Anne Bonny & Mary Read Part 1: Girl Power on the High Seas

Ahoy there, history lovers! This week’s episode is Natalie’s first script for the show, and it got a little out of hand. This is part 1 of a 2-part deep dive into the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read. Join us as we learn about their lives and examine the issues with the sources used to study them.

NOTES & CORRECTIONS:

Around the 37 minute mark, I misspoke and said Jack Rackham was “executed around the time Anne Bonny and Mary Read were” — this is inaccurate because neither woman was executed! I was instead trying to say they were put on trial at the same time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Arne Zuidhoek. 2022. The Pirate Encyclopedia. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.

Canfield, Rob. 2001. “Something’s Mizzen: Anne Bonny, Mary Read, ‘Polly’, and Female Counter-Roles on the Imperialist Stage.” South Atlantic Review 66 (2): 45. https://doi.org/10.2307/3201868.

Evans, Tegan. 2024. “Enemies of All Mankind: Gender, Violence and the Queering of Anne Bonny and Mary Read.” Australian Feminist Law Journal 50 (1): 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/13200968.2024.2310315.

Johnson, Charles. 1724. A GENERAL HISTORY of the PYRATES, from Their First RISE and SETTLEMENT in the Island of Providence, to the Present Time. Pater-Noster-Row, London: Black-Boy.

National Library of Jamaica. 1721. The Tryals of Captain John Rackham and Other Pirates. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/the-tryals-of-captain-john-rackham.

Oppenheim, Maya. 2020. “Female Pirate Lovers Whose Story Was Ignored by Male Historians Immortalised with Statue.” The Independent. November 19, 2020. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/women-pirates-anne-bonny-mary-read-lgbt-statue-b1725018.html.

Park, Andy, and Clare O’Halloran. 2024. “Piracy in the Caribbean and the Tale of Mary Read.” ABC Listen. ABC Radio National. May 22, 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/drawingroom/francesca-de-tores-saltblood-piracy-/103880692.

Rebecca Alexandra Simon. 2022. Pirate Queens. Pen and Sword History.

Rowan, Caroline. 1999. “Powerful on Land and Sea: An Analysis of History’s Attitude to the Lives and Careers of Two Female Pirates; Grainne Mhaol and Anne Bonny.” Thesis, Women’s Education, Research and Resource Centre, University College, Dublin. https://researchrepository.ul.ie/articles/thesis/Powerful_on_land_and_sea_an_analysis_of_history_s_attitude_to_the_lives_and_careers_of_two_female_pirates_Grainne_Mhaol_and_Anne_Bonny/19841401?file=35254234.

Vencel, Wendy. 2018. “Women at the Helm: Rewriting Maritime History through Female Pirate Identity and Agency.” Honours Thesis, Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/452.

Thank you so much for listening! We’ll see you on the next one xoxo