Quote:
Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
After the pirate envoys were found smiling and very drunk, they and another man took the chest of medicine back to Blackbeard's flotilla. He accepted it as ransom and started to form the idea of retiring from being a pirate. The huge amount of booty his various flotilla's crew had collected also entered into it. One basic thing though came to his mind-- the fewer people he shared it with the bigger his take. He needed a plan that would not result in mutiny. A primer for his conspiracy to work was the September 5, 1717 offer by King George I of a pardon for all pirates giving up piracy before or by September 5, 1718 and their promise of never returning to such misdeeds. He now needed to thin his ranks by setting himself and a few others apart from his larger force as well as turn himself into an acceptable authority as defined by the King's Proclamation. Replica 1717 broadsheet and King George's Proclamation of the Act - The Thieves Market - Pyracy Pub |
Blackbeard decided his plan for his retirement would work better with the NC Governor--Charles Eden--than with the SC one--Robert Johnson. His actions with plundering at least eight ships near Charleston would
clash with political connections of the SC Governor even if Eden had been appointed by the
Court of Queen Anne. It would be easier to
broker with the NC Governor for a good deal under the King's September 5, 1717 Proclamation of Pardons for Pirates giving up their wicked ways . In other words, the SC Governor had too much crow to
digest because of Blackbeard's actions in Charleston. He had stepped on a hornet's nest through this blockade and the good citizens of Charleston were looking for someone to sting. They would get a perfect target for their revenge in Major Stede Bonnet after Blackbeard's upcoming treachery at Beaufort Inlet, NC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_(governor) http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/...tary/325/entry http://www.teachshole.com/bonnet.htm