Pirates

The Spanish Invasion of Beaufort: How slaves turned settlers became pawns in Spain’s hand

Francisco Menendez (left), a runaway slave who became captain of the Fort Mose militia, may have had some involvement with the Spanish invasion of Beaufort in 1747. (Background map was a 1770 “Plan of the Town & Port of Beaufort” by cartographer C.J. Sauthier)

On Adam Fletcher’s first day as an apprentice (in The Smuggler’s Gambit), he is placed under the instruction of Boaz Brooks, senior cooper and second-in-charge at the shipping company. Adam learns that Boaz was also forced into an apprenticeship when he was younger. As they share their personal histories, one of the topics that arises is the 1747 Spanish invasion of Beaufort. In book 2, Captured in the Caribbean, more information comes out about that frightening event.

Although the event isn’t explored in depth in the novel, it was a very real part of Beaufort history. To date, however, no one has really explored the subject of who exactly those Spaniards were who took the town.

That is, until now.

What we already know

In the Preface to Volume 22 of the State Records of North Carolina, we are told that Spaniards invaded the coast in three different locations spanning a period of nearly a decade. The first instance occurred in 1741 near Ocracoke Inlet. The final instance occurred along the Cape Fear when Spaniards invaded Brunswick in 1748. The Beaufort invasion, however, took place in 1747 and is summarized in this way:

In June, 1747, the Spaniards took possession of the town and harbor of Beaufort, and Colonel Thomas Lovick called out his regiment to repel them. Major Enoch Ward was on duty with fifty-eight men when the town was taken on 26 August, and the alarm continued until 10 September, although probably the Spaniards departed earlier. On 6 September William Moore brought in his bill against the public for fifteen hundred pounds of beef for maintaining and imprisoning ten Spanish negroes, and for a gun which had burst in time of action which he said cost him eighty pounds. These Spanish vessels were largely manned by negroes and mulattoes.

At the bottom of this article, there is a list of the brave Beaufort citizens who banded together to fight off these Spanish marauders and restore peace and tranquility to the otherwise quiet seaport town.

Who were these Spanish “negroes and mulattoes” and what did they want?

In The Colonial Records of North Carolina, Volume 4, we are given a bit more information about these men:

In 1747, several small sloops and barcalonjos crept along the coast from St. Augustine, full of armed men, mostly mulattoes and negroes, their small draught securing them from the attacks of the only ship of war then on our coast. They landed at Ocacock, Core Sound, Bear Inlet and Cape Fear, where they killed several people, burned some ships and small vessels, carried off some negroes and slaughtered a great number of cattle and hogs. These practices continued all the summer of 1747, and led to the erection of several forts along the coast, one of which, Fort Johnston, still survives.

Why would “negroes and mulattoes” have “carried off some negroes”?

I can think of a few reasons, but perhaps if we learn who these black Spaniards from St. Augustine were we can better ascertain why they would’ve been interested in taking local “negroes” with them.

Fort Mose ” The Spaniard’s Gambit?

Established in 1738 as the first free black settlement in what would eventually become the United States, Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or “Fort Mose” (pronounced Moh-say) for short, was located just outside St. Augustine, Florida. It was created as a Spanish sanctuary of sorts for runaway slaves from the Carolinas. They were welcome to stay in the settlement as free men and women provided they would convert to Catholicism and pledge their allegiance to the King of Spain.

It should be pointed out that their allegiance meant that their position just north of St. Augustine demanded the residents of Fort Mose act as the northern defense for America’s oldest city, a challenging position considering Spain’s enemies to the north were the English.

Just two years later, in 1740, their allegiance was put to the test when British forces came from Georgia, led by James Oglethorpe, with the intention of taking over the fort. Spanish troops, along with local Indians and the free black militia counterattacked and ran the British troops out, but destroyed the original fort in the process. For a time, the residents of Fort Mose relocated to St. Augustine and lived among the Spanish there, but it wasn’t to last.

In his book, Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America, historian Ira Berlin writes:

Declaring themselves “vassals of the King and deserving of royal protection,” they continually put themselves in the forefront of service to the Crown with the expectations that the Crown would reciprocate.

Hoped-for rewards were not always forthcoming. All “vassals of the King” were not equally favored. Beginning in 1749, a new governor of Florida forced black people to return to Mose, much against their will, as they had enjoyed the cosmopolitan life of St. Augustine, where their ability to converse in several European, Indian, and African languages gave them a place as cultural brokers in a multicultural society.

Make no mistake about it, mercy and compassion are not what prompted the Spanish government to welcome fugitive slaves into the Florida colony. It was a strategic decision. What better way to destabilize the fledgling English colonies to the north than to entice their labor force”albeit their slave labor force”to run south? And then, on top of that, they expected those slaves-turned-settlers to take up arms against any threats to Spain and her territories.

Maybe even return to the colonies from whence they came to take their countrymen and exact a bit of revenge?

Why was Beaufort a target?

As it said earlier in this article, the attack on Beaufort was one of a series of attacks on the coast of North Carolina by Spaniards. Again, it was strategic. According to historian Charles L. Paul, the population of taxables in Carteret County in 1748, the year after the invasion, was only 320, while the taxables for the town of Beaufort was only one-tenth of that number, or just 32. (In North Carolina, taxables, or tithables, were defined as follows, “¦every white Person Male of the age of Sixteen Years and upwards all Negroes Mulattoes Mustees Male or female and all Persons of Mixt Blood to the fourth Generation Male and Female of the age of twelve years and upwards, and no other Persons whatsoever, shall be deem™d Tithables.”)

Beaufort, North Carolina - Sauthier map, 1770 — This map was made twenty three years after the Spanish attack on Beaufort.

In other words, Beaufort would’ve been seen as a point of weakness in the colony. Spanish attacks weren’t launched on the more populous areas.

Since the report said, “they killed several people, burned some ships and small vessels, carried off some negroes and slaughtered a great number of cattle and hogs,” it’s entirely possible that the purpose of the attack was to either free or take slaves and generally create mayhem, weakening the town by destroying property.

North Carolina didn’t have any great ports like Charleston. The ports that did exist in the colony were critical to its success. By launching attacks at various points along the coast, the Spanish invaders were proving their allegiance to the King of Spain by attacking his enemies in the English colony and perhaps enjoying a bit of indirect revenge on the Carolinas where they, or their forebears, had originally been enslaved.

What became of the free blacks of Fort Mose and St. Augustine?

Most of the black population of Fort Mose and St. Augustine ended up accompanying their Spanish compatriots to Cuba after Florida was ceded to the British with the Peace of Paris in 1763. (Britain temporarily had control of Havana”for nearly one year from 1762 to 1763”until they agreed to give it back to Spain in exchange for East Florida. West Florida was already under British control.)

According to Berlin, while the the black population at St. Augustine and Fort Mose totaled about 3,000, only about a quarter of them were free. While the National Park Service has called Fort Mose a precursor site to the Underground Railroad, a full three-quarters”totaling over 2,000 souls”of the black inhabitants of this “free black settlement” were enslaved.

It’s even possible that the “negroes” taken during the raid on Beaufort were, themselves, brought into slavery in Florida.

Who were the men who fought off the Spanish marauders?

Thanks to the wonderful documentary work of Joel S. Russell, we have a great deal of Carteret County historical and genealogical information available online at his website. He has lists for four key dates involving Beaufort’s history with the Spanish invasion. The first, June 14, 1747, was when Spanish ships were out in the bay taking ships. The second, August 26, 1747, was the day the Spaniards took Beaufort. The third date, September 1, 1747, was when our expanded militia began to fight off the marauders. By the fourth date, September 10, the attack on Beaufort was over.

Private Andrew Adams
Private John Arthur
Private Thomas Austin Jr
Private Thomas Austin Sr (This is my 7th-great-grandfather!)
Sergeant George Bell
Private James Bell Jr
Private John Bell
Private Newell Bell
Private Ross Bell
Private William Bowen
Private John Brown
Private William Burn
Private Cornel Canaday
Private Richard Canaday
Sergeant Thomas Canaday
Private Daniel Catholick
Private Ephraim Chadwick
Captain Charles Cogdell
Private George Cogdell
Private John Cogdell
Ensign Richard Cogdell
Private William Cole
Private Joseph Davis
Private William Dennis
Private Daniel Everitt
Private Joseph Fulford
Private Joseph Fulford Jr
Lieutenant Edward Fuller
Private Richard Gabriel
Private Dederick Gibble
Private Thomas Gillikin
Private Thomas Gillikin Jr
Private Benjamin Guthrie
Private Benjamin Hancock
Private Nathaniel Hancock
Private David Hicks
Private Samuel Howland
Private Ambrose Jones
Private David Lewis
Private Thomas Love
Private John McDowell
Private Jobe Meders
Private Timothy Merryhew

Sergeant Joseph Morris
Private Joshua Nash
Private Samuel Negus
Private George Neithercott
Private Elias Nelson
Private John Nelson
Private William Owen
Private Nicholas Pacquinett
Private Isaac Parker
Private Peter Piver
Private Robert Polk
Private Robert Potts
Private Laughlin Quin
Rgt. Clerk George Read
Private Daniel Rees
Private John Roberts
Private William Roberts
Private Daniel Ross
Ensign John Shackleford
Private John Shackleford
Private David Shepard
Private Edward Shepard
Private Cornelius Simpson
Private Edward Simpson
Private John Simpson
Private Joshua Simpson
Private Benjamin Small (and son)
Private William Taylor
Private Richard Thompson
Private Resolve Waldron
Major Enoch Ward
Private Richard Ward
Private Valentine Ward
Private Jonas Weeks
Private Lewis Welsh
Private Maddock Wharton
Private Samuel Whitehurst
Private John Williamson
Private Richard Williamson
Sergeant John Williston
Private John Williston
Private Thomas Williston
Private James Woodland

The original participants of the Beaufort Pirate Invasion in 1960 — From Mary Warshaw’s article – “On July 9, 1960, town firemen participated in Beaufort’s first reenactment of the Spanish invasion ” implemented from an idea by Grayden Paul.”

The Annual Beaufort Pirate Invasion

Beautiful historic Beaufort, NC is a town that loves its history ” both real and imagined ” and in 1960, the first ever re-enactment of the Spanish invasion took place as a way of commemorating the victory of the Beaufort militia over the attacking Spaniards.

Beaufort artist, author, and historian extraordinaire, Mary Faith Warshaw, has a very thorough article on the history behind the original Spanish invasion as well as a summary of the re-enactments in 1960 and 1961.

These days, an event known as the Beaufort Pirate Invasion has taken things into a slightly different direction, bringing in Pirate re-enactors from all over the country to spend two days acting out scenes that are more reminiscent of the Golden Age of Piracy (or Pirates of the Caribbean) rather than the 1747 Spanish attack.

While the contemporary festivities aren’t strictly a re-enactment of what happened in that frightening summer of 1747, it’s still a wonderful event of great fun that will hopefully get folks interested in learning about the real history of the town and the region.

(This article was originally published April 14, 2015.)

The Real Blackbeard: Get ready to have everything you thought you knew turned on its head

Kevin Duffus is the author of The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate and is NC Historian of the Year for 2015

In The Smuggler’s Gambit, one of the characters turns out to have a history with the pirate Blackbeard. As he recounts the experiences of his youth, he tells a different story than what legends and myths have had many of us believe over the years.

I credit my good friend, Kevin Duffus, author of The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate and North Carolina Historian of the Year (2015), with his ground-breaking research on the most famous pirate who ever lived. If you have an hour, you’ll learn in this video that everything you thought you knew about Blackbeard is wrong.

Here are just a few highlights from the lecture:

Blackbeard was not middle-aged when he was killed in his final battle with Lt. Maynard. In fact, he was probably only about 28 years old.
None of the artistic impressions (woodcuts, portraits, etc.) of Blackbeard are based on any eyewitness accounts.
Blackbeard’s real name wasn’t Edward Teach or Edward Thache, or anything of the sort.
Blackbeard’s greatest treasure wasn’t gold. Do you know what it was? This video will tell you.

What’s Wrong with Black Beard? by Kevin P. Duffus (Video) from Virginia Historical Society on Vimeo.

(Originally published May 15, 2015.)

Smuggling in Colonial America: What drove good men to do it?

Before I ever started working on The Smuggler’s Gambit, I had done a lot of studying about not only smuggling in the colonial era, but what prompted otherwise law-abiding men to do it. It happened in all sorts of ways and by men you might otherwise not expect.

In May 1764, the month following the passage of the Sugar Act, Samuel Adams said this:

œFor if our Trade may be taxed why not our Lands? Why not the Produce of our Lands & every thing we possess or make use of? This we apprehend annihilates our Charter Right to govern & tax ourselves “ It strikes our British Privileges, which as we have never forfeited them, we hold in common with our Fellow Subjects who are Natives of Britain: If Taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal Representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the Character of free Subjects to the miserable State of tributary Slaves.

Make no mistake about it, the fact that American colonists felt their livelihoods were being negatively impacted by trade regulations was a key cause of the Revolution. The fact that there was all of this “taxation without representation” was adding insult to injury.

Why shouldn’t they be able to trade with markets in the Spanish, French or Dutch West Indies without being penalized? Why should the government in Great Britain make decisions that would affect the livelihoods of the hardworking folks in the colonies across the Atlantic? These are questions, among many others, that American colonists couldn’t help but ask.

They knew they were building a country from scratch, after all. Why should politicians a world away be able to impede their progress and economic success with the brush of a pen?

One thing that I had not known about until I started studying that decade between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution was the informal policy known as Salutary Neglect. That basically meant that throughout the early 1700s, England looked the other way at most American colonial trade violations. They didn’t force the colonies to play by the rules because they knew the fledgling economy would grow much more quickly if it were unhampered by oppressive trade regulations.

By the end of the Seven Years’ War, however, King George and Parliament decided it was time for Americans to start doing their part to refill Great Britain’s coffers so the period of Salutary Neglect came to an end”especially, with the the passage of the Sugar Act in 1764. (A conversation about this very thing takes place in The Smuggler’s Gambit on Adam Fletcher’s first day at Rogers Shipping Company between him and senior cooper Boaz Brooks.)

What made good men turn to smuggling?

One has to think outside the box when it comes to smuggling and what drove men to do it.

While many might have a knee-jerk reaction to the concept as one only performed by rogues and reprobates, the truth is smuggling is rampant even to this day.

Here in North Carolina, for instance, many kinds of fireworks are illegal to possess without a license. But does that stop North Carolinians from buying said fireworks? Goodness, no! I know of people who make it a point to travel to the South Carolina border every year before Independence Day to stock up on what they would call patriotic contraband.

And what about folks from California who will purchase items from out of state because California manufacturing and environmental regulations would otherwise ban them?

And then there are those in other countries who smuggle in Bibles or other books or movies that are otherwise banned?

In other words, smuggling isn’t always about things that we would typically label as “bad”, like drug running or modern slave trafficking. It can be about ordinary people who want to buy or sell ordinary things, but their local governments have set up trade restrictions on those particular items”either with crippling taxes, or by banning them outright.

Here are a couple of good resources about smuggling in colonial America:

Americans with Attitudes: Smuggling in Colonial America (A research article)

Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America (Book by Peter Andreas)

As a point of interest related to the setting of the Adam Fletcher Adventure Series, the Colonial Records of North Carolina also have some interesting entries about smuggling and smugglers, at least relating to how various legislators were responding to the issue, as well as particularly interesting items such as this one about the pirate Blackbeard and his dealings with Governor Charles Eden.

This article* by By Dr. Noeleen Mcllvenna from the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources talks about why the state was such a haven for pirates.:

“Although pirates™ chief hunting grounds became the Caribbean Sea, North Carolina™s Outer Banks (and their treacherous geography) provided a safe hiding place from the Royal Navy. The people of Albemarle had political and economic motives for their friendly relationships with buccaneers. The region had always stood as a place of shelter for those most oppressed by owners or masters in England or Virginia. Runaways of many backgrounds”including slaves and indentured servants, along with small farmers and traders”pushed through the water-logged wilderness of the Great Dismal Swamp. They wanted to escape the few powerful planters who controlled society in colonial Virginia. One Virginia governor described northern Carolina as œthe refuge of our renegades. Few moral or ethical dilemmas worried these Albemarle settlers when dealing with men and women prepared to steal from rich merchants or the royal bank account. What others called lawlessness, Carolina™s early colonists considered freedom. This included freedom from burdensome taxes set by an oppressive government (in which they had no say) across the ocean. Politically, many sympathized with pirates.”

* – While I think the above excerpt is in line with other research I have done, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the whole article since it propagates the myth that Blackbeard’s head was tied from the bowsprit of Lt. Maynard’s vessel on the way back to Virginia, a ridiculous notion considering it would’ve taken several days to get there from Ocracoke and would draw flies and be rotted entirely upon arrival in Virginia.

Five things you DIDN’T know about Blackbeard

Was Blackbeard really as old as all of the illustrations depict him? Probably not! This painting is a new take on the famous pirate commissioned by Looking Glass Productions. (Watercolor by Jeffrey Jakub.)

In The Smuggler’s Gambit, one of the characters is revealed to have a past connection to one of the most famous pirates who ever lived, Blackbeard. Growing up in eastern North Carolina, I heard all kinds of Blackbeard stories growing up. He had a close connection to the families in our coastal region, so it seemed only natural that I’d incorporate some of the lesser-known history about him into my novel.

Most of what is known about Blackbeard today goes back to a single source ” A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson (pseudonym), more popularly known as A General History of the Pyrates, published in 1724 and often attributed to Robinson Crusoe author, Daniel Defoe.

This is unfortunate, because A General History is rife with errors and misinformation. Furthermore, recent scholarship has uncovered that the true author was almost certainly Nathaniel Mist.

Thanks to diligent research, we can now dispel many of the myths that have been built up around the most famous Pirate of all time, known by the dread moniker of Blackbeard.

Blackbeard may not have been born in 1680. Although books have been written that frequently rehash information that was originally published in “Capt. Johnson’s” General History, there is no solid evidence that Blackbeard was 38 when he was killed. He could have been in his late twenties or early 30s when his career was ended by Lt. Robert Maynard at Ocracoke Inlet. Oddly, even if he was 38, most images depict Blackbeard as closer to 50 or so, rather than as the young man he more than likely was.
Blackbeard never murdered anyone. ” At least no records exist claiming that he did. In spite of his reputation as the scourge of the seas, there is actually very little documented about him in official records anywhere. And no records exist accusing him of murder ” ever. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped some historians and archaeologists from propagating the theory that he was a blood-thirsty killer. I guess it fits better with Hollywood’s ideas about pirates, not to mention it makes those Golden Age swashbucklers seem far more interesting when they are attributed with all varieties of heartless misdeeds.
Blackbeard was not a particularly brutal or skilled fighter. ” It appears our favorite pirate relied on a carefully-cultivated reputation to cause adversaries to shake in their boots. It may come as a shock, but it’s true. In fact, other than A General History, which we now know is not entirely reliable as a historical reference book, the actual government records from the Golden Age of Piracy ” both of the American colonies, as well as in England ” point to only one incident during which Blackbeard actually got into a physical altercation with someone, a man named William Bell. And it was in the middle of the night on the Pamlico River. And he ended up having to call over men from his own periauger to assist him in his struggle with the man. And somehow, Blackbeard broke his sword while beating the man with it. (What was he doing? Slapping him?) Hmm… So as not to completely demolish Blackbeard’s reputation as a pirate, we do need to acknowledge that he ended up stealing a few items from the man before leaving Bell and his two passengers stranded in the middle of the river without oars or sail (which Blackbeard allegedly threw into the water). The items he took included:
- Pistols (he took them from the man’s locked chest, although it’s unclear if he made off with them, as they aren’t specifically named in the list of stolen items)
- £66 10s in cash;
- A piece of crepe fabric containing 58 yards;
- Half a barrel of brandy;
- Some unspecified items.
Blackbeard did not have lit fuses sticking out of his beard. ” This silly myth surely tantalized 18th century readers who had never actually been at sea, but anyone who lives in a coastal region (like I do) knows that the winds on the water make it nearly impossible to light a match, much less keep lit fuses safely away from that bushy, flammable beard that Blackbeard was reputed to sport. Does it really make sense that a man would essentially light his face on fire, whilst walking around in the wind on board a rocking vessel? Is it likely that such a man would be able to focus much on swashbuckling maneuvers? Of course not. He’d be working too hard to constantly reposition himself so that those lit fuses didn’t set his whiskers ablaze.
Blackbeard’s most valuable treasure was not gold or jewels. ” As has been discovered and documented by historian and author Kevin Duffus, the most valuable ‘loot’ ever taken by Blackbeard was the human cargo of a French slave ship called La Concorde, which he promptly renamed the Queen Anne’s Revenge. The pirate kept 60 of the slaves on board and left the rest of the 400-man company marooned with their French captain. Here is a summary according to Duffus:

Depositions filed in Charleston, S.C., later that year by former members of Blackbeard’s crew – the ones he left behind at Beaufort Inlet – are well-preserved and very detailed. When Blackbeard and his inner circle of associates sailed to Bath, they had with them 60 African men. Yet, six months later, when Blackbeard was killed at Ocracoke, he had aboard his sloop only six Africans. What happened to the 54 other African men?
“I believe they were the pirates’ secret treasure, a labor force delivered to the impoverished plantation society of the Pamlico region, which was desperately short on manpower and far from the slave markets at Williamsburg, Va., and Charleston.
“The colony of North Carolina had been wracked by years of political strife, punitive trade restrictions, drought, sickness and war with Indians. As her wealthier neighbors, Virginia and South Carolina, began to grow due to navigable, deepwater ports, the northern colony of Carolina was severely constrained by the vagaries of shoaling inlets, shallow sounds and great distances between her plantations and the traveled byways of the sea.
“Compared with South Carolina and Virginia, North Carolina had few slaves. “For the want of suitable ports negro slaves were not imported directly into North Carolina, and the planters there were forced to buy from Virginia and South Carolina. And in this very important particular North Carolina was at great disadvantage,” wrote Colonial Records editor William Saunders.”

Finally, while this isn’t specifically about Blackbeard, I’ll call this myth-buster a bonus. Many of Blackbeard’s men were said to have been hanged at Williamsburg after their captain was beheaded by Virginia’s Lt. Maynard. Of the men who were hanged, it was most probably at Hampton rather than Williamsburg. Furthermore, it turns out that the rest of his men (those who didn’t bear arms against the King’s colors) received a pardon and many went on to live out their days in and around Bath”but that part didn’t make it into history books.

The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate author Kevin Duffus endorses The Smuggler’s Gambit

Kevin Duffus, author of The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate and 2015 NC Historian of the Year has this to say about The Smuggler’s Gambit.

“The Smuggler™s Gambit will transport you in time to a formative period in our nation™s history, when young Colonial Americans like Adam Fletcher bravely faced life-changing choices, moral perplexities, and danger at every turn. Perfectly paced with characters and dialogue so real the reader feels they are right in the middle of the action. I found this well-researched, finely-crafted tale to be altogether plausible. No doubt, this book will leave you yearning to find out what™s next for Adam Fletcher.”

Capt. Horatio Sinbad gives his hearty endorsement to The Smuggler’s Gambit

A well-known figure on the pirate re-enactments circuit, as well as a ship-builder, author, and certified ‘Pirate-Privateer’, Captain Horatio Sinbad knows a thing or two about adventure on the high seas, as well as in coastal towns like Beaufort, North Carolina, the home port of his ship, MEKA II.

Now, he lends his hearty endorsement to The Smuggler’s Gambit, the first novel in the Adam Fletcher Series:

With the real historic seaport town of Beaufort, NC as the setting, Sara Whitford has successfully woven a fast-moving adventure of intrigue, romance, deception, and betrayal.

I will be standing by for Captured in the Caribbean, the next book in the continuing saga.

Your servant,

Captain Horatio Sinbad
Privateer, MEKA II
Beaufort, NC