Blackbeard (? - 1718), a British pirate, was one of the most famous villains in the history of the sea.  He received his name from his habit of braiding his long, black beard and tying the braids with ribbon.  Few pirates have looked and acted as fierce as Blackbeard, who was born Edward Teach in the city of Bristol, England.

He carried three braces of pistols and made himself look devilish in the thick of fighting by sticking long, lighted matches under his hat, framing his face in fire.  If action was slow, he stirred things up by lighting pots of sulphur in his own ship, or shooting off pistols beneath the table while entertaining friends in his darkened cabin.  His journal states that confusion and plotting developed if his men were sober, but all went well when they had enough rum.

Blackbeard terrorised the Carolina and Virginia coasts during 1717 and 1718 in his ship the Queen Anne's Revenge.  In 1717, he blockaded Charleston, South Carolina, capturing ships in the harbour and seized citizens for ransom.  He left after he received a chest of medicine.  After this raid, he ran his ship aground near Cape Fear, North Carolina.  The Governor of North Carolina, Charles Eden, then sent Blackbeard a general pardon but rumours abounded that Eden had been bribed.  Life on land was not for Blackbeard and he quickly returned to sea.

He took such a toll of shipping and created so much terror along the American coast that Virginia and Carolina planters organised against him.  The Virginia governor sent the ship HMS Pearl out to take him dead or alive.  He was finally cornered on November 21, 1718, near Ocracoke Inlet, off North Carolina.  He fought desperately with sword and pistol until he fell with 25 wounds in his body.

His head was taken back to Virginia and stuck on a pole.