Mystery on Skull Island

Mystery on Skull Island is the fifteenth book in the History Mysteries series.

Characters

• Rachel Howell
• Sally Pugh
• Todd Pugh
• Mistress Pugh
• Aunt Catherine
• Mistress Brownlow
• Miranda Leboyer
• Nathaniel Craven
• Adele

Chapters

A Peek into the Past

Discuses pirate activity in Charles Town, South Carolina in the early 1700s. Topics covered:

• Charles Town serving as a favorite spot for pirates because of its location between the Caribbean and the inlets of North Carolina.
• The positive reputation pirates received from residents in the late 1600s and early 1700s, when they would spend their money within Charles Town and local merchants would buy their stolen goods to resell to locals.
• The shift in attitudes towards pirates because of their attacks on ships they would happen upon, and the outrage from merchants whose cargoes would fall to the hands of pirates.
• The laws enacted in 1721 to legalize trading with pirates, meaning anybody caught could be tried and hanged for piracy.
• The raid on Charles Town by Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet in 1721.
• Colonel William Rhett arresting Stede and his sentencing to house arrest at the sheriff's house because of his status as a wealthy, educated man.
• Stede's escape to an island, being hunted down by residents, and later sent to the gallows after being convicted of piracy.
• The later decline of piracy due to tougher laws against pirates, resulting in most pirates vanish from the Carolina coast in 1730.
• Charles Town's wealth and influence growing after the decline in piracy, and what the city was like during colonial times.