Anne Bonny and Mary Read (Radio Edit)

Greg Jenner is joined in the 18th-century Caribbean by historian and curator Hannah Cusworth and comedian Kemah Bob to learn about the swashbuckling lives of pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. These women and their adventures on the high seas have become the stuff of legend, helped along by the sensational account of their lives written shortly after their capture.

Though they are famous for the short period they spent together on a pirate ship, dressed as men to hide their true identities, the two had very different backgrounds. Anne was the well-off and rebellious daughter of a merchant and plantation owner in Carolina, while the working-class Mary already had experience dressing in men’s clothing and working as a sailor and soldier.

This episode traces their biographies, exploring their upbringings, romantic entanglements (with men and each other), and time aboard the pirate ship captained by the infamous Captain 'Calico Jack' Rackham, as well as their ultimate fate. And it looks at the wider context of the Caribbean, the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and the Golden Age of piracy which shaped their lives and choices, and asks what place they have in queer and trans histories of the period.

This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed.

Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Naomi Weaver
Written by: Naomi Weaver, Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Dr Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett
Senior Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse
Executive Editor: Philip Sellars