In October 1718, Bonnet and his crew were captured near present-day Wilmington, North Carolina, and taken to Charleston, where they were tried for piracy. All except four were found guilty. All of the rest except Bonnet were hanged that November 8th. (The record of that trial, published in London in 1719, provided researchers with important clues to the location of the QAR site.) Bonnet escaped briefly, but was recaptured and then hanged on December 10, 1718.

Meanwhile, Blackbeard and his confidants had sailed to Bath, then the capital of North Carolina, where they received pardons from Governor Charles Eden. In November 1718, Governor Alexander Spottswood of Virginia, knowing that Blackbeard and his men had continued taking ships long after the period of amnesty had expired, sent a Royal Navy contingent to North Carolina, where Blackbeard was killed in a bloody battle at Ocracoke Inlet on November 22, 1718. During the action, Blackbeard received a reported five musketball wounds and more than 20 sword lacerations before dying. Blackbeard had captured over 40 ships during his piratical career, and his death virtually represented the end of an era in the history of piracy in the New World.

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