Hi Katherine! Those are good questions!

How long was Blackbeard a pirate?
 
According to the project's Blackbeard historian, David Moore, his research suggest that Blackbeard or Edward Thatch (or Teach) was possibly a privateer in Queen Anne's War (1702-1713).  You can think of a privateer as a "legal" pirate. A privateer had a private ship (not belonging to the navy) and was hired by one country’s government with a very important "letter of marque" to attack enemy countries’ ships and take their goods.  When privateering was made illegal, it's evident that Blackbeard continued to raid ships as a pirate, but we are not sure when he actually started his terror on the seas.  Mr. Moore's research shows that the earliest mention of the infamous pirate is in 1717.  We know that Blackbeard lost his head in 1718, so from the historical research we can only speculate that Blackbeard was a pirate for at most 2 years. However, he had to be doing something to get that kind of reputation!

What do you think is the most interesting artifact that you found from the wreck?
 
I often find this is one of the hardest questions that people ask because it makes me have to choose……..but I would have to say that ONE of the most interesting artifacts is the large piece we call "the sternpost."  This is a very large object (you can see it in the picture on page 12 of the Pirates Ask) and has many parts to it, but it's the one section of the ship that is still intact, just as it went down.  The sternpost is where the rudder of the ship would have been fixed, and we have found the lower part of the sternpost with some of the hull (the main body of the ship) still attached to it. Archaeologist have been able to gather a lot of very important information about the way the ship was built from this piece of the ship, and all the information points toward French construction.  This is just another clue pointing to it being La Concorde.

Hello Zion,
Thank you for those great questions!
Have you found any artifacts that might be from the Concorde (the slave ship that Blackbeard stole)?
If our hypothesis (the idea we hope to prove) is correct and this shipwreck is the Queen Anne’s Revenge, then ALL of these artifacts MAY be from La Concorde, because La Concorde was just renamed Queen Anne’s Revenge by Blackbeard.  We are not going to find anything that says, “Blackbeard was here” or “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” but finding something with the name La Concorde would prove it.  We have yet to find anything with the La Concorde name, but that doesn’t mean its not there. Most of our artifacts are still encased in concretions and have yet to be cleaned.  We have, however, found many French artifacts, such as medical syringes, nesting weights, gunflints, ceramics, and bottles. The way the ship is built is also French.  We have also found glass beads, which were a slave trade good. The gold dust is also a link to La Concorde (see below).   As archaeologists, we have to use all of the evidence to form conclusions about the identity of this shipwreck, until the smoking gun comes along.
 
Were there any slaves on board when he captured the ship?
Yes, we know that there were approximately 450 slaves on board La Concorde when Blackbeard captured the vessel 100 miles from Martinique (an island in the Caribbean).  Blackbeard took La Concorde to Bequia (another Caribbean island), where the French crew and slaves were put ashore.  The French Captain, Pierre Dosset, wrote an account of his adventure when they got back to France. The ship originally carried 516 captive Africans and 20 pounds of gold dust, although it took 8 weeks to cross the Atlantic and 61 slaves perished. After the capture of La Concorde, Captain Dosset took the remaining slaves back to Martinique on a small ship Blackbeard left for him.
 
Did Blackbeard capture the Concorde because of feelings he may have had about slavery?
I’m not sure anyone can comment on Blackbeard’s feelings towards slavery, although we know he did have free black crew members. He was probably more interested in the ship. Slave vessels were built to carry a lot of cargo and they were also fast (for that time).  If you are sailing around in a small, slow vessel you can only imagine how appealing a larger, faster vessel would be to a group of pirates.  The extra space would allow for much more loot, and the faster speed would be an advantage in attacking or making a quick geteaway.

Hi Sid,
Good Question!
 Not long after Blackbeard and his crew blockaded the port of Charleston and held it ransom for a chest of medicine, he worked his way up the North Carolina coast.  Blackbeard was heading into Topsail Inlet (which is now Beaufort Inlet) in June of 1718, although we are not sure why.  It may have been that he was taking refuge from a storm, or maybe he was coming into shore to careen his vessel (tip it over to clean the barnacles off the bottom, which ships had to do regularly).  Blackbeard also may have wanted to get food and water and other supplies, but Beaufort was a very small whaling community at the time and didn't have much.  While trying to navigate the inlet Blackbeard ran his flagship Queen Anne's Revenge aground on a sand bar in about 10 feet of water.  We believe he tried to kedge his ship off (drop anchor and pull on the anchor rope to free the ship). There are also reports that he sank another one of his vessels while trying to free the Queen Anne’s Revenge.  Ultimately Blackbeard was unsuccessful in dislodging his flagship and had to salvage what he could of his fleet and move on.  Blackbeard marooned part of his crew and sailed on to Ocracoke Inlet, where he eventually met his demise.

Well Chad,
During my second year of college when I was studying to be an archaeologist, I decided to get certified for scuba diving.  Once I found that I was comfortable underwater and that I really enjoyed it, I thought to myself that it would be a great idea to combine both of these interests.  That's when I discovered that many other people have had this same idea and underwater archaeology had been around for some time.  I really knew this field of study was for me when I started working at the North Carolina Underwater Archaeology Branch, and since that point I have been enjoying myself almost every day!

Actually, NO, I don’t think I would have enjoyed the piratical life.  Pirates have been glamorized in fictional books and movies, but I don’t imagine life aboard a pirate vessel as a smooth-sailing kind of job.  Pirates lived day to day hunting their next prize and took the chance of being marooned at the captain’s will.  History tells us that they lived by a code of ethics but the code could always be broken--they were pirates.  Being a female I don’t think I would have fit into the pirate life too well, so my hat is off to Anne Bonney and Mary Read. I do, however, enjoy studying them!