10 Facts Everyone Should Know About Anne Bonny

From birth to the end, read about the 'real' history of Black Sails' Anne Bonny - the best known female pirate in history.

Black Sails is a fun, sexy, action-packed take on pirate lore based on (and acting as a prequel to) Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. As well as having some fun speculating what younger versions of the iconic fictional characters might be like to live with, the show does the same with many real-world pirates from the era the story was set in, as did the novel.

One such character was Anne Bonny, portrayed in the show by Clara Paget, one of history's most renowned pirates, and probably the most famous female pirate out of the Western Hemisphere. While the show modeled the character after the real woman, many aspects of her back story were tweaked or left out.

10 Birth

The show keeps her back story fuzzy, but her early life isn't a complete mystery. Much of what we know comes from Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates, which is said to be largely speculative. Most accounts seem to agree she was born in March between 1697 and 1702 in Old Head of Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland. In Anne Bonny: The Infamous Female Pirate by Philip T. Tucker, it is suggested she was born in Kinsale in "a fine house on Compass Hill" in 1698.

9 Childhood

According to Johnson, Anne was born of an affair between married lawyer William McCormac and servant woman Mary Brennan, who was also employed by William. Shortly after Anne was born, William took her in and moved to London, to get away from his wife's family. He started dressing Anne as a boy, calling her 'Andy' and raising her as a lawyer's clerk. William's wife found out about the whole affair and cut him off, whereupon William moved to Carolina with Anne and her mother and dropped the 'Mc' from his name.

8 Started Young

As a teenager, Anne was known for her fiery red hair, and was reportedly considered "a good catch", but she was also quite troubled, somewhat inevitably given the bizarre brand of misogyny she had to deal with. Johnson describes her "fierce and courageous temper", which often made her difficult to talk to or deal with. This temper would often turn violent as well, and one rumor dismissed by Johnson claimed she supposedly stabbed a servant girl with a knife at the mere age of 13.

7 James Bonny

While he certainly wasn't a saint by all accounts, no evidence points to Anne's first husband being a rapist and pimping her out as suggested in the show. James Bonny was a poor sailor turned small-time pirate, and after Anne married him, her father disowned them, disapproving of the man's character.

It is rumored Anne set fire to her father's plantation in retaliation, but there is no evidence of this having taken place and it is said to be an embellishment created by Johnson. After being disowned, Anne and James moved to Nassau on New Providence Island, known as a sanctuary for disgraced English pirates.

6 The Spirate

Many of the pirates that settled on New Providence received a King's Pardon, while many others simply used the place as a hideout from the law. According to Colin Woodard's The Republic of Pirates, when Governor Woodes Rogers - who also appeared in the show - arrived on the island to take some names, James became an informant to him, reporting on all the pirate activity in the area. Anne was not a fan of this career move.

5 Rackham

Anne later spent some time in the Bahamas, where Johnson suggests she started mingling with other pirates in various taverns, presumably looking for the next big score. This is presumably where she met John Rackham, also known as Calico Jack - portrayed by Toby Schmitz in the show. The two became lovers and decided to marry. Rackham offered James money to divorce Anne, but James refused, apparently threatening to beat Anne, hinting at the kind of abuse the show suggests. Anne then joined Rackham's crew and they fled the island together.

4 Old Habits

Her first stint with Rackham is described in Druett Jones' Sea Captains, Heroines and Hellions of the Sea. It is said Anne had to disguise her gender at first as a member of a pirate crew, which she did by pretending to be male. During this time she met Mary Read, another female pirate posing as a man, who also dressed as a boy growing up to gain inheritance and later to join the military. It is suggested in Anne and the Indies that the male crew members knew full well, but said nothing due to the laws of the time.

According to Johnson, Anne confided in Mary, due to being attracted to her, which led to the famous relationship between the two and Rackham. The disguise became less effective once Anne became pregnant, whereupon Rackham parked in Cuba and she gave birth to a son. She then divorced James and married Rackham at sea.

3 Caught

After the marriage, Anne Bonny and Mary Read became famous as female pirates of the time, stealing ships and leading crews and fighting to the death alongside the men. Unfortunately, like many famous pirates, their success was shortlived, and in 1720 they were attacked and boarded by a crew commissioned by the Jamaican Governor, as described in LuAnn Zettle's Anne Bonny: The Last Pirate. The pirates were reportedly too drunk to put up much of a fight, and the three famous pirates were subdued.

2 Farewell

Zettle writes of Anne being taken back to Jamacia along with her lovers, where the Governor had them convicted of piracy and sentenced to execution by hanging, making Anne and Mary the first women to be convicted of piracy in Europe, though Rackman was the only one of the 3 to actually be executed. According to Johnson, Anne's last words to Rackham were "Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang'd like a dog", giving us some insight into the personality of the enigmatic figure.

1 Sentence

Pregnancy can be problematic when disguising yourself as a man (unless you have the foresight to play an overweight man), but it comes in handy when facing execution. Both Anne Bonny and Mary Read "pleaded their bellies" upon sentencing and when they were found to be pregnant both executions were stayed. Mary died in prison after and possibly due to giving birth. Anne gave birth in prison, but nothing is written of what ultimately became of her, leading to lots of romantic speculation. In A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates Johnson writes "She was continued in Prison, to the Time of her lying in, and afterwards reprieved from Time to Time, but what has become of her since; we cannot tell; only this we know, that she was not executed."

Black Sails take on the character is an interesting and very watchable one, and considering the fictional material and characters at the forefront you can forgive them for taking real historical figures in a fictional direction. 

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