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Little Anne grew a pampered debutante, and was by all accounts intelligent and very pretty indeed. But, though she was raised in comfort, she was also a fighter. Somewhere she learned to shoot and to use a sword, skills that came in useful later in piracy. She was also adept at protecting herself from the unwanted advances of men. When one young man wouldn’t leave her alone, she allegedly beat him til he could not get out of bed for a week.. She was less adept at protecting her heart. When she was 16, she fell in love with a ne'er-do-well sailor and small-time pirate named James Bonny. Although Bonny may have been twice her age or more, she married him, and was promptly disowned by her father. With few prospects, the pair quickly found their way to the pirate haven of New Providence (modern day Nassau) in the Bahamas. There, Bonny worked as an informant for the new governor, Woodes Rogers. James proved to be both a coward and a traitor, and Anne quickly became disgusted with her spineless husband. She had befriended many of the pirates that came and went from New Providence, and the dashing Captain Jack “Calico Jack” Rackham saw her and, according to one historian, took her the same way he’d take a ship, “no time wasted, straight up alongside, every gun brought to play, and the prize boarded.” It's very likely that he spent all of his money on Anne, for he was quickly penniless after meeting her. And when he returned to sea to resume his pirating career, Anne joined him. Most of what is known of Anne Bonny comes from the account written by Captain Charles Johnson (possibly a pseudonym for Daniel Defoe) in "A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates", published in 1724, not long after Anne was brought to trial for piracy on the high seas. There is no record of Anne Bonny's release from prison; she disappears from the historic record while in prison. |
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