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In November 1720, a pair of women named Anne Bonny and Mary Read took the stand in Spanish Town, Jamaica, accused of piracy in the Caribbean. Their surviving victims, Dorothy Thomas and Thomas Spenlow, recounted harrowing attacks in which the women fired their pistols at will, struck people with their cutlasses, swore, cursed, and even fought with their shirts open, revealing their bare breasts.<\/p>\n
The fact that the two women were said to fight harder and deadlier than their male pirate crewmates was shocking enough for the jury to convict them almost immediately. But who exactly were these women, and how did they end up being two of the most notorious pirates<\/a> of the 18th century?<\/p>\n Unfortunately, much of their early existence is a mystery, with virtually no information about their lives before they entered piracy in August 1720. The only account comes from Captain Charles Johnson\u2019s book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates<\/em> \u2013a collection of pirate biographies published in 1724. However, the book is largely fiction, with very little fact. Anne Bonny and Mary Read\u2019s biographies are no different, and may be the most fictitious of them all.<\/p>\n Johnson gives their early lives parallel origin stories: they were both illegitimate children raised as boys to avoid social scandal as bastard daughters. Anne then eschewed 18th-century female societal roles by running away with a sailor, James Bonny, to become a pirate. After several years at sea, they landed at Nassau on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, and separated. Anne subsequently spent much of her time in taverns wooing sailors and pirates until she met Captain John (Jack) Rackham.<\/p>\n Mary apparently had a similar story in that she joined the British Army in Flanders disguised as a young man. She then seduced and married a fellow soldier, but he died soon after, so she resumed her male identity and re-joined the army in a different regiment. Grief, however, dulled her skills, so she was honourably discharged. It was time for a new beginning. She then joined a merchant ship, which was soon besieged by pirates, and ended up in Nassau after opting to join the pirates\u2019 ranks herself. Here she is said to have met Anne and Jack, and the three of them embarked on their own voyage as part of a larger crew.<\/p>\n When the trio set sail from Providence in August 1720, Anne \u2013 thinking Mary was a man \u2013 apparently attempted to seduce her fellow crewmate. Despite the revelation that Mary was, in fact, female, they quickly become the fiercest pair on the ship, and may have even started a romantic relationship regardless.<\/p>\n According to Johnson, Rackham was so jealous of Mary\u2019s closeness to Anne that he threatened to slit her throat, but when he realised that she was a woman too, he acquiesced to the pair\u2019s relationship.<\/p>\n Dr Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the 17th-century golden age of piracy and discusses how accurate pop culture portrayals of pirates are on this episode of the HistoryExtra<\/em> podcast<\/a>Two months of terror<\/h3>\n