Its honestly really hard to say as concerns him, or any pirate really. There's a lot of room for interpetation and some facts that are plain missing that leave room for even more interpretation. For instance, his flagship Queen Anne's Revenge was originally a slave ship that he captured. Its unknown if the slaves were freed, sold, or a combination. It seems that all of the above were done by pirates in that era. So generally i hesitate to say "good" despite my love for pirate shit lol.
My personal take is critical support for sea bandits in their fight against the imperial powers
He lit fuses on his beard to intimidate his enemies. It's like if Steve-O was wanted by the U.S. government for stealing tanks. Maybe not revolutionary, but metal and ridiculous af.
As far as I know there's nothing really revolutionary about him, he was just a rather notable criminal.
Watch the historical multi-part documentary "Our Flag Means Death" if you want the real story.
I read a book about pirates when I was a little kid. The one thing I remember is that he was always putting shit in his beard to look more fierce. Like red ribbons to simulate blood in his beard.
Then one night he decided (probably drunk as a lord) to put candles in his beard so the glow would light up his face. Which promptly set his beard alight and he never did that again.
I mean this was like a book on pirates for kids so grain of salt apocryphal etc.
Still funny as fuck to imagine. Oh and he was reported to carry a shit ton of guns. Pistols on pistols. Like 8 pistols and a cutlass or two when boarding an enemy ship.
That last part is probably true those fuckers took forever to reload. Way faster to just drop them and draw another.
Oh absolutely. I think the Polish Winged Hussars carried several pistols for that reason as well. Have you ever seen Treasure Island? Specifically the one from 1991 or 1990 with a very young Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins. They used the long reload for a great suspense scene. Jim tries to shoot the pirate Israel Hands but his powder is wet from swimming to the ship. So he climbs the rigging while the injured pirate chases him. He climbs all the way up to the crow's nest and reloads only bringing his guns to bear at the last second and shooting him in the face.
Also a point about those old pistols. The reason the handle is shaped like a club? So you could club a motherfucker in the dome in a melee. Wild times call for wilder solutions.
I've actually thought about buying a flintlock pistol just for the fun of it but due to all the misfires I really think if I ever have the cash to blow on a non-practical weapon I'd go with a black powder pistol that uses percussion caps. Like one of the old 1851 Navy Colts.
Obligatory recommendation to watch Black Sails also (a prequel to Treasure Island)
oh damn its about Cap'n Flint? maybe I do need to get into that, Treasure Island was my jam both book and movie as a kid, I even have a soft spot for Robert Newton
In the 1950 Treasure Island they all say "amen" but he says "arr men" shit still makes me laugh
It's also about the origin of Long John Silver and the music fucking slaps so hard and it features Teach and Calico Jack as well. Nassau is depicted as a proto-anarchist society and the whole show is incredibly gay.
That theme is right up my alley, damn I need to indulge my inner kid and get on that shit. Thanks for the recommendation.
I can only double the recommendation of the poster above; it's a great show to binge.
It's such a great show, my only gripe is that I felt like the ending didn't really tie into treasure island as much as I'd hoped. It's really just its own great story with characters borrowed from the book.
Wasn't he fighting against slavers?
Not necessarily good, but look at his enemies and they are probably worse.
More like raiding slavers. Routinely they would recruit from slave ships since ex-slaves were the best pirates. But at the same time they'd sell everyone back into slavery for cheap or kill them.
These are pretty serious accusations. Do you have any evidence that Teach did these things?
I was speaking in general of all pirates of the era. No idea if Teach was or wasn't special in this regard.
