Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey brain Stuff. Lorn Volga bam Here and Bonnie, Convicted of piracies, felonies and robberies on the High Sea in the seventeen twenties, was a real life pirate of the Caribbean. Like Blackbeard, she took part in the Golden Age of Piracy, a time when Europe's colonial powers had to constantly contend with pirates, buccaneers and privateers. It lasted from about sixteen
fifty to seventeen twenty six. Even back then, true crime narratives were popular among readers, and the public was hungry for stories about the exploits of criminals and plunderers who terrorized the sea ways. Some books were written to meet this demand, and a great deal of inc was spent recounting the lives of and Bonnie and other female pirates from the Golden Age. Unfortunately, in Bonnie's case, rumors tend to shadow the facts. It doesn't help that the latter
are somewhat few and far between. Very little information about her life was documented firsthand, leaving ample room for speculation.
A legend has obscured reality. The seventeen book A General History of the robberies and murders of the most notorious pirates, sometimes just called a general history of the pirates, popularized buried treasure, wooden legs, plank walking, and just about every other pirate stereotype you can think of, aside from the voice that we think of today for pirates, which was popularized by English actor Robert Newton. But that's a different episode anyway. The authorship of this book is a mystery.
The listed author is Captain Charles Johnson, which is almost certainly a pen name, but historians have never been able to pin down the writer's true identity. Whoever he was. Our so called captain helped reshape the popular outlook on piracy. The creators of works like Peter Pan and Treasure Island cited his book as a major influence, but it's not a perfect resource. Today's scholarly consensus on the book is
that it blended verifiable research with hearsay and misinformation. Pirate historian David Accordingly wrote in his introduction to a print of the classic book, quote, A question mark must hangover Johnson's account of the extraordinary early lives of Mary Read and a Bonnie until some corroborating evidence is discovered. Johnson indeed had a lot to say concerning and Bonnie and
her shipmate Mary Read, another Golden Age pirate woman. The book claims that Bonnie was born near the city of Cork, Ireland, and that she had a rough childhood. Said to be the illegitimate daughter of a married lawyer and his servant Maide, Bonnie was supposedly dressed in boy's clothing. That way her father could avoid unwanted gossip by passing the girl off
as his personal assistant in training. At some point she relocated to Carolina, North American territory later split into the separate colonies of North and South Carolina, with her father and his mistress, or so the story goes. Historians don't know what the future outlaws original birth name was seventy. Proclamation issued by Woods Rogers, the governor of the Bahamas,
refers to her as Anne Fulford, alias Bonnie. It's been said she was briefly married to a pirate named James Bonnie, only to leave him for another pirate, englishman, John Rackham, also known as Calico Jack. There's no doubt that Anne Bonnie worked for Rackham. Contemporary documents prove it, and she wasn't the only female pirate who joined his crew. Like Anne Bonnie, Mary Read is an enigmatic figure. If Johnson's
book is to be believed. She was born in England and lost her father, who anished one way or another at an early age. The book describes Read's first meeting with Bonnie as a comedy of airs. At the time, they were both allegedly dressed as men aboard Rackham's ship, and none the wiser. Bonnie developed a crush on Read,
pulled her aside, and then revealed her true gender. In Johnson's telling, Mary Read was quote forced to come to a right understanding with her, and so, to the great disappointment of Anne Bonnie, she let her know she was a woman. Also, historians are pretty skeptical about this anecdote, and despite insinuations to the contrary, there is no outside evidence suggesting Bonnie was ever attracted to or romantically involved with Read. But we do have eyewitness accounts confirming that
they both wore traditionally male garb while at sea. And let's not forget Governor Rogers proclamation released on September five, seventy This document branded Read, Bonnie, Rackham, and five of their crew mats as pirates and enemies to the Crown of Great Britain. You see. A few weeks earlier, August two, seventeen twenty, the gang had stolen a ship named the William and set out on a Caribbean crime spree. Over
the next few months, Rackham's crew certainly kept busy. The pirates seized more vessels, stole from fishermen, and made off with valuable cargo. Their reckoning finally arrived on the night of October twenty second, seventeen twenty. Off the Jamaican coast, Rackham and company found themselves entertaining some Port Royal mariners aboard the William. This event soon devolved into a brawl. Suddenly their ship was spotted by the pirate hunting captain
Jonathan Barnett. In short order, Barnet's been crippled William and took her crew into custody. Next came a series of trials held in what's now Spanish Town, Jamaica. Rackham was found guilty of various crimes. Before these, he and the majority of his male crewmen were hanged that fall. The trial of Anne Bonnie and Mary Reid was set for November seventeen twenty, but this one had a twist ending. It was established that both women had committed felonies, robberies,
and of course piracy. A one victim who testified against them was one Dorothy Thomas. She said she had been in a canoe minding her own business when the pirate gang robbed her, and Thomas told the court Bonnie and Read were each armed with a machete and a pistol, and that they had cursed and swore at the men, encouraging their cohorts to murder Thomas on the spot. Things didn't look good for Bonnie and Read, but the pair
dropped a bombshell after their verdict was reached. Without warning, Mary Read and a Bonnie both announced they were pregnant. An inspection confirmed this. Judging by the timeline of events, historians think they'd both entered the second trimesters of their pregnancies, known as pleading the belly. This legal tactic saved the two pirates from the gal those. A woman by the name of Mary Read passed away on April seventy one and was buried in Sat. Katharine, Jamaica that same day.
It's likely this was the very person who had sailed and fought with Anne Bonnie. Bonnie's own fate is more ambiguous. Nothing concrete is known about what the former pirate did with the rest of her life. Captain Johnson wrote, 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. Today's episode is based on the article in Bonnie, a Real Female Pirate of the Caribbean on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Klang and Ramsey Young. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, apple Pie Casts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H