Mary Read And Anne Bonny

 Mary Read And Anne Bonny - Female Pirates Of The Caribbean

Two notorious cross-dressing women became female pirates: Mary Read and Anne Bonny, whose story was published as A General History of the Pirates in 1724.

Born around 1700 in Ireland, Anne Bonny was dressed as a boy and named 'Andy' in the hope he would become a lawyer's clerk. The family emigrated to Carolina, where Anne married a pirate named James Bonny against her father's wishes. After the couple moved to the Bahamas, Anne became the lover of pirate Jack Rackham, ran away with him on his ship and disguised herself as a male member of his crew, which already included Mark/Mary Read (or Reid), who had dressed as a boy from early youth to win an inheritance and later to join the British army. Mark/Mary had married as a woman and moved to the West Indies with her husband, but when he died she joined Rackham's crew, as a man - Mark. Rackham was jealous at first of the friendship between Anne Bonny and Mark Reid - until Mark/Mary revealed herself as a woman, when he allowed them to be loving woman friends.

Anne Bonny married Jack Rackham at sea and he, Anne and Mark/ Mary stole the ship William, recruited a new crew and worked as pirates until October 1720, when they were attacked by a sloop commissioned by the governor of Jamaica. The crew were said to be too drunk to fight and were taken to Jamaica, where they were hanged. Anne Bonny's last words to her husband were: Had you fought like a man; you need not have been hanged like a dog.

Mark/Mary and Anne both pleaded their bellies, and execution was delayed. Mark/Mary died in prison and Anne disappeared from the record.

Source ~ ‘Normal Woman’ by Phillippa Gregory