Pirates in the colonial days of North America were not like the buccaneers. They had influential friends ashore, and they provided an important service. These pirates were called freebooters (from the Dutch vrijbuiten, "free booty"). They were mostly smugglers, supplying untaxed goods to grateful settlers on the coast of America. Freebooter vessels were welcome visitors L most ports, especially the English colonies in North America. Some were even financed by investment groups of businessmen who outfitted the ships and bought letters of marque from dishonest officials.
Freebooters flourished because England tried to make its colonies profitable. Colonists grew weary of high taxes on imports. The American colonies weren't allowed to sell their own products to other nations, and prices were unfairly rigged. These infuriating taxes and restrictions led to the American Revolution in 1776. Before then, freebooters often respectable citizens, smuggled in goods under the noses of tax collectors.
The freebooters probably exaggerated the legends of their piratical cruelty. Ships would surrender quickly if they thought pirates might skin them alive.
It's likely that many tales of their sea battles were cover ups. They might pay a captain and crew to look the other way while "pirates" unloaded their cargo holds.
Their most determined enemies were colonial officials who wanted their share of the taxes. Smart pirates bribed colonial governors from the booty.
BLACKBEARD was known in his home port of Bath, North Carolina, as the respectable mariner Captain Edward Teach (he had several other names). A large and powerful man, he cultivated a frightening look at sea, never cutting his hair but braiding it in fantastic ringlets and pigtails. He commanded a small fleet of pirate vessels. When he attacked a ship, he threaded slow burning fuse through his beard and hair to look even scarier.
