Israel Hands Testifies! May 27, 1719: Following his capture, Blackbeard's first mate and fifteen others were taken to Williamsburg, Virginia, to stand trial. In exchange for a pardon, Hands testified against corrupt North Carolina officials, including North Carolina Secretary Tobias Knight, with whom Thache had consorted. The minutes of the North Carolina Governor's Council for May 27, 1719 state: "Hesikia Hands[,] master of Capt Thaches Sloop Adventure [,] seems to sweare possitively in his Depossition that the sd [said] Thache went from Ocacoch Inlet at his returne into this Country from his last voyage with a present to the sd Tobias Knights house [,] when by the same deposition [Hands] acknowledgth that to be out of the reach of his knoledge[,] he being all the time at the sd Inlet which lyes at above thirty leagues distance from [Knight’s] house and further the [said] Tobias Knight doth pray your Honours to observe that the aforsd Hesikias Hands was ......
