News Flash

Pirates, Privateers and Buccaneers the South Carolina State Museum’s traveling exhibit will make patrons avast (that’s stop in pirate lingo) and gasp as the world of pirates comes alive, opens to public at the Hampton History Museum on Saturday, May 12, 2018, as a part of the 19^th Annual Blackbeard Festival.

Pirates, Privateers and Buccaneers

In commemoration of the 300th anniversary the death of the notorious Blackbeard and the 19^th Annual Blackbeard Festival, the exhibit Pirates, Privateers and Buccaneers, on loan from the South Carolina State Museum, tells the story of Blackbeard, who blockaded Charleston Harbor in 1718 prior to his death in North Carolina, along with the stories of many other pirates.

The exhibit will thrill those who have always been fascinated by these desperadoes of the seas. It will dispel a number of popular myths about pirates, such as that they made their victims walk the plank, and used phrases such as ‘arrrgh,’ and ‘matey,’ which are fictions of Hollywood. This exhibit will also address the problem of modern piracy dispelling another popular myth that pirates disappeared a long time ago. 

When approached by North Carolina merchants seeking help in breaking up piracy along the Outer Banks, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood sent the Royal Navy, under the command of Lieutenant Robert Maynard, to capture Blackbeard. After the pirate was killed in a battle off the coast of North Carolina on November 22, 1718, Lieutenant Maynard had his head removed and hung from the bowsprit of his sloop. Oral tradition holds that on arrival in Virginia, the head hung was from a pole at the mouth of the Hampton River as a warning to others who might be tempted by piracy. The head remained for some time and the site continues to be known as Blackbeard’s Point today.

This exhibit was developed by the South Carolina State Museum with research, collaboration and assistance from the North Carolina Museum of History, the Queen Anne’s Revenge Project of the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology, and the North Carolina Maritime Museum.

Pirates, Privateers and Buccaneers continues through September 2, 2018.

Pirates, Privateers and Buccaneers, and admission to the Hampton History Museum, along with Steampunk Visions of Futures Past: Exposition of Marvels, is free during Blackbeard Pirate Festival weekend, Saturday, June 2, 10 am-5 pm and Sunday, June 3, 1-5 pm. 

Related event:

Blackbeard’s Last Battle

Monday, May 21, 7-8 pm

Museum members free, non-members $5

As a prelude to the Blackbeard Pirate Festival on June 2&3, historian and documentary filmmaker Kevin Duffus, author of The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate: Within Every Legend Lies a Grain of Truth presents a special illustrated lecture to separate fact from fiction related to this iconic figure. What happened during Black Beard’s last days that precipitated his demise? Who, truly, was Edward Teach, aka Black Beard, and from whence did he come? What was his true name? And what happened to his treasure?

19^th Annual Blackbeard Pirate Festival

Pillage and plunder your way through the coastal seaport city of Hampton, Virginia this June 1-3 when the 19th annual Hampton Blackbeard Pirate Festival returns for another year of swashbuckling excitement! Featured on the October 21, 2015 episode of the Travel Channel’s Expedition Unknown entitled Blackbeard’s Hidden Gold (http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/expedition-unknown/episodes/blackbeards-hidden-gold) and named one of the Top Five Pirate Festivals in North America by USA Today Travel (www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2015/02/24/pirate-festivals/23880041/?csp=travel), the festival celebrates Hampton’s rich maritime heritage by commemorating the 300^th ANNIVERSARY of the demise of our most infamous visitor, Captain Edward Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard the Pirate.