Who were Anne Bonny and Mary Read, and how much of their story is true?

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were two of the few recorded female pirates of the Golden Age, and both served in John Rackham's crew in 1720. In August of that year they joined Rackham, and together they stole the sloop William from Nassau on 22 August 1720. Almost everything else you may have heard about their earlier lives is much less certain.

The first biography of Bonny comes from Captain Charles Johnson's 1724 book A General History of the Pyrates. According to Johnson, Read dressed as a boy for much of her childhood, joined the military and later moved to the West Indies. Although Johnson's versions became popular, there is little evidence to support them. No primary source, including Bonny's own trial transcript, mentions her age or nation of origin. The names often given to Bonny's parents are fictional, first written in a 1964 romance novel, yet historians quoted them as fact for years.

What the records do show is a short, dramatic ending. Governor Woodes Rogers's proclamation of 5 September 1720 named both women openly among Rackham's associates. At the trial, a victim, Dorothy Thomas, said they wore men's jackets, long trousers and headscarves, each carried a machete and pistol, and they cursed and swore at the men to murder her.

Rackham and his crew were sentenced to hang with the women, but Bonny and Read both claimed to be pregnant and received temporary stays of execution. In all likelihood, Read was not pregnant and merely lied to extend her life. She died in jail around mid April 1721. Bonny was likely let go at an unknown point and lived until 1733.