Book

The Life and Tryals of the Gentleman Pirate, Major Stede Bonnet

2020

Synopsis

Major Stede Bonnet was living the good life by the age of 28. Bonnet was a wealthy, well-married father of three children, and the family lived on a 400-acre estate on the lush Caribbean island of Barbados.

Then Bonnet had a "humor to go a-pirating," and left it all behind...

An heir to an established land-owning aristocratic family in Barbados, Major Stede Bonnet enjoyed luxuries equal to those of the finest houses in London. "A Gentleman of good Reputation" and a "Master of a plentiful Fortune," he was given "the Advantage of a liberal Education," but the call of the sea-and perhaps more significantly, the push of his obligations as a father and husband-cast Major Bonnet onto an unlikely and deliberate course toward piracy.

Easily likable, by friend and foe, many would be drawn to Bonnet. In his two short years of piracy, Stede Bonnet stood alongside some of the New World's most notorious pirates, including Charles Vane, Charles Condent (also known as "Billy One-Hand"), Robert Deal, "Calico" John Rackham, Israel Hands, Benjamin Hornigold, William Kidd, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, and the pirate to whom Bonnet would forever be connected, Edward Thatch (infamously known around the world as "Blackbeard"). Follow Major Bonnet through his improbable and exciting journey in the Golden Age of Piracy.

Suggested Reading

Blackbeard: The Hunt for the World's Most Notorious Pirate

"Blackbeard: The Hunt for the World's Most Notorious Pirate" is a non-fiction book by British author Craig Cabell, published in 2018. The book provides a historical account of the life and career of the infamous pirate Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, as well as the efforts by colonial powers...

Stede Bonnet: Charleston's Gentleman Pirate

Originally a wealthy plantation owner from Barbados, Bonnet abandoned his wife and children in 1717 to set sail on the pirate ship Revenge. He soon fell into company with Blackbeard in the Bahamas and headed for America. In May 1718, they arrived in Charleston and held the entire city hostage in a d...

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