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==Visión na cultura popular moderna==
<!-- Official views on pirates were sometimes quite different from those held by contemporary authors, who often described their subjects as despicable rogues of the sea. Privateers who became pirates were generally considered by the English government to be reserve naval forces, and were sometimes given active encouragement; as far back as 1581 [[Francis Drake]] was knighted by [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]], when he returned to England from a round-the-world expedition with plunder worth an estimated £1,500,000.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lee|1974|p=5}}</ref> Royal pardons were regularly issued, usually when England was on the verge of war, and the public's opinion of pirates was often favourable, some considering them akin to patrons.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lee|1974|p=168}}</ref> Economist [[Peter Leeson]] believes that pirates were generally shrewd businessmen, far removed from the modern, romanticised view of them as murderous tyrants.<ref name="Leeson"/> After Woodes Rogers' 1718 landing at New Providence and his ending of the [[Republic of Pirates|pirate republic]], however, piracy in the West Indies fell into terminal decline. With no easily accessible outlet to fence their stolen goods, pirates were reduced to a subsistence livelihood, and following almost a century of naval warfare between the British, French and Spanish—during which sailors could find easy employment—lone privateers found themselves outnumbered by the powerful ships employed by the [[British Empire]] to defend its merchant fleets. The popularity of the slave trade helped bring to an end the frontier condition of the West Indies and in these circumstances, piracy was no longer able to flourish as it once did.<ref>{{Harvnb|Woodbury|1951|pp=201–208}}</ref>
Since the end of this so-called [[golden age of piracy]], Teach and his exploits have become the stuff of lore, inspiring books, films and even amusement park rides. Much of what is known about him can be sourced to Charles Johnson's ''[[A General Historie of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates]]'', published in Britain in 1724.<ref>{{Harvnb|Woodard|2007|p=325}}</ref> A recognised authority on the pirates of his time, Johnson's descriptions of such figures as [[Anne Bonny]] and [[Mary Read]] were for years required reading for those interested in the subject.<ref name="Leepp89"/> Readers were titillated by his stories and a second edition was quickly published, though author Angus Konstam suspects that Johnson's entry on Blackbeard was "coloured a little to make a more sensational story."{{refn|Amongst many questionable "facts" in Johnson's account is the encounter between Teach and [[HMS Scarborough (1711)|HMS ''Scarborough'']].<ref>{{Harvnb|Konstam|2007|p=90}}</ref> Neither the log of the ''Scarborough'' nor the letters of its captain mention such an encounter; historian Colin Woodard believes that Johnson confused and conflated two actual events: the ''Scarborough''{{'}}s battle against John Martel's band and Blackbeard's close encounter with another warship, [[HMS Seaford (1697)|HMS ''Seaford'']].<ref>{{Harvnb|Woodard|2007|pp=222–223}}</ref>|group="nb"}} ''A General Historie'', though, is generally considered to be a reliable source.<ref name="Konstamp4">{{Harvnb|Konstam|2007|p=4}}</ref><ref name="Konstampp12">{{Harvnb|Konstam|2007|pp=1–2}}</ref> Johnson may have been an assumed alias. As Johnson's accounts have been corroborated in personal and official dispatches, Lee (1974) considers that whoever he was, he had some access to official correspondence.<ref name="Leepp89">{{Harvnb|Lee|1974|pp=8–9}}</ref> Konstam speculates further, suggesting that Johnson may have been the English playwright [[Charles Johnson (writer)|Charles Johnson]], the British publisher [[Charles Rivington]], or the writer [[Daniel Defoe]].<ref name="Konstampp12"/> In his 1951 work ''The Great Days of Piracy'', author George Woodbury wrote that Johnson is "obviously a pseudonym", continuing "one cannot help suspecting that he may have been a pirate himself."<ref>{{Harvnb|Woodbury|1951|p=198}}</ref>
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