Mary Read - The Most Underrated Female Pirate?

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Only two women from the Golden Age of Piracy are known to have been pirates: Ann Bonny, and Mary Read. The former has traditionally overshadowed the latter, despite Mary seemingly having a more interesting background. According to legend, she was a cross-dressing dragoon in the British army, that became a pirate and fought a duel to protect her lover. But just how true is it?
Modern sources
Daniel Defoe, Nathaniel Mist, and the "General History of the Pyrates" - Arne Bialuschewski
Pirates In Their Own Words - E.T Fox
csphistorical.com/2016/05/08/...
csphistorical.com/2016/05/13/...
The Great Days of Piracy - George Woodbury
bcbrooks.blogspot.com/2021/02...
Period sources
A General History of the Pyrates vol. 1 - Cpt. Charles Johnson
A General History of the Pyrates vol. 2 - Cpt. Charles Johnson
The Tryals of John Rackham and Others
The life and adventures of Mrs. Christian Davies - Daniel Defoe
Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
2:29 Fact and fiction?
5:34 Birth and parentage
7:54 Life as a soldier
10:32 Piracy
13:17 The true story
16:28 A possible theory?
20:09 Visual depictions
#pirates #history #annebonny

[@GoldandGunpowder]

More videos on The Rackham Gang: John Rackham: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3y2i4pqr7mkm80 Ann Bonny: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmmtaJpuaqiNaqs

[@reeceemms1643]

I would expect Mary Read to be more popular since she’s a main character in AC 4

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Would you believe that's probably the biggest media depiction of her since the 1930s? Because that's actually the case.

[@dand4139]

Same here. Even on a recent replay I thought she was a captivating character & wanted to know more of the real person behind the fictionalized depiction. But now we can thank Gold & Gunpowder for giving us that!

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

@@dand4139 Fun fact, the game originally featured a mission on the sloop William where you fought with Anne and Mary but it was cut for time and or memory space. Its why the game jumps it a bit in time

[@kalashnikovdevil]

Mary Read was awesome in AC4.

[@RaffyTheSeagull]

We need a movie with everything we know about her, mashed up with fiction. But most people wouldn't care. They'd prefer a 62562526535th show about Blackbeard.

[@dand4139]

I may have embarrassed myself somewhat, but the topic of pirates came up in college & let’s just say everyone in that room knows more about Golden Age pirates now💀

[@WissHH-]

Literally me as as soon as the topic pops out

[@dand4139]

@@WissHH-hey I’m sure at least someone found interesting 😂

[@Skim_beeble7125]

I do this to my friends they don’t like it

[@KingBuilder525]

Bonnie! Bonnie! What, read? We’re being captured! What do we do? Quick! Grab a pillow!

[@nick0875]

Its sad that the true information on the lives of these pirates has mostly been lost to time. Because at the end of the day they were real people but since they were not well documented it has been forgotten. Which unfortunately leaves them to be remembered by their story book character like summaries.

[@mandybutler8880]

You really cut through the misinformation! I didn't know these pirates at all it seems! ❤

[@amtmannb.4627]

Excellent video with detailed information. In most shows for kids Read and Bonny are so much prominent such as they were the most important pirates of the Golden Age. Maybe today it's too nice to have female pirates to ignore them and instead of that people have to make full documentaries and therefore use all of the clickbait story of Read and Bonny. Cheers!

[@RaffyTheSeagull]

Read and Bonny in shows for kids?...

[@belliott538]

“This doesn’t mean Pirates never interacted with women. They primarily do so in Ports, here they met Prostitutes, Sweathearts and……… Wives.” Fixed it. Sorry I couldn’t resist “Stirring The Pot”. 😈 Cheers!

[@belliott538]

Ps. Liked & Subbed… 😎

[@arthurread9164]

It is surely long overdue for a drama movie or TV series to be made about Mary Read and Anne Bonny !

[@mageillus]

Mary Read > Anne Bonny

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

I'd say Anne Bonny certainly has had more interesting depictions over the years and historically Anne gets slightly more mentioned as a powder monkey. General History I'd say Read has the more interesting backstory but its all fiction so really doesn't mean much.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

@@Blokewood3 That's a more recent trend but yes having a mysterious disappearance does wonders for making someone popular. Although as that document I found showed, her life didn't end in a glorious or even notable way.

[@ianbyrne465]

​@@LadyTylerBioRodriguezHonestly though, I think that's more interesting in a way. That she lived a life of piracy and then just... stopped, and lived a normal life and died relatively peacefully. It's especially interesting considering she was such a volatile personalit, according to most manuscripts recounting her life.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

@@ianbyrne465 In a way that's true. Living a non descript life so vague she doesn't appear in any marriage or property document for 13 years. That kinda hints at being in a professional that doesn't show up in documentation like prostitution. But that means living long enough to actually see General History of the Pyrates come about and even the era itself end. Outliving so many more famous names from Roberts to La Buse.

[@thedictationofallah]

Both trash. Men are better.

[@OneAndOnlyFran]

Man this was quite informative! Crazy articles they had back then

[@moaprecision1828]

"Daaaaaamn she THICC" lmao. The background commentary was the best part 😂

[@ravenb3048]

I do wonder if you'll go back and cover Hector Barbossa or if you're done with Pirates of the Caribbean. If not, I'm interested in what you think of how odd their version of Davy Jones is, compared to his origin in the 1700s.

[@lukedelport8231]

Hey could you do a video on the privateers of the napoleonic wars and revolutionary war time periods

[@jsmoothd654]

We all should READ more about her!

[@ComodoroTitas]

😂😂😂😂 good one

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Surname translations are always amusing. I believe Read does come from, well reading, and Bonny means good. Good Reading I say.

[@rebralhunter6069]

Hyukhyukhyuk

[@joaoprzygocki1865]

hey can you do a video about pirates in Brazil? Here in southern Brasil, the city of Laguna was sacked by pirates. dId they have a base like tortuga in the southern hemisfere? Love your videos!

[@sonofcronos7831]

Look his video on Bartholomew Roberts, he attacked a portuguese ship one time in brazil. Rocks Braziliano is another pirate that attacked Brazil but he does not have a video.

[@joaoprzygocki1865]

thanks i will take a look@@sonofcronos7831

[@paulsteele8614]

Very informative video thanks for the effort

[@TheRiverPirate13]

Enjoyed the video mate. It is so interesting how two women pirates became so famous and we no almost nothing about them! If Mary Read's burial spot is ever located and exhumed, we just might know a little more about her.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Yeah that's not really possible. It was St Catherines Parish Jamaica but almost certainly St Jago Del La Vega Cathedral which is across from the Spanish Town prison. No grave marker, probably just thrown into an unmarked spot.

[@TheRiverPirate13]

@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez If she died in childbirth they may have treated the burial different due to the baby. No doubt it is a paupers grave so that would be a lot of digging.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

@@TheRiverPirate13 Its highly unclear if it was childbirth or sickness from prison. I talked with archivists and the cathedral staff. Lot of graves just aren't marked. Sometimes its a mass burial in one pit.

[@TheRiverPirate13]

@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez Very interesting!

[@unknowntrooper_2791]

Again great and funny video. Interesting as always. Cheers! 🏴‍☠

[@Electriceye1984bySam]

Excellent ❤

[@merafirewing6591]

It's crazy that Mary Read's story is the most accurate in the General History of Pyrates. Even though the rest of the book is one big clickbait of the 18th century.

[@SampoPaalanen]

Well it's probably since "female pirate" was "clickbait" by itself so there was no reason to invent things to make people read that.

[@dand4139]

So would it be fair to say The General History of Pyrates is still a valuable source, albeit one that needs to be corroborated?

[@lolihitler4198]

seems to me like its so untrustworthy that any corroboration could just be used as a source instead

[@thecreweofthefancy]

It's like Wikipedia, an excellent starting point, but it's important to recognize the context and intent.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

I'd say it highly depends chapter to chapter. Some are not bad like Bonnet, some are very bad like Anne Bonny, and some are made up like Libertalia.

[@thecreweofthefancy]

@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez as an example the Tew chapter.....his whole Libertalia section doesn't even make sense with the timeline of the book, let alone any other documents.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

@@thecreweofthefancy YEP! That's a real problem which is later version of General History trample over what was previously written.

[@mckawesome777]

So I mean i reckon we just dont hardly know anything about her

[@Hellion73]

Yeah, in terms of media, the "best" portrait of her that comes to my mind, is from ACIV. , I liked the in game character, even if the main story line doesn't cuts thru very well, cos narratively speaking, was full of gaps beetween events and characters going into the main story...Ubisoft are not good story tellers🤷‍♂️😒

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Hard to say best since its the only recent version that actually highlighted Mary. Its always second fiddle or not even showing up in about every story since 1934s Mary Read Pirate Wench.

[@Hellion73]

@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez Yeah, that's what I meant, I mean don't really know if she has been mentioned in some other recent made media, like movies, tv series or novels that fell out of my radar. True is most of us just knew about her story thru BF, which think was cool for Ubi's part to brigth her up among the names of the other more infamously known names. Btw, read some other comment of yours, saying tha there was some mission cut from BF, involving Mary and Ann, so its true that the main story line was butchered back then? Notice I jumped the AC ship after Unity🥺😒

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

@@Hellion73 Most recent is Our Flag Means Death but Anne Bonny is again the obvious bigger character. Read is at the last minute of Black Sails which barely counts. Its stuff like that. Kinda insane because in the 19th century Read was the bigger one. Its because Victorian society saw her as more moral due to being loyal to a lover instead of cheating on her husband like Anne. Victorians didn't like the cross dressing part but they still liked her more. But skip to the 1930s and technicolor pirate films feature more feminine pirates based on Anne due to the Hayes Code restricting what women could wear on camera for the most part. By the time this ends in the 1960s pirate films are kinda dead and its the Bonny types that remain popular to this day.

[@jillatherton4660]

👍

[@DG-iw3yw]

Damn so that movie i saw about lesbian pirates i saw WAS factually accurate! I cant wait to tell everyone

[@Grebeny]

Good shit, I just want to say that all actual historical female pirates (even if they are not from the golden age) are way more badass from Anne and Mary, even if we look at their made up story.

[@thedictationofallah]

On a scale from 1-11 how much would do you hate that book, General History of the Pyrates

[@GoldandGunpowder]

I don't hate it

[@darthaegismissle7388]

@@GoldandGunpowder so is that a Zero or a One?

[@patrickrichards2577]

✨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿✨🥰✨👍✨♥️✨🤗✨.

[@patrickrichards2577]

✨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿✨😳✨😱✨🏴‍☠️✨.

[@GAIVSCALIGVLA]

I WILL make Mary my girlfriend and I WILL fix her. Good video though.

[@ThursonJames]

Sounds like some Feminist nonsense. Of course the women were more badass than the men. Super plausible. 😬