Blackbeard Island

Blackbeard is a small barrier island off the coast of Georgia. Named for Edward Teach, the infamous pirate who attacked merchant shipping along the southeastern coast of America in the early 18th century, the island has had a unique and fascinating history. For over two hundred years Blackbeard has been a federally-managed property, isolated, remote and usually uninhabited, and serving in such diverse capacities as a U.S. Navy timber reserve, a national yellow fever quarantine inspection station, and now as a national wildlife refuge. Coastal Georgia historian Buddy Sullivan has investigated the history of Blackbeard for three decades, and now offers this narrative overview based on archival resources, federal manuscript records and personal accounts.

Blackbeard is a small barrier island off the coast of Georgia. Named for Edward Teach, the infamous pirate who attacked merchant shipping along the southeastern coast of America in the early 18th century, the island has had a unique and fascinating history. For over two hundred years Blackbeard has been a federally-managed property, isolated, remote and usually uninhabited, and serving in such diverse capacities as a U.S. Navy timber reserve, a national yellow fever quarantine inspection station, and now as a national wildlife refuge. Coastal Georgia historian Buddy Sullivan has investigated the history of Blackbeard for three decades, and now offers this narrative overview based on archival resources, federal manuscript records and personal accounts.

BUDDY SULLIVAN— Buddy Sullivan is a fourth-generation coastal Georgian. He has researched and written about the history, culture and ecology of coastal Georgia for 35 years. He is the author of 22 books and monographs and is in frequent demand as a lecturer on a variety of historical topics. He is a recipient of the Governor's Medal in the Humanities from the Georgia Humanities Council in recognition of his literary and cultural contributions to the state. Sullivan's books include Georgia: A State History (2003), and two comprehensive histories, Early Days on the Georgia Tidewater (revised and expanded 2018), for McIntosh County, and From Beautiful Zion to Red Bird Creek (2000), for Bryan County. The latter volume received the Georgia Historical Society's Hawes Award for Georgia's outstanding work of local history. His most recent books are Sapelo: People and Place on a Georgia Sea Island (2017), Environmental Influences on Life & Labor in McIntosh County, Georgia (2018), and Thomas Spalding, Antebellum Planter of Sapelo Island (2019). Sullivan has contributed 12 articles to the online New Georgia Encyclopedia, and wrote the coastal chapter for The New Georgia Guide. He was manager of the Sapelo Island Research Reserve from 1993 to 2013 and is now an independent writer and consultant.