Forty-nine pirates were hanged at White Point in 1718

In November 1718, Judge Nicholas Trott of the South Carolina Court of Vice Admiralty condemned 49 men to death for piracy. These men were not executed on solid ground, but on a triangular spit of oyster shell and white sand known as White Point. This location was chosen for a specific legal reason. Under the English Piracy Act of 1698, those convicted in Admiralty courts had to be executed upon the sea or within the ebbing and flowing of the tide. This legal concept, known as divisum imperium or divided empire, meant the gallows had to stand between the high and low water marks.

The site was also chosen for its audience. Sitting at the meeting of the two rivers at the western end of the harbour, the gallows were visible to every vessel entering or leaving the port. On Saturday, 8 November 1718, 29 crewmen from the pirate ship Revenge were hanged here. Their leader, the Barbadian landowner and gentleman pirate Stede Bonnet, followed four and a half weeks later on Wednesday, 10 December 1718. Bonnet had previously escaped custody on 24 October 1718 due to the negligence of provost marshal Nathaniel Partridge, only to be recaptured on Sullivan's Island by Colonel William Rhett.

While the 1718 trials were extensive, they were not the first time Charleston used the shoreline for such displays. In 1684, three pirates were hung in chains at the entrance of the port to serve as an example to others. The practice of leaving bodies on display in iron cages called gibbets was common English procedure, intended to warn mariners of the consequences of piracy. While it is unclear if the 49 men hanged in 1718 were displayed or buried, the location remained a stark warning to all who sailed past.

Aside from the pirate executions, 19 additional men, who were survivors of a crew led by Captain Richard Worley, were condemned on 24 November 1718.