John Hagedorn

Edward Salter, often listed as hanged, Duffus discovered Salter lived for 15 years after the battle, becoming a barrel maker, landowner, legislator, and prominent church leader in North Carolina.

Caesar, an enslaved man and close associate of Blackbeard, while some sources say he was hanged, Duffus notes that the man named Caesar, of the same age and value, appeared in Tobias Knight's estate inventory in September 1719, suggesting he lived a long life as a cooper or barrel maker.

Records indicate that approximately 13 members of the crew were eventually executed in Virginia.

The hangings occurred along the Jamestown Road from Williamsburg to the James River, with one man executed every half mile.

At least two members were hanged in Hampton, Virginia, according to Royal Navy logs from the HMS Pearl.

Duffus argues that Defoe's A General History of the Pirates is more of a political allegory than an accurate history.

While Defoe depicted the pirates as bloodthirsty, fictionalized figures with burning fuses in their hair, Duffus presents them as Pemlico River mariners and sons and slaves of bath plantation owners.

He suggests they were essentially locals who turned to piracy during a gold rush period but ultimately sought to return to the communities.

At that time, a brick-and-mortar crypt containing remains were unearthed on Salter's former property during a construction project.

Duff has led a decades-long effort to prove these resulters' remains, even chauffeuring the skeleton from the Smithsonian back to North Carolina.

After a court battle involving potential descendants, the remains were reinterred at St.

Thomas' Church in 2011 with a marker identifying him as an early church warden.

Then there was William Howard, the pirate king of Ocracoke.

William Howard was Blackbeard's quartermaster, the second in command, and according to Duffus, his story provides a direct link between the golden age of piracy and modern North Carolina families.

Howard was arrested in Virginia in late 1718.

As a vagrant seaman and sentenced to hang, he was saved by the act of grace, the king's pardon, which arrived at the governor's office the night before his scheduled execution.

Many years later, in 1759, a man named William Howard purchased Ocracoke Island for 105 pounds sterling.

While some historians questioned if this was the same man, Duffus argues they are one and the same, noting that Howard lived to the age of 108 and died in 1794.

Howard is considered the progenitor of one of Ocracoke's most prominent families.

His descendants still live on the island today, and Howard Street in Ocracoke Village remains a landmark of this lineage.