Many legends about Blackbeard have been handed down from generation to generation. Sample some of the most popular stories told in North Carolina.

The pirate Blackbeard buried a treasure chest in the marsh near here. He killed and buried a man with the treasure to guard it and walled up the excavation with bricks to the top of the ground. Five men, two of whom are still living, have found the spot where the treasure is buried, but none of them has been able to unearth it.

People say that once the spot is found, something happens to frighten the finder away, and he is never able to locate the place again. One man who found the spot cut the grass away with his knife and cut a path to a road nearby, but the next morning when the man went back to dig, he could find no trace of what he had done the previous day. Another man placed his shirt on a stake over the spot and went to the house for a spade. When he returned, he could find no trace of his shirt or stake. Tradition says that the treasure moves each time it is discovered. Several people have dug for the treasure but have been frightened away each time. On cold, windy nights, the voice of the man who guards the treasure can be heard; snatches of old sea songs and shouted oaths ride the winds up the bay.

 Tales about Blackbeard’s buried treasure include details that also occur in legends about other pirates. Guarding treasure with the ghost of a murdered sailor is a common pirate practice, according to legends told around the world.

The night before the battle with Lieutenant Robert Maynard’s forces, Blackbeard waited impatiently for dawn. In hopes of inspiring sleepy roosters on the island to wake and greet the day, he screamed to the heavens, “O crow, cock! O crow, cock!”

And since that day, the island has been called Ocracoke.

The word Ocracoke is a fairly modern spelling of a name rooted in local Indian languages. Maps of North Carolina dating back as far as John White’s drawings of 1585 designate the island as Wokokin, Wococon, Wocon, or Woccocock. Governor Spotswood referred to it in various writings as Ocracock, Oecceh, and Oeccent. It has also been called Ocacock and Ocreecock.

After Blackbeard’s head was cut off, his body was thrown overboard. It swam around the ship three times, looking for a way to get back on board. Some folks have seen the ghost of the headless body searching for its head.

This legend belongs to Blackbeard alone. It remains one of the most popular tales told about the man whom it took five pistol shots and twenty severe slash wounds to kill.

Governor Charles Eden supposedly was in cahoots with Blackbeard and shared in his plunder. A tunnel led from Eden’s house to a nearby river, for the purpose of transporting treasure.

The verdict is still out on Eden’s alleged conspiracy with Blackbeard. Suspicions about North Carolina’s growing smuggling activities no doubt increased speculation that the colony’s officials did not mind welcoming a pirate. Many people of the time assumed that Eden was corrupt. Certainly Governor Spotswood of Virginia distrusted him. Concerned businessmen, their trade threatened by Blackbeard’s presence in North Carolina, informed Spotswood that Eden refused to take action against the pirates. They asked the Virginia governor to intervene.

No tunnel has been unearthed at any of Charles Eden’s North Carolina residences.

It’s said that Blackbeard fell in love with Governor Eden’s daughter. But she was in love with a handsome sailor, and she gave him her ring to wear. Not long afterward, Blackbeard attacked the sailor’s ship, overcame the crew’s resistance, and boarded the vessel. The pirate recognized the lover of Eden’s daughter instantly. In a jealous rage, he cut off the sailor’s hand that wore her ring. He put the hand, with the ring still on it, in a fancy silver box and sent it to Eden’s daughter. She fainted dead away when she opened the box and soon died of a broken heart.

Governor Eden didn’t have a daughter, but he did have a stepdaughter. She had four husbands and lived to a ripe old age.