The Rh Negative Blog

Who was the real female Pirate of the Caribbeans?

Anne Bonny, sometimes Ann Fulford, was an Irish pirate operating in the Caribbean, and one of the few female pirates in recorded history.

Bonny was born in Ireland at an unknown date, and later moved to London and then to the Province of Carolina. Around 1718 she married sailor James Bonny, assumed his last name, and moved with him to Nassau in the Bahamas, a sanctuary for pirates. It was there that she met Calico Jack Rackham and became his pirate partner and lover. She was captured alongside Rackham and Mary Read in October 1720. All three were sentenced to death, but Bonny and Read had their executions stayed because both of them were pregnant. Read died of a fever in jail in April 1721 (likely due to complications from the pregnancy), but Bonny’s fate is unknown.