🏴☠️ TREE 350: Unruly Figures – Anne Bonny
Every Monday in February, Valorie Clark has shared an episode of her fascinating podcast Unruly Figures. We’ve had art with Jean-Michel Basquiat, love with Edward VIII and Rosa Parks’ part in the struggle for civil rights. We finish with a pirate. Always finish with a pirate seems like sensible advice. Thank you for being part of TREE this month, Valorie! —Jeff
The 1700s weren’t the easiest time to grow up female. Children like today’s hero Anne Bonny were limited in what they could do with their lives. Their only options were pretty much get married or move into a convent.
Anne Bonny – born Anne Cormac around 1700 in Old Head of Kinsale, a small town near Cork, Ireland – didn’t love either option for herself. She did marry someone, a sailor named James Bonny, from whom she gets her famous name. But their marriage wasn’t the happiest, and when she met Captain “Calico” Jack Rackham in Nassau, she didn’t hesitate to run off with him and take up the jolly life of piracy.
Sailing the Caribbean together, Anne became Jack’s trusted lieutenant and his equal in sword and pistol. They spent a couple happy years together outrunning British ships and stealing from the ones who got in their way.
In October 1720, they were caught. But when a crew of British colonial sailors boarded their ship, ready to fight the pirates or bring them in, they only found Anne Bonny and Mary Read on the deck, ready for battle. The two women, armed with cutlasses and pistols, fought off several of their attackers, but were eventually taken in.
At her trial, Anne was sentenced to death, but with a temporary stay due to pregnancy! Her death was delayed until after she gave birth, but that’s the last record history has. How she escaped (and where to!) remains a mystery.
Arrr! me hearties, etc.!
TREE is not about current events. It is about living well in the actual existing world. Right now, an existing world is in quite a state. I’ve written eight thoughts about watching wars. You might find them useful.
Grow slowly
Jeff
 | A guest post by
|
I’m there in 1720 and the music is most beautiful. Thanks for a great start to an imaginative day full of possibilities. I’m going to get my rv filled with propane for the trip this week. I’m going to explore this music that is new to me all day. Blessings from Arizona at 8 am, Monday. I’m very positive everything is going to be alright, eventually. What are you waiting for?