Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was an English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain’s North American colonies. Little is known about his early life, but he may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne’s War before he settled on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined around 1716.
Teach was a shrewd and calculating leader who spurned the use of violence, relying instead on his fearsome image to elicit the response that he desired from those whom he robbed. He was romanticized after his death and became the inspiration for an archetypal pirate in works of fiction across many genres.
Blackbeard’s Tower was used as a watchtower in the 18th Century during the Pirates’ Golden Era, although there is no evidence Blackbeard used the tower.
Postcards
1964 – Dexter Press Inc (DT-80000-B Series – Type A)
1964 – Dexter Press Inc (DT-80000-B Series – Type AA)
1964 – Dexter Press Inc (DT-80000 Series – Type B)
1966 – Calypso Distributors Ltd (P67300 Series – Type A)
Calypso Distributors Ltd (10×111300 Series)
I completely agree with you. Thank you for your assistance.
Good afternoon. My name is Thomas Hairston and I am an architecture major at the University of the Bahamas. I am conducting a research project about the tower but I can not find any references for it. Were you able to find any literature or reference about the tower’s history? Thank you in advance for your time and assistance in this matter.
Hi Thomas! I couldn’t find a lot about the origins of this building other than general ‘tourist’ information. However, try Google Books and Archive.org to see if there is any older literature. Most of my search was around the 1950-1970 period. Quite a mystery for a historical landmark.