Speaking about women warriors, one cannot fail to mention the representatives of the "venerable" pirate "profession". In the list of "sea robbers" there are several famous female pirates. One of them was Ann Bonnie …
Daughter of a lawyer
Ann Cormack (that is her maiden name) was born on March 8, 1700 in a small town near Cork in Ireland. There her father - William Cormack - served as a lawyer. When the girl was five years old, he went overseas to the North American colonies. Or rather, to South Carolina.
At first he made his living working as a lawyer. But he soon took up trade and achieved such great success in this field that he was able to acquire a very extensive plantation. So Ann's childhood and adolescence were in abundance.
However, even then the growing up girl showed her brave and frenzied disposition. It was said that once, while doing housework for her father, she was so angry with one of her maids that she killed the poor girl right on the spot with a kitchen knife. Or here's another story: a young man who dared to hug Ann against her will was bitten so cruelly that he could not recover from his wounds for a long time.
Ann was considered a good match, and her father was already looking for a profitable groom for her. But Anne fell in love with a certain James Bonnie - a simple sailor who did not have a single penny in his pocket. This did not embarrass the obstinate girl, and she married a poor sailor.
Of course, the father was angry with her willful act. Hiding from an angry father, the newlyweds boarded a ship bound for New Providence Island.
There, the passion of young lovers quickly faded away. Anne abandoned her husband and got together with the wealthy planter Childie Bayard. But he soon tired of him. In May 1719, Anne met the pirate John Rackham in one of the taverns. Ann was carried away by this "gentleman of fortune." So much so that she changed into men's clothes and followed Rackham, who took her to his pirate ship. So Anne Bonnie became a pirate …
After plundering for some time in the Atlantic Ocean, Ann told her lover that she was expecting a baby. Rackham dropped her off in Cuba, instructing several of his boyfriends to look after the pregnant girl. Finally Ann gave birth. But "sea adventures" and a hectic lifestyle were not in vain: the child died a few hours later.
Humiliated and insulted
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Having recovered from an unsuccessful childbirth, Anne Bonnie again went to sea with Rackham. But soon the king's decree was published, in which he promised forgiveness to those pirates who would stop robbing. Rackham obeyed his terms and parted with the pirate craft. More precisely, he became a privateer. Just in case, I will explain that a privateer is, so to speak, a "state pirate." This is a corsair who is in the official service of the government. He plunders against the ships of the enemy state, handing over a significant part of the booty to the treasury.
This is the main difference between a privateer and a pirate. A pirate robs everyone without any permission, at his own peril and risk. And the pirate does not share the booty with anyone (except for his companions). All the more so with government officials.
Reckham decided to become such a privateer. But the attempt was unsuccessful. Reckham was hired by the English governor Rogers to privateer at sea against the Spaniards. But the governor turned out to be an absurd and extremely suspicious man. He began to suspect that Ann and Rackham were trying to deceive him. That they just want to get a ship from the British crown, and then give a damn about the "marque" and return to sea robbery. As a "preventive punishment", he forced Rackham to whip his beloved. The pirate had to obey.
The humiliated and insulted Anne Bonnie and John Rackham decided to take revenge. Now they have actually conspired and carried it out: they captured the governor's ship and raised the black flag on it, thereby signifying that the short streak of privateering in their life history came to an end. They became the "good old pirates" again. The dashing couple returned to their old ways.
Soon, a completely romantic story happened. Rackham's ship was attacked by another pirate ship. There was a small squabble, but then the pirates from both "competing" ships managed to come to an agreement among themselves and concluded a "peace". Moreover, they decided to rob together.
So, on the ship of this new pirate ally there was also a woman - the famous pirate Mary Reed. Only she was disguised as a man. The masquerade was a success for her. None of the pirates ever suspected that their dashing corsair colleague was actually a weak woman!
Anne Bonnie did not notice the catch either. Moreover, she fell in love with this handsome young man from someone else's pirate ship and began to "pester" him unambiguously.
Mary Reed was forced to reveal her secret to her. She told Ann that she was also a woman, which meant that she could not answer her love. After laughing at the funny situation together, Anne and Mary quickly became friends.
Miraculous salvation
The friendship established between the two women gave rise to jealousy on the part of Captain Rackham. He began to suspect his "passion" Anne Bonnie in "tricks" with a young guy (who was disguised as Mary Reed). A drunken pirate threatened to cut the throat of her new lover. To avoid dangerous situations, Anne Bonnie revealed Mary Reed's secret to him, taking from him an oath to keep everything sacred. Only then did the jealous thug calm down …
Anne Bonnie accompanied her lover in all pirate raids, in all battles. The girl showed everyone that in courage and ability to fight, she would not yield to any man.
In October 1720, Anne Bonnie, Rackham and Mary Reed were nevertheless captured by Captain Jonathan Barnett, acting on the orders of the Governor of Jamaica. The trial was swift and harsh. Sentence to all three: death by hanging.
Before his death, Rackham was allowed to see Anne Bonnie as the greatest grace, but instead of consolation she expressed her contempt to her lover: "If you fought like a man, you would not be hanged like a dog!" Reckham was hanged. But the sentence for women was commuted: the death penalty was commuted to life imprisonment. Mary Reed soon fell ill with a fever and died in her cell.
But the further fate of Anne Bonnie from that moment disappears from the official records. There are several assumptions about her future fate. On one of them, she fled, again contacted the pirates and died in one of the boarding skirmishes. In another way, it was bought out by her rich family.
“Her father managed to get Anne Bonnie out of prison and bring her back to Charleston, where she gave birth to her second child with Rackham. On December 21, 1721, she married Joseph Burleigh, with whom they subsequently had ten children. She died on April 22, 1782, in South Carolina, an honorable woman at the age of eighty-two, and was buried on April 24 of that year in York County Cemetery, Virginia,”says the Oxford Biographical Dictionary.
Whether this is true or not is unknown. There are too few facts and too many assumptions. But, of course, lovers of pirate romance find it difficult to come to terms with the idea that the brave pirate Anne Bonnie rotted alive in some kind of colonial prison. I don’t want to disappoint them. Therefore, I will join the version about the miraculous rescue of Ann Bonnie …
No matter how this impudent pirate ended her days, the heroine herself survived the memory of her for a long time. About Ann Bonnie wrote Daniel Defoe (author of "Robinson Crusoe") and a dozen other writers of "smaller caliber".
The image of the dashing Anne appears in many films and TV series dedicated to the history of piracy. During her lifetime, Anne probably never imagined that she would receive such fame. She just lived "as best she could."
And she knew how to live only brightly and risky. And, as it turned out, this "brightness" became the best guarantor of immortality in the memory of descendants …
Victor Sinov