A Pirate's Life for Me: Anne Bonny and Mary Read

We've all heard of pirates- Captain Kidd, Blackbeard, Captain Jack Sparrow, etc. Heck, theres even an option to have Facebook be presented in pirate-speak. But how many of us know the stories of female pirates? There are two that stand out as the most bloodthirsty and hardcore pirates of history- Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

Anne Bonny was an Irish chick from Cork; she was the illegitimate child of a lawyer and his housemaid. At a very young age, she immigrated to America (specifically, a plantation near Charleston, SC) with her family in the late 1600s. As a young woman, she was known to be quite unladylike. She apparently had a "fierce and courageous temper" and fell in love with a young rebel named James Bonny. They married against her father's wishes, and James took her to a well-known pirate's lair in New Providence in the Bahamas (quite the honeymoon). They were quite happy until 1718 when the royal governor offered a King's pardon to any pirate, and Anne's husband became an informant. Needless to say, Anne was not impressed by this display of cowardice and ditched him somewhere south of the equator. 

Anne then met and fell in love with Captain Jack Rackham (also known as Calico Jack). She disguised herself as a male and sailed the high seas to be with him (and also to prey on Spanish ships heading to Cuba and Hispaniola, but that would ruin the romance). She became pregnant with Jack's child and took a quick break from pillaging. As soon as the baby was born, it was left with friends in Cuba while Anne rejoined Jack on their pirate ship, Vanity.

Anne's loverboy. 

Mary Read was born in Plymouth, England around 1690. Before her birth, her father, a sailor, was lost at sea, never to be heard from again. Her mother never truly believed that her husband was dead, but since she needed a way to support herself and her child, she decided to go to her mother-in-law. Apparently, Mary's grandmother hated girls, so her mom dressed her up like a boy to secure funding. It worked- Mary's mother got a crown a week from her mother-in-law, who was under the impression that she had a grandson rather than a granddaughter. Most reports claim that Mary continued to dress like a man even after the death of her grandmother. 

As a teenager, Mary got herself a job as a footboy (still pretending to be a dude) to some French lady. However, she got bored of this job quickly and quit, only to enter a more adventurous profession- the army. She became a foot soldier and was quickly promoted to a horse regiment, receiving distinction in both. However, this ruse ended when she fell in love with a fellow soldier. She revealed her true gender to him and began dressing as a female once more. After their marriage, they owned an inn in Holland until his early death. She quickly became penniless. She came to a remarkable decision; she knew that life in the 1700s was better as a man than as a woman, so she reverted back into her cross-dressing ways and restarted her life as a sailor on a Dutch merchant ship heading towards the Caribbean. On the way, the ship was taken by English pirates. She joined and pillaged with them until they accepted the King's pardon. The ex-pirates turned into privateers and continued sailing the Caribbean until their ship was taken over by pirates on the ship Vanity (remember that one?). The rest of the privateers were either killed or shipped off, but Mary (having gotten bored with a legitimate trade) decided to turn pirate once more. This point is the beginning of the epic friendship between Mary Read and Anne Bonny. They were basically pirate bffl. Despite her tough exterior, Mary found love on the ship and actually saved his life by killing his opponent in a sword fight before the duel could actually occur. Hardcore.

Known as "fierce hell cats," everyone on board knew how bloodthirsty and ferocious these two she-pirates were. In late October 1720, their ship was anchored at a Jamaican harbor when a British Navy sloop found them. The pirates had been celebrating their recent prizes by drinking copious amounts of alcohol, so everyone but the two women was extremely drunk. The men, seeing the British ship, all hid beneath deck. The two women refused to hide, determined to defend their ship. Despite their attempts to get the men on deck to fight, the men refused. The two apparently flew into a rage, killing one of their own men and wounding several others. Mary and Anne went back on deck and fought the entire British regiment on their own. They lasted for a surprising amount of time, but they were eventually captured. The entire crew stood trial in Jamaica; everyone but the two women were sentenced to hang, including Mary's and Anne's beaus. Anne was allowed to visit her lover, Captain Jack, in his cell before he hung. Her only words to him were, "Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang'd like a dog."

Mary and Anne were tried a week after the death of their shipmates. They both "pleaded their bellies" (essentially, since they were both pregnant, they couldn't be executed under British law). Reports after this point are mixed. It's said that Mary died of a violent fever in prison before the birth of her child, but some say that the faked her death and snuck out of the prison that way. As for Anne, no records of her execution have ever been found. Some say that her wealthy father paid for her to be let out of prison, and she lived quietly somewhere in the Caribbean until her death. Others say that she went to England and opened up a tavern, entertaining customers with tales of her exploits. Some claim that Mary and Anne managed to get out of prison on their own terms and met back up in Louisiana, where they raised their kids together and remained friends until their deaths.

Fun fact: These two were the only two female pirates known to have pillaged the Western Hemisphere!