From its earliest days, Charleston was a vital port of call and center of trade, which left it vulnerable to seafaring criminals. The Golden Age of Piracy, encompassing roughly the first quarter of the eighteenth century, produced some of the most outrageous characters in maritime history. The daring exploits of these infamous plunderers made thievery widespread along Charleston's waterfront, but determined citizens would meet the pirate threat head-on. From the "Gentleman Pirate," Stede Bonnet, to Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and famed pirate hunter and statesman William Rhett, the waters surrounding the Holy City have a history as rocky and wild as the high seas. Join author and tour guide Christopher Byrd Downey as he tells the tales of Charleston during piracy's greatest reign.
Edward Robinson was a British pirate who sailed with Blackbeard during the Golden Age of Piracy in the early 1700s. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Robinson crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean and the Americas. In 1718, he was captured and sentenced to death by hanging in Charleston, South Carolina. But was he really a murderous sea-robber, and did he deserve his brutal fate?
Hundreds of pirates traversed the waters of the Atlantic during America's colonial period, but few had a more adventurous tale than Stede Bonnet. Originally a wealthy plantation owner from Barbados, Bonnet abandoned his wife and children in 1717 to set sail on the pirate ship Revenge. He soon fell into company with Blackbeard in the Bahamas and headed for America. In May 1718, they arrived in Charleston and held the entire city hostage in a daring siege. Bonnet was eventually captured in North Carolina and transported back to Charleston, where he was brought to justice and executed on December 10, 1718. Join local pirate tour guide Captain Christopher Byrd Downey as he recounts the swashbuckling life of the most infamous pirate to ever darken the Holy City's waters.
Forgotten tales of Charleston's Civil War history have been collected into this new compendium for today's history lovers. In a city as old as Charleston, it's only natural for some stories to become less well-known over time, but the Palmetto State's history should never be forgotten entirely. Author Margaret Middleton Rivers Eastman recounts some of Charleston's amazing Civil War stories that have faded from memory, including the shady story of how an association of Charleston elites conspired to push South Carolina toward secession in 1860, and the Stone Fleet of old whaling ships that were sunk in Charleston Harbor in an attempt to choke out Confederate blockade runners, as well as a cast of real-life characters such as Amarinthia Yates Snowden, William Richard Catheart, and Tom Lockwood, just to name a few.
Quaker William Penn once described "Charles Town" as “a hotbed of piracy,” full of wayward women “who frequented a tap room on The Bay and infected a goodly number of the militia with the pox.” Since the Carolina Colony was founded and named for Charles II, the Merry Monarch, it’s no surprise that Charlestonians have always had a flair for flouting the rules. In the 18th century, Bostonian Josiah Quincy complained that Charlestonians, “are devoted to debauchery and probably carry it to a greater length than any other people.” In Storied & Scandalous Charleston, storyteller Leigh Jones Handal weaves tales of piracy, rebellion, ancient codes of honor, and first-hand accounts of the madness that ensued as the city fell first to the British in 1780 and then to the Union in 1865. Meet some of the foremost female criminals of the day—lady pirate Anne Bonny and highwaywoman Livinia Fisher. And learn how centuries of war, natural disasters, bankruptcy, and chaos shaped modern Charleston and the Carolina Low Country.
With surprising tales of vicious mutineers, imperial riches, and high-seas intrigue, Black Flags, Blue Waters is “rumbustious enough for the adventure-hungry” (Peter Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle). Set against the backdrop of the Age of Exploration, Black Flags, Blue Waters reveals the surprising history of American piracy’s “Golden Age” - spanning the late 1600s through the early 1700s - when lawless pirates plied the coastal waters of North America and beyond. “Deftly blending scholarship and drama” (Richard Zacks), best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them. Through engrossing episodes of roguish glamour and extreme brutality, Dolin depicts the star pirates of this period, among them the towering Blackbeard, the ill-fated Captain Kidd, and sadistic Edward Low, who delighted in torturing his prey. Upending popular misconceptions and cartoonish stereotypes, Black Flags, Blue Waters is a “tour de force history” (Michael Pierce, Midwestern Rewind) of the seafaring outlaws whose raids reflect the precarious nature of American colonial life.
A masterful narrative history of the dangerous lives of pirates during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, revealing their unique impact on colonialism and empire. The pirates that exist in our imagination are not just any pirates. Violent sea-raiding has occurred in most parts of the world throughout history, but our popular stereotype of pirates has been defined by one historical moment: the period from the 1660s to the 1730s, the so-called "golden age of piracy." A groundbreaking history of pirates, Enemies of All combines narrative adventure with deeply researched analysis, engrossing readers in the rise of piracy in the later seventeenth century, the debates about piracy in contemporary law and popular media, as well as the imperial efforts to suppress piracy in the early eighteenth century. The Caribbean and American colonies of Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands—where piracy surged across these decades—are the main theater for Enemies of All, but this is a global story. Evoking London, Paris, and Amsterdam, Curaçao, Port Royal, Tortuga, and Charleston, the narrative takes readers, too, from Ireland and the Mediterranean to Madagascar and India, from the Arabian Gulf to the Pacific Ocean. Familiar characters like Drake, Morgan, Blackbeard, Bonny and Read, Henry Every, and Captain Kidd all feature here, but so too will the less well-known figures from the history of piracy, their crew-members, shipmates, and their confederates ashore; the men and women whose transatlantic lives were bound up with the rise and fall of piracy. Transforming how readers understand the history of pirates, Enemies of All presents not only the historical evidence but, more importantly, explains the consequences of piracy's unique influence on colonialism and European imperial ambitions.
An in-depth history of Poe’s time spent in the South Carolina port city where he secretly enlisted in the United States Army. Edgar Allan Poe arrived in Charleston in November 1827 chased by storms, both literal and figurative. Some of the author’s previous indiscretions caused him to enlist in the U.S. Army six months earlier under the pseudonym Edgar A. Perry. The more than one year that Poe spent stationed at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island has been shrouded in mystery for nearly two centuries because Poe deliberately tried to hide his stint in the army. But despite Poe’s deceptions, the influences and impressions of the Lowcountry permeated his life and writing, providing the setting for Poe’s most popular and widely read short story during his lifetime, “The Gold-Bug,” and perhaps providing the inspiration for the real Annabel Lee. Author Christopher Byrd Downey details the hidden history of Poe in Charleston.
PIRATES AND THEIR TREASURE IN NEW ENGLAND AND ON CAPE COD. Who were they and why were they here? The Golden Age on Cape Cod in New England was between the years 1690 and 1730 and includes two eras: First is described as the "Pirate Round" the period of the long-distance voyages from the Americas (primarily Providence, RI) to rob Muslim and East India Company targets in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. This era was followed by the post War of Spanish Succession period and the establishment of a Pirate Republic at New Providence and the Pirate's "Flying "Gang." Pirates have sequestered treasure at many New England locations and the largest Pirate treasure ever found, 4.5 tons of gold, silver and jewels, was found close to shore on Cape Cod.
