Anne Bonny (1697?-1720?) was a pirate from an Irish family. She sailed with Calico Jack Rackham.
Everything that is known about Anne Bonny comes from legends and rare official documents. You should know that most of the information we have today about the greatest pirates comes from various publications of the 18th century, the authors of which are often pirates themselves. The different sources do not agree, for example, about his year of birth (probably between 1697 and 1705).
A tumultuous youth
Before being Anne Bonny, she was Anne Cormac. Illegitimate daughter of William Cormac, attorney, and his servant Mary. When this matter was exposed to the public, William Cormac left Ireland with his daughter and settled in Charleston, South Carolina. He made his fortune there and bought a huge plantation.
Anne appears for the first time on the lands of the New World in Charleston in 1710 as a 13-year-old boy in the General History of the Most Famous Pirates, written by Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, under the pseudonym of Captain Charles Johnson, and published in 1724. Although the daughter of a wealthy procurator and landlord, she looked rather poor:her red hair cropped short, grimy face, and messy clothes.
She has the reputation of being a pretty girl, intelligent but soup-au-lait. It is said that at the age of thirteen she stabbed a servant with a knife, but this may be a legend. About five years later, Anne reappears in stories:she frequents taverns, we see her in the arms of various buccaneers, some even say that she would have publicly undressed her swordsman with her sword, button after button. At sixteen Anne marries a small-scale pirate named James Bonny. This Bonny had hopes of recovering Anne's inheritance, but she was disinherited by her father. Anne would have taken revenge by burning down the plantation. James then takes her with him to New Providence, in the Bahamas. As soon as she arrives, she imposes herself by depriving a drunken sailor of the only ear he has left while he is preventing her from passing. James quickly becomes an informant with Governor Woodes Rogers and begins to denounce sailors suspected of carrying out smuggling or piracy activities. Disappointed, Anne decides not to live with her husband anymore and goes to live with a pirate who calls himself Captain Jennings and his mistress Meg. She is advised to find a man's protection and Anne becomes the mistress of Chidley Bayard, the richest man on the island.
The birth of the pirate woman
Anne then meets Pierre Bouspeut (sometimes named Pierre Delvin or Peter Bosket), another pirate who runs a restaurant, a hairdresser's shop and a velvet and silk tailor in New Providence. Learning that a French merchant ship, loaded with precious goods, is approaching the island, Anne and Pierre organize their first expedition of corsairs. With the help of Pierre's friends, they steal a ship, the Revenge, from among the wrecks in the harbor, repair it so that it can barely sail, and plan their strategy. They get covered in turtle blood, along with the sails and deck. They do the same with one of the mannequins, dressed as a woman for the occasion, which Pierre uses for his business as a tailor, and place it on the bow (under the bow). Anne comes to stand with a bloody ax in her hand, above the dummy. They set out to meet the merchant ship. The French sailors, terrified by this demonic ship, will not fight.
New Providence is also the scene of less unusual piracy, and Governor Rogers tries to wipe it out by offering royal pardons to any pirates who promise to stop their activities. Anne refuses, because she knows that she will be condemned for the fire of her father's plantation. She then joins Pierre and Calico Jack Rackham, who also refused to submit. All three escape aboard a sloop - the Seahorse - by cunningly breaking through the blockade that Rogers had installed in the port. It is said that Anne was shirtless like an Amazon, dressed only in black velvet pants sewn by Pierre. One hand resting on the hilt of his sword, the other waving a silk scarf for the Governor.
This is probably only a legend, insofar as her nudity would have immediately revealed her true sex to the men of the crew, while Anne herself tries by all means to conceal it. She disguises herself as a man and is now called Adam Bonny. When her true gender is discovered by a pirate, she coldly kills him. Finally, she would have thrown Rackham out of her quarters in order to reside there alone, while Rackham was her superior.
Another version exists:Anne and Rackham would have become lovers:they would have had a child together whom they would have subsequently abandoned. Rackham offers to buy Anne from James Bonny, but James warns the Governor about the deal. He condemns Anne to be whipped and orders her to stay with her husband. Anne and Rackham then flee together on the Revenge.
His dark affair with Mary Read
In either case, it is believed that Rackham and his crew made multiple stops at New Providence, and it was during one of these stops that Anne met Mary Read (who was also in disguise as a man and called himself Mark read). The two women will sympathize quickly, they are even credited with a love affair (homosexuality was not uncommon among pirates, but severely punished) which would have made Rackham jealous (who then thought that Anne was a woman and Mary a man) and created a lot of tension on board the Revenge. Rackham allegedly went so far as to threaten to slit Mark's throat.
It is unclear exactly how Rackham discovered Mary's true gender. Some say that he would have surprised them in their lovemaking one evening in Anne Bonny's room, although this would only be based on fantasies. In any case, Mary soon stops calling herself Mark, but the two women remain inseparable and live as a couple, dressing indifferently as a man or a woman.
Shortly after, several British warships were sent in pursuit (a September 5, 1720 decree from the Governor of the Bahamas Islands declared that Jack Rackham and his crew, including Anne Bonny and Mary Read, were to be captured and tried). But it takes more to impress Rackham, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. More reckless and ferocious than ever, they relentlessly attack and capture ships that pass within cannon range. One of these ships is the Royal Queen, owned by Chidley Bayard, Anne's former lover, and commanded by Captain Hudson. Anne manages to seduce Hudson and convince him to take her with him aboard his ship. Once on board, she manages to avoid spending the night with him by drugging him. She then sprinkles with water all the wicks intended for the cannons and returns with the pirates. The following day, the Revenge engages the Royal Queen, then unable to retaliate. The battle will have only one victim:out of jealousy, Mary kills Captain Hudson.
The end of the adventure
On October 21, 1720, the troops of Captain Charles Barnet, who worked for the Governor of Jamaica, captured Rackham and his crew (including Mary Read and Anne Bonny). Mary and Anne in particular are sickened to see the pirates put up very little resistance (some accounts report that most of them were drunk). They will kill two and injure several of them (including Rackham). It will take more than an hour of fighting before the two women give up their arms, alone against Barnet's troops.
November 16, 1720:trial of Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny and Mary Read. The two women manage to avoid the hanging by pretending that they are pregnant. It was a common practice at the time:no one would have dared to kill what was considered an unborn living being. It is very likely that in reality neither of the two women was pregnant. Anne will visit Rackham and is said to have said to him:I am sorry to see you in such a state, but if you had fought like a man, you would not have to die like a dog
Mary Read was to end her days in prison but a few weeks later she died, probably of yellow fever. On the other hand, we do not know with certainty what happened to Anne Bonny:on Christmas Eve, the governor pardoned her, so her prison sentence is canceled. She left prison and... She completely disappeared from official records after this episode. Three hypotheses exist:
* her father would have paid a ransom to have her freed, then would have given her the possibility of starting a new life with a new marriage, and she would have died in 1782;
* she would have returned with her husband, James Bonny, while others claim he died years earlier;
* she would have returned to piracy under another name, in particular she could have been Bartholomew Roberts .