"FORCED BY PIRATES TO WALK THE PLANK."
Reading edition
"FORCED BY PIRATES TO WALK THE PLANK."
Theodosia Burr, wife of Governor Alston of South Carolina, was considered a beautiful and unusually brave woman of Revolutionary days. It is of her that this legend is told.
After her father's defeat as candidate for Governor of New York, in 1804, she left Charleston by water route to offer her sympathy and love during his trying ordeal. The ship of which she was a passenger was captured by pirates with murderous intent. Theodosia Burr was forced to walk a plank backward into the watery deep, her eyes were tightly blind-folded with a handkerchief and in this gruesome manner she met her death.
Later on in years an old pirate confessed upon his death bed that this beautiful daughter of Aaron Burr, whom he had helped put to death, walked the plank with the greatest composure; never once did she give vent to her feelings. This was the news conveyed to her parents after years of fruitless search for their beloved daughter, Theodosia Burr.—Edna Arnold Copeland, Stephen Heard Chapter, Elberton, Ga.