Editing Piracy in the Caribbean (section)

===Anne Bonny and Mary Read===
{{main|Anne Bonny|Mary Read}}
[[File:General History of the Pyrates - Ann Bonny and Mary Read.jpg|thumb|[[Anne Bonny]] and [[Mary Read]], convicted of piracy on 28 November 1720]]

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were female pirates of the 18th century;<ref name="Liz 2007">Highleyman/ Liz.  "Who Were Anne Bonny and Mary Read?," ''Lesbian News'' 32, no. 11 (2007): 18.</ref> both spent their brief sea-roving careers under the command of [[John Rackham]]. They are noted chiefly for their sex, highly unusual for pirates. Their careers were both short, lasting only two months in 1720. After being captured following a brief fight with former privateer [[Jonathan Barnet]], Rackham, Bonny, Read and the rest of the crew were tried in [[Spanish Town]] [[Jamaica]]. Rackham and his crew were hanged, but when governor [[Nicholas Lawes]] sentenced Bonny and Read to death, they plead their bellies, meaning they were pregnant. Lawes immediately postponed their death sentence because no English court had the authority to kill an unborn child. Read died in prison around April 1721. There is no record of Anne being executed, nor is she heard from after 1720.<ref name="Liz 2007"/>