Anne Bonny was a famous pirate who was one of the few female pirates during the “Golden Age of Piracy.” She is one of the few known women pirates and was known to wear men’s clothing, which she picked up from childhood when her father would disguise her as a male relative.
Anne Bonny was born an “illegitimate” child on March 8, 1700,
in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. She was born to Mary Brennan, a single woman,
and William Cormac, who was a married attorney. To hide the fact that she was
considered “illegitimate,” she was told by her father that she was a child of a
relative who entrusted her to his care. Eventually, she joined her father when
he went to South Carolina, where she grew up to have a “fierce
and courageous temper.”
She eventually met a sailor named James Bonny, and they fell in love. Anne’s father thought James was simply trying to make a quick buck and scam her out of money. Because of this, he cut his daughter out of his will. It is said that she burned his crops as retaliation.
The couple eloped in 1716 and moved to New Providence,
Bahamas, which was a known pirate territory. James made money on the side as an
informant, and because Anne did not like this, she and James parted ways, making
their marriage a short one.
Governor Woodes Rogers ordered Bonny to return to her
husband, or she would be flogged publicly. Instead, she ran away with Jack Rackam
and a crew of pirates. She met Mary Read, another female pirate who was also
dressed in boys’ clothes as a child. Legend has it that they discovered each
other’s true gender after Bonny attempted to seduce Read.
The ladies teamed up, and when they were under attack by Captain
Charles Barnett’s men, the ladies fought strongly against them while the others
were too drunk to fight at all. The crew was ultimately captured, and the men
and women were tried separately. Bonny visited Rackam before he was sentenced
to death
The women were tried and sentenced to death, but they both
claimed to be pregnant. Bonny was telling to truth. She gave birth while in
jail and was granted release. Read died while in prison.
Bonny returned to Carolina after her father bribed Jamaican
officials for her release. She married Joseph Burleigh in 1721, and they had
five children together. She died on April 25, 1782, and is buried in a cemetery
in York County, Virginia.
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