Anne Bonny - Pirate Queen Pt. 2

and Mary still had everyone fooled to their true sex, convincing everyone that they were just regular sailors like the rest of Rackam's crew. At the trial, however, the truth came out as the record shows "Mary Read and Anne Bonny..charged with Piracies, Roberries, and Felonies." At the trial, Mary's lover, Tom Deane, won acquittal when he was able to prove that he was impressed into Calico Jack's service. Anne, Mary, Calico Jack and 8 others were sentenced to be hanged. Then Judge then asked if the condemned had anything to say in their defense. Both Anne and Mary replied. "Milord, we plead with our bellies." It turns out that both women were pregnant. British law prohibited the killing of unborn children, whatever the guilt of the mother, so both women were granted stays of execution. For Mary, she was unable to take advantage of the stay, she soon contracted a mysterious fever in prison and died, her unborn child with her. Anne was luckier, several locals had done business with her father in Carolina and interceded on her behalf. Anne Bonny escaped the gallows and returned to her father's house in South Carolina where her fate is unknown. Calico Jack Rackam went to the gallows in December 1720. On the day of execution, he asked for and received permission to visit Anne one last time to say good bye. Anne, however, gave him little solace, saying she was "sorry to see him here, but if he had fought like a man, he need not have been hang'd like a dog." With the death of Calico Jack, piracy in the Caribbean virtually ceased and the Queens of Piracy passed into history and legend.

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