Provides general information about pirates and discusses the activities of notorious seafaring outlaws, such as Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard, in and around North Carolina during colonial times.

In April 1713 the War of the Spanish Succession came to an end. During the conflict hundreds of privateers – licenced pirates – preyed on enemy shipping throughout the Caribbean. These privateers now found themselves out of a job, and many turned to piracy. One of theme was Edward Teach – more popularly known as “Blackbeard”. He joined the pirates in New Providence (now Nassau) in the Bahamas, and by early 1717 he had become a pirate captain. From then on he caused havoc off the North American seaboard, in the West Indies and off Honduras, before appearing off Charleston, South Carolina in May 1718. He blockaded this major port for a week, an act that made Blackbeard the most notorious pirate of his day.

Thirteen of the most intriguing buccaneers in the history of piracy, all connected somehow to the Carolinas. New edition has an all-new chapter on Blackbeard, as well as updated information on some of the other pirates, and new sections such as: The Truth About Piracy, How To Talk Like a Pirate, a list of pirate movies, a pirate quiz, and more.

Examines the early colonization of North Carolina, discussing the struggles the colonists went through, their government, and daily lives.

During this period (1663-1730), North Carolina was a poor colony in the British Empire. The landscape provided ample opportunities for pirates to establish operational bases. Besides Edward 'Blackbeard' Teach, numerous others—such as Henry Every and Charles Vane—roamed the colony. This study shows that colonial North Carolina was used as a pirate haven, due to the geographical, socio-economic, and political influences that affected the colony. Through the lens of the maritime cultural landscape, various tangible and intangible remains were identified reconstructing the places of the pirates. Overlaid maps of pirate locations and colonial settlements suggest the pirates had varying degrees of interactions (i.e. trade, marriage, social gatherings) with the local populations. Investigations of the urban landscapes as contemporary community spaces, in addition to serving as a historic pirate haven, reflect the collective pirate memory manifested in place and street names.

Analyzing the rise and subsequent fall of international piracy from the perspective of colonial hinterlands, Mark G. Hanna explores the often overt support of sea marauders in maritime communities from the inception of England's burgeoning empire in the 1570s to its administrative consolidation by the 1740s. Although traditionally depicted as swashbuckling adventurers on the high seas, pirates played a crucial role on land. Far from a hindrance to trade, their enterprises contributed to commercial development and to the economic infrastructure of port towns. English piracy and unregulated privateering flourished in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean because of merchant elites' active support in the North American colonies. Sea marauders represented a real as well as a symbolic challenge to legal and commercial policies formulated by distant and ineffectual administrative bodies that undermined the financial prosperity and defense of the colonies. Departing from previous understandings of deep-sea marauding, this study reveals the full scope of pirates' activities in relation to the landed communities that they serviced and their impact on patterns of development that formed early America and the British Empire.

In this classic account of the Revolutionary War experiences of the North Carolina Continentals, Hugh F. Rankin traces the events leading to war in North Carolina and follows all the campaigns and battles in which the North Carolina Continentals took part--Brandywine, Germantown, Charleston, Savannah, Camden, Eutaw Springs, and others. He also provides descriptions of almost all of the significant personalities in the Continental Army. Originally published in 1971, this new edition contains a foreword by Lawrence Babits, introducing the book to a new generation of scholars and general readers interested in the Revolutionary War.