All language subtitles for Pirates Behind the Legends s01e07 Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Mary Read Rebel Spirits.eng

[Narrator] This is the story
of two of the boldest pirates

ever to sail the high seas,
Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

[Expert 1] The legend is
these are the two most famous

female pirates in history.

[Narrator]
A fearsome duo who sailed

with Calico Jack Rackham,

one of the most flamboyant
figures in the Caribbean.

[Expert 2] So, we know
that people were fascinated

with their story.

[Expert 3] They'd just gone
completely off the rails.

They were young,
and they wanted fun.

[Narrator] Despite being
formidable fighters

and wily strategists,

their careers at sea
are short-lived.

And their capture leads Bonny,
Read, and their captain

to face one of Jamaica's
most sensational pirate trials.

? ?

Once used as a base
for English privateers

in their wars
against the Spanish,

Nassau had grown
to become a bustling port

and a sanctuary for pirates.

[Richard Blakemore] Nassau is
the main town in the Bahamas,

and it's quite a small
colonial settlement.

The Bahamas
are scattered islands,

they're hard to navigate,

so they're often
a haunt of pirates.

They're a place
that pirates escape to

and hide in between
their voyages.

And it's very difficult
for the colonial authorities

to control this region

because of the complex
geography of these islands.

[Hannah Cusworth] Governance
wasn't as well established

as it was on some of
the other Caribbean islands.

[Blakemore] Colonists are
complaining and even fleeing

from the island because of
the concentration of pirates.

[Mark Hanna] It was not a place
that people wanted to settle

and buy land
and live permanently.

[Margarette Lincoln] It was a
place where pirates stopped off,

caroused, as they said,
had parties, drank a lot,

and then went back
to their ship.

[Rebecca Simon]
Anywhere you went in Nassau,

you could find a tavern,
you could find prostitutes,

you could find
all kinds of lawlessness.

[gunfire]

[Narrator] 1717.

News of the chaotic
pirate haven reaches England.

King George I is furious,

signing a proclamation
for suppressing pirates.

He appoints Nassau's
first official governor

in over 14 years,
Woodes Rogers.

His role-to oversee the
Bahamas on behalf of the Crown

and crush the pirates.

[Simon] Woodes Rogers
made it his mission

to get rid of all the pirates
in Nassau in the Caribbean.

So he comes in,
establishes a proclamation

saying to all of the pirates,

you know, if you turn yourself
in by September of 1718,

I'll give you a pardon

and you will all be forgiven
for all your crimes.

[Blakemore] He turns some former
pirates into pirate hunters

when they decide to join him.

He issues pardons to others,

although some pirates refused
to join him and sail away.

[Narrator]
Those who fled to sea

were hunted down
by their former comrades,

men who had taken
the king's pardon,

pirates turned pirate hunters.

[Lincoln] It meant that
it was much more difficult

for the pirates
operating in that area.

Woodes Rogers was putting down
piracy on Providence,

and people were feeling perhaps

that the pendulum
was going the other way.

[Narrator] King George's
second strategy

for restoring order in Nassau

was to encourage
families to emigrate

to establish a colony
of law-abiding citizens

for the British Crown.

[Cusworth] There were
a number of Caribbean islands

that were really interested
in having women come over

to grow the White population,

and they needed women to kind of
establish families there.

And so women were kind of
encouraged or sent for

or they were women
who were prisoners,

and they were brought over kind
of as part of their sentence.

? ?

? ?

[Narrator] One of the women
who seizes this opportunity

is Anne Bonny.

[Blakemore] So, Anne Bonny
was born in Ireland

and then moved to
the Carolinas with her father,

who was a lawyer
and then a merchant.

[Simon] By the time Anne Bonny
has arrived in Nassau

with her husband, James Bonny,

their marriage is
really on the rocks.

This was especially so
when James Bonny began working

as a pirate hunter
for Woodes Rogers.

? ?

In the meantime, Anne Bonny
was known to hang out

in a lot of taverns
and befriend a lot of pirates,

sometimes have affairs
with pirates.

? ?

All of this is going to change
when she meets Jack Rackham.

[muffled voices]

[Narrator] The man Bonny
falls for, Jack Rackham,

has recently
retired from piracy,

choosing to accept a pardon
from Woodes Rogers.

But for years prior
to their meeting,

Calico Jack, as he was
best known, was notorious

for both his adventures at sea
and in the taverns of Nassau.

[Simon] Jack Rackham already
had kind of his own reputation.

He was known
as Calico Jack Rackham

because he liked
to dress very nicely.

[Blakemore] The nickname
Calico Jack comes from calico,

which is a material originally
made in Calicut in India.

Pirates who were plundering
some of these trade routes

are the first people
who are not elite

who get access
to these commodities.

So it seems to be
a part of the way

in which pirates
can flaunt their position

and enjoy some
of these commodities

that aren't necessarily
accessible to everybody

at this time.

[Narrator] One historical
account claims Rackham

has command of his own ship,

having staged a mutiny
against the previous captain.

[Simon] This is very common
on pirate ships.

The crew had equal say

in terms of what the laws
would be on their ship,

and if they felt that a captain
was not doing his job,

which usually meant that they
were not capturing enough ships,

they were not making
enough money,

that they could vote him out.

[Lincoln] Pirates were able to,
if you like, fire their captain.

I mean, this was the big thing
for being on a pirate ship,

if you didn't like your captain

and enough people
thought he was useless,

you got yourself another one.

[Narrator] As captain,
Rackham targets

merchant and passenger
transport vessels,

gaining control
of several large ships.

[Simon] They actually
were quite successful

under Rackham's captainship.

[Narrator] But it all
pales in comparison

to one particular prize

he spots just beyond
Port Royal, Jamaica,

probably the most impressive
boat Rackham has ever seen

grace the Caribbean.

[Simon] In 1719, Jack Rackham's
most successful capture

is a ship called the Kingston.

[Narrator] The Kingston is
huge, promising a rich cargo,

a major score
for Rackham and his men.

The pirates pull up
to their target,

and the pirate captain signals
for his crew to attack,

effortlessly defeating
the unsuspecting sailors

of the Kingston.

The pirates seize
the vessel for themselves,

Rackham's most valuable
prize to date.

? ?

But the attack has been
witnessed from the harbor.

? ?

Port Royal is no longer
a safe haven for pirates,

but a reformed settlement
where the criminals

who plague the sea
are publicly executed.

Furious merchants set
bounty hunters after Rackham.

Their mission-
to capture or kill him.

February 1719.

The bounty hunters
catch up with Rackham

on a small island
off the coast of Cuba.

Caught unprepared
and nursing vicious hangovers,

the pirates
abandon the Kingston

and flee into the woods.

? ?

Reflecting on this close call,

Rackham decides
to give up piracy for good

and take the king's pardon.

He steals a Spanish sloop and
makes his way back to Nassau.

Upon landing, Rackham goes
straight to Woodes Rogers,

seeking peace.

[Simon] Jack Rackham
goes in and says,

"I've seen the error of my ways,
and I'm done with piracy."

And so he gets his pardon,

and this allows Jack Rackham
to lay low in Nassau.

[Narrator] Retiring to pursue

more restful pursuits
in Nassau,

Rackham spends his days

stumbling between
taverns and brothels

until one night,

whilst sat within
a favorite watering hole,

he sets his gaze on a woman
unlike any other...

...a woman who would alter
the course of his life.

[Narrator] Jack Rackham
and Anne Bonny

soon begin an affair.

[Simon] It's pretty much
love at first sight.

She wants to marry Jack Rackham.
Jack wants to marry her.

The problem? She's still
married to James Bonny,

and a divorce is very,
very difficult to obtain.

? ?

James Bonny denies a divorce,

and so Jack Rackham
offers to buy Anne Bonny.

[Narrator] In the Caribbean
of the 18th century,

women could be sold
to their new husband

as a means of divorce,

a practice known
as wife selling.

[Simon] There was a very uneven
ratio between men and women,

so a lot of wives
were purchased.

And sometimes if you
were in a bad marriage

and you wanted to remarry,
that person could buy the woman.

Now, Woodes Rogers
had actually outlawed

the practice of wife selling,
so what he does

is James Bonny goes
to Woodes Rogers and says,

"Jack Rackham is trying
to buy my wife, Anne Bonny."

[Blakemore] But Woodes Rogers
is very angry

and tells them
that they mustn't do it.

And it is this that inspires
Jack and Bonny

to go and steal a ship
and take to the seas.

? ?

? ?

[Narrator] August 22, 1720.

Rackham and Bonny recruit a
small group of co-conspirators.

? ?

As night falls,
they steal a ship

known as the William
from Nassau Harbor.

? ?

It's a brazen move
which voids Rackham's pardon...

...immediately putting
his life in danger.

But it's a gamble
he's willing to take for love.

? ?

Rackham and Bonny will need

all the speed
the William can muster.

They know it won't be long
before pirate hunters

are on their trail.

They set out towards Jamaica,

attacking merchant vessels
along the way.

? ?

But Bonny's presence
amongst this rabble of pirates

is considered
to be highly unusual.

[M�lanie Lamotte] Piracy was
an extremely masculine world.

It was extremely rare
for female pirates.

We know of approximately,
I think, 40 female pirates

in the Golden Age of Piracy.

? ?

The 17th and 18th centuries,
this time period,

people were
extremely superstitious,

and they believed
that it was bad luck

for women to be aboard a ship.

And also captains were afraid

that the presence
of women aboard

would create conflicts
between the sailors.

? ?

[Narrator] As the captain's
lover, Bonny is accepted

as a valuable and capable
member of the crew.

? ?

But before long,
she begins to find herself

drawn to another sailor
on board.

? ?

[Simon] It's believed that

in A General History
of the Pyrates

that Captain Charles Johnson,
the author,

said the two of them
fell in love with each other.

? ?

Actually what he writes is
that Anne Bonny had recognized

a male crew member,
fell in love with him.

[Narrator] But the object
of Bonny's desire

harbors a dangerous secret.

? ?

The pirate ultimately revealing

her true female identity-

Mary Read.

[Simon] Now, how does
Mary Read meet them?

How does she join up with them?

Mary Read's story is that
she was an illegitimate child

and that she was raised
as a boy in London

in order to avoid scandal.

It was less scandalous to have
an illegitimate boy as a child

versus an illegitimate girl.

And according to the story,

when Mary Read was
about 13 years old,

her mother told her,
you're actually female,

and now we've got to put you
to work as a domestic servant,

like pretty much all women do.

And Mary Read goes back
into her male clothing,

and then she actually leaves,

and she heads down
to the European continent.

? ?

[Narrator] Read, disguising
herself as a man,

joins a merchant ship
destined for the West Indies.

But how did she manage to hide
her identity for so long?

[Lamotte] Mary Read
was actually cross-dressing,

like she was dressing
as a man to not be recognized.

And she went by another name.

[Cusworth] It would have
been pretty dangerous

to be a woman on the ship.

It was a hard life.

[Lamotte] It would have been
a very difficult profession

for a woman.

And, yes, in terms
of sexual assaults,

there is evidence of women,
mostly from slave ships,

being assaulted
by members of the crew.

A lot of women, when they
arrived in the New World,

were actually pregnant.

The sailing world
was a very harsh world.

They wouldn't sleep a lot,

and they would have
to face a lot of risks

and also attacks by enemy ships
and other pirates.

It would have been
a scary world for a woman.

[Cusworth] A number
of these women

were kind of going incognito
dressed as men,

and that might have been
to protect themselves.

? ?

[Hanna] They're always sort of
surprised about how easy it was

for them to get away
with being dressed as men

and how come people
didn't suspect them.

And I think there's
an important element of this,

which is how important clothing
was in the early modern period.

Clothing was
the primary demarcator

of one's social status
or gender,

that you were supposed to wear
the clothing of your job

or employment
or your gender norm.

And that clothing was
so powerful and important

for people to understand
who you were

and recognize you right away.

So, when they wore
men's clothing,

that clothing was so powerful
that you can imagine

people would never
imagine they could be

anything other than men.

And it's very hard for us
today to grasp that

because I don't think we have
the same obsession with clothing

being the sort of
indicator of reality

the way it was at the time.

[Iszi Lawrence] There were
more women dressed as men

than we have evidence for.

I mean, we have famous
incidents in the 18th century

of women like Hannah Snell,
who were a part of the navy

for four years before
they got discovered.

So, a lot of women, if they
wanted to flee their husbands,

if they wanted to make a life
or career for themselves,

you're gonna go to sea.

[Narrator] Mary Read masters
the fashions and behaviors

needed to convince
her fellow sailors

she was, like them, a man.

By the time she meets
Rackham and Bonny,

she's been at sea
for several years,

passing undetected
as a regular sailor.

There are different accounts

of Read's shift
to a life of piracy.

Some claim she had
already turned pirate,

while others say it happened

when Rackham plunders
the merchant ship she's aboard.

[Narrator] According to legend,

Mary Read reveals herself
to be a woman

but only to Anne Bonny.

The pair grow closer,

with Bonny vowing to keep
her identity secret.

[Blakemore] Calico Jack,
Bonny, and Read

sail to the coast of Jamaica.

And they spend
a couple of months there

plundering local shipping.

Some of these
are quite small vessels.

They even plunder a canoe.

But there's also some
quite large merchant vessels

carrying a variety
of valuable commodities.

? ?

? ?

[Simon] Jack Rackham,
in the meantime,

saw that Anne Bonny
had fallen in love

with another male crew member.

? ?

[Narrator] The stories say,
in a fit of jealous rage,

Rackham threatens to cut
his love rival's throat.

? ?

Read reveals her true identity.

? ?

Bonny and Read
now sail together,

openly as women and as pirates.

[Simon] But there's actually
nothing in the story

written about the two of them
having a relationship.

This idea was actually
a 20th-century concept.

There were plays written about
them that began to speculate

that maybe they had
a romantic relationship.

This was written about
in feminist writings,

and now it's become considered
to practically be fact

about the two of them.

What their lives also did
is it really highlighted

what the realities could
have been for women at sea

and shows that women
could have been very competent

on a pirate ship
because they were.

? ?

[Narrator] Bonny and Read prove
to be determined fighters.

No one, it seems, is prepared
for the extraordinary sight

of this fearsome pair
of women warriors.

[Simon] Anne Bonny
and Mary Read were also

in an interestingly
fortunate position.

They were not forced
to be pirates.

They were not under any threat
by any members of the crew.

They had not been
sexually assaulted.

They were not captured.

They were respected,
equal members of the crew

for the most part.

Now, how would they have managed
to survive this world at sea?

It was extremely difficult.
It's very masculine.

It's physically difficult.

They will be smaller.

They will be lighter
than the men,

and so this means that
they're going to be able

to climb up the mast,
probably do more repairs.

They're going to be faster
and more lithe in a fight.

They're going to have their
own skills that they can bring,

such as repairing and cooking
and that sort of thing.

They actually would have been
very, very useful members

of the crew.

? ?

They wore male clothing
in battle

not to disguise themselves,

not because
they were cross-dressers,

but because it was practical.

It's easy to fight
in a loose shirt and trousers,

just like the men do.

And also, it was a way for them

to not be noticed
right away in battle.

They wore their hair very long.

And supposedly rumors say
that they would fight

with their shirts open, exposing
their breasts to people,

thus intimidating people

and sort of freezing men
in their tracks,

not expecting this at all.

[Hanna] The idea that
when a female pirate

sort of displays herself

by opening and
displaying her breasts,

it was shocking
because they said,

"You're wearing men's clothes.
How is it possible?"

[Blakemore] I think one
of the significant things

about Bonny and Read
is the fact

that they don't hide
their gender.

They are not afraid to be
seen as female pirates.

And in fact, in some ways,
that makes them more bold

and more brave because they are
flaunting these expectations

around female behavior
without pretending to be male.

? ?

One of the vessels they capture

is a canoe crewed
only by Dorothy Thomas.

[Simon] They knew that
she had identified them

and that she could go and
report them to the authorities.

And being a woman, this would
be considered so outrageous

that authorities would
believe Dorothy Thomas

and they would probably
take it very seriously

that a woman had been
harassed by pirates.

[Blakemore] Bonny and Read
urge the pirates

to kill Dorothy Thomas.

They say, if we let her go,
she will be evidence against us.

But Calico Jack apparently
refuses to kill Dorothy Thomas,

so she is set free.

[Narrator] Bonny and Read
were right to be concerned.

Dorothy Thomas
reports the incident

directly to the governor,
Woodes Rogers.

[Simon] September 5, 1720,

Woodes Rogers issued
a proclamation for the arrest

of Jack Rackham on the William,

which contained
two female pirates,

and he named Anne Bonny
and Mary Read.

Woodes Rogers has put a large
bounty on Jack Rackham's head.

And so naturally, this is going
to attract pirate hunters,

and a very well-known and
very successful pirate hunter

named Jonathan Barnet decides
to take up the challenge

and go hunting for them

alongside another man
named Jean Bonadvis.

[Narrator] Bonadvis and Barnet
are seasoned privateers.

Having spent years sailing
among the intricate coves

and inlets of the Caribbean,

there are few criminal
hideouts they can't find.

[Simon] So, the two of them
have a small fleet

of their two ships,
and they go sailing

around the parts
where Jack Rackham

was known to be spotted.

? ?

[Narrator] Unaware
they're being hunted,

the pirates skirt
the coast of Jamaica,

targeting ships as they go.

This includes
a fine merchant vessel,

now giving them
a flotilla of three crafts

helmed by a crew
brimming with confidence.

Rackham pilots his fleet
to a cove in Negril Bay,

where the pirates break out
in a drunken celebration

of their recent success.

As the party rages
and the liquor flows,

nobody notices
a new arrival in the bay.

It's Bonadvis and Barnet,
the pirate hunters.

[Simon] Bonadvis and Barnet
wait until it's dark,

and then they hail
Rackham's ship.

Now, Rackham and his crew
at this point are very drunk.

They'd actually managed
to capture a small ship,

and they were celebrating

by drinking all the wine
that they stole.

The only two people
who had not been drinking

were Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

[muffled voices]

When Barnet hails them,

Jack Rackham
basically taunts him,

saying that we will
accept no quarter,

we will take no mercy,
we will give no mercy.

[Narrator] The pirates manage
to load their cannons,

firing on the hunters,
but they barely do any damage.

[Simon] And then Barnet fires
a cannon into Rackham's ship.

[Narrator] Rackham
and his men realize

they're doomed
to lose this battle.

The pirate hunters
prepare to board.

[Simon] Now, Rackham
and the men are so inebriated

that they would not
be able to fight back,

and so Rackham orders everyone
to go and hide below deck.

The only people
who don't do this

are Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

They actually shout orders
against Rackham's,

saying, "No, you must stay."

Mary Read supposedly said,

"If there is a man among ya
to fight, then you must fight."

And supposedly she even
fired her gun into the hold,

killing two of the crew members,

out of anger that
they would not fight.

? ?

So Jonathan Barnet,
Jean Bonadvis,

and all of their crew

end up fighting against
just Anne Bonny and Mary Read.

? ?

[Blakemore] Ultimately,
they are unsuccessful,

and they are all captured
and imprisoned

and brought
to Port Royal for trial.

? ?

? ?

[Simon] In November of 1720,
the entire crew was put on trial

in St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica.

[Blakemore] Pirate trials
have become a very common sight

in the Caribbean
and North America at this time.

English law had changed
to allow local governors

and naval officers
to hold a piracy court.

[Narrator] This is in order
to create real stability

and security for the British,

who are intent on making
the sea safe for trade.

Those pirates who had rejected
or breached their pardons

would face the full force
of the law.

[Blakemore] So, the defendants
would have been brought

before the tribunal.

This legislation
authorizes English officers

to prosecute piracies
anywhere in the world.

[Simon] You have
the persecution.

You have, of course,
all the pirates on the stand.

You have a jury.

All the crimes are laid out,
and they bring witnesses.

[Blakemore] The victims,
if they survived,

would often have presented
the evidence to the court,

especially giving the detail

of what had been stolen
from them, the value,

because they want to reclaim
some of these commodities.

[Narrator] Rackham, Bonny,
and Read are put on trial,

facing a litany of charges
for their crime spree,

offenses which could
lead to hanging.

[Blakemore] One of
the really interesting things

about the trial is that
Calico Jack and several sailors

are tried on one day,

Bonny and Read are tried
by themselves on a separate day.

Clearly, the judge and the court

feel that these women
are of a different status.

They need a different procedure
to deal with the trial.

? ?

[Narrator] Bonny and Read
are kept behind bars

whilst Rackham and some
of his crew are put on trial.

[Simon] Dorothy Thomas,
she was the chief witness.

She was able to see
everything in detail.

She was able to talk
about their character.

? ?

We have other witnesses
who had actually

spent time on board ships,

so they knew exactly what
Jack Rackham had been doing

and what goods they had stolen
and how they'd been treated.

The hostages had been treated
pretty decently on the ship.

They weren't beaten or injured,

and they were usually let go
after just a few days.

We don't really know why,

but they offered
the best information.

[Blakemore]
At the end of the trial,

the defendants were given an
opportunity to plead their case,

although they weren't
given legal representation

or advice to do so.

And there were only really
two defenses that were possible.

One was to claim that
you were yourself a victim

who had been forced
to board the pirate ship

and that you never
intended to commit piracy.

And in fact, there are
some men put on trial

with Calico Jack's crew
who claimed that they'd simply

been invited aboard
the ship for a drink

and they had not been involved
in any of the piracies.

The other defense
would be to claim

that you were
legally authorized.

And indeed, it seems that
Calico Jack at various times

tried to claim
that he was authorized

to attack Spanish shipping,

but, of course,
this was a time of peace,

so the commission
was meaningless

and could not defend him.

[Simon] Jack Rackham and the men
were allowed to plead,

and, of course,
they all pled not guilty.

[Narrator] But their defense
is feeble and unpersuasive.

The court finds Rackham
and four of his accomplices

guilty of piracy,
robbery, and felony.

They are sentenced to hang.

[Lincoln] Calico Jack is allowed
to say farewell to Anne Bonny

before he's executed, and
she's totally unsympathetic.

She just says,
if he'd fought like a man,

he wouldn't be hanged
like a dog.

And I think this is a phrase

that has kind of echoed
down the centuries

about Jack Rackham
unfortunately.

[Simon] At the end
of November 1720,

they were all hanged
at Gallows Point in Jamaica,

which today is known
as Rackham's Cay.

? ?

[cheering]

[Narrator] As a grim warning
to other would-be pirates,

Rackham's corpse is left
to rot in plain view.

? ?

[Simon] Anne Bonny and
Mary Read's trial is conducted

a few days
after Rackham's death,

in mid-November of 1720.

This one is a little bit more
unusual, in that they're women.

The high court of admiralty
doesn't really know

what to do with them.

Women don't go on trial
as often as men.

Women often, if they are
caught committing a crime,

they'll spend time in jail,

but then they'll be let go
after a certain amount of time.

It's already quite rare
that the two of them

were put on trial
in front of everybody.

? ?

Once again,
it's the same witnesses

who speak out against them,
in particular, Dorothy Thomas.

When asked how Miss Thomas
was able to recognize

Anne Bonny and Mary Read,

she said it was, quote, due to
the largeness of their breasts.

So she was able
to see them up close

to see that they
were actually women.

[Blakemore] Yes, these women
were on the ship.

Yes, we knew
that they were women,

even when they were dressed
in men's clothes.

Yes, they were wielding
guns and swords

and swearing more than any of
the other pirates in the crew,

so it does give us
some taste of their character

and their boldness and
how much they broke the rules

of the society
that they lived in.

? ?

When it comes to the end
of the trial,

Bonny and Read were permitted
to plead their case,

but the record, whoever
wrote down this trial,

which is published
soon afterwards,

simply said they said
nothing material.

So we don't know whether that
means that they said nothing

or they said nothing that
the court thought was important,

and their voices are erased
from the record.

[Simon] Anne Bonny and Mary Read
were found guilty of piracy.

But there was a big twist.

When they were asked
if they had anything to say,

they both, according
to the trial transcript,

pled their bellies.

[crowd exclaims]

[Blakemore] Which was
a plea of pregnancy,

because if you were pregnant,

the court would
stay your execution

at least
until the baby was born.

[Hanna] This was a strategy
that many women followed,

would be to plead their bellies,

either to lie or
to attempt to get pregnant.

It happened quite a bit.

[Blakemore] Both women
were then examined

and found to be pregnant.

Given that their voyage
lasted around two months,

they were probably pregnant

for the whole time
that they were at sea.

[Simon] And this really
changes everything

because in the 18th century,

a pregnant woman
would not be executed.

Instead, they are granted what
is called a stay of execution,

meaning you won't be executed

until after the birth
of the child.

[Blakemore]
And they were imprisoned.

? ?

[Narrator]
Five long months pass.

Anne Bonny and Mary Read
await the birth of their babies

and the hangman's noose.

[Simon] Ultimately what happened
to them is quite tragic.

Mary Read dies in jail
in April of 1721.

It was recorded that
she died of jail fever,

which is what
we call typhus today.

? ?

[Simon] Now, Anne Bonny,

we don't actually know
what happened to her.

[Narrator] Anne Bonny's fate
remains a mystery to this day.

[Simon] There's no record
of her being executed.

There's no record of
what happened to her child.

[Lincoln] Although rumor has it

that her father came
and collected her,

managed to get her
out of prison,

and took her back
to American colonies,

where she married again
and had innumerable children,

and died at a ripe old age,
which may or may not be true.

[Simon] The reason
why we can speculate this

is because in English law
in the 17th and 18th centuries,

while, yes, women could
be sentenced to death

and many were, about 95%
of them were actually let go.

Only 5% of women
sentenced to death

actually had their
punishments carried out,

so it is very likely
that Anne Bonny

probably was not
hanged as a pirate.

[Blakemore] Some people
in the Carolinas even claim

to be descended from Anne Bonny.

But again, there is
no historical evidence

that this ever
actually took place.

[Simon] In 2021, there was
some new evidence unearthed

that suggested Anne Bonny
may have lived out

the rest of her life in Jamaica
because of a death record

of Saint Catherine's
Parish, Jamaica,

that listed a woman named
Anne Bonny in January of 1731.

So it is possible Anne
may have been sent free

or at least lived out
the rest of her life there.

? ?

? ?

[Narrator] Remarkably,

Jack Rackham, Anne Bonny,
and Mary Read

only sailed together
for two months.

And yet, over
three centuries later,

their adventures live on
in history and legend.

[Cusworth] There were
probably a significant number

of other women that we just
don't know about, right,

that have been
forgotten to history.

[Lamotte] But the main reason
why female pirates

were written out of history

because all, they would
hide their identities,

and they would
change their names,

they would dress as men,
they would behave as men.

So unless people found out
that they were women,

then they would just
be erased from history.

[Simon] In fact, Anne Bonny
and Mary Read are anomalies

when it comes to female pirates.

The story of Anne Bonny and
Mary Read really demonstrates

that there was the possibility
that women in the 18th century

could forge their own paths.

[Blakemore] Within, I think
it's four years of their voyage,

The General History
of the Pyrates is published

as one of the most important
accounts that historians have.

And Bonny and Read are
the only two non-captains

who get their own chapter.

So I think that's
the essence of the legend,

is these two women breaking

the contemporary ideas
about femininity

and about the role
of women in society

to go on a pirate voyage.

And in all of the accounts,

it's very clear that they are
the boldest aboard this ship,

they are at the forefront
of the action.

They would probably
have made better pirates

if they weren't
with Calico Jack.

[Lincoln] I mean, I think
actually they'd just gone

completely off the rails.

They were young,
and they wanted fun.

If you were a woman,
even in the Bahamas,

it was quite restrictive.

And so I imagine that
it was just a lot more fun

to be on a pirate ship than
to be doing some embroidery,

you know, in your home.

[Simon] People really enjoy
listening to the story

about Anne Bonny and Mary Read

because it is
quite a romantic story.

Whether or not
it's fact or fiction,

what we know about them
before they were pirates

and what their relationship was,

it still creates
a very interesting narrative.

It's very romantic in a sense.

You do have a woman who joined
up on a pirate ship for love.

[Lawrence] Not only do we have
an amazing pirate story

with the real pirates
at the Golden Age of Piracy,

we also have the tragedy
that love isn't enough,

that punishment comes in,
that men don't stand up for you,

it's only the women that fight.

We have this huge feminist wave,

and we also have now
historically queer culture

coming to the fore.

The fact that these people, that
they've always been amongst us,

that all of this history
is real and celebrated

with actual people,
and it was written down.

It matters to us now
more than ever.

? ?

[Narrator] By the 1720s,

pirate hunters are winning
their war for the seas.

The English Crown
firmly controls Nassau,

the Caribbean no longer
providing such easy pickings

for men like Jack Rackham.

Many of the most feared
pirate captains

have been hunted down
and executed,

but the Golden Age of Piracy
isn't over yet.

? ?

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