“Blackbeard: The Birth of America” is the true story of Edward Thache—former British Navy seaman and notorious privateer-turned-pirate, who lorded over the Atlantic seaboard and Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. A Robin-Hood-like American patriot and the most famous freebooter of all time, Blackbeard was illegally hunted down by Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood, the British Crown’s … Crown’s man in Williamsburg obsessed with his capture. Based on reliable historical records and the latest research, this adventure tale illuminates the true man behind the myth and his doggedly determined pursuer, revealing a cat-and-mouse game and important historical figure lost to us in a “fog of legend, myth and propaganda” for three hundred years. A folk hero in his own lifetime, Blackbeard exploded onto the scene during the birth of America and was one of the first American revolutionaries in the War of Independence against British rule.
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Samuel Marquis does a brilliant job of pulling the reader out of the present and in to the past to live with the characters he writes about! I was totally glued to the page, and I absolutely recommend it!
Very well written book. Entertaining and informative but just a bit too long
A whole new look at this notorious pirate. Never knew about his connection to colonial America.
While fictional in specific plot lines, the author presents a more accurate picture of Blackbeard as a gentleman pirate rather than the bloodthirsty killer presented in most portrayals.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Blackbeard. Very entertaining and informative and interesting,colorful characters
Lots of surprises. Great early. American history. Pirates were not such bad guys afterall.
In Blackbeard: The Birth of America we meet Edward Thache, the real man behind the legend. It is tough being a pirate captain, even when you’re as good at it as Blackbeard. It’s not all plundering and rum fueled banyans. Corrupt politicians, oppressive government, and untrustworthy media, seem like modern problems, but they are far from new, and each play an important role in Blackbeard’s life, and death.
Blackbeard: The Birth of America is masterfully researched, and it shows. It is loaded with historical detail. There is a bit of flourish, but it maintains historical accuracy. I loved that bits of historical documents are used throughout the story.
For me, some parts were more intellectual and less adventure than I was expecting, which made it less exciting of a read, but necessary to the set the scene for the adventure parts. Any history buff will adore this novel.
Over the years, I’ve read a number of Samuel Marquis’s historical thrillers. I’ve become a fan who’s happy with pretty much every volume, many of which are set during World War II. Among the many surprises of his new Blackbeard is the time period the story is set in. I’ve never associated Marquis with the early decades of the 18th century or the seas of the Caribbean and the pirates that sailed on them circa 1716-1718.
Blackbeard Another major surprise is Marquis’s portrayal of Blackbeard, the privateer turned pirate. I was surprised to see the pirate always referred to as Edward Thatch and not Edward Teach, the surname I always associated with Blackbeard. Well, Google for both names and both names will come up in multiple entries. Whatever handle Marquis gives his character, few readers are likely to anticipate seeing Blackbeard painted in the most heroic portrait possible, at least for the first two/thirds of the book.
Marquis’s Blackbeard tries to avoid violence by only attacking ships that offer little resistance to minimize the carnage his crew might endure. He’s a giant figure, a charismatic leader able to use eloquence to sway his extremely democratic sea-farers to his point of view. The pirates operate within the rules of the “articles” that give every man an equal vote in important decisions and an equal share in any booty. There is no racism. We see this most evident in the character of Cesar, a former black slave now devoted to Blackbeard.
The pirates’ motives are in part economic, part political, and part a lust for the free life. At first, pirate captains have charters given to them by royal governors based in the New World to attack Spanish and French ships. But many dislike British King George from the House of Hanover and would prefer the crowning of James III from the House of Stuart. For such reasons, Blackbeard’s small but powerful flotilla start attacking British ships in part to rebel against those who are rich and abusive to the common man. The pirates start describing themselves as “Robin Hoods,” distributing wealth much more fairly than royal charters.
Another major character is Steede Bonnet, a Barbados plantation owner who throws it all away to become a pirate for the freedom of a life at sea despite his less than adequate knowledge of sea-going ways. Woven throughout the scenes set in the Caribbean and up the Atlantic coast, we also spend time on land with Alexander Spotswood, the despotic, vindictive and tyrannical lieutenant governor of Virginia. For Spotswood, capturing Blackbeard is a political move calculated to curry favor in England. Very unpopular with his colony’s citizens, he suppresses any desires brought to him from the Virginia House of Burgesses that might erode his powers. He despises the new term of “Americans” and, in many ways, embodies the complaints the founders of the United States would fight against in just over fifty years.
So the “Golden Age of Piracy” is portrayed as the precursor for the American Revolution with Blackbeard and his cohorts the real patriots, at least in their own opinion. In Marquis’s realm, these salty dogs never lacked for self-righteous self-justification. I suspect it’s my own preconceived notions, but I frequently found it difficult to accept the verisimilitude of these noble scalawags. I am perhaps a modern victim of the propaganda that cast Blackbeard as a vicious criminal in Boston newspapers of the time. I was also put off a bit by Marquis frequently repeating his points over and over which seemed like rather overdoing it. Padding?
The book never really builds up a head of steam, at least until the final third where Blackbeard realizes his flotilla has grown too large, that the British admiralty is about to end the age of freebooting piracy, and he makes some turning-point choices very different from what we’ve come to expect from him. Lots of surprises in this fast-moving section of the book.
Throughout, Marquis’s gifts for description and character development are on full display to take his readers to times and places that, in this case, are captured in ways few of us would expect. His closing end notes make it clear he sketched out most of this novel drawing from a wide spectrum of resources, many of them of a rather recent vintage.
So, from page one to his appendices, unless you too are a Blackbeard scholar, Blackbeard: The Birth of America will be a constantly eye-opening series of surprises. You’ll feel certain you’re learning something as the story progresses. Pirates as the original American revolutionaries? Marquis builds a vivid and convincing case that is so. Samuel Marquis
This book introduces a new perspective on Blackbeard, the myth and legend. Marquis has a way of revisiting historical events that makes each tale feel fresh and new! A very interesting read — must recommend!
Ahoy, mateys! Pirate-lovers beware… in Samuel Marquis’ latest you’ll find not only a well-researched historical novel about Blackbeard, but a rollicking read with new insights into his death!
great!
great
Lot’s of great information about the pirates who were blamed for things they did, when the government was just as dishonest as the pirates
This book was a take on the life of Edward Thatch that I never expected. I had this preconceived idea of the Caribbean Pirates as wicked men who had no respect for the law. However, this book pointed out that the Lieutenant Governor in charge of the Virginia Colonies was actually more corrupt than those he hunted. A very interesting and enlightening book although I found the ending quite sad. It is book that should be read in light of today’s political environment.
It gave me a different perspective on the birth of America and pirates and how one effected the other.
It was a more realistic way to learn about history.
enjoyable fiction and history read.
sort of wandering…not quite sure what the point was…fiction or documentary
Bad writing. Couldn’t finish.
I got a little tired of hearing about Blackbeard as a freedom fighter.