#a general history of the robberies and murders of the most notorious pyrates

[whats-in-a-sentence]

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

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[eloquentgifs]

This book is fucking hilarious* and Im only in the index?

This is Blackbeard's section:

Bonnet's:

And probably my favourite, with entries as "Declares War against the whole world", "A horrid massacre", "Another barbarous Massacre", "More cruelties", Ned Low's:

*: As a disclaimer, I am aware these were real life criminals and their atrocities were real and people died, I only find it funny in the way it's all just enlisted like that in the index, and also bc Im reading it with the show in mind.

[ltwilliammowett]

John Rackham - Calico Jack

Measured by his hauls and compared to many other pirates of his time, John Rackham also known as Calico Jack (his nickname was derived from the calico clothing that he wore, while Jack is a nickname for John) was not a prominent figure - rather a "small fish" with a spatially limited sphere of activity, his female companions were much better known.

Anne Bonny and Calico Jack, portrayed by Clara Paget and Toby Schmitz (x)

Therefore, not much is known about his earlier life, except that he was probably born in England in 1682 and then moved to the Caribbean. Until the end of November 1718, he sailed as quartermaster on the brigantine of the pirate Charles Vane. When Vane refused to attack a French warship with superior armament, Rackham stood up to him and demanded that he board the enemy. Vane initially prevailed and the pirates escaped the warship, but the next day a majority of the crew declared Vane a coward, deposed him and elected Rackham captain. Vane and his few followers were left with a small captured sloop, complete with provisions and ammunition.

John Rackham in "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates", published 1725 (x)

Rackham subsequently plundered a number of ships; he initially turned down the royal amnesty that Woodes Rogers had brought with him to New Providence in July 1718. In the spring of 1719, after a few more captures, he overhauled his brigantine in the Bahamas. There Rackham met a married woman named Anne Bonny, who became his mistress and was soon pregnant. Rackham is said to have bought her off her husband James Bonny for a considerable sum.

After a sloop sent out by Rogers drove him off and took two pinches back from him, Rackham settled in Cuba for a time. He lived there with "a sort of little family" until he ran out of money and food; this apparently refers to Anne Bonny and their child together. In between, he now also submitted to the royal amnesty and sailed as a privateer for Woodes Rogers. Part of this crew was Mary Read, who was later arrested with him.  According to legend, Anne and Mary Read fell in love with each other after they had to show up on board disguised as men. In drawings, the two women are often depicted as a couple, though neither Anne nor Mary seemed to live monogamously. "They don't need each other. They want each other," says Amanda Cotton, a British artist, about her sculpture of Bonny and Read, which the British government, however, refused to install.  Historian Susan Baker also suggested that there was a lesbian relationship between the two, expressed in love and concern for each other. Whether they were purely lesbian is quite speculative, but more likely they were bisexual, considering that Anne and Mary had sexual relationships to men as well. 

Anne Bonny and Mary Read in "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates", published 1725 (x)

Rackham and his crew quickly relapsed as pirates, however, and eventually the Bahamas dispatched a heavily armed sloop under Jonathan Barnet, a privateer, to seize them. Barnet surprised the pirates off Cape Negril in western Jamaica during a drinking bout and overpowered them with little resistance. Only the two female pirates are said to have put up a determined fight.

Proclamation from Woodes Rogers naming Jack Rackham and crew as pirates, 1720 (x) 

Rackham and his men were tried in Santiago de la Vega in Jamaica on 16 November 1720, found guilty and hanged the following day. The two women escaped the gallows by claiming to be pregnant. Read is said to have died in prison. There is only speculation about Bonny's further fate. She is said to have been freed through the influence of her father and returned to Charles Town, where she is said to have spent the rest of her life married and with children. Others say she simply disappeared, but it is known that she was not hanged.

[dailyhistoryposts]

we’re anne bonny and mary read together?

Maybe? Probably?

Things to remember: trying to put modern identity terms onto long-dead historical figures is a fools' game. We can talk about their actions, words, and feelings in their social context.

What we don't have: a first-person account of either of them detailing their sexual/romantic feelings for or encounters with the other.

What we do have: their early lives and two accounts of their actions on the ship.

Both Anne Bonny and Mary Read were originally dressed as boys by their parents--Mary's mother to receive an inheritance and Anne's father to be his clerk.

A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates (1724) by Charles Johnson, generally considered our most reliable (thought still questionable) primary source of the Golden Age of Piracy, details Bonny and Read. They were both cross-dressing aboard Calico Jack's ship and apparently Bonny confessed an attraction to Read, Read then confessed she was a woman. The account turns to Calico Jack's reaction--we don't know if they began a relationship after this.

The account of Dorothy Thomas, a victim, only mentions that there were two women among the pirates, dressed as men, with weapons, who wanted to murder her. She mentions she knew they were women despite their clothes "from the largeness of their breasts", so jury's out on if they were actually passing as men, or just wearing clothes more comfortable for ship life.

Conclusion: Both women were cross-dressing female pirates on board the same ship, and at one point at least Bonny had a crush of Read. But the act of cross-dressing could go with identities we now call transgender, butch, gender non-conforming, being rebellious, or even simply practical. And remember, their cross-dressing was first encouraged by their parents as kids for financial reasons.

So here's what we know today, about the frequency of queer people in any population and common ways they might be expressed--including joining outcast groups, running away to sea (there's a reason navy uniforms are a standby in modern gay culture!), gender nonconformity, and there was a crush at some point.

So final answer: it's fair to say yes, they were together, as long as you acknowledge we aren't certain. Historians commonly need to make guesses about affairs, mistresses, and illegitimate children from similar details.

[reading-backstage]

fun fact: most of the information we know about classic pirates (blackbeard, anne bonny, mary read, calico jack) is from one book. and it’s more hilarious the more you know.

A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (or A General History of Pyrates) by Captain Charles Johnson

firstly: captain charles johnson is not a person nor a captain. it’s a pen name. and we have no clue who he actually was. he probably chose “captain” to give himself a sense of credibility he did not have. (could possibly have been daniel defoe or nathaniel mist and you can actually find modern copies printed under both their names)

secondly: he made a lot of it up. he gathered whatever information was available and just made up the rest and anything he thought would make it cooler. that’s not even to mention the second volume where he made up several entire people. this dude was just making stuff up and it’s now the earliest history we have of these people and we’ve accepted it as fact.

thirdly: it was initially published in 1724. (golden age of piracy was 1650s-1830s, dude was writing about the present) several of the pirates he writes about were still alive. and the rest were very recently dead. (henry every is an outlier) he was literally making up facts about people who were very much alive likely while he was writing it.

so this mysterious random dude made up stories about pirates who were still running around killing people and it’s now accepted as pirate cannon. amazing

[gaypiratepropaganda]

ok here are the most important ones (to me)

The Ballad of the Pirate Queens by Anne Yolen

this is a children's book in verse about Anne Bonny and Mary Read. responsible for my pirate obsession

Bloody Jack by LA Meyer

a young adult series about a girl who disguises herself as a boy, goes to sea, and becomes a pirate. these were the best thing ever invented to kid me but I haven't read them in a while so I don't know if they're actually like, good. I liked the atmosphere and the slightly antiquated way it was written. there are gay bits.

A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates: From Their first Rise and Settlement in the Island of Providence to the present Time, with the remarkable Actions and Adventures of the two Female Pyrates Mary Read and Anne Bonny

or A General History of the Pyrates by "Captain Charles Johnson"

A good starting point. a lot of our pirate stories come from this book. it claims to be a true historical record, but I have my doubts. still fun though. I think this guy just wrote down every story he heard about pirates. it has illustrations.

Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by B.R. Burg

not super historical but it doesn't really claim to be. basically it's just this guy going. "so... pirates fucked, right? like, there's no way they didn't." and then he's correct. I mainly wanted this book as a teenager because I loved the cover and the title but now it's in my brain forever. look at Blackbeard. look at his gay little pose

Pirate Enlightenment or The Real Libertalia by David Graeber

this is the one I'm reading right now and I love it so far. it's about pirates in Madagascar and the real-life version of the pirate utopia from general history of pyrates (it isn't real but it kind of is but not.) I like the writer, he's written other good things. he's obsessed with the enlightenment for some reason but you can easily ignore that.

On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, which is kind of like a magical realism type thing. I think it's kind of what pirates of the Caribbean is based on. this is where I knew Stede Bonnet from

Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb, three books that are part of a fantasy series. these pirates are dicks to each other a lot but they are gay and their ships are alive.

Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey is a queer sort of modern version of Peter Pan. captain hook is in there and he's like a leather guy. not literally pirates, but still.

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach is science fiction with queer pirates, a monkey god, and mushroom houses.

[queerasfact]

“...our hero, Captain Teach, assumed the cognomem of Blackbeard from that large quantity of hair which, like a frightful meteor, covered his whole face and frightened America more than any comet that has appeared there a long time. This beard was black, which he suffered to grow of an extravagant length; as to breadth if came up to his eyes. He was accustomed to twist it with ribbons …”

-A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates, Captain Charles Johnson (1724)

Get excited for our podcast tomorrow, where we’ll be talking about queerness, pirates, and the historicity of Our Flag Means Death!

[Image: Taika Waititi as Blackbeard in Our Flag Means Death, with purple bows tied into his beard]

[doks-aux]

The whole declaring “Fuck the rich” while setting a sloop on fire thing more or less actually happened. I obviously took some liberties with Johnson’s own liberties, but basically Bellamy and his boys overtook a vessel captained by a guy named Beer, and Sam rocks up like

“So! Bad news. I was hoping we could leave the ship with you, but I got outvoted, and now we’re gonna burn it. I know it’s a little harsh, and I wasn’t planning on fucking with you that much, even if you are a complete tool, but you gotta let the guys have their fun every now and then. But! Silver lining: how would you like to join our collective?”

And then reads the man for filth when he refuses.

Here’s the actual quote.

“I am sorry they won't let you have your sloop again, for I scorn to do any one a mischief, when it is not to my advantage; damn the sloop, we must sink her, and she might be of use to you. Though you are a sneaking puppy, and so are all those who will submit to be governed by laws which rich men have made for their own security; for the cowardly whelps have not the courage otherwise to defend what they get by knavery; but damn ye altogether: damn them for a pack of crafty rascals, and you, who serve them, for a parcel of hen-hearted numbskulls. They vilify us, the scoundrels do, when there is only this difference, they rob the poor under the cover of law, forsooth, and we plunder the rich under the protection of our own courage. Had you not better make then one of us, than sneak after these villains for employment?”

[Beer replied that his conscience would not let him break the laws of God and man, and Bellamy continued]

“You are a devilish conscience rascal! I am a free prince, and I have as much authority to make war on the whole world as he who has a hundred sail of ships at sea and an army of 100,000 men in the field; and this my conscience tells me! But there is no arguing with such snivelling puppies, who allow superiors to kick them about deck at pleasure.”

(From A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson.)

[kaelio]

please, please! you're both pathetically credulous about the contents of A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates 🥺

[thornfield13713]

9: favorite anachronism?

...probably the books.

Pinocchio wasn't written until 1883, and the book Stede shows Ed with the caricature of Blackbeard appears to be A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson, which wasn't published until 1724 and includes accounts of the deaths of Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet and Israel Hands.

(If you will look, one of the woodcuts we get to see while Stede is pontificating about his new 'Gentleman Pirate' alias in episode 3 is a woodcut of the historical Stede Bonnet, which...I mean, I thought it was neat.)

The main reason I love this is that it means you can introduce just about any book you like...well, within reason, anyway. I'd probably raise my eyebrows at Jane Austen, but Hans Christian Andersen might work.

Second place probably goes to the costuming, and especially Stede's scandalous open coats, short waistcoats, tight breeches and white stockings to show off his legs. It's not much of an anachronism, since it's still within the right century, unlike a lot of other costume details - Fang's Hot Topic belt, Olu's crocs, Ed's whole Mad Max look - but it does just make me smile.

[ourflagmeansroleplay]

CW for s//xual ass//ult, among other unpleasant topics

So we actually know a great deal about Anne's early life. Like, an almost SURPRISING amount, given that the majority of what we know of pirates comes from a combination of self-aggrandizing tales and A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (Cap. Charles Johnson). I'm trying to take a large number of my cues for Anne from history, especially since I'd like to write a novel about her. You know that idea we have of the wild and free child from modest origins with a fiery tongue and a penchant for mischief? It's quite literally Anne.

Anne was born from an affair between her relatively-well-to-do father and the family maid; this affair tore the family apart, prompting William Cormac's wife to leave him. He would never go on to marry her mother, but he did take a shining to the young girl, and arranged for her to live with him...as a boy. Which she did not identify as. Eventually the truth is discovered and William, Anne, and maid/mother Mary move to--get this!--Charleston, South Carolina. From fucking County Cork, Ireland.

After the move, Anne begins displaying a "fierce and courageous temper, which in this case can be directly translated to murdered another girl and also beat a suitor half to death when he tried to r*pe her. (We stan a violent queen.) She gained a reputation for galivanting around with the wrong sorts, if you catch my drift, but is ultimately only disowned when she marries a poor sailor, James Bonny.

(JB is a professional snitch who turns in pirates and takes bounties on doing so, btw.)

So the thing is, this wild child doesn't change her ways. She's still a violent galivanting free spirit taking randos to bed, including--you guessed it!--old Calico Jack himself. History says they fell in love and Anne ran off with him; one way or another, Anne Bonny winds up a crewman on The William. (Here's another fun fact: Stede's brilliant plan to fake his own death on OFMD may actually have been inspired by Anne, who reportedly mangled a dressmaker's mannequin, smeared it with fake blood, and stood above it wielding an axe to scare the French into an easy surrender.)

Now women, of course, aren't really "allowed" at sea, even in the context of piracy, so Anne would go on to do what a lot of badass bitches have to: forcible silencing of the opposition. In Anne's case, this was a knife to the heart of one such nay-sayer. "Allegedly." Anne goes on to live her life mostly unbothered as a woman onboard The William, serving as both wife and work-wife to Jack.

--As you can maybe imagine, I fuck with about 70% of that.

Sexuality and sexual liberation being what it was at the time, I sincerely doubt Anne experienced much of it, especially much by way of choice. For the purposes of this blog and maybe my novel, JB exaggerated his wife's affairs in order to further villainize her. I do think she met Jack and became a bit star-struck by him and followed him out to sea, and I think early on she may have loved him...but I think the cycle of men using and abusing her continued. Especially if she had half as many affairs as history accuses her of at the time, I really doubt Jack would've been interested in marrying her, but I don't doubt for a moment that he led her on. I don't think they ever actually "got married" so much as they acted in the capacity of husband and wife, sometimes sharing a bed, etc. I think Anne grew discontent with being treated as lower than Jack, as some novelty for him to show off, and I think she took that discontent out on anyone stupid enough to challenge her, including the crewmate she stabbed to death ("allegedly") and literally anyone who engaged The William and her crew.

I also think--and history finally starts agreeing with me here--that Anne didn't find happiness until she met Mary Read, whom history insists was a woman who was forced to dress up as a man but whom I very strongly feel was either gender-fluid or non-binary and just getting CIS-washed because they were less known than Bonny, who actually WAS forced to pretend to be a man for large chunks of her life. I have to admit that Str8 Historians really crack me the fuck up when they insist that Anne Bonny tried to "seduce" Mary (sure, Jan) and that Mary's response was "love to but can't, I also have boobies" before showing said boobies as proof, instead of, like...y'know, Mary being in a dangerous situation and having half an ally in this woman aboard a fucking pirate ship and being like "yo bish, me too!". (Mary, at their core, was a survivalist, having first been dressed as a boy when they were a child in order to keep money coming in for their family and later switching between both identities as it suited them.) So Anne and Mary strike up an affair so torrid, Jack gets jealous and goes to kill Mary for touching his wife...only to discover Mary has boobies and doing the Str8 thing of "oh lol, they're just gals bein' pals, kay."

For the sake of this blog--and, again, my maybe-novel--it was at this point in time that Jack Really Fucked Up. Threatening to kill Mary, aka the first real friend (and probable lover) that Anne had ever had, drove the wedge between them. Mary and Anne would abandon ship without Jack's blessing, going on the run together and being badass bitches.

With all that said and understood, the Anne on this blog is a broken woman who believes herself to be without an identity--a drifter, an outcast, a creature of anger and spite, and not one capable of loving or being loved outside of the choice few like Mary, and maybe not even by them. Sex was never consensual for Anne; like many women of her day, it was a duty to be borne, particularly when one was married and/or in love. She can't picture herself living a life of plenty because she can't even picture herself living a life of enough, seeing piracy as the only viable expression of who she really is.

Historically, Anne Bonny went down swinging. Jonathan Barnett, a loyal navyman of the British crown, attacked The William during one drunken night. Calico Jack Rackham was an absolute fuck who surrendered almost immediately upon being attacked and his men stayed down in the hold while the British boarded. His "WOMEN," meanwhile, were having none of that shit. Bonny, Read, and a crewman Read had taken on as a lover fought the British damned near single-handedly. At one point during the battle, Bonny famously called into the hold "If there’s a man among ye, ye’ll come up and fight like the man ye are to be!" Nobody came. Bonny fired once into the hold, killing a crewman. Ultimately, the battle was lost and the entirety of The William were taken ashore and executed for crimes against the crown. Rackham's last request was to see Anne one last time (she says to his face "If you had fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d like a dog," effectively ending that relationship), and ten days later Anne and Mary are granted a short pardon from fucking dying because they're both pregnant. They are, of course, hung shortly after delivering the babies.

[noriiii04]

WEEK 1 - PIRATES

Our theme for this “Explore” module was “Pirates”. I went back and did some research into some of the things I learnt in the Maritime Museum and some pirate media I myself enjoy.

QUEER PIRATES

As a queer artist myself, queer history has always been an interest to me, and I went out of my way to seek it out as it wasn’t very talked about. I first heard of Anne Bonny a few years ago, and then again during my Maritime Museum visit.

ANNE BONNY

Anne Bonny was an Irish American pirate, and one of the few recorded female pirates, operating in the Caribbeans during the 18th Century. Most of what is known about her comes from “A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates” 1724 written by Capt. Charles Johnson, but is considered highly speculative.

When bethroved to a local man she resisted, and instead married sailor John Bonny in 1718. The two of them travelled together to the island of New Providence in the Bahamas, however when her husband became an informant for the governor of the Bahamas, she felt disappointed in her marriage and instead became involved with the famous John (Calico Jack) Rackham.

Though he was actually not a great fighter nor did he amount to incredible wealth, he has become one of the most memorable pirates. He sailed the Caribbean during the height of the Golden Age of Piracy. He was a very unique pirate in the way that he used his cunning mind and backstabbing tactics to make his way through his pirating career. His association with other famous pirates (such as two of the only female pirates known), the written publications about him, and the eventual romanticism of pirates in general led to the rise of his popularity and fame.

After Anne Bonny became involved with him, Rackham offered to pay her husband to divorce her which was a common practice at that time, though John Bonny refused so in August 1720 Anne Bonny abandoned her husband and joined Rackham onto the sloop (a small, two or three masted, square rigged sailing warship). This decision at the time was strange, as in those times, a woman on the ship was considered bad luck. Though a lot consider it might’ve been her fiery attitude that worked in her favour to convince him. She has been recorded to have a very tough disposition and beaten an attempted rapists badly in her youth.

Anne Bonny was said to not conceal her gender from her crew, but dress as a man when going out and fighting. She, Calico Jack and a dozen others had been pirating merchant boats along the coast of Jamaica when Mary Read joined the crew. It is unclear exactly when she joined, and what her position was before. Is is argued she was among the original hijackers of the William, the sloop they operated, while others say that she was abroad a Dutch merchant ship that was captured by the crew of Calico Jack.

Mary Read, was said to have been disguised as a boy for most of her life. She served in the military dressed as a man, during that time having met another soldier with which she had fallen in love, and after revealing her gender, they later married. Tragically, her husband died, and she went back to living as a man, finding work as a sailor during the golden age of piracy. However her ship was captured by pirates in the West Indies, and she either decided to, or was forced to take the role of a pirate. Sailing to Nassau, Bahamas, she then joined Calico Jack’s crew.

Read and Bonny earned a reputation for their ruthless nature, and were said to have been willing to do anything on board. They were then said to have entered a relationship, Read revealing to her that she was a woman. They were also depicted in images together due to their speculated relationship.

However their ship crew was captured by pirate hunter Captain Jonathan Barnet in November 15th, 1720. The crew was then brought to trial in Spanish Town, Jamaica upon where the male crew members, including Jack (Calico Jack) Rackham, were found guilty of piracy and hung. Bonny and Read however were not executed when they were found to be pregnant. Most unfortunately Read died while in prison, April 1721, but Bonny was freed. She has been said to have lived out the rest of her life peacefully.

Sources: Britannica and The Way of Pirates

Anne Bonny, left and Mary Read, right

History is very inspirational to me and I hope to get some ideas from Anne Bonny and Mary Read for some pirate concepts.

[eloquentgifs]

I decided to start reading A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (as a coping mechanism, why not) and Im already dying in the very first page, where it basically says that if people could be fishermen they wouldnt need to be pirates:

Ed you're a visionary ✨

[ltwilliammowett]

hiya, i just read ur 2022(i think??) post about israel hands and the connection with israel hynde, and i was wondering if u remembered ur source?? i cant find anything linking him to cpt. bartholomew roberts, or any specifics regarding his personal characteristics (such as the leg injury u mentioned). ive gone through execution records and found his notation of his trial and hanging, but nothing else. no probs if u dont have it anymore or dont recall, or got the info another way. thanks!!

Hi, I can still remember four of them because I wrote them down somewhere else than the others. Unfortunately, I lost my notebook, which contained all the sources, texts and so on. But here are the four sources.

Tom B. Haber: Robert Louis Stevenson and Israel Hands. In: The English Journal, Vol. 32, No. 7

Travers: Pirates: A History. The History Press, 2012

Breverton: The Pirate Dictionary. Pelican Publishing, 2007

Charles Johnson: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates. Ch. Rivington, J. Lacy, and J. Stone, 1724

[whatireading]

I was already concerned by the author's treating A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates like a reliable source, and then I came across this in the endnotes.

Also, he repeatedly sites his own previous works rather than the sources where he got the information contained therein.

Like, imma still read it, but the come on dude. You're really going to talk about the inaccuracy of other people's sources and then do this stuff? Really?

[cinematic-literature]

Black Sails S04E10 (XXXVIII)

Book title: A General History of the Pyrates (1724) by Captain Charles Johnson

The book (complete title: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most notorious Pyrates) collects the biographies of contemporary pirates and first shows the skull and bone design of the Jolly Roger flag.

Both Robert Louis Stevenson and J. M. Barrie are said to have been influenced by it.