Edward "Blackbeard" Teach (1680-1718) was a legend in his own time. Born in England, he plundered ships traveling to and from the American colonies--as well as vessels in the Caribbean Sea. Although his reign of terror lasted only two years, he became one of the best-known sea robbers in all of history.

Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard the pirate, was probably born somewhere near Bristol, England. Little is known of his early life--except that he went to sea as a young man. As a privateer (legalized pirate) during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-13), he robbed ships in the West Indies. When the war ended in 1713, he turned to piracy, like many former privateers.

By 1716, Teach was serving under the command of Benjamin Thornigold, a pirate captain. On Thornigold's ship, he sailed from the pirate colony of New Providence in the West Indies to the American...