Let me start this off with a little taste from Amazon’ summary of this book: “Between August and October 1720, two female pirates named Anne Bonny and Mary Read terrorized the Caribbean in and around Jamaica. Despite their short career, they became two of the most notorious pirates during the height of the eighteenth-century Golden Age of Piracy.” Think about those dates. It took these ladies a mere THREE MONTHS to become the MOST NOTORIOUS.
Actually, there is little documentation of Anne and Mary until their trials for piracy, which of course were documented. However, Simon takes great pains to carefully reconstruct their probably upbringings, noting historical documentation of laws and and customs of the time, as well as specific documentation of their names and travels.
Tl;dr, it was tough to be a lady in 1720 England, where customs and laws often essentially penalized the unfortunate choice to be born a woman. She notes that much of our knowledge about Mary and Anne come from a highly unreliable source, A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (1724), written by Capt. Charles Johnson. Simon takes great pains to verify what she can, and note specifically what is speculation on Capt. Johnson’s part (hint: it’s a lot!). She also discusses various other media portrayals of these women, noting how much is just 100% speculation — including any love affairs between the two. However, there is enough to construct a pretty reliable idea of these ladies’ lives, simply because there weren’t a lot of options available for ladies in 1720, and there is enough documentation to get important dates and locations. (How many lady pirates were out there with no documentation at all? A LOT, I BET!)
Both Anne and Mary lived pretty adventurous lives before joining the pirates, in fact. Mary spent much of her youth disguised as a boy or man, including as a soldier! She married another soldier, and ran a successful tavern! Her husband died and she was out of luck, so she boarded a ship to the West Indies, which was, fatefully, attacked by pirates; she joined the pirates.
Anne’s father emigrated to Charles Town, now Charleston, to escape a scandal and rebuild his business. Anne rejected his chosen suitor and, fatefully, chose instead to marry Mr. Bonny, a sailor. There are claims that Anne also beat an attempted rapist so badly that he was hospitalized–I mean, I buy it. Anyway, Mr. Bonny was a bit of a disappointment; Anne thought they should stay at sea and become pirates because it was awesome, democratic, and free; Mr. Bonny not so much. Anne did it anyway. Eventually Mary and Anne end up on the same pirate ship, run by Captain John Rackham.
I know I have written a lot already but IT GETS BETTER: As pirates, they were known as the MOST vicious, the MOST pirate-y pirates. They fought with their hair flowing behind them and their large breasts bared, shocking the other (men) pirates and taking advantage of their shock to WIN ALL THE BATTLES. I cannot accurately convey how much I love this.
Unfortunately, Captain Rackham–a man–got too cocky: he took his ship to a cove and partied after a particularly good raid. The ladies were worried and wanted him to run and hide better; instead, the dudes all got drunk. A privateer hired by the Jamaican governor caught up with them because they were careless and stupid. Bonny and Read saw that they were likely doomed but fought like the dickens anyway, encouraging Rackham and the other men to fight and/or run. They were too drunk, so they all got arrested.
Imagine if the women had been in charge instead.
At their trial, we have detailed descriptions of the ladies:
A victim of the pirates, Dorothy Thomas of Jamaica, would describe in detail Read and Bonny’s appearance during their trial. She said they “wore men’s jackets, and long trousers, and handkerchiefs tied about their heads: and … each of them had a machete and pistol in their hands and they cursed and swore at the men to murder her.” Thomas also recorded that she knew that they were women, “from the largeness of their breasts.”
IT GETS BETTER: After being identified by their breasts and general pirate-y demeanor, they were found guilty…and then revealed that they were both PREGNANT! Which means they were pirating IN THEIR FIRST TRIMESTER!?
Look, I want to tell you the whole story but you should just read it, these ladies are such badasses and Simon writes with such care and respect. 5/5 reading experience; easy to measure because I have told the stories of Mary Read and Anne Bonny to approx 20 people since finishing this book.
