Anne Bonny
Encyclopedia
Anne Bonny was an Irish woman who became a famous female pirate
, operating in the Caribbean. What little is known of her life comes largely from A General History of the Pyrates
.
Official records and contemporary letters dealing with her life are scarce and most modern knowledge stems from Charles Johnson
's A General History of the Pyrates (a contemporary collection of pirate biographies, thought to be well embellished).
When Bonny was 13, she supposedly stabbed a servant girl in the stomach with a table knife. Bonny was a red-haired beauty and considered a good catch. She married a poor sailor and small-time pirate named James Bonny. James Bonny hoped to win possession of his father-in-law's estate, but Anne was disowned by her father.
There is no evidence supporting the story that Anne Bonny started a fire on the plantation in retaliation, but it is known that sometime between 1714 and 1718, she and James Bonny moved to Nassau
, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. New Providence was then a sanctuary for English pirates. Many received a "King's Pardon" or otherwise evaded the law. It is also true that after the arrival of Governor Woodes Rogers
in the summer of 1718, James Bonny became an informant for the governor.
While in the Bahamas, Anne Bonny began mingling with pirates in the local taverns. She met John "Calico Jack" Rackham
, captain of the pirate sloop
Revenge, and became his mistress. They had a child in Cuba
, who eventually took the name of Cunningham. Many different theories state that he was left with friends or simply abandoned. Anne rejoined Rackham and continued the pirate life, having divorced her husband and marrying Rackham while at sea. Anne and Rackham escaped to live together as pirates. Anne, Rackham, and Mary Read
stole the Revenge, then at anchor in Nassau harbour, and put out to sea.
. Although Bonny has historical renown as a female Caribbean pirate, she never commanded a ship of her own.
. Most of Rackham's pirates did not put up much resistance as many of them were too drunk to fight; other sources indicate it was at night and most of them were asleep. However, Read, Bonny, and an unknown man fought fiercely and managed to hold off Barnet's troops for a short time. Rackham and his crew were taken to Jamaica, where they were convicted and sentenced by the Governor of Jamaica to be hanged. According to Johnson, Bonny's last words to the imprisoned Rackham were that she was "sorry to see him there, but if he had fought like a Man, he need not have been hang'd like a Dog."
After being sentenced, Read and Bonny both "pleaded their bellies
": asking for mercy because they were pregnant.
In accordance with English common law, both women received a temporary stay of execution
until they gave birth. Read died in prison, most likely from a fever, though it has been alleged that she died during childbirth.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that "Evidence provided by the descendants of Anne Bonny suggests that her father managed to secure her release from jail and bring her back to Charles Town, South Carolina, where she gave birth to Rackham's second child. On December 21, 1721 she married a local man, Joseph Burleigh, and they had 10 children. She died in South Carolina, a respectable woman, at the age of eighty and died between April 22–24, 1782. She was buried on April 25, 1782."
Some claim that she was smuggled away by her father, and that this was made possible by his far reaching and favorable merchant connections. This is a probable solution to the mystery. After all, her father's business connections had saved Anne a number of times before. Rackham's crew spent a lot of time in Jamaica and the surrounding area. Although the crew, including Anne, was discovered or caught on a number of occasions, Bonny always escaped punishment and harm. This was probably because of her father's business contacts in Jamaica.
has been described as a "Pirate Queen".
Anne Bonny remains the most famous, and has appeared in many works. Art from the time often depicts Anne Bonny in men's clothes, shirt hanging open, pistols smoking, the perfect image of a female warrior. In addition, there were many books published about female pirates. Many hold a striking resemblance to Anne's story, even down to minute details of her formative years and personal life.
Works referencing Anne Bonny:
Songs
Fiction
Paintings
Film and video
Comic books and manga
Games
Other
Women in piracy
While piracy was predominantly a male activity or occupation, a significant minority of historical pirates have been female. Female pirates, like other women in crime, faced unique issues in practicing this occupation and in punishment for it....
, operating in the Caribbean. What little is known of her life comes largely from A General History of the Pyrates
A General History of the Pyrates
A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates is a 1724 book published in Britain, containing biographies of contemporary pirates. Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, it is the prime source for the biographies of many well known pirates...
.
Historical record
Little is known of Bonny's life, particularly prior to her arrival in the Bahamas, although it is estimated that she was born on the 8th March 1702.Official records and contemporary letters dealing with her life are scarce and most modern knowledge stems from Charles Johnson
Charles Johnson (pirate biographer)
Captain Charles Johnson is the British author of the 1724 book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, though his identity remains a mystery. No record of a captain by this name exists. Some scholars have suggested that "Charles Johnson" was actually Daniel...
's A General History of the Pyrates (a contemporary collection of pirate biographies, thought to be well embellished).
Time in the New World, marriage and affair with a pirate
At first, Anne's family had a rough start in their new home. Her mother died shortly after they arrived in North America. Her father attempted to become an attorney there, but did not do well. Eventually, Anne's father joined the more profitable merchant business and accumulated for the two of them a substantial fortune.When Bonny was 13, she supposedly stabbed a servant girl in the stomach with a table knife. Bonny was a red-haired beauty and considered a good catch. She married a poor sailor and small-time pirate named James Bonny. James Bonny hoped to win possession of his father-in-law's estate, but Anne was disowned by her father.
There is no evidence supporting the story that Anne Bonny started a fire on the plantation in retaliation, but it is known that sometime between 1714 and 1718, she and James Bonny moved to Nassau
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
, on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. New Providence was then a sanctuary for English pirates. Many received a "King's Pardon" or otherwise evaded the law. It is also true that after the arrival of Governor Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers was an English sea captain, privateer, and, later, the first Royal Governor of the Bahamas. He is known as the captain of the vessel that rescued the marooned Alexander Selkirk, whose plight is generally believed to have inspired Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.Rogers came from an...
in the summer of 1718, James Bonny became an informant for the governor.
While in the Bahamas, Anne Bonny began mingling with pirates in the local taverns. She met John "Calico Jack" Rackham
Calico Jack
John Rackham , commonly known as Calico Jack, was an English pirate captain operating in the Bahamas during the early 18th century...
, captain of the pirate sloop
Sloop
A sloop is a sail boat with a fore-and-aft rig and a single mast farther forward than the mast of a cutter....
Revenge, and became his mistress. They had a child in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, who eventually took the name of Cunningham. Many different theories state that he was left with friends or simply abandoned. Anne rejoined Rackham and continued the pirate life, having divorced her husband and marrying Rackham while at sea. Anne and Rackham escaped to live together as pirates. Anne, Rackham, and Mary Read
Mary Read
Mary Read was an English pirate. She is chiefly remembered as one of only two women known to have been convicted of piracy during the early 18th century, at the height of the Golden Age of Piracy....
stole the Revenge, then at anchor in Nassau harbour, and put out to sea.
Life as a pirate
Rackham and the two women recruited a new crew. Over the next several months, they were successful as pirates, capturing many ships and bringing in an abundance of treasure. Anne did not disguise herself as a man aboard the Revenge as is often claimed. She took part in combat alongside the men, and the accounts of her exploits present her as competent, effective in combat, and respected by her shipmates. She and Mary Read's name and gender were known to all from the start, including Governor Rogers, who named them in a "pirates wanted" circular published in the continent's only newspaper, The Boston News-LetterThe Boston News-Letter
First published on April 24, 1704, The Boston News-Letter is regarded as the first continuously published newspaper in British North America. It was heavily subsidized by the British government, with a limited circulation. The colonies’ first newspaper was Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and...
. Although Bonny has historical renown as a female Caribbean pirate, she never commanded a ship of her own.
Capture and imprisonment
In October 1720, Rackham and his crew were attacked by a "King's ship", a sloop captained by Jonathan Barnet under a commission from the Governor of JamaicaJamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. Most of Rackham's pirates did not put up much resistance as many of them were too drunk to fight; other sources indicate it was at night and most of them were asleep. However, Read, Bonny, and an unknown man fought fiercely and managed to hold off Barnet's troops for a short time. Rackham and his crew were taken to Jamaica, where they were convicted and sentenced by the Governor of Jamaica to be hanged. According to Johnson, Bonny's last words to the imprisoned Rackham were that she was "sorry to see him there, but if he had fought like a Man, he need not have been hang'd like a Dog."
After being sentenced, Read and Bonny both "pleaded their bellies
Pleading the belly
Pleading the belly was a process available at English common law, which permitted women pregnant with late stage fetuses to receive a reprieve of their death sentences until delivery...
": asking for mercy because they were pregnant.
In accordance with English common law, both women received a temporary stay of execution
Stay of execution
A stay of execution is a court order to temporarily suspend the execution of a court judgment or other court order. The word "execution" does not necessarily mean the death penalty; it refers to the imposition of whatever judgment is being stayed....
until they gave birth. Read died in prison, most likely from a fever, though it has been alleged that she died during childbirth.
Disappearance from the record
There is no historical record of Bonny's release or of her execution. This has fed speculation that her father ransomed her; that she might have returned to her husband, or even that she resumed a life of piracy under a new identity.The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that "Evidence provided by the descendants of Anne Bonny suggests that her father managed to secure her release from jail and bring her back to Charles Town, South Carolina, where she gave birth to Rackham's second child. On December 21, 1721 she married a local man, Joseph Burleigh, and they had 10 children. She died in South Carolina, a respectable woman, at the age of eighty and died between April 22–24, 1782. She was buried on April 25, 1782."
Some claim that she was smuggled away by her father, and that this was made possible by his far reaching and favorable merchant connections. This is a probable solution to the mystery. After all, her father's business connections had saved Anne a number of times before. Rackham's crew spent a lot of time in Jamaica and the surrounding area. Although the crew, including Anne, was discovered or caught on a number of occasions, Bonny always escaped punishment and harm. This was probably because of her father's business contacts in Jamaica.
In popular culture
Though it is generally believed that there were only one or two important female pirates, in fact there were several. The Irish chieftaness Grace O'MalleyGrace O'Malley
Gráinne Ní Mháille , Gráinne O'Malley or Grace O'Malley, was Queen of Umaill, chieftain of the Ó Máille clan and a pirate in 16th century Ireland...
has been described as a "Pirate Queen".
Anne Bonny remains the most famous, and has appeared in many works. Art from the time often depicts Anne Bonny in men's clothes, shirt hanging open, pistols smoking, the perfect image of a female warrior. In addition, there were many books published about female pirates. Many hold a striking resemblance to Anne's story, even down to minute details of her formative years and personal life.
Works referencing Anne Bonny:
Songs
- "Anne Bonny Rag", Laura VeirsLaura VeirsLaura Pauline Veirs is an American singer-songwriter.Veirs was raised in Colorado, studied geology and Mandarin Chinese at Carleton College, worked as a translator for a geological expedition in China, and now lives in Portland, Oregon.While growing up, she heard folk-country, classical, and pop...
. - "The Ballad of Anne Bonny and Mary Read", Bread and Roses
- "Annie Bonnie", Anna MacDonald
Fiction
- Novels
- Brown, Douglas Anne Bonny Pirate Queen: The True Saga Of A Fabulous Female Buccaneer
- Calmel, Mireille Lady Pirate : Les valets du roi
- Calmel, Mireille La parade des ombres
- Fraser, George MacDonaldGeorge MacDonald FraserGeorge MacDonald Fraser, OBE was an English-born author of Scottish descent, who wrote both historical novels and non-fiction books, as well as several screenplays.-Early life and military career:...
. The PyratesThe PyratesThe Pyrates is a comedic novel by George MacDonald Fraser, published in 1983. Written in arch, ironic style and containing a great deal of deliberate anachronism, it traces the adventures of a classic hero , multiple damsels in distress, and the six captains who lead the infamous Coast Brotherhood... - Hobb, RobinRobin HobbRobin Hobb is the second pen name of novelist Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden who produces primarily fantasy fiction, although she has published some science fiction....
Liveship Traders series - Hoyt, Robert Q. Anne Bonny, Tale of a Lady Pirate
- Jong, EricaErica JongErica Jong is an American author and teacher best known for her fiction and poetry.-Career:A 1963 graduate of Barnard College, and with an M.A...
Fanny: Being the True History of the Adventures of Fanny Hackabout-Jones - Naus, Reggie Het goud van de verborgen stad ("Gold of the lost city")
- Nelson, James L. The Only Life That Mattered: The Short and Merry Lives of Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Calico Jack Rackam
- Park, Linda Sue The 39 clues : Storm Warning - book 9
- Powers,TimTim PowersTimothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
On Stranger TidesOn Stranger TidesOn Stranger Tides is a 1987 historical fantasy novel written by Tim Powers. It was nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and placed second in the annual Locus poll for best fantasy novel.... - Watson, Sally. "Jade."
- Williams, Jeffrey. Pirate Spirit: The Adventures of Anne Bonny
- Vaughn, Carrie. Steel
- Shay, Frank. Pirate Wench
- Reichs, Kathy Seizure
- Short stories
- Gray, AlasdairAlasdair GrayAlasdair Gray is a Scottish writer and artist. His most acclaimed work is his first novel Lanark, published in 1981 and written over a period of almost 30 years...
"The Ballad of Ann Bonny"
- Gray, Alasdair
Paintings
- Annie Simpson's Anne Bonny and Calico Jack series, http://anniesimpson.com
Film and video
- The Spanish MainThe Spanish MainThe Spanish Main is an adventure film starring Paul Henreid, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak and Binnie Barnes, and directed by Frank Borzage. It was RKO's first all-Technicolor film since Becky Sharp ten years before....
(1945) - Anne of the IndiesAnne of the IndiesAnne of the Indies is a 1951 adventure film made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by George Jessel.The film stars Jean Peters and Louis Jourdan, with Debra Paget, Herbert Marshall, Thomas Gomez and James Robertson Justice.-Story Development:The story was...
(1951) - Pirates of Treasure IslandPirates of Treasure IslandPirates of Treasure Island is a 2006 American comedy-drama film produced by The Asylum, loosely adaptated from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island....
(2006) - Case Closed: Jolly Roger in the Deep AzureCase Closed: Jolly Roger in the Deep Azurein Japan, is a Japanese animated feature film released on April 21, 2007. It is the 11th film in the Detective Conan series. This movie brought in 2.53 billion yen-Plot:...
(animeAnimeis the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
) (2007) - Pirates, Sky/Discovery ChannelDiscovery ChannelDiscovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
documentary
Comic books and manga
- One PieceOne Pieceis a Japanese shōnen manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It has been serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump since August 4, 1997; the individual chapters are being published in tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, with the first released on December 24, 1997, and the 64th volume released as...
(anime series) - WitchbladeWitchbladeWitchblade is an American comic book series published by Top Cow Productions, an imprint of Image Comics, from 1995 until present. The series was created by Top Cow editors Marc Silvestri and David Wohl, writers Brian Haberlin and Christina Z, and artist Michael Turner.The series follows Sara...
- Sea Monsters' (webcomic), Gwendolyn Meer
- Mondlicht (manga)
Games
- Pirate's CovePirate's CovePirate's Cove is a board game designed by Paul Randles and Daniel Stahl, and published in Europe in 2002 by Amigo Spiele and in the United States in 2003 by Days of Wonder...
(2002 board game) - AnachronismAnachronism (game)Anachronism is a tabletop game with aspects of both miniatures and collectible card genres. The basis of the game is war between various historical characters. The creators of the game, TriKing Games and The History Channel, have dubbed it "The Greatest Game in History"...
(board game) - League of LegendsLeague of LegendsThe BetFred League of Legends was a darts tournament featuring some of the legends of the game of darts which commenced in May 2008. The tournament is broadcast on Setanta Sports in the United Kingdom....
(Through the character of 'Miss Fortune') - Atlantica OnlineAtlantica OnlineAtlantica Online is a free to play 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by NDOORS Corporation. The game is set in an alternate history Earth, with the game map consisting of large parts of the northern hemisphere...
(MMORPGMMORPGMassively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
) - World of WarcraftWorld of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
(MMORPGMMORPGMassively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
) - Tropico 2 (computer game)
- The 39 CluesThe 39 CluesThe 39 Clues consists of two series of adventure books, The Clue Hunt and Cahills vs. Vespers, combining reading, online gaming, and card collecting...
book 9 (interactive novel series and game)
Other
- Bonny and Read appear on the wall of the "Pirates of the CaribbeanPirates of the CaribbeanPirates of the Caribbean is a multi-billion dollar Walt Disney franchise encompassing a series of films, a theme park ride, and spinoff novels as well as numerous video games and other publications. The franchise originates with the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, which opened at Disneyland in...
" ride at Disneyland.
Sources
- Cordingly, David. "Bonny, Anne (1698–1782)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed 18 Nov 2006.
- Johnson, Captain Charles, ed. Hayward Arthur L., "A history of the robberies and murders of the most notorious pirates from their first rise and settlement in the island of Providence to the present year", George Routledge & Sons, Ltd. London