The Lies and Legend of Ann Bonny

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Few pirates have become as iconic as the famous female, Ann Bonny. We often find her depicted as an Irish redhead with a hot temper and a fierce sword-arm, and always in the company of her dashing lover, Calico Jack. There are many stories surrounding the notorious femme fatale, some of them conflicting. She was crossdressing, but heavily pregnant. She had a lesbian relationship with Mary Read. Her father was a wealthy lawyer. So, which one of them is true?
None of them.
Modern sources
Daniel Defoe, Nathaniel Mist, and the "General History of the Pyrates" - Arne Bialuschewski
Pirates In Their Own Words - E.T Fox
Dictionary of Pyrate Biography - Baylus C. Brooks
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
3:05 Fictional origins
6:09 The Cormac Theory
9:15 Relationship with Rackham
14:51 Piratical career
19:06 Visual appearance
#pirates #history #annebonny

[@GoldandGunpowder]

More videos on The Rackham Gang: John Rackham: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3y2i4pqr7mkm80 Mary Read: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qn2rg6Vrj6qUa7s

[@MegaTang1234]

So the "A general history of Piracy" is basically the "Historia Augusta" of Golden age Piracy?

[@justinwilliam6534]

Well the general history of the pirates book does exaggerate details about famous pirates but they are still famous regardless.

[@TheZackofSpades]

Whenever I hear the variety (and conflicting) notable pirate biographies…I’m reminded of a great Joker quote: “if I’m going to have a backstory, I’d prefer it to be multiple choice”

[@nick0875]

3:37 This backstory about Ann's birth is weird, its like the author wasn't satisfied with a simple affair between a maid and a lawyer that produced a child.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Its straight up stage play theatrics being written as truth

[@SIG442]

"Anne" In both Dutch as Frisian languages do speak the 'e' on the end. So there is still a possibility that "Anne" would be the right name just as much as "Ann" is. It just depends on where she came from and who speaks her name in that sense. Also the name "Bonny" could be derived from the French name "Bonnet", which would give her a potential French heritage instead. The Dutch image, those holsters for axes were a thing since early medieval times. They were usually used by woodcutters. The odd pistols were actually sometimes done as it would be handier on board as the hook style pistols could get coughed on the clothing a lot easier. So for that it isn't too far fetched. 22:31 That pirate flag in the back is however a fake one, was just a re-imagination.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

This is true with Anne, but for an English born girl, the inspiration would probably either be Anne Boleyn the mother of Elizabeth, or Queen Anne if born during her reign. Bonny is, interesting as you are right. Although it wouldn't be Bonnet. Bonny is more closely related to the French word Bon which means good. Notably one of Anne Bonnys aliases is Ann Bonn. Bon has a Latin origin that also basically translated to good. In Scotland, Bonny isn't a surname but a word that means pretty that by the mid 18th century was spelled Bonnie, eventually itself becoming a given name. Yes I did research on this. There isn't a lot to go on with Anne Bonny so you damn well bet I dug into that name hard as I could.

[@merafirewing6591]

Female pirates really are very rare and uncommon. But damn, Anne Bonny's story is completely confusing.

[@antonbrakhage490]

It's not, really. You just have to go read the actual historical records (mainly the trial transcripts, though there are a few others that mention her, most notably the letter by Gov. Woodes Rogers declaring her, Mary Read, Rackham and company pirates). You can find them easily enough on the internet. They don't even require embellishment to make a good story- the details that are in them are amazing enough (yes, she and Mary Read did engage in and were tried for piracy; yes they dressed in male clothes but not to hide their identities, everyone identified them as women; yes they were sentenced to hang but got a reprieve due to pregnancy). The main problem is the documents almost exclusively cover a period of about 4 months where they were pirates and then put on trial, and give very little about their personal lives. So almost anything outside of that brief period is either educated guesses/probability based on general information about the period, documents where we can't be sure whether it's the same Ann Bonny or Mary Read or someone else with the same name (made harder by the fact that Ann Bonny could have been an alias), or pure speculation (pretty much everything about who they were romantically/sexually involved with probably falls in this category, unless you take A General History of the Pyrates at face value, which, you really shouldn't).

[@jacktribble5253]

It isn't popular to be realistic. Most find reality a downer.

[@jasondohrman7098]

Who knows what crazy stuff went on back then. Great video and thanks for entertainment!! Love it!!!

[@lukef5370]

I have a question and an idea for a possible video.. Did pirates ever counterfeit silver and gold? How did people test for purity in the Golden Age of piracy? Other than biting gold coins, like in movies. I've never heard anything on this subject. I'm very curious on how currencies worked back then. 🤔

[@eazy8579]

I’m not well read on 17th and 18th century methods, but I know through that in the early medieval period silver was tested using touch stones to determine the quality of it. I have one I use for my kit

[@unknowntrooper_2791]

Fun and good video once more. Really balanced and factual approach. Cheers! 🏴‍☠

[@jackrice2770]

"Captain" Johnson's book should not be used as an historical source, except as an example of the popular fiction of its day. Even the best historical novelists (the Wolf Hall series comes to mind) have to add, and sometimes subtract, from their historical sources, and even well-documented figures (good ol' Henry VIII comes to mind) can engender fierce debates about 'the truth'. Having written an historically-based novel (notice I say "historically-based", not "historical") about pirates, I can tell you it's rather difficult to do. The simple fact is that history and biography don't conform to good narrative structure, thus there are people who read 'historical fiction' and people who read 'history'. I chose to use historical names and places, as well as more-or-less historically accurate settings, equipment, behavior, etc. but decided it was more appealing for the reader to create fictional circumstances, relationships and add purely fictional characters to serve as composites of real people who might have existed at the time of the narrative. Maybe a hundred years from now someone will use it as an historical source, but I'll be long past feeling chagrin (or anything else.) It's rather humorous that a complete non-entity and professional failure like Rackham is so famous because he happened to have a couple of women with him when he was caught looting fishing canoes and little cargo pinnaces, while no one seems interested in doing a really good book/movie about someone like Henry Avery. Blackbeard is famous because his career is pretty well documented, same for Kidd, who I would argue wasn't really a pirate, more a victim of circumstance and politics. Let me conclude by saying how much I appreciate someone like you who approaches the subject with discipline, honor and honesty. Storytellers like me just love finding a source we can rely upon for detail and context. Yes, I tell lies for money, which is probably the second-oldest human profession. Let me sit by your fire, give me a bowl of stew, some bread and plenty of alcohol and I'll tell you a rip-snorting yarn to divert you from your day-to-day slog. Best to all arm-chair adventurers out there. "Once upon a time...".

[@hueylongdong900]

im dissappointed about the lack of hot chocolate in this story

[@GoldandGunpowder]

believe me we all are

[@thedictationofallah]

weym?

[@MChagall]

The E in Anne doesn't have to be silent. It depends on the language.

[@bookofroger]

Big spoon little spoon?

[@c704710]

There is no spoon.

[@TheRiverPirate13]

The reality is we will never know what Anne Bonny actually looked like other than the description in the testimony at the trial. Everything else is speculation or educated guessing. However, the two things are indisputable. Two women pirates on a ship were unusual and very scandalous to readers. Sex sells and her Pirate story was 18th century porn. I often wonder when I visit Nassau Bahamas in Pirate garb (my character is Johan Gillette aka The River Pirate) that I am walking on the same ground Anne Bonny did.

[@kalashnikovdevil]

Always the wonderful part about places like Nassau. So many men and women who are now myths and legends walking those streets.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Honestly with Anne I'd say most is speculation and educated guesses are at a minimum. In all reality she was probably an ordinary woman of her times who perhaps didn't live a particularly notable life outside of two months in 1720. But that's enough to become famous due to reader interest. That's itself interesting.

[@TheRiverPirate13]

@@LadyTylerBioRodriguez Agreed! We have an accord! 🏴‍☠️

[@thecreweofthefancy]

Spoons

[@arthurread9164]

A movie or TV series about Anne Bonny and Mary Read is long overdue,two announced in the past never got made.Bo Derek was to play her in a movie about Anne 1980 but she broke up with her husband who was to make the movie so it never got made.In 1993 a movie named Mistress of The Seas,was announced based on a book about Anne Bonny but the Studio ran out of money when a previous pirate movie they made named Cutthroat Island was a flop so it like the 1980 movie never got made.

[@user-bv7zo6vd4m]

3:22 if I removed every redundant letter in the English language it would become a different language

[@mageillus]

Oh God not another Anne Bonny vid… oh wait… it’s a GnG video! 😏🍿

[@Nicholas-ch5ln]

Can you do a videp on the inaccuracies and accuracies of black flag

[@theromanorder]

Its been really cool to see how you have growen, im proud To help fuel your future here are some video ideas, Comands that could be given on ships (for combat and ship movement ect) Cross sections of some ships (have fun)

[@0box0man0]

I know it's a small detail, but could her last name also have been Fulsord??

[@patrickrichards2577]

✨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿✨🥰✨👍✨♥️✨🤗✨.

[@isaiahscobel]

YOOOOOO TITTY PIRATE

[@wolfthegreat87]

TITTY PIRATE TITTY PIRATE

[@patrickrichards2577]

✨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿✨🤔✨☠️✨🧐✨😵‍💫✨🤯✨.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

Jesus the spoons! Boy its the most relatable statement. Its so mind numbingly boring and dull and confusing and why would anyone write this.

[@merafirewing6591]

Because they're bored.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

@@merafirewing6591 No its clearly attempting to do comedic joke that was era specific.

[@NicholasJovian]

Two words: soap opera. It's 1700s soap opera. Compare with Telanovela today, or (honestly) a couple of Shakespeare's earliest plays.

[@thedictationofallah]

Maybe the spoon thing was a caribbean folktale.

[@LadyTylerBioRodriguez]

​@@thedictationofallahNot really. The misunderstanding has a spectacular long history on London theater though. Shakespeare is not above a misunderstanding pushing the plot forward and in a more comedic story, a misunderstanding over something trivial like spoons does occur.

[@jelkel25]

I (obviously) don't know how "original" the back story was then but it's been repurposed and recycled beyond the wildest expectations of an Environmentalist since. I strongly suspect it was a total hack job then but I'm lead to believe the book trade was not an easy life in those days, there were counterfeits of successful books pretty quickly so you weren't going to take the time to create a masterpiece, give the people what they want and move on.

[@matteodariba6064]

wait wait wait, jack rackham was never caled calico jack ?

[@NicholasJovian]

Not in his lifetime. c.f. the video on Rackham

[@captainjackkenway9606]

Not sure id ever find someone talking about pirate history talking about coomers and simps but it was hilarious nonetheless. Also WHY DOES EVERYONE PRONOUNCE CARIBBEAN WRONG AAAAARRRGH

[@mattparker9726]

hot redheads are hot.

[@jamierobinson3349]

Listening to your take on the history of Anne Bonny is listening to constant contradictions. In one sentence you speak about her as if she was completely fictional, and then in the next sentence admit to her being a Pirate on Jacks ship with Mary Read adorned with machetes and pistols. Sounds like a Pirate to me. Followed by more dismissive talk about her being a Pirate followed by more obvious recorded history, her trial etc...again sounds like a Pirate to me. Dude, as much as your attempting to discredit her actual records and your own words here do otherwise. And before anyone here attacks me for my comment, I'm only pointing out the obvious. 🎩