For those of you who don’t know Anne Bonny and Mary Read were female pirates best known for sailing with John Rackam in the first have of the 18th century. Well, to be fair it could be argued that John Rackam is best known for having Anne Bonny and Mary Read as members of his crew. I’m not going to bore you with a whole lot of details but in a discussion with some other people they said that Mary Read and Anne Bonny were lovers. “That’s not how I remember it,” says I, but now I’ve got to prove it.
Johnson, Charles, Captain. “The Life of Mary Read.” A General History of the Robberies & Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates. 1724. Introduction David Cordingly.
Guilford, Connecticut: The Lyons Press, 2002.
“Her sex [Reads] was not so much as suspected by any person on baord, till Anne Bonny, who was not altogether so reserve in point of chastity, took a particular liking to her; in short, Anne Bonny took her for a handsome young fellow, and for some reason best known to herself, first discovered [Bonny had been hiding her sex from other members of the crew as well] her sex to Mary Read. Mary Read knowing what she would be at, and being very sensible for her own incapacity that way, was forced to come to a right understanding with her, and so to the great disappointment of Anne Bonny, she let her known she was a woman also;” (122)
From the way I read things they weren’t lovers but Capt. Johnson’s book certainly isn’t the end all be all of piratical lore. Does anyone else have any scholarly sources claiming Bonny and Read to be lovers?
Interesting question. Searching on-line, it certainly seems that the idea that Bonny and Read were lesbians is pretty widespread.
Not directly on topic, but David Cordingly’s Under the Black Flag notes that:
“The problem with their story is the lack of documentation for their early lives. The printed record of their trial and brief references in the colonial documents and contemporary newspapers provide information about the last year or two of their lives, but for the rest we have to rely on Captain Johnson, who is usually accurate but rarely indicates the source of his information.”
The author of this page (who appears to be a widely published author on homosexual history and seems to side with the idea that they were lovers) admits “evidence of their homosexuality is not so clear cut as we might wish, and at most they were bisexual…” In telling the story he relates Rackam’s discovery of Read’s gender thusly (without citing a source):
“bursting into the cabin one day with [killing Read] in mind, [Rackam] discovered Mary stretched out on the bed before Anne, not entirely clothed and visibly a woman.”
This seems to be the major basis for the theory that they were lesbians. He also mentions a lesbian biography of the two. I’m on spring break at the moment, but if you’re still interested in this, I can look over the book next week and see what its evidence is.
According to Captain Johnson when Rackham threatened to cut Read’s throat Bonny told him about her sex and everything was cool after that. Then Read went on to find a male lover during their travels.
Thanks, though it takes me far astray from my current research it’s always nice to know.
I haven’t read that one yet but I’ve heard some counters to his arguments.
#1. He compares pirate crews to modern convicts serving time. Well, pirates might be isolated on a ship for a period of time and likely far from home but they’re going to hit port once in a while and there will be women.
#2. He goes on to mention the lack of white women available to pirates in places like Spanish Main and the Caribbean. Well, I don’t care if you’re the Grand Wizard of the KKK, if you go long enough without seeing a woman suddenly her skin color becomes less of an issue. Besides, there is ample documentation of pirates, and other seafarers, taking the most “comely of negroes” in Madagascar or Indians in the Americas as their wives (sometimes more than one). Even Long John Silver married a negro woman.
It’s tough establishing who was and wasn’t homosexual back then I suppose. I shouldn’t really expect a definitive answer in either direction.
It’s been years since I read that book, but I don’t see this as a counter at all. One of Professor Burgs arguments was: ’ while obviously men isolated for a long time in a male-only environment (like prisons) will turn to homosexual activity for sexual gratification, these pirates did so when they were not isolated from women. Theirs was a voluntary choice to prefer homsexual activities.’
I don’t see it as much of compaison to convicts at all: he says convicts did so because they had to, pirates freely chose to do so.
(This is vastly over-simplified from what is in the book, of course.)