." The propaganda would spread across the Atlantic community like a computer virus in software. The wild stories attracted the gullible masses and were often not subtle in their anti-historicity, despite lightly sardonic affirmations of sincerity. A General History was not a history. The ardent wordsmith found it useful to treat the numerous gaps in sources as a blank canvas on which to paint Blackbeard’s “black” infamy and delight his indiscriminate audience - to convince America not to follow pirates, many of them former privateers, into battle against Britain.

A General History delighted in and, yet, admonished Edward “Blackbeard” Thache – for a reason. According to Johnson-Mist, Blackbeard was born in Bristol. His rise begins sometime in late 1716, just prior to the Admiralty’s strongest efforts to put an end to American piracy and regain control over their foreign plantations in the wilds of America. His wealthy family descended from a substantial Anglican minister in Gloucestershire is never mentioned by Johnson-Mist. His service in the Royal Navy on HMS Windsor, totally neglected. His gentlemanly qualities were erased... and, today we assume that discovering pirates' pasts are almost impossible! But, this is simply not true. Quest for Blackbeard tells the past of several of these pirates...

British Anti-piracy efforts and Blackbeard’s simultaneous appearance were probably not coincidental. Johnson-Mist completely confused Thache’s entry into pirate history, perhaps intentionally. He probably knew more than he wrote about Thache’s past. Furthermore, Arne Bialuschewski had pondered the change in tone of the reports coming from the first and quite new colonial news media of the day: the Boston News-Letter. He suspected that propaganda probably infiltrated these news reports, especially the month after Burchett’s instructions against pirates to the colonial fleet – another coincidence? This author of A General History was also financially in trouble and seen as a likely candidate for recruitment by Secretary Joseph Addison’s patron, Lord Sunderland and the Whig ministry, then in charge of Britain. 

Obviously, Britain's efforts only worked for a short time... by 1776, America declared independence on more solid ground and this time, beat the liberal Whigs soundly!

For whatever reason, A General History took great license to alter history and turn Blackbeard, and other conservative American heroes, into villainous monsters. It was an easy transition, though. Still, the book's continued use is a serious problem in history today.

Propaganda is a serious problem in any century. A General History has long been extolled as a reliable source, but it cannot be. The book isn't even necessary for telling pirate history. Johnson-Mist’s sources for his historically-accurate segments are available elsewhere – he used the same sources that we would today. He used the same sources that I used to write Quest for Blackbeard; though, thanks to modern advances in technology, I had many more. The part that annoys all historians, including myself, is that perhaps not all of the sources he used still remain. Still, taking into consideration the liberties, obfuscations, and outright lies that Johnson-Mist used intermingled with the facts, perhaps it is best to largely ignore his book as a historical source and rely upon the primary sources still available. 

After all, America, like its pirate heroes, is concerned with profit... not the truth.

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"Quest for Blackbeard" has finally been approved for Global Distribution which means that it will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Alibris, and other online booksellers very soon. Look for it on my Lulu site at: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bcbrooks
 
It is already previewable on Google Books.

Pirates have Always Won in America!

Queen Anne's Revenge by PirateoftheCaribbean on DeviantART

#Blackbeard was a #pirate, possibly a privateer, but first, he was a Stuart #conservative of strong #politics, a #veteran of Queen Anne's War, a Royal Navy man serving on the HMS Windsor. He was a gentleman of early #America, not unlike the #Kochs, the Rockefellers, #Rothschilds, and #Trump of today. He was wealthy and owned slaves. He commanded a fleet and might have been considered a founding father of capitalist America... had it won its first revolution, fought from 1715 to 1726. Still, he helped to found the America we live in today, an America ultimately swimming in these same pirates.

Pirates and their kin always seem to win in America. Why? It goes way back to the history of the West Indies, a culture of theft and xenophobia, elevation of landed wealth in a wilderness environment, the lack of administrative control in London, and ultimately to the transference of this ideology in the founding of Carolina by Barbadians. It goes back to the history of the resulting conservative and slave-owning South.

Quest for Blackbeard resulted from much soul-searching and discovery of the unknown and previously disregarded. It has been my hope for a realistic view of who and what we are as a nation... and for the betterment of that nation. As long as I have the freedom to speak my mind, I will... and attempt to spread this knowledge... even as we once again face the pirates of old!

"Baylus C. Brooks has put together a masterpiece about the history of the South... While researching the origins of Blackbeard, Brooks has delved deep into the politics, family connections, worldly influences, sources of slavery, the connection between the Caribbean Sea and Virginia and North Carolina, and much more ... I am learning much about my own ancestry and origins and how the South came to be ... I highly recommend this masterpiece to scholars, schools, history buffs, and curious folks ...excellent reading ... thank you, Mr. Baylus C. Brooks!" ~ Valerie Sumner

Printers site: http://www.lulu.com/shop/baylus-c-brooks/quest-for-blackbeard-the-true-story-of-edward-thache-and-his-world/paperback/product-22825800.html

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Google Books site: https://books.google.com/books?id=v1veDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA511&dq=quest+for+blackbeard&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF1d_l-tDOAhUHbiYKHXgUC5wQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=quest%20for%20blackbeard&f=false

French Pirate Jean Martel: Deception in "A General History"

Hispaniola and Puerto Rico on the 1729 Keulen Map of the Caribbean

John "James" Martel from A General History

Jean Martel was a French pirate of the early Golden Age of Piracy. He was probably born or closely related to the Martels in Hispaniola (Martels grew sugar there since the 1550s - there is a town near Petit Goâve named “Martel” and the family borrowed money from Spain to invest in sugar cane, making a connection with earlier (1708) Spanish privateer Lewis Martel seem plausible). 

Martel perhaps operated between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico by fall of 1716. He took a boat of Saint Domingue with English pirates near Cape Tiburon (Hispaniola) in late 1717 and had a sister-in-law who lived at Petit Goâve, Saint Domingue, Hispaniola, also late in 1717. At this time, he became an informant about a pirate attack planned for Christmas 1717 on Petit Goâve and asked not to mention his name “because it would risk his life if the English [pirates] learned the secret of his French heritage.” 

I assume that Martel had little to no accent?

Remarkably, Capt, Charles Johnson, actually polemic Jacobite journalist Nathaniel Mist, in 1724 wrote a narrative of Martel in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates, 2^nd ed. that appears almost entirely misrepresented and partly faked. 

First, he refers to Martel as an Englishman from Jamaica when he is clearly French. This has caused a tremendous amount of trouble for the last 300 years because almost every fan of pirates out there takes A General History as literally as the Bible! 

Just because of the word "history" in the title?

Secondly, his narrative is hard to substantiate with primary sources, with exception of the final two paragraphs which come from a letter of Gov. Walter Hamilton of Antigua, dated 1 Mar 1717. The details are identical to those in the Calendar of State Papers; however, the Calendar's account is generic - no names or identification for the pirates were given by Hamilton in his letter. Martel’s responsibility for these deeds is merely assumed by Johnson-Mist.[1]

Capt. Charles Johnson writes on pages 64-69 of A General History that several vessels had been captured by “John Martel” of Jamaica in mid-late 1716. Few of these references could possibly be true. Some are manufactured and it was not the first time that Johnson-Mist had attempted such bold deception in his unreliable and polemical "history" book.

The vessels that Johnson-Mist attributes to the “Jamaican” John Martel are: Berkley Galley, Capt. Saunders; sloop King Solomon; John and Martha, Capt. Wilson; an unnamed sloop and brigantine; Ship Dolphin, 20 guns, bound for Newfoundland; Kent, Capt. Lawton; a small Ship and a Sloop, belonging to Barbadoes; Greyhound galley of London, Capt. Evans, from Guiney to Jamaica; a ship of 20 guns, a sloop of eight, and three prizes, another ship of 20 Guns, a sloop of four Guns, and another sloop. Furthermore, between September and December, Johnson-Mist shows Martel with a sloop of 8 guns and 80 men. Later, he has a ship of 22 guns and 100 men, plus a sloop of about 25 men. He then amassed quite a flotilla, according to the polemical journalist. Note that the masters’ names only include surnames – no given names – a peculiar change from other parts of his narrative (compare to the section on Blackbeard which includes Christopher Taylor, David Herriot, and Jonathan Bernard in just the first few paragraphs). This could be from his sources, like Royal African Company (RAC) letters that seldom mention given names. Still, he misapplied these sources - real people and events used falsely to imply truth where there wasn't any.

One possibility is that the primary sources from which Johnson-Mist drew this information may be lost to us now. That would please Johnson-Mist devotees to no end! However, that would require a massive amount of loss, an almost impossible documentary calamity. Anyway, as the available records show, there are plenty of extant references available – probably more still buried in the National Archives in London. A bit of research can easily reveal these sources - and the lies.  

I'm sure that Nathaniel Mist never had computers. ;)

The Greyhound galley, Capt. Evans, has been located on Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. Their voyage began 30 Aug 1716 and they could have been intercepted by pirates in the Caribbean; but, this is doubtful. The record shows that they began with 273 slaves and delivered 236 to Kingston, Jamaica. Johnson-Mist declares 40 slaves stolen by Martel. Indeed, the database shows a loss of 37. Still, the reality of the slave trade is that, even in the late eighteenth century, 15 percent of slaves died in the Middle Passage. For the Greyhound galley, that translates to 41 slaves, and an estimated 232 delivered to Kingston even when no pirates were involved. To assume that all of the slaves would have survived and that pirates were the only reason for the loss is unsupportable. One reason for the appearance of this voyage of the Greyhound in A General History is the story first appeared in Nathaniel Mist’s own Weekly Journal newspaper on 25 Jul 1717.[2]

Gregory O’Malley writes in Final Passages that Capt. Hume in HMS Scarborough captured a pirate named Kennedy; he, with others, allegedly took the Greyhound galley of London and stole 40 slaves (again, a supposed loss by pirates and not disease). Martel could have been a partner of Kennedy. Still, O’Malley’s reference is puzzling, for the only citation he gives is for A General History, a book that only declares Martel as responsible for this deed. Moreover, the only Kennedy that Johnson-Mist refers to is a later pirate and contemporary of Bartholomew Roberts named Walter Kennedy, “executed the 19th of July, 1721, at Execution Dock.”

No ship named Kent can be found operating during this period, in the slave trade database or the Calender of State Papers, the National Archives in London, nor Naval Office Shipping Records. The same search applied to Berkley Galley results in the discovery that Capt. Edmund Saunders and mate Nathaniel Tucker completed their slave trading voyage to Jamaica between June 1716 and 22 Dec 1716 without incident. Again, they lost 54 slaves of 367 to the usual disease, or 14.7 percent. Johnson-Mist may have had some familiarity with RAC reports, but still, again: no pirates in this one.

King Solomon, Capt. Edward Coward sailed an expensive and exceptionally horrid slave voyage, arriving 26 July 1716 at Jamaica with only 288 of the original 450, a mortality rate of 36 percent. Thirty-one percent of the complement were also children. This vessel may indeed, have been caught by pirates after delivery, in the months of September or October. There is no other reference to the incident, however.  

John and Martha, Capt. Wilson, appears only in the Boston News-Letter (but apparently “was cast away upon Cuba” in Oct 1716 near where Capt. [Henry?] Jennings took Capt. Stone of Hamilton galley and held him for four days drinking his rum – Wilson’s crew were returned to New York 29 Oct 1716 by Capt. Stone in Hamilton galley – three of Wilson’s men joined Jennings; BNL 5 Nov 1716), which indicates that he was taken by pirates, but this pirate was Henry Jennings and not Martel. 

Ship Dolphin, Capt. Hall was destroyed by a natural disaster that claimed all lives. No pirates were involved. And, it, too appeared in Mist’s newspaper on 17 Dec 1716. Mist may have been a sensationalist – a tabloid-type yellow journalist who relied on Royal African Company workers' dock rumors for his publications.

Furthermore, in A General History, Johnson-Mist regarded “John” Martel as an Englishman - a Jamaican - while two primary sources clearly identify him as a Frenchman: an American newspaper article (see below), to which he has proved time and again abundant access, and a letter titled “Activity of pirates at Saint Domingue,” 21 Jan 1717 [AN Marine B1 29f], today in the Centre des archives d’autre mers in Aix en Provence, France. These records declare Martel operating in November with 135 men (no mention of the number of vessels he had). Also, Anglican Church records show that no Martels were either born, married, or buried on Jamaica until 1789.

Still, Johnson-Mist was haphazard in his use of the records he had – even manipulative at times. Most likely, Johnson-Mist manufactured this data, as he had for Stede Bonnet from Samuel Bellamy’s work off Virginia in April 1717. He might then have appended the information from Gov. Hamilton about Capt. Hume and HMS Scarborough.

Even the “Port of Cavena” mentioned by Johnson-Mist in his Martel narrative as being on Cuba is not a real place. It appears to evolve from “Gran Caverna de Santo Tomás,” a system of caves in the Vinales Valley – it is not, nor has it ever been, a port. A General History is full of lies and should never be used for telling actual history!

Boston News-Letter, Monday November 12, 1716, 2:

Rhode Island, Novemb. 8.  Arrived here Thomas Pemberton from Antigua, Daniel Waire from Connecticut both for Boston, Ford & Whitfield from Boston the first for New York, Col. John Cranston from New London, gives an account that in his Passage from Philadelphia to Jamaica in August last off Portorico, he met about the 21st of September with one Capt. John Martell a French Pyrate of 135 Men, being most of them French, who took his Ship and Cargo, made him and his Company Prisoners, but afterwards was so civil as to make an Exchange in giving him his Pyrate Sloop, and otherwise was very kind to him & his Men. He also gave him a New London Sloop to come home in, one Butels Master, and at his Arrival he return'd her again to the right Owners.

Perhaps Nathaniel Mist didn't get his Boston newspaper in the mail that day... maybe it was taken by pirates on its way across the ocean. Also, I guess Martel DID have an accent after all! ;)

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[1] Baylus C. Brooks, Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World (Lake City: Baylus C. Brooks, 2016), 370; Noël Deerr, History of Sugar, Vol. 1 (Chapman and Hall, 1949), 124-125.

[2] Paul Finkelman, Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass, Vol. 1 (Oxford University Press, 2006), 125; National Archives (London), HUTCHINSON v FOXCROFT: Ledger of copies of letters from the Royal African company to its outposts in Succondee, Commenda and Dixcove, West Africa, 1716, C 113/261; Gregory E. O'Malley, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619-1807 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 100. 

It is previewable on Google Books.

Cindy Vallar on "Quest for Blackbeard" by Baylus C. Brooks:

"While revising our understanding of pirates is one of Brooks’ goals in writing Quest for Blackbeard, he states two others. One pertains to corrupt private colonies and the need for “central government control for any progress to commence once . . . Britain dominated in America.” The second pinpoints an epicenter for the dawning of the Golden Age of Piracy: the July 1715 hurricane that resulted in the catastrophic wreck of eleven of Spain’s treasure ships. The information he puts forth in this narrative masterfully supports these goals."

http://www.cindyvallar.com/Brooks.html#quest

http://www.lulu.com/shop/baylus-c-brooks/quest-for-blackbeard-the-true-story-of-edward-thache-and-his-world/paperback/product-22849873.html

baylusbrooks.com

Nathaniel Mist's Piracy!

Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World is not your usual pirate history - because it does not accept the narrative developed from the virtual worship of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates as a valid historical source. In fact, this 300-year-old book, sold as actual history for these many years, is merely historical fiction. "Capt. Charles Johnson" at some times quoted accurately from sources, but at other times, he clearly lied, usually in carefully crafted deceptions - perhaps why the political polemicist Nathaniel Mist used this pseudonym. Still, the book was registered at His Majesty's Stationary Office in London under his real name. He still made profits from it to help with the numerous legal fines he incurred. 

Still, Mist made one fatal error in his deception... 

The literal “smoking gun” of proof for Mist’s intentional fraud in A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates is the deposition of Andrew Turbett and Robert Gilmore in Virginia, 17 April 1717. This document is available to view on my website's "Pirate Library" page. Mist absolutely fabricated a completely false history for pirate Stede Bonnet from a single document that clearly mentioned Samuel Bellamy by name. Mist cannot escape the fact that he clearly knew details from this deposition, and probably possessed a copy of it, while purposely avoiding the actual pirate mentioned in that document as responsible for that piece of the history. He needed this detail to flesh out his character of the "Gentleman" Pirate Stede Bonnet. Mist sacrificed deeds of the virtually unknown Samuel Bellamy to his literary desires and needs. As a result, Bellamy has been nearly forgotten for many years and is still confused today because scholars have refused to ignore Mist's historical fiction and rely strictly upon primary sources.

Not only did this book tell a completely bogus history for what happened to Stede Bonnet's early career, but Mist also fabricated an entirely "notorious" and even "evil" history for others, especially for Edward "Blackbeard" Thache of Spanish Town, Jamaica and especially Blackbeard's time in North Carolina. The point was to diminish the pirates of America (actual conservative heroes to Americans of that time) and even America itself because America was far too unruly in their adherence to Stuart conservatism. They were difficult to control 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. England changed, became more progressive, while America did not. The British government simply tried to bring America back into line with their policy and they used Nathaniel Mist for this purpose.

All of this is difficult for us to accept. This is why Quest for Blackbeard has not evolved over the last two years as your usual pirate history. My narrative offers, as I propose, an actual history of Golden Age Piracy and even alters the presumed history of America itself... in my opinion, a true history that has been hidden for 300 years because of British propaganda used against Americans in 1724! Our first premature Revolution (1715-1718) ended as Rebellion and degenerated into outright lawlessness from 1719-1726. The victors' narrative reigned supreme - it still does -especially for our memories of once-coveted former heroes, even after the American Revolution sixty years later established the independence for us to proceed unimpeded!

The proof for Mist's deception lies on pages 335-336 of Quest for Blackbeard:

As to the missing period of August–October 1717, an entire paragraph of information on Stede Bonnet’s first cruise was related by Johnson-Mist in both editions that includes details not found in any other known source, newspaper account, or official correspondence. This paragraph states:

[H]is first Cruize was off the Capes of Virginia, where he took several Ships, and plundered them of their Provisions, Cloaths, Money, Ammunition, &c. in particular the Anne, Captain Montgomery, from Glascow; the Turbet from Barbadoes, which for Country sake, after they had taken out the principal Part of the Lading, the Pyrate Crew set her on Fire; the Endeavour, Captain Scot, from Bristol, and the Young from Leith. From hence they went to New-York, and off the East End of Long-Island, took a Sloop bound for the West-Indies, after which they stood in and landed some Men at Gardner’s Island, but in a peaceable Manner, and bought Provisions for the Company’s Use, which they paid for, and so went off again without Molestation.

These are detailed references, but all were likely fabricated or misreported. Neither the Turbet of Barbados, Endeavor of Bristol, nor Young from Leith can be exactly identified. “The Agnis,” however, with a master Capt. Andrew Turbett (who was probably not set on fire), “was taken and sunk by a pirate [not mentioned by Johnson-Mist], Saml. Bellamy, five leagues off Cape Charles, 7th April [1717].”  “On the same day,” as Lt. Gov. Spotswood’s packet to the Board relates, “they took the Anne galley of Glasgow and the Endeavor pink of Brighthelmstone [master John Scott], and on the 12th a ship belonging to Lieth [Leith; a ship whose master was Capt. Young], all bound for Virginia.”  These vessels had all been captured by Bellamy, April 7-12, then annoying Virginia – not Stede Bonnet and not in August as Johnson-Mist alleged. 

The actual record containing this information found in Johnson-Mist’s confusing passage on Stede Bonnet were the depositions of Andrew Turbett and Robert Gilmor, master and supercargo of Agnis, John Lewis and Joseph Jacob, master and mate of Tryal. They clearly indicate that the pirate who molestated these vessels off Virginia was Samuel Bellamy. These particular vessels captured by Samuel Bellamy in the Whydah, are attributed to Stede Bonnet only by A General History or references to this book or its many editions.

There is no proof that Bonnet traveled further north than Charles Town, South Carolina, on his initial cruise. Mist might have confused or used an early false history for Bonnet when he first wrote the book and published it in May 1724, but he continued the deception in December. Some pirate historians have accepted this information without questioning it, but most avoid writing of these questionable events, even while still trusting upon A General History as a “reliable” historical source.
 

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"Quest for Blackbeard" has finally been approved for Global Distribution which means that it will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Alibris, and other online booksellers very soon. Look for it to appear on my Author's Amazon site.

It is already previewable on Google Books.

I will also send a free "Genealogy of Blackbeard" family chart (5x7 postcard) to the first ten people to review the book on the Amazon site or on my Lulu site at: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bcbrooks

Simply leave the review and then email me with your name and mailing address. It will not be seen by anyone else and you will not be included in any databases.

A Fraudulent History of the Pyrates Revised!

For 300 years, a single narrative of the pirates of the Golden Age has survived beyond all sense and reason because of its popularity. It is a solitary narrative made even more popular by Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean and Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. In this narrative, pirates have been traditionally viewed as notorious, villainous, dirty, poor, desperate, and even bloodthirstily evil. 

It all goes back to Capt. Charles Johnson's A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, particularly the second edition published in December 1724. I mention the second edition because it is radically different in some respects from the first, an earlier version which was published only six months before, in May 1724. These variations beg the question of its authenticity as an historical source.

Not only is its authenticity in question, but Capt. Charles Johnson wasn't even the author's name. Johnson never existed. The real author was once thought to be Daniel DeFoe, but since we have learned that his name was Nathaniel Mist, a polemical Jacobite newspaper publisher in London. Furthermore, there is speculation of late as to whether a financially ailing Mist had been coerced by the British government, Lord Sunderland in particular, to diminish the reputation of pirates in America - to eliminate possible rebellion 60 years before the American Revolution!

Still, generations of pirate amateurs and scholars alike claim this book to be the solitary and sacred "Bible" of pirate historical information. 

Why is this flawed book so popular? This is one question that I explore in detail in my new book, Quest for Blackbeard: The True Story of Edward Thache and His World. A preview of this book is available at Google Books.

Asking this question forces pirate authors and scholars across the world to examine their 300-year-old prejudices. Moreover, once Mist's flawed book is taken out of the equation and replaced by actual primary evidence, a very different picture is revealed of pirates in America - at least about the ex-privateers of Jamaica and Bermuda until about 1718. These men, like Edward Thache, are not poor and desperate. They are not notorious villains or demons, but were wealthy freeholders and may actually have been revered as great heroes to early Americans - revolutionaries whose revolution failed and became a rebellion. This rebellion was put down hard by the British and propagandized against by books like Mist's. The propaganda knocked down America's heroes.

And, we subconsciously still knock them down today. 

Quest for Blackbeard is naturally controversial. This book forces us to view a 300-year-accepted prejudice from another angle. As a result, we also must view the beginnings of our nation from a new perspective - a not so comfortable glance in the mirror - perhaps one reason that the old British view of American pirates has survived for so long!

This image does not represent ex-privateers and Colonial American heroes like Edward "Blackbeard" Thache. This is the view that 18th-century British authorities had of America itself.

---------------------------------


"Quest for Blackbeard" has finally been approved for Global Distribution which means that it will be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Alibris, and other online booksellers very soon. Look for it to appear on my Author's Amazon site.


It is already previewable on Google Books.

I will also send a free "Genealogy of Blackbeard" family chart (11" x 17" poster) to the first ten people to review the book on the Amazon site or on my Lulu site at: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/bcbrooks

Simply leave the review and then email me with your name and mailing address. It will not be seen by anyone else and you will not be included in any databases.

Ashworths of Liverpool and Jamaica!

Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas

St Nick's or The Sailors' Church

Continuing to tell the story of piracy and America  from a progressive perspective:

Ashworths of Liverpool and Jamaica... and possibly South Carolina! 


















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Read about North Carolina's piratical birthpangs in the Brunswick Town & Wilmington affair and the hero that saved the Port of Wilmington from the Family's political opposition, Capt. James Wimble: 

Both can be found at the author's Amazon page and at Lulu.com

And, now on sale at lulu.com:
 

From the author of Blackbeard Reconsidered!