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We first hear of Anne Bonny, born Anne Cormac, in 1710as a thirteen-year-old tomboy in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, in the pre-Independence New World. Although the daughter of a wealthy lawyer and plantation owner, her red hair was cut short, her face was dirty, and her habits were rowdy. As one historian notes, Anne "grew up into a strapping, boisterous girl, of a `fierce and courageous temper' which more than once led her into sad scrapes, as when she slew her English servant-maid with a case knife. But apart from such occasional outbursts of temper she was a good and dutiful daughter."

Anne Bonny

About five years later we again hear of Anne, seen frequenting the taverns of the port, on the arms of various buccaneers, and there are stories that a would-be suitor was hospitalized for a month after she beat him with a chair. She once used her sword to publicly undress her fencing master, button by button.
Her father disinherited her when she eloped with James Bonny: in revenge, she burnt down the plantation, then fled to the British- controlled port of New Providence (on modern Nassau in the Bahamas), a haven for such pirates as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd. Upon her arrival, she quickly established herself by shooting off the ear of an already one-eared drunken sailor who blocked her way when she disembarked. In a short while she discarded her husband and went to live with the pirate Captain Jennings and his mistress Meg. Advised to get some male protection, she became the mistress of Chidley Bayard, the wealthiest man on the island.

But eventually she deserted Bayard for the pirate John "Calico Jack" Rackham, so named because of the loud striped patchwork trousers which he wore. Although they had one child (mysteriously disposed of), it has been suggested that Calico Jack may have come to New Providence as the paramour as well as quartermaster to a Captain Vane.

Another of Anne's menfriends was much more certainly gayPierre Bouspeut (sometimes called Pierre Delvin or Peter Bosket, or simply "Pierre the Pansy Pirate")who ran a coffee shop, hairdressing and dress-making shop, for he was a designer of fine velvet and silk clothing. Anne and Pierre got word that a French Merchantman richly laden with costly materials would be sailing by, and together they organized their first "privateering" raid. With the aid of some of Pierre's friends they stole a boat from the abandoned wrecks in the harbor, and liberally covered the topsail, deck and themselves with turtle blood. In the bow they placed one of Pierre's dress- maker's dummies, dressed in women's clothing and similarly splashed with blood. Anne stood over this nightmare figure with a blood-soaked axe, and they sailed out to the Merchantman. When its crew caught sight of this demonic ship by the light of the full moon, they were so horrified by the impending mayhem that they turned over the cargo of their vessel without a fight.

Less theatrical acts of piracy were of course commonplace in the port, and Captain Woodes Rogers in due course attempted to secure the power and jurisdiction of the British government by offering the King's Pardon to all pirates who would turn themselves in and offer to reform. But Anne refused, knowing that she could not be pardoned for the attempted murder of her father. She and Calico Jack and Pierre broke through a blockade that Rogers had positioned in the harbor: for this incident, Anne was stripped to the waist like an Amazon, and dressed in black velvet trousers designed by Pierre; with one hand resting on the hilt of her sword, and the other waving a long silk scarf at the astonished governor, she sailed past "as daintily as any fine lady being seen off on a long ocean voyage." Soon she established her position aboard this ship by shooting a sailor whose attentions were becoming obnoxious to her. Though officially she was second in command, after Calico, she had thrown him out of the Captain's quarters and resided there alone.

"Mark" Read

But eventually her crew decided to accept the pardon, which was made easier by Rogers' having obtained a special pardon for Anne, and they returned to New Providence peacefully. there it was that Anne met Mary Readalias "Mark" Read. Mary's mother long ago, in England, had dressed her daughter as a boy and had pretended that she was her dead son Mark, in order to ensure an inheritance from Mary's grandmothersuch inheritances, like so much else, were reserved for the male. Mary eventually came to prefer her masculine role so much that her mother disinherited her. She was apprenticed as a footboy, then ran away to join the army as a soldier. She married a soldier and together they opened the Three Horseshoes Inn. But after three years her husband died and the public house failed, so she again donned men's clothes and signed on a Dutch Merchantman as Mark Read. This ship was captured by English pirates, whom she was persuaded to join, and thus it was that she eventually found herself finding pardon in New Providence and joining up with Anne.
At about this timethough Anne and Mary were already fast friendsAnne's husband James Bonny reappeared to reclaim his wife, i.e. his property. He kidnapped her and brought her bound and naked before the governor, charged with the felony of deserting her husband. He suggested "divorce by sale," a more "lenient" punishment, hoping to profit by the proceeds of such an auction. But Anne refused to be, as she said, "bought and sold like a hog or cattle"; in fact she expressed herself so vehemently that no buyers dared step forward to claim such a "hellcat." The governor was forced to release her on condition that she return to her rightful master,but James, who only wanted the money, fled in terror from the storm he had raised. Mary had to persuade Anne not to shoot the governor. Instead, together they set out in a sloop in pursuit of James; he escaped after a merry chase, but they burnt his turtle business to the ground.

In due course the pirate crew was re-formed, with Anne and "Mark" constantly together aboard ship. This intimacy aroused the jealousy of Calico Jack, who threatened to slit "Mark's" throat, but bursting into the cabin one day with just this in mind, he discovered Mary stretched out on the bed before Anne, not entirely clothed and visibly a woman. Some (male) historians would have us believe that only minutes before, Anne had ripped off Mary's clothing, and herself had only just discovered "Mark's" true gender. This is highly unlikely. The two women had already been intimate far too longand shared such a rough lifestyle at thatnot to have been fully acquainted with one another's gender. (And even if Mary had pretended to be a boy, surely Pierre would have discovered the truth long ago.) The bowdlerization of this episode and attempts to "explain it away" are typical of how this adventuresome pair is treated; Anne Bonny frequently appears in children's literatureand in boxes of Shredded Wheatwhere she is similarly conventionalized and "normalized" by being portrayed as merely a pirate captain's mistress, rather than the leader she actually was.

"Infamous Women"

Despite this supposed discovery of "Mark's" true gender, Anne and Mary (who stopped calling herself "Mark"), remained inseparable, and both alternately donned male and female clothing. In due course they took command of another ship, and Men-of-War were sent out to capture "those infamous women." They abandoned all caution and raided numerous other ships. One of the victims of their piracy happened to be the Royal queen, a vessel owned by Anne's former "lover" Chidley Bayard, and commanded by one Captain Hudson. On this occasion Anne seduced Hudson into bringing her aboard, then drugged his wine instead of sleeping with him, and secretly doused the firing pins of the cannons with water. She left the next morning, then returned with her pirates. The Royal Queen's gunmen were unable to open fire and they were easily captured. Only Captain Hudson was killed in this otherwise bloodless battleby a jealous Mary.
Eventually Anne and Mary were captured by a Captain Barnet. In the heat of this final battle their crew deserted them, staying below deck and refusing to fight. So Mary shot two of their own men, and wounded Calico. But it took an hour for Barnet's entire crew to subdue the two women. They and their pirate crew were taken to trial in St Jaga de la Vega, Jamaica, convicted of piracy on November 28, 1720, and sentenced to be hanged. Anne and Mary promptly "pleaded their bellies" and were pardoned. This was a common plea amongst women sentenced to death, the point being that no court would hang an innocent albeit unborn life though neither of them in fact bore a child, and almost certainly neither was pregnant.

Anne visited Calico before he was hanged, and said "I am sorry to see you in this predicament, but had you fought like a man you would not now have to die like a dog." Mary herself died of a fever contracted in prison, and Anne just disappeared. One unlikely story is that she got married and returned to Charlestonwhere she would still have been wanted for arson, attempted parricide, and conspiracy against the King's authority. An even more unlikely story is that she went into a nunnery.