There ’s a quote from John Ford ’s 1962 western " The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance , " in which the loudspeaker is consult to Jimmy Stewart ’s character , Ransom " Ranse " Stoddard — but he might as well have been speak about Anne Bonny :
Convictedof " Piracies , Felonies , and Robberies … on the High Sea " in the 1720s , Bonny was a real - living pirate of the Caribbean . Like Blackbeard , she take part in the " Golden Age of Piracy , " a fourth dimension when Europe’scolonial powershad to forever deal withpirates , buccaneers and privateersman . It lasted from about1650 to 1726 .
Even back then , " true crime " narratives were popular among reader . The public was hungry for stories about the exploits of felon and pillager who ’d terrorize the ship route . Book were writtento fulfill this demand , and a great quite a little of ink was expend tell the living of Anne Bonny and other distaff plagiarizer from the Golden Age .
Unfortunately , in Bonny ’s case , rumour tend to overshadow the fact . It does n’t serve that the latter are middling few and far between . Very little information about her life ’s narrative was documented at first hand , leave plentiful room for hypothesis . Legend has obscured realness .
The Strange Case of Capt. Johnson
Wooden legs . bury treasure . board - walking . These and just about every other pirate stereotype you may remember ofwere popularizedby the 1724 book " A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates " ( most source apply its alternative title : " A General History of the Pyrates " ) .
The writing of this text is a closed book . A second edition of the Good Book was print in 1728 . Both reading were written by somebody who call himself " Capt . Charles Johnson . "
This is almost certainly a pen name ; historians have never been able to pin down the writer ’s dead on target indistinguishability . Whoever he was , Capt . Johnson helped remold the popular outlook on piracy . The creators of " Peter Pan " and " Treasure Island"cited his bookas a major influence .
But it ’s not a perfect resource . Today ’s scholarly consensus on " A General story of the Pyrates " is that it blend confirmable research with rumor and misinformation .
As pirate historiographer David Cordingly compose in his introduction toa 2010 reprintof the classic record , " A interrogation mark must hang over [ Johnson ’s ] account of the extraordinary other life of Mary Read and Anne Bonny until some corroborating grounds is pick up . "
Old World, New World
Johnson indeed had a lot to say concerning Anne Bonny — and her shipmate Mary Read , another Golden Age sea robber woman .
" A General History of the Pyrates " claims that Bonny was born near the city of Cork , Ireland . accord to Johnson , she had a rough puerility .
Said to be the outlawed daughter of a married lawyer and his servant - maid , Bonny was supposedly dressed in boy ’s clothing as a child . That way , her sire could avoid undesirable chit-chat by go by the girl off as his personal supporter in training . At some peak , she relocate to Carolina ( a North American territorylater splitinto the separate colonies of North and South Carolina ) with her two biological parents .
Or so the account goes .
historiographer do n’t bang what the next outlaw’soriginal birth namewas . A 1720 announcement issue by Woodes Rodgers , the regulator of the Bahamas , refers to her as " Ann Fulford , assumed name Bonny . " It ’s been said she was briefly matrimonial to a pirate nominate James Bonny , only to leave him foranotherpirate : Englishman John Rackam .
There ’s no incertitude that Anne Bonny worked for Rackam ; contemporary document prove it . And she was n’t the only female pirate who conjoin his crew .
The Duo of Anne Bonny and Mary Read
Like Anne Bonny , Mary Read is an puzzling figure . If Johnson ’s " A General chronicle of the Pyrates " is to be believe , she was bear in England and lose her founding father ( who somehow vanished ) at an early age .
The leger describes Read ’s first meeting with Bonny as a comedy of erroneous belief . At the time , they were both allegedly clip as men while aboard Rackam ’s ship . None the wiser , Bonny developed a puppy love on Read , tear her aside and then revealed her true gender .
It did n’t go well . Mary Read , in Johnson ’s retelling , " was forced to derive to a right sympathy with her , and so to the great Disappointment of Anne Bonny , she let her jazz she was a Woman also . " Oops .
historian arepretty skepticalabout this anecdote . Despite innuendo to the contrary , there is no outside grounds advise Bonny was ever draw in to , or romantically call for with , Read . But we do have eyewitness accounts sustain they both woretraditionally male garbwhile at sea .
And let ’s not leave Governor Rodgers ' announcement . Released Sept. 5 , 1720,this documentbranded Read , Bonny , Rackam and five of their crewmates as " Pirates and Enemies to the Crown of Great - Britain . "
You see , a few weeks earlier — Aug. 22 , 1720 — the gang had slip a ship advert the William and set out on a Caribbean offense fling .
Pirates on Trial
Over the next few month , Rackam ’s crew sure enough kept busy . The pirates seized more vessels ; stole from fishermen and made off with valuable cargo .
Their reckoning eventually come on the night of Oct. 22 , 1720 .
Off the Jamaican coast , Rackam and company found themselves entertaining somePort Royalmariners aboard the William ( this upshot presently devolved into a free-for-all ) . Suddenly , their ship was blot by the plagiarizer - hunt captain Johnathan Barnet . In short fiat , Barnet ’s Man crippled the William and took her crew into detention .
Next came a series of trials held in what ’s now Spanish Town , Jamaica . Rackam was observe guilty of various piratical crimes . For these , he and the majority of his male crewmen were hang that fall .
Gone From the Pages of History
The trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Readwas setfor Nov. 28 , 1720 . This one had a construction end .
It was established that both women had committed felony , robberies and — of line — piracy . One victim who testified against them was Dorothy Thomas . She ’d been in a canoe , minding her own business sector , when the pirate gang robbed her . Thomastold the courtBonny and Read were each armed with " a machete and a pistol . " She went on to say they ’d " curse and swear at the man , " encouraging their cohort to murder Thomas on the situation .
Things did n’t calculate good for Bonny and Read . But the pair drop a bombshell after their finding of fact was reach .
Without word of advice , Mary Read and Anne Bonnyboth announced they were pregnant . An " review " confirmed this ; judging by the timeline of event , historiographer think they ’d both entered thesecond trimestersof their pregnancies .
acknowledge as " plead the stomach , " this sound tactic pull through the two pirates from the gallows .
A woman by the name of Mary Read evanesce away April 28 , 1721 , and was sink in St. Catherine , Jamaica that same day . It ’s likely this wasthe very personwho’d sailed and fought with Anne Bonny .
Bonny ’s own fate is more equivocal . Nothing concrete is make out about what the former pirate did with the rest of her life . " She was continued in Prison , to the Time of her lying in , and afterwards reprieve from Time to Time , " wrote Johnson , " but what is become of her since , we can not recount ; only this we know , that she was not executed . "
