By: Graeylin
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Anne Bonny was one of the most famous of female pirates to scourge the seas
during the heyday of the pirating era. She was born in 1700, the daughter
of an Irish Laywer who fled to South Carolina. Anne was raised in the
seaport village of Charleston. She learned fencing, hunting, shooting, and
throwing knives and hatchets at the hands of her father's gamekeeper, an
American Indian named Charlie Fourfeathers.
She was 13 years old when, in a rage, she stabbed her mother's maid to death. It was claimed as self-defense, and the older woman had drawn a knife on Anne. Only three years later, in 1716, she was married had moved to the Bahamas with her new husband, where she soon abandoned all pretense of marriage with him and entered the world of Piracy. That year, in an argument over a wealthy businessman in New Providence, Bahama, she was challenged to a duel by the fellow's current mistress. They fought, and she sliced the rival female to death in a long and slow duel with rapiers. She was an expert with the sword, and a fair shot with pistols. Anne was described as a tall girl, with red-gold hair, flashing eyes, and handsome features. She was a "strapping and shapely" woman, and was described as "sexually aggressive", and a "minx". She took many lovers, both older and younger than herself, and in one instance, assassinated a fellow Pirate captain while making love to him by shooting him in the head during the climax of the evening. She felt he had earned the right to "die happy", and not be forced to hang. It is said she would have bedded the infamous Blackbeard, except that he refused to bathe, and she was fastidious about her bed partners. She was flamboyant as many pirates were, known to wear a scarlet silk shirt, velvet trousers, and a broad belt holding a brace of pistols. She wore her long red hair tied back in black ribbons, and was an expert in use of the light rapier she carried into battle. She served with many famous pirates, and soon became a captain of her own ship and crew. Late in her career, she was captain of the Queen Royale, and took a young sailor into her band of pirates that turned out to be another woman, like herself. This was Mary Read, and for a while, Anne and Mary sailed the seas as the most famous female pirates to sail together. Anne Bonny was captured in October of 1720, and she was held prisoner until Christmas, when the local governor felt pity for her and released her upon her promise to leave the West Indies for good. She and her current husband (perhaps her third?) headed for Virginia, and loaded a wagon with supplies and headed into the wilderness of the US. She was never heard from again. |
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