The name Edward Teach sounds friendly enough. But when American colonists heard Teach’s other name—Blackbeard—they shivered in fear.
Blackbeard was a pirate in the early eighteenth century. With his scraggly black beard, he purposely looked fierce to scare people so they wouldn’t fight back when he robbed them. Before British forces killed him in 1718, Blackbeard looted 50 to 100 ships.
In 1996, off the coast of North Carolina, archaeologists found what they believed to be Blackbeard’s ship. A sunken pirate ship might contain fantastic booty, like gold, jewels, even a toothpick! A toothpick? Yes, because to an archaeologist, any clue to the past is a treasure, no matter how dull it might seem.
