The REAL Female Pirate Of The Caribbean | Anne Bonny | Pirate Queens Of The Sea

in history those who left their Mark haven't always tried to be on the good side of world events and the Golden Age of piracy was filled with notorious captains and sailors who decided to rob the high seas but one of these Pirates would be a woman who would become a feared name across the seas of the West Indies Anne Bonnie an was born near cork in Ireland the illegitimate daughter of a lawyer William Cormac and his maid servant Mary Brennan William was already married and when his wife was away at her mother-in-law's house recovering from an illness he began an affair with Mary when she first gave birth to Anne William tried to present her as his legitimate daughter which obviously didn't go down well with the rest of his family he moved to London with his daughter dressing her as a boy and calling her Andy also bringing her up to be a lawyer's clerk it was cormac's wife who came from a wealthy background and when she found out she stopped her husband's allowance left with little choice but to start again William made the decision to move to the province of Carolina an area that covered large amounts of the southeast of present day USA he took Anne and her mother Mary with him setting them up as a family this early part of Anne's life was unusual and the idea of presenting as a boy would come up in later years during her piratical career William tried to set up as a lawyer but struggled to find enough work however his knowledge of the law and salesman skills allowed him to gain enough money to buy a townhouse as a home for his new family and a plantation little is known of Anne's childhood years in America but when she she was about 12 her mother died after this the fiery temper she would become known for came out and apparently when she was 13 she stabbed a servant girl it was an omen of what she would become when she was 20 years old in 1718 Anne met a penniless sailor called James Bonnie and married him her father was very disapproving of the marriage and even more so when it became clear James hoped to one day gain his new father-in-law's Plantation Anne was thrown out into the street and the young couple decided to move to Nassau on New Providence island in the Bahamas specifically there was a pirate colony in Nassau in modern times known as the Republic of pirates the Republic of pirates was a relaxed Confederacy run by Pirates and privateers turned Pirates governed by an informal code to treat other pirates with Civility and to vote on who led their ships an and James looked for work on the island rubbing shoulders with many Pirates in the taverns it wasn't long before James in a bid to make money for himself and his young wife became an Informer for the governor of the island something which an apparently disliked eventually an met with John rackam otherwise known by the name Calico Jack due to his colorful Calico clothing and the pair became lovers Calico Jack had arrived in the Bahamas in 1719 when a king's pardon was offered to all Pirates Who surrendered to the authorities James was understandably angry when he found out but Jack decided to ask him to divorce an if he was paid a sum of money James refused so instead Jack convinced Anne to run away with him to see she agreed dressing as a man and becoming a member of his crew the entire thing also completely in violation of the king's pardon Anne fell pregnant and sometime before 1720 she sailed to Cuba with Jack where she gave birth to their child sadly nothing is recorded of this child so we don't even know if they survived to adulthood and if they did where they live lived soon after giving birth Anne once again rejoined Jack as a member of his crew dressed as a man and following a life of piracy attacking ships in the Caribbean it was around this time that another woman joined Jack's crew Mary Reed not that anyone knew she was Mary to start with as she like Anne dressed in men's clothing and had been brought up as a boy she was part of a crew on board a ship Jack captured and she joined his crew after capture the two women instantly became close friends and according to later Witnesses two of the fiercest members of the crew it's not surprising they became friends considering what they had in common but their closeness meant Jack began to suspect them still thinking Mary was a man of having an affair in order to aate his worries and let him in on Mary's secret an escaped victim of their crew a woman called Dorothy Thomas would later describe them as wearing men's jackets and long trousers and handkerchiefs tied about their heads and each of them had a machete and a pistol in their hands and they cursed and swore at the men to murder her they may have been friends but an and Mary were not not pleasant people obviously it wouldn't be long before they were in the crosshairs of the authorities and Captain Woods Rogers the governor of the Bahamas issued a proclamation on the 5th of September 1720 it was printed in the Boston Gazette and stated that Calico Jack had along with 12 others including two women by name Anne fulford Elias Bonnie and Mary Reed stolen a 12ton Sloop named the William it also added that the entire crew had committed many acts of violence and criminal damage as well as the obvious charge of piracy the crew began to sail on the William continuing their lives of piracy the governor of Jamaica Sir Nicholas lws instructed Captain Jonathan Barnett to hunt them down Barnett took to the sea with two slops the tiger armed with several guns and 20 Sailors from the Royal Navy and the maranne with a crew of 20 men who ironically were led by a former pirate Jean bonad around or on the 31st of October 1720 Jack's ship was laid at anchor near NE Grill and a gun was randomly fired boni's ship happened to be nearby and so when they heard the noise they decided to investigate it was reported back to Barnett who sailed out to look for himself and at around 10 p.m. he called out to the William and demanded they identify themselves obviously they weren't about to admit to being Pirates but the reply Came John rackam from Cuba it was a bit of a Daft answer as obviously Calico Jack was exactly who Barnet was looking for and he shouted out to the ship to strike their colors a naval term meaning they should lower their ship's flag of Allegiance in a motion of surrender Barnet would later testify it was too dark for him to see who replied but someone from the soup cried out that they would not surrender and a swivel gun was fired at the tiger unsurprisingly this wasn't going to be taken lightly and Barnett immediately ordered a broadside in this context all the guns from the side of his ship firing at the same time the action destroyed the boom arm on the William and the crew had little choice but to surrender and admit defeat they were brought to Spanish Town on the mainland in Jamaica and confined within the jail on the 16th of November 1720 Sir Nicholas LS himself presided over an admiralty court in which Calico Jack and the 10 men in his crew were brought on trial there was little to say in their defense and so they were found guilty of piracy and hanged a few days later on the 28th of November it was the turn of Anne Bonnie and Mary Reed and they too were found guilty of piracy and condemned to death when Anne was tried many of the Planters on the island would have known her father personally and this was thought it might go in her favor but sadly her flight years earlier went against her but both an and Mary pleaded the belly as it was known or in other words said they were pregnant being pregnant automatically meant a woman's sentence was postponed at least until after she had given birth while it seems extraordinary that both women were pregnant at the trial they would of course have had to to prove it Mary Reid would die while still in prison most likely from a postpartum infection and she was buried on the 28th of April 1721 Anne on the other hand has a much more mysterious fate there is no record of either her burial or her release which has led to speculation over an possibly escaping Justice while the evidence is scanty and likely just a romantic notion some of Anne's descendants claimed to have found sources showing her father managed to secure her release from jail and brought her to charlest Town South Carolina here she apparently gave birth to Calico Jack's second child before going on to marry a man called Joseph Burley an would then supposedly give birth to eight more children and die a respectable woman in 17 1982 at the age of 84 however this is very fragile evidence and sadly not likely especially considering Anne's character it's far more likely that the burial records for Anne are simply missing or in a place no one has looked yet and that she likely died around the same time as Mary in 1721 an was a fascinating character from the Golden Age of piracy though and despite the awful nature of the fact she was a violent and bloodthirsty pirate she was also a Pioneer in being a female pirate she became part of a male dominated World by using a combination of crossdressing seduction and violence rebelling against the constraints of the lifestyle demanded of women in the early 18th century love her or hate her and Bonnie certainly left a blackhearted Mark in the pages of History if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like And subscribe so you don't miss any new [Music] documentaries

Channel: History's Forgotten People

Views: 4,988

Keywords: pirates of the caribbean, anne bonny, mary read, james bonny, calico jack, the golden age of piracy, pirate history, pirate history documentary, female pirates

Id: vjc7X9YI7Nk

Length: 12min 25sec (745 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 10 2023