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Anne Bonny

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 1 month ago

Anne Bonny and the significance of her cross-dressing 

 
 
 
 
Early Life 
 
Anne Bonny was born in a town near Cork, Ireland. Unfortunately, she was born on the wrong side of the sheets. Her father was an attorney at law, and her mother was a maid in her father’s household. The maid was forced to go to prison because she “stole” three silver spoons. But while in jail, she learned she was pregnant with Anne. In order to prevent his wife’s wrath, Anne’s father dressed her as a boy and attempted to pass her off as a distant relation’s child who he was mentoring to be his clerk. The wife, however, knew her husband’s relatives too well and soon learned that Anne was not a boy, but a girl. This news upsets the wife greatly, who then proceeds to cut off her husband to who she was giving an allowance. The sudden lack of funds enrages the husband who then has Anne’s mother, the maid, come and live in the family home with him as his mistress. This action was extremely frowned upon during this time period. And so after losing his business, Anne’s father packed up his maid and his daughter and moves to Carolina in the United States. Here he becomes a merchant and becomes very wealthy.
 
Anne’s mother passed away while in the states, and Anne took over running her father’s household. She grew up having a “fierce and courageous temper,” (Defoe) which led to wild stories being spread about her. Such as Anne killing a maid with a knife, which was actually untrue, and Anne beating a young man senseless when he tried to seduce her against her will. 
 
Anne let her passions rule her, because instead of following her father’s wishes and marrying a respectable young fellow, she ran off and eloped with a young sailor by the name of James Bonny, who was “not worth a Groat.” (Defoe)  This was unfortunate for everyone involved because Bonny was expecting to get a hold of Anne’s money and Anne’s father kicked her out of the house. And so, Anne and James went to the island of Providence so James could find work.
 
 
 
 
 
Pirate Life
 
Here at Providence, Anne met the pirate John Rackham with whom she soon fell in love. Keep in mind that she was still married to Bonny at this time. But Rackam was persuasive, and Bonny left her husband to elope with Rackam and join him on the high seas, wearing men’s clothes of course. Soon Anne was pregnant, so Rackam dropped Anne off in Cuba with some friends of his so Anne could have the baby. When all was said and done and Anne was fit to sail, Rackam sent for Anne to “bear him company,” (Defoe) and both continued their illegal plundering ways.
 
While sailing with Rackam, Anne noticed and took a fancy to a particular young lad that was new to the crew. So Anne, “not altogether so reserved in point of chastity,” (Defoe) pursued this handsome fellow. But lo and behold, unbeknownst to Anne, this new pirate was none other than Mary Read. Read, knowing that she had an “incapacity that way,” (Defoe) let Anne know that Read was a woman, not a man. This news disappointed Anne, but she was soon over it and the two became fast friends. Rackam however noticed this closeness between Bonny and Read, and thinking Read was still a man, he grew extremely jealous. To prevent any sort of harm that would come to Read from Rackam, Anne let Rackam in on Mary’s secret. 
 
 
 
 
Anne was one of the most courageous pirates in Rackam’s crew, for whenever “any business was to be done in their way, no body was more forward of courageous than she.” (Defoe)  This was again proven when Rackam’s ship was captured. “None kept the deck except Mary Read and Anne Bonny, and one more.” (Defoe)  But these three were no match for their enemy, and were soon caught, tried, and sentenced to hang. Read and Bonny were later pardoned because they were found to be pregnant, much to the surprise of everyone at the trial. And Bonny got one last precious moment with Rackam before he was to be hanged where she told him “she was sorry to see him there, but if he had fought like a man, he need not have been hang’d like a Dog.” Because Anne's pregnancy was found to be true, she was not hanged with the rest of the crew.  Anne stayed in prison for a while after the trial, but afterwards disappeared and was never to be seen again.
 
Doubts?
 
There are many variations to Anne’s tale. Some sources claim that Anne’s first husband James was not only a sailor, but a pirate as well, and that Anne was to marry a medical student before she went off to elope with James. Instead of going to the island of Providence when she began her pirate career, she went to Nassau. James became a snitch for the government to turn in fellow pirates which made Anne hate James all the more. Anne asked James for a divorce but he refused. Anne began her pirate career by stealing a ship with Rackam so they could run off together. She held the guards at gunpoint and stole the ship, and then gave the guards a small boat so they could return to shore. Anne did go to Cuba to have her first baby. The baby was a girl, but was born prematurely and died after an hour. If this is true, Anne didn’t abandon her baby as other stories lead to believe. (Sharp) Some other stories say that Rackam gave Anne money before they lived together, and that Rackam was going to give James Bonny a document saying that Anne would no longer live with him, but the witness refused to notarize the document and turned the couple into the governor to have Anne whipped for adultery. (Lorimer)
 
Some historians claim that Defoe’s version of a pretty redheaded Anne may not be true. They say that Anne could have been “a powerfully built woman who weighed more than two hundred pounds, stood over six feet tall, and was not pretty at all.” (Sharp) And some sources believe that Anne and Rackam were sailors on a ship together when the crew mutinied with Anne leading. The crew then elected Rackam as captain and Anne was first mate, but then Anne evicted Rackam and took command of the ship. (Sharp)
 
 
CROSS DRESSING
 
As Defoe was quick to point out, Anne Bonny wore men’s clothes while pirating. The fact that he does this probably reflects on the values of England at this time. This was most likely due to that fact that in England, it was illegal for women to wear men’s clothes since 1643 (Sharp). Even if this law didn’t carry over from England to America, it was still most likely frowned upon for women to go around wearing men’s clothes in public. So why did Anne Bonny dress in men’s clothes? There are many theories as to why she would do this. Jason Cromwell proposes that there are “three types of women who lived as men: (1) those who did so for short-term gain or adventure; (2) those who did so for love; and (3) those who identified as men.” 
 
While it isn’t clear whether Anne fit into the third category, she certainly fit into the first two. Defoe told us that Anne had a fierce and courageous temper, the want and love of adventure would be right up Anne’s alley, as would wearing men’s clothes. Taking the risk of punishment for being dressed as a man, let alone being a pirate, would have been something that called to Anne’s wild spirit. Anne loved the adventure and short-term increase of wealth that was to be had from piracy.
 
Defoe has also told us that Anne consented to elope with Rackam, which correlates to Cromwell’s theory that women wore men’s clothes for love. It is also likely that Anne Bonny dressed in men’s garb because it was less of a hassle then wearing skirts and petticoats and the like. Men’s clothes were likely to be much more efficient when it came to boarding ships and performing other chores on the ship.
 
According to John C. Appleby, the number of women who used male disguises to follow unconventional careers increased throughout the eighteenth century. This includes pirating, sailing, or even serving in the army. Appleby then goes on to say that disguise was a “form of protection and a means through which women were able to break out of constraints of customary life; it also gave some women the opportunity to flout conventional morality” which is what Anne Bonny did. 
 
Anne Bonny’s cross-dressing and pirate life was possibly a role model for Steve Gooch’s play, The Women Pirates, where two rebel women escape the female stereotypes in “a small ‘alternative’ society of anti-colonial” rebel pirates. This may be true, but Bonny most likely did not become a pirate with the influence of drama in mind. The need to cross-dress and become a pirate was because of adventure and living in the now (or then rather). The impact of breaking barriers of the customary life was not on her mind either. These were not the main reasons Anne became a pirate and wore men’s clothes. She did so because of love and for wealth and for adventure.
 
 
 
Sources
 

Defoe, Daniel. A General History of the Pyrates. 1724. Ed. Manuel Schonhorn. Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1999.

 

Appleby, John C. "Women and Piracy in Ireland." Bandits at Sea: A PIrates Reader. Ed. C. R. Pennell. New York: New York University Press, 2001. 283-98.

 

Lorimer, Sara. Booty: Girl PIrates on the High Seas. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2002.

 

Sharp, Anne Wallace. Daring Pirate Women. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Company, 2002.

 

Cromwell, Jason. "Passing Women and Female-Bodied Men: (Re)claiming FTM History." Reclaiming Genders. By Kate More and Stephen Whittle. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999. 34-61. Google Book Search. 29 Feb. 2008 <http://books.google.com/bkshp?hl=en&tab=wp>. Path: reclaiming genders.

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