Times of the Islands Winter 2016/17

pirate with a notorious reputation, possibly with child, and
keep it a secret forever!
At least one story has it that Cormac also helped to get
back Anne’s child left behind in Cuba, whom she named
John after his assumed pirate father. It is not known what
happened to the second child she was carrying when
Calico Jack was hanged. Incredibly, good fortune seems
to have stayed with Anne for all of her life. Research suggests
that Anne went on to have eight more children and
lived to be 84 years old, dying in 1782. Left for us to
ponder is how Anne made the transition back to the life
of a wife, mother and southern belle after a year of swashbuckling
swagger and narrow escape from the gallows.
The full story of these amazing women has yet to be
told. The improbable trajectory of their intertwined lives
illuminates an early challenge to convention and order
in very unsettled time in early 18th century West Indies,
that could also be a part of the history of the Turks &
Caicos Islands. Just as important, it testifies to a sustained
tenacity and unflinching courage on a level rarely
seen, especially given the choices and predicaments these
women faced. We can only admire the masterful role-playing
of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, who defied their society
in the most violent manner while, at times, also successfully
integrating into it. They were hardly misfits, like most
of their pirate contemporaries. Rather, they were women
quite cognisant of their choices and determined their destiny
in an unforgiving world.
Almost three centuries later, their story speaks to us
as loud as ever, not just that they alone turned convention
on its head and mocked the injustice and limitations of
their day, but because for a brief moment in their lives
they were completely free, together, and mattered. a
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Ben Stubenberg is a contributing writer to Times of the
Islands with a passion for the history of the West Indies.
An avid watersports enthusiast, Ben is co-founder of the
sports and vacation adventure company Caicu Naniki,
providing swim lessons, paddleboard rentals and private
tours to North and Middle Caicos and Northern Haiti. He
can be reached at ben@caicunaniki.com.
Sources
Black, Clinton. Pirates of the West Indies.
Cordingly, David. Women Sailors, Sailors’ Women.
Eastman, Tamara J. and Bond, Constance. The Pirate Trial
of Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
Johnson, Captain Charles. A General History of the
Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates.
Times of the Islands Winter 2016/17 43