Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Trial of and by Tamara J. Eastman The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read by Tamara J. Eastman. Pirate Trials During the Golden Age of , pirates were looked upon as the most wicked of the bad. There was rarely such a thing as a "fair trial," for corruption reared its ugly head in most every facet of the legal system. The Act of 1700 gave authorization for Vice Admiralty Courts to be set up in all the British colonies, and pirates were usually tried close to the place where they had been captured. Pirates were usually tried all at once, with several of the crew being brought to the bar at the same time. Usually there was no such thing as legal defense for the pirates, and many pirates were illiterate and not at all equipped to defend themselves in court. Upon being found guilty, the governor would pass sentence upon the pirates in these chilling words "Ye, and each of ye, are to go from hence and back to the place from whence you came . . . from there ye are to be taken to a place of execution, where severally, ye shall be hanged by the neck until you are quite dead! And may God in his infinite mercy have mercy upon your souls . . ." In the few cases where women were actually brought to trial and accused of piracy, they usually plead their bellies, and their death sentences would be suspended until they gave birth. In the few cases where women were actually brought to trial and accused of piracy, they usually plead their bellies, and their death sentences would be suspended until they gave birth. To read more about the trials of women pirates, get "The Pyrate Tryal of Anne Bonny & Mary Read" by Tamara J. Eastman and Constance Bond. *photos by Tony Callahan, Callahan Digital Art, Mike Cuffin/Barefeet Photography, Anita Mixon, Wendy Wellman, Jan Minutti and Angelina Morgan. The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read by Tamara J. Eastman. Cindy Vallar, Editor & Reviewer P. O. Box 425, Keller, TX 76244-0425. Home Pirate Articles Pirate Links Book Reviews Thistles & Pirates. Women and the By Cindy Vallar. Elizabeth I once told her people, �I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king�.� (Wendy J. Dunn, "Tudor Women Weak? No Way!" Suite101.com) A common fallacy throughout history was that women couldn�t do what men did. Time and time again, however, women stepped forward to prove otherwise, whether they did so tactfully � as Elizabeth did � or whether they were as cheeky as Anne Bonny when she told Rackham, �If you�d fought like a man, you wouldn�t be hung like a dog!� (Eastman and Bond, The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read ) Women rebels have always intrigued me. My first heroines were Deborah Sampson, Harriet Tubman, and Joan of Arc. Growing up, I was a Tomboy who preferred to play with my dump truck and gas station than my dolls. Perhaps this was why I gravitated toward women who dared to be different and why the heroines of my novels were rebels. In 1976 Life published �Remarkable American Women, 1776-1976.� The section on �Wild Wild Women� particularly fascinated me. What made these women -- Lizzie Borden (accused of murdering her father and step-mother), Hetty Green (the richest investor in New York who refused to spend money), Calamity Jane (dressed, cussed, and drank like a man), and Evelyn Nesbitt (a femme fatale ) -- step outside the boundaries of proper society? Of the 166 women included in Life �s special report, there were flyers, writers, singers, mothers, actresses, First Ladies, politicians, reporters, activists, and criminals, but no pirates. Articles of Agreement that pirates swore an oath to uphold often included a ban on women aboard their ships. After all, �women were weak, feckless, hysterical beings who distracted men and brought bad luck to ships, calling forth supernatural winds that sank vessels and drowned men.� (Cordingly, Women Sailors and Sailors� Women ) Historical records provide evidence that women did go to sea -- sometimes as pirates or sailors. While Anne Bonny and Mary Read were perhaps the most famous women pirates, others of equal or lesser renown included Grace O�Malley, Alwida, and Cheng I Sao. In order for a woman to succeed in her new persona, she had to do more than don a disguise. She had to adopt the mannerisms common to men -- fighting, carousing, swearing, walking, and dressing as the men did. Sarah Collins enlisted with her brother during the Civil War, but was discovered �by her unmasculine manner of putting on her shoes and stockings.� (Hall, Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War ) Getting aboard a ship disguised as a man wasn�t that difficult in the Age of Sail. A sailor�s clothes easily disguised a woman�s shape. Mariners already wore their hair long, tied in a pigtail and tarred. Petticoat-breeches and the baggy shirt worn under a jacket easily hid her curves, especially if she bound her breasts. Sailors rarely removed their clothes and the only time a doctor insisted they undress was to treat their wounds. Billy Bridle, a daring sailor who served aboard a vessel for two years, challenged a shipmate to climb the highest mast. The mate was reluctant, but finally agreed to the challenge. Soon after he climbed down, Billy followed, but burned his hands as he slid down the topgallant halyards. Twenty feet above the deck, Billy lost his grip, fell to the deck, and died. Not until the inquest did anyone discover Billy was actually Rachel Young. Taking care of bodily functions posed a more challenging problem, but not an impossible one. Some affixed a tube inside their breeches to appear to urinate as a man when they went to the head. Since many sailors contracted venereal diseases, they wouldn�t have thought anything strange about a sailor bleeding. It was a common complaint. As for having her period, there�s a good chance she ceased menstruating from the poor food and strenuous exercise of working aboard a wooden ship. Since she didn�t shave, men just assumed she hadn�t gone through puberty yet. Furling and unfurling sails, working the pumps and capstan, rowing boats, and a myriad of other tasks requiring hard labor wouldn�t have been a problem for most working-class women of the seventeen and eighteenth centuries. Even as women living ashore they worked long hours and did physically demanding chores. If she were strong and able, a woman was capable of doing sailors� work. It took a remarkable woman to assume a male persona and carry it off successfully. Why would any woman choose to do so? Perhaps because she wished to earn her way in life without prostituting herself and to keep her wages instead of having to relinquish them to her husband or father. She could learn a trade forbidden to women. As a man, she had rights, unlike a woman who had few if any rights under the law. As long as men believed her to be one of them, they treated her as a man. As soon as her true identity was discovered, she was no longer taken seriously and had to return home to mind her place. While an untold number of accounts of male pirates and warriors exist, the same isn�t true of women who donned male attire and changed their names. Many pirates were illiterate as were the majority of the lower classes. Women would have been doubly so, for educating them was seen as folly. Pirates, who kept journals or diaries, rarely mention women, �except as victims of men.� (Exquemelin, The of America ) In spite of this dearth of primary documentation, we know women became pirates, sailors, and soldiers. As Mary Livermore, a Sanitary Commission agent, wrote in 1888 about disguised women who fought in the Civil War: �Some one has stated the number of women soldiers�as little less than four hundred. I cannot vouch for the correctness of this estimate, but I am convinced that a larger number of women disguised themselves and enlisted�than was dreamed of. Entrenched in secrecy, and regarded as men, they were sometimes revealed as women, by accident or casualty. Some startling histories of these military women were current in the gossip of army life; and extravagant and unreal as were many of the narrations, one always felt that they had a foundation in fact.� (Blanton and Cook, They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War ) The same was probably true of women pirates throughout history. Some disguised their sex. Others did not. Some achieved notoriety in their lifetimes. Most, however, disappeared without anyone being the wiser. The list of women pirates numbers approximately forty, but some may never have lived. Four lesser-known women pirates Lady Mary Killigrew The Killigrew family, which lived in Cornwall, had a notorious reputation for seizing ships, appropriating the cargo, and selling both to finance their lifestyle. On the first of January in 1583, the Maria docked at Arwenack Castle where Lady Killigrew entertained them. For several days the Spanish captain and others visited Penryn. On their return they discovered the Maria had disappeared. During their absence and after a storm passed, Lady Killigrew and her servants rowed to the ship, killed those Spaniards still aboard, and absconded with the cargo. Although many believed her guilty, no proof existed that she had participated in the theft and murders. Angry at the lack of justice, the Spaniards journeyed to London where they complained to the authorities there. When it was learned that Lady Killigrew�s son, a judge, had tampered with the investigation, she and two of her gang were arrested and stood trial. All three were sentenced to death, but Queen Elizabeth I pardoned Lady Killigrew. Born in England in 1636, Charlotte de Berry fell in love with a sailor. When the Royal Navy ordered him to sea, she donned male clothes and joined him on board his ship as his brother. One version of how she became a pirate said the two fought side by side in six major battles. An officer discovered Charlotte�s ruse, but said nothing because he wanted her for himself. When his first attempt to get rid of her lover failed, the officer accused him of trying to start a . He was found guilt and flogged around the fleet, a punishment that killed him. Charlotte refused the officer�s advances, stabbed him, and fled ashore. She became an entertainer in waterfront saloons that sailors frequented. One sea captain kidnapped her, forced her to wed him, then set sail for Africa. Charlotte convinced the crew to mutiny and turn to piracy. Another version says that sometime after the navy ship departed England, pirates attacked it. The pirate captain discovered Charlotte�s true identity, but she engaged him in a duel and lopped off his head. The pirates rejoiced on hearing of his death, and made Charlotte their new captain. Rumors soon spread about her ferocity and cruelty. One claimed she had sewn shut one captain�s mouth. Throughout her life as a pirate she pretended to be a man. How and when she died is uncertain, but one story claims she married a wealthy Spaniard who joined her crew. A storm sank their ship and they survived without food and water for eight days aboard a raft. The survivors decided the only way they would continue to live was if they drew lots. The loser would forfeit his life to feed the others. Charlotte�s husband was the first slain just before a merchantman rescued them. Pirates attacked that ship. Charlotte fought them off, saved her rescuers, then leapt overboard to join her dead husband. Rachel Wall may have been the first true American woman who became a pirate. She was born in 1760 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania to devout Presbyterians. A runaway, she eloped with George Wall, a fisherman and former who had served during the Revolutionary War. Soon after they arrived in Boston, Wall deserted Rachel and she earned a living as a servant. Several months later, her husband returned, showed her his plundered , and convinced her to join him in his piracy. Their modus operandi was somewhat unique amongst pirates and resembled the boy who cried wolf so many times that when he really saw a wolf, no one came. They anchored near an island during a storm. After it ended, they made the vessel appear as if she would founder, then set her adrift. When another ship was sighted, Rachel screamed for help. Once the rescuers came aboard, the pirates murdered them, stole all the valuables, and sank the ship. Those ashore just assumed the victimized ship sank during the storm. Rachel, George, and their cohorts became quite adept at piracy. Between 1781 and 1782 they captured twelve boats, murdered twenty-four sailors, and appropriated $6,000 worth of cash and merchandise. Trouble came in September 1782 when a storm really did batter their sloop and broke the mast. George and the other pirates were washed overboard and drowned, leaving only Rachel on board. She was soon rescued and returned to Boston where she became a maid. Seven years later Rachel was accused of robbing a woman on the streets of Boston. In spite of her innocent pleas, Rachel was found guilty of the crime. She confessed to being a pirate, but not to being a thief. Even so, she was the last woman hanged in . Loi Chai-san A petite woman, who appeared harmless, Loi Chai-san was known as the Queen of the Macao Pirates. She hunted the waters around Hong Kong in the 1920�s. She amassed a sizeable fortune through sea raiding and kidnapping. The sole account of her life and escapades came from Aleko E. Lilius, a journalist who paid Loi Chai-san $43 a day to accompany her and write about her exploits in an article entitled �I Sailed with Chinese Pirates.� On shore she dressed in white silk and knotted her hair at the nape of her neck. When aboard one of her twelve armed junks, which she inherited from another pirate named Honcho Lo, she discarded her footwear and wore a simple uniform of jacket and trousers. Two maids always accompanied her on her raids, and they delivered any communications between Loi Chai-san and her men. She, herself, never spoke to the pirates and she forbade them entry to her cabin. When she took captives, she sent a message to his or her relatives. If they hadn�t paid the ransom after receiving a second warning, Loi Chai-san sent them the captive�s finger or ear. If this failed to persuade them to pay the ransom, she killed her prisoner. What became of Loi Chai-san remains a mystery. One account says she attacked a torpedo squadron during the Chinese-Japanese War and died. Another tale says the International Coast Guard arrested her in 1939 and sentenced her to life imprisonment. It is believed she was the model for the Dragon Lady in the comic strip, Terry and the Pirates . Listen to Women Pirates on The History Czar. If you�d like to read more about women pirates and women warriors, I recommend these books: Non-fiction Blanton, DeAnne, and Lauren M. Cook. They Fought Like Demons: Women Soldiers in the American Civil War . Louisiana State University Press, 2002. Bold in Her Breeches: Women Pirates Across the Ages edited by Jo Stanley. HarperCollins, 1995. Cordingly, David. Women Sailors and Sailors� Women . Random House, 2001. Druett, John. She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea . Simon & Schuster, 2000. Eastman, Tamara J., and Constance Bond. The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read . Fern Canyon Press, 2000. Hall, Richard. Patriots in Disguise: Women Warriors of the Civil War . Paragon House, 1993. Johnson, Cathy (Kate). Pyrates in Petticoats: a Fanciful & Factual History of the Legends, T ales, and Exploits of the most notorious Female Pirates and also Some Lesser Known Women Who Plied the Seas and inland Waterways for Fortune, Adventure & Romance from Ireland, China, the Bahamas, and the to the Americas . Graphics/Fine Arts Press, 2000. Klausmann, Ulrike, Marion Meinzerin, and Gabriel Kuhn. Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger . Black Rose Books, 1997. Stark, Suzanne J. Female Tars: Woman Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail . Naval Institute Press, 1996. Fiction Canham, Marsha. The Iron Rose . Signet, 2003. (Juliet Dante, privateer and daughter of the legendary Pirate Wolf) Garrett, Elizabeth. The Sweet Trade . TOR, 2001. (Anne Bonny and Mary Read, pirates) Gold, Alan. The Pirate Queen . HarperCollins, 2003. (Grace O�Malley, pirate) Jensen, Lisa. The Witch from the Sea . Beagle Bay Books, 2001. ( Tory Lightfoot, pirate) Meyer, L. A. Bloody Jack: Being an Account of the Curious Adventures of Mary �Jacky� Faber, Ship�s Boy . Harcourt, 2002. (Jacky Faber, pirate hunter) Nau, Erika. Angel in the Rigging . Berkley, 1976. (Lucy Brewer, pirate and Marine) Rees, Celia. Pirates ! Bloomsbury, 2003. (Nancy Kington and Minerva Sharpe, pirates) Simonds, Jacqueline Church. Captain Mary, . Beagle Bay Books, 2000. (Mary, pirate) Slaughter, Frank G. The Deadly Lady of Madagascar . Pocket Books, 1977. (Bonita Carter, pirate and daughter of pirate Red Carter) If There’s a Man Among Ye: The Tale of Pirate Queens Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Renowned for their ruthlessness, these two female pirates challenged the sailors’ adage that a woman’s presence on shipboard invites bad luck. Last week Mike Dash told a tale of high seas adventure that put me in mind of another, somewhat earlier one. Not that Anne Bonny and Mary Read had much in common with kindly old David O’Keefe—they were pirates, for one thing, as renowned for their ruthlessness as for their gender, and during their short careers challenged the sailors’ adage that a woman’s presence on shipboard invites bad luck. Indeed, were it not for Bonny and Read, John “Calico Jack” Rackam’s crew would’ve suffered indignity along with defeat during its final adventure in the Caribbean. But more on that in a moment… Much of what we know about the early lives of Bonny and Read comes from a 1724 account titled A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates, by Captain (which some historians argue is a nom de plume for author Daniel Defoe). A General History places Bonny’s birth in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland, circa 1698. Her father, an attorney named William Cormac, had an affair with the family maid, prompting his wife to leave him. The maid, Mary Brennan, gave birth to Anne, and over time William grew so fond of the child he arranged for her to live with him. To avoid scandal, he dressed her as a boy and introduced her as the child of a relative entrusted to his care. When Anne’s true gender and parentage were discovered, William, Mary and their child emigrated to what is now Charleston, South Carolina. Mary died in 1711, at which point the teenaged Anne began exhibiting a “fierce and courageous temper,” reportedly murdering a servant girl with a case knife and beating half to death a suitor who tried to rape her. William, a successful planter, disapproved of his daughter’s rebellious ways; the endless rumors about her carousing in local taverns and sleeping with fishermen and drunks damaged his business. He disowned her when, in 1718, she married a poor sailor by the name of James Bonny. Anne and her new husband set off for New Providence (now Nassau) in the Bahamas, where James is said to have embarked on a career as a snitch, turning in pirates to Governor and collecting the bounties on their heads. Woodes, a former pirate himself, composed a “most wanted” list of ten notorious outlaws, including , and vowed to bring them all to trial. Anne, meanwhile, spent most of her time drinking at local saloons and seducing pirates; in A General History , Johnson contends that she was “not altogether so reserved in point of Chastity,” and that James Bonny once “surprised her lying in a hammock with another man.” Anne grew especially enamored of one paramour, John “Calico Jack” Rackam, so-called due to his affinity for garish clothing, and left Bonny to join Rackam’s crew. One legend holds that she launched her pirating career with an ingenious ploy, creating a “corpse” by mangling the limbs of a dressmaker’s mannequin and smearing it with fake blood. When the crew of a passing French merchant ship spotted Anne wielding an ax over her creation, they surrendered their cargo without a fight. John “Calico Jack” Rackam (Public Domain) A surprising number of women ventured to sea, in many capacities: as servants, prostitutes, laundresses, cooks and—albeit less frequently—as sailors, naval officers, whaling merchants or pirates. Anne herself was likely inspired by a 16th-century Irishwoman named Grace O’Malley, whose fierce visage (she claimed her face was scarred after an attack by an eagle) became infamous along the coast of the Emerald Isle. Still, female pirates remained an anomaly and perceived liability; Blackbeard, for one, banned women from his ship, and if his crew took one captive she was strangled and pitched over the side. Anne refused to be deterred by this sentiment. Upon joining Rackam’s crew, she was said to have silenced a disparaging shipmate by stabbing him in the heart. Most of the time Anne lived as a woman, acting the part of Rackam’s lover and helpmate, but during engagements with other ships she wore the attire of a man: loose tunic and wide, short trousers; a sword hitched by her side and a brace of pistols tucked in a sash; a small cap perched atop a thicket of dark hair. Between sporadic bouts of marauding and pillaging, pirate life was fairly prosaic; our modern associations with the profession draw more from popular entertainment— Peter Pan , , a swashbuckling Johnny Depp—than from historical reality. The notion of “” is a myth, as are secret stashes of gold. “Nice idea, buried plunder,” says maritime historian David Cordingly. “Too bad it isn’t true.” Pirates ate more turtles than they drank rum, and many were staunch family men; Captain Kidd, for instance, remained devoted to his wife and children back in New York. Another historian, Barry R. Burg, contends that the majority of sexual dalliances occurred not with women but with male shipmates. Accounts vary as to how Anne met Mary Read. According to Johnson, Rackam’s ship conquered Mary’s somewhere in the West Indies, and Mary was among those taken prisoner. After the engagement, Anne, dressed in female attire, tried to seduce the handsome new recruit. Mary, perhaps fearing repercussions from Rackam, informed Anne she was actually a woman—and bared her breasts to prove it. Anne vowed to keep Mary’s secret and the women became friends, confidantes and, depending on the source, lovers. Learn more about Anne and Mary after the jump… They had much in common; Mary was also an illegitimate child. Her mother’s first child (this one by her husband) was a boy, born shortly after her husband died at sea. Mary’s mother-in-law took pity on the widow and offered to support her grandson until he was grown, but he died as well. Mary’s mother quickly became pregnant again, gave birth to Mary, and, in order to keep receiving money from her husband’s family, dressed her daughter to resemble her dead son. But her grandmother soon caught on and terminated the arrangement. To make ends meet, Mary’s mother continued dressing her as a boy and occasionally rented her out as a servant. Mary excelled at living as a man. Around age 13, she served as a “powder monkey” on a British man-of-war during the War of the Grand Alliance, carrying bags of gunpowder from the ship’s hold to the gun crews. Next she joined the Army of Flanders, serving in both the infantry and cavalry. She fell in love with her bunkmate and divulged her secret to him. Initially, the soldier suggested that Mary become his mistress—or, as Johnson put it, “he thought of nothing but gratifying his Passions with very little Ceremony”—but Mary replied, with no apparent irony, that she was a reserved and proper lady. After informing her entire regiment that she was a woman, she quit the army and married the solider, who died shortly before the turn of the 18th century. Mary resumed her life as a man and sailed for the West Indies on a Dutch ship, which was soon captured by English pirates. The crew, believing Mary to be a fellow Englishman, encouraged her to join them. Calico Jack Rackam served as the quartermaster of her new crew, and he, along with his shipmates, never suspected Mary’s true gender. She was aggressive and ruthless, always ready for a raid, and swore, well, like a drunken sailor. She was “very profligate,” recalled one of her victims, “cursing and swearing much.” Loose clothing hid her breasts, and no one thought twice about her lack of facial hair; her mates, most of them in their teens or early twenties, were also smooth-faced. It’s also likely that Mary suffered from stress and poor diet while serving in the army, factors that could have interrupted or paused her menstrual cycle. Initially, Rackam was jealous of Anne’s relationship with Mary, and one day burst into her cabin intending to slit her throat. Mary sat up and opened her blouse. Rackam agreed to keep Mary’s secret from the rest of the crew and continued to treat her as an equal. (He was also somewhat mollified when she took up with a male crewmate.) During battles Anne and Mary fought side by side, wearing billowing jackets and long trousers and handkerchiefs wrapped around their heads, wielding a machete and pistol in either hand. “They were very active on board,” another victim later testified, “and wiling to do any Thing.” The summer and early fall of 1720 proved especially lucrative for Rackam’s crew. In September they took seven fishing boats and two sloops near Harbor Island. A few weeks later, Anne and Mary led a raid against a schooner, shooting at the crew as they climbed aboard, cursing as they gathered their plunder: tackle, fifty rolls of tobacco and nine bags of pimento. They held their captives for two days before releasing them. Near midnight on October 22, Anne and Mary were on deck when they noticed a mysterious sloop gliding up alongside them. They realized it was one of the governor’s vessels, and they shouted for their crewmates to stand with them. A few obliged, Rackam included, but several had passed out from the night’s drinking. The sloop’s captain, Jonathan Barnett, ordered the pirates to surrender, but Rackam began firing his swivel gun. Barnett ordered a counterattack, and the barrage of fire disabled Rackam’s ship and sent the few men on deck to cowering in the hold. Outnumbered, Rackam signaled surrender and called for quarter. But Anne and Mary refused to surrender. They remained on deck and faced the governor’s men alone, firing their pistols and swinging their . Mary, the legend goes, was so disgusted she stopped fighting long enough to peer over the entrance of the hold and yell, “If there’s a man among ye, ye’ll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!” When not a single comrade responded, she fired a shot down into the hold, killing one of them. Anne, Mary and the rest of Rackam’s crew were finally overpowered and taken prisoner. Calico Jack Rackam was scheduled to be executed by hanging on November 18, and his final request was to see Anne. She had but one thing to say to him: “If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.” Ten days later, she and Mary stood trial at the Admiralty Court in St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica, both of them pleading not guilty to all charges. The most convincing witness was one Dorothy Thomas, whose canoe had been robbed of during one of the pirates’ sprees. She stated that Anne and Mary threatened to kill her for testifying against them, and that “the Reason of her knowing and believing them to be women then was by the largeness of their Breasts.” Anne and Mary were found guilty and sentenced to be hanged, but their executions were stayed—because, as lady luck would have it, they were both “quick with child.” Sources. Books: . A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates . London: T. Warner, 1724. Barry R. Burg. Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean. New York: New York University Press, 1995. David Cordingly. Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors’ Wives . New York: Random House, 2007. ______. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. New York: Random House, 2006. ______. Pirate Hunter of the Caribbean: The Adventurous Life of Captain Woodes Rogers. New York: Random House, 2011. Margaret S. Creighton and Lisa Norling. Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic . Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1996. Tamara J. Eastman and Constance Bond. The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read . Cambria Pines, CA: Fern Canyon Press, 2000. Angus Konstam and Roger Kean. Pirates: Predators of the Seas . New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007. Elizabeth Kerri Mahon. Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History’s Most Notorious Women . New York: Penguin Group, 2011. C.R. Pennell. Bandits at Sea: A Pirates Reader . New York: New York University Press, 2011. Diana Maury Robin, Anne R. Larsen, Carole Levin. Encyclopedia of Women in the Renaissance: Italy, France, and England . Articles: “Scholars Plunder Myths About Pirates, And It’s Such A Drag.” Wall Street Journal , April 23, 1992; “West Indian Sketches.” Gazette , April 10, 1838; “How Blackbeard Met His Fate.” Washington Post , September 9, 1928; “Seafaring Women.” Los Angeles Times , March 8, 1896; “Capt. Kidd and Others.” New York Times , January 1, 1899; “Female Pirates.” Boston Globe , August 9, 1903. Anne Bonny and Mary Read: Two Female Pirates. When you think about pirates, it’s very likely that it’s the image of a male pirate that comes to your mind. However, male pirates weren’t the only ones to roam the seas during the ‘’ (1700–1725). There were also female pirates. Two of them were Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Here are 7 facts about the f ascinating lives of these two women. 1. Childhood. Anne Bonny was born around 1700 in County Cork, Ireland while Mary Read was born around 1695 in Ireland. Both were illegitimate daughters and were brought up as boys. 2. None of what’s known about Bonny can be verified. Most of what we know about Anne Bonny comes from Captain Charles Johnson’s book A General History of the Pyrates (1724). Many historians believe that Johnson was actually Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe ! 3. Anne Bonny and Calico Jack. At age 16, Anne married James Bonny, a penniless sailor, causing Anne’s father to disinherit her. The newly wedded coupled set out for New Providence. That’s where Anne met pirate « Calico Jack » Rackham. She fell in love with him. That is when her pirate life began. While she was onboard, Anne dressed as a man. 4. Mary Read on the battlefield. Even after her childhood, Mary Read continued to crossdress. Disguised as a man, she enrolled in the British military and became a great soldier. 5. Mary joined Rackham’s crew dressed as a man. In order to be admitted on board, Mary had to dress in men’s clothing. She admitted to Anne that she was a woman and, in turn, Anne admitted the same. 6. Mary and Anne behaved like male pirates. Anne Bonny and Mary Read were said to drink and to curse a lot. However, the legend says that they proved to be braver than the rest of the crew. Captain was sent to stop Rackham and his crew. Barnet’s ship inflicted heavy damage upon Rackham’s. Every pirate had given up fighting except for two members: Mary and Anne. After fighting tooth and nail, they were captured by Barnet. 7. T hey escaped hanging because of their ‘condition’ Just like the rest of Rackham’s crew, Anne and Mary were sentenced to hang. Yet, they told the judge that they were pregnant, which was found to be true. Mary died in prison not long after whereas no one knows what happened to Anne. Conclusion. Anne Bonny and Mary Read had a great impact on p opular c ulture . For example, they appeared in the Detective Conan animated film ‘ Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure’. Mary Read was also featured in 2013 video game Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, in which she was voiced by Olivia Morgan. Anne and Mary certainly have something to do in the way female pirates are portrayed. Yet, the most famous female pirate of all time was Ching Shih who terrorized the China Sea in the 19th century. noticing bones. Avast ye scurvy dogs, it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day (and no, I’m not making this up). Okay, I may not be the best at talking like a pirate, but I did write up an awesome profile of two of the baddest (as in coolest) female pirates to ever sail the high seas in honor of this quirky holiday. Anne Bonny and Mary Read were pirates as renowned for their ruthlessness as for their gender, and during their short careers challenged the sailors’ adage that a woman’s presence on shipboard invites bad luck. Anne and Mary were both illegitimate children that were often dressed as boys by their respective family members in order to keep their identities a secret. Anne displayed a penchant for getting into trouble from a young age and by her early teens had already stabbed and murdered a servant girl and beat a suitor almost to death for an attempted rape. Anne was also fond of drinking in taverns and sleeping with fisherman and in 1718 when she married a poor sailor-James Bonny-her father finally disowned her and left her to her own devices. Anne took off for New Providence in the Bahamas with her husband, continued her carousing and took up seducing pirates at local saloons. She took a shine to John “Calico Jack” Rackam and left Bonny to join Rackam’s crew. When a shipmate complained, Anne silenced him by stabbing him in the heart. Anne started her pirating career with flair, mangling the limbs of a dressmaker’s mannequin and smearing it with fake blood; allegedly, a passing French merchant ship saw Anne wielding an ax over her bloody creation and promptly surrendered without a fight. Anne met Mary Read when Rackam’s ship conquered Mary’s somewhere in the West Indies, and Mary was among those taken prisoner. After the battle, Anne, dressed in female attire, tried to seduce the handsome new recruit. Mary informed Anne she was actually a woman, bared her breasts to prove it, and the rest was history. Anne vowed to keep Mary’s secret and the women became friends, confidantes and, depending on the source, lovers. Mary, like Anne, had lived a pretty unconventional life. Around age 13, she served as a “powder monkey” on a British man-of-war carrying bags of gunpowder from the ship’s hold to the gun crews. Next she joined the Army of Flanders, serving in both the infantry and cavalry. She fell in love with her bunkmate and divulged her secret to him. Initially, the soldier suggested that Mary become his mistress—but Mary replied, with no apparent irony, that she was a reserved and proper lady. After informing her entire regiment that she was a woman, she quit the army and married the solider, who unfortunately died shortly after. Mary resumed her life as a man and sailed for the West Indies on a Dutch ship, which was soon captured by English pirates. The crew, believing Mary to be a fellow Englishman, encouraged her to join them. Calico Jack Rackam served as the quartermaster of her new crew, and he, along with his shipmates, never suspected Mary’s true gender. Loose clothing and an aggressive attitude hid her gender. She was also ruthless, ready for a raid, and swore, well, like a drunken sailor. During battles Anne and Mary fought side by side, wearing billowing jackets and long trousers and handkerchiefs wrapped around their heads, wielding a machete and pistol in either hand. On October 22, Anne and Mary were on deck when they noticed a mysterious sloop gliding up alongside them. Realizing it was one of the governor’s vessels they called for backup. A few obliged, but many had passed out from the night’s drinking. Rackam was ordered to surrender and after a brief battle he gave in without much of a fight. But Anne and Mary weren’t down with this plan. They remained on deck and faced the governor’s men alone, firing their pistols and swinging their cutlasses. Mary, was so disgusted she stopped fighting long enough to peer over the entrance of the hold and yell, “If there’s a man among ye, ye’ll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!” When not a single comrade responded, she fired a shot down into the hold, killing one of them. Anne, Mary, and the rest of Rackam’s crew were finally overpowered and taken prisoner. Rackam was scheduled to be executed by hanging on November 18, and his final request was to see Anne who was rightfully fed up with him: “If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog.” Ten days later, she and Mary stood trial at the Admiralty Court in St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica. Despite their plea of not guilty Anne and Mary were sentenced to be hanged, but their executions were stayed—because, thankfully they were both “quick with child.” Mary is said to have died of a violent fever in the Spanish Town prison in 1721, before the birth of her child. Other reports say she feigned death and was sneaked out of the prison under a shroud. No record of Anne’s execution has ever been found. Some say that her wealthy father bought her release after the birth of her child and she settled down to a quiet family life on a small Caribbean island. Others believe that she lived out her life in the south of England, owning a tavern where she regaled the locals with tales of her exploits. And yet others say Anne and Mary moved to Louisiana where they raised their children together and were friends to the ends of their lives. For more information: Captain Charles Johnson. A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates . London: T. Warner, 1724. David Cordingly. Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors’ Wives . New York: Random House, 2007. Margaret S. Creighton and Lisa Norling. Iron Men, Wooden Women: Gender and Seafaring in the Atlantic . Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1996. Tamara J. Eastman and Constance Bond. The Pirate Trial of Anne Bonny and Mary Read . Cambria Pines, CA: Fern Canyon Press, 2000. Elizabeth Kerri Mahon. Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History’s Most Notorious Women . New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Lorimer, Sara; Synarski, Susan (2002). Booty : Girl Pirates on the High Seas . San Francisco: Chronicle Books.