Stede Bonnet was an unlikely candidate for piracy; he was an educated man and
served in the Royal Army as a major. After retirement from the military, he grew
wealthy as the owner of a large sugarcane plantation on Barbados. For some
reason, in 1717 Bonnet purchased a ship, the Revenge, hired a crew of seventy and
set sail out of Bridgetown Harbor and began to plunder ships in the Caribbean. This
is the only recorded incident of a pirate purchasing a ship.
No one is sure why Bonnet turned to piracy. One theory is that he suffered from a
"disordered mind". Another theory is that he rebelled against his comfortable life
and suffered what we would now call a "midlife crisis". Instead of buying a Corvette,
he bought a pirate ship. The most enduring and popular theory, however, was that
Bonnet turned to the sweet trade to escape his nagging, shrewish wife.
It didn’t take Bonnet’s crew long to determine that he was not much of a pirate. He
suffered from seasickness, dressed in fine clothes and wore a powdered wig. He
was a refined gentleman who rarely drank and spent most of his time reading in his
cabin. That was not the profile of a typical pirate. The crew was talking mutiny with
plans to strand Bonnet on a deserted island until the Revenge crossed paths with
the infamous Edward Teach – "Blackbeard".
An odder couple would be hard to imagine: Blackbeard - brutish and flamboyant,
with flaming beard and wild hair; and Stede Bonnet – a pudgy little gentleman dandy
wearing snow-white breeches and a powdered wig. Blackbeard quickly realized that
Bonnet’s crew was unhappy with their captain. He convinced Bonnet that since the
gentleman was inexperienced, and not used to the rigors of pirate command, it
would be more productive if they threw in together. Blackbeard offered to put one of
his men on board so that Bonnet could live a more relaxed lifestyle on his vessel.
Three weeks later, May 1718, Blackbeard’s six-ship pirate fleet blockaded
Charlestown harbor, with Bonnet on board the Revenge as “captain-of-leisure”. The
pirates pillaged nine vessels and held several prominent
citizens hostage, including Samuel Wragg, a member of the Governor’s Council.
With these hostages at his mercy, Blackbeard effectively held the city of Charles
Town in his control for several days. The pirates freely
roamed the city’s taverns and brothels, ransacking businesses, sampling
merchandise and women, and attacking anyone who put up resistance. As long as
the hostages remained in Blackbeard’s control the populace was powerless to
retaliate. Finally, in exchange for rations, gold, and medical supplies, South
Carolina Governor Johnson was able to buy the release of the hostages. Blackbeard
sailed unmolested out of the harbor with more than £1500 of gold and silver and
made a beeline for Teach’s Hole.
Blackbeard advised Bonnet that to make it more difficult for South Carolina
authorities to chase them down, it would be better for the pirate fleet to separate. He
suggested they lie low for several weeks and explore the possibility of obtaining
pardons from the North Carolina governor. Bonnet and ten of his men went ashore to
obtain provisions and inquire about the pardons. As soon as they were gone,
Blackbeard transferred everything of value onto his vessels, scuttled the Revenge,
and left the rest of Bonnet’s crew stranded on a sand bar. Bonnet returned a week
later and discovered what had happened. He rescued his men and set work
repairing the Revenge, which he renamed Royal James.
After the Blackbeard blockade, South Carolina Governor Johnson asked Colonel
William Rhett to hunt down and capture the pirates terrorizing the Carolina coast.
Rhett, a well-proven soldier, outfitted two ships, Sea Nymph and Henry, with 130
men and armament. Governor Johnson outfitted four more ships and over the next
two weeks he personally commanded an expedition to root out other pirates south of
Charles town . Johnson's force killed twenty-six pirates and nineteen others were
brought back to town for trial.
Rhett left Charles town and headed north with the intention of locating and capturing
Blackbeard. Within a week, Rhett discovered Bonnet refitting the Royal James in the
Cape Fear River. Bonnet hurriedly tried to sail downriver to the open sea, but the
Henry intervened and was able to maneuver the Royal James onto a shoal. In the
process, both the Henry and Sea Nymph ran aground as well. However, the Henry
was within firing range of the Royal James and, as the tide gradually came in, the
two ships fought fiercely for two hours, cannons booming and muskets blazing.
Rhett's ships floated free first and they moved into position. The Charles town men
stormed the Royal James and overpowered Bonnet and his crew of thirty-five.
The pirates were returned to Charlestown and imprisoned in the bastion guardhouse
(in the dungeon beneath the present day Exchange Building ). Bonnet was almost
immediately greeted by a group of prominent gentlemen, those same scoundrels
who had profited from their secret dealings with the pirate. They feared that if the
pirate appeared before a judge, the facts of their business relationship would be
revealed. Public reaction would be strong against them. Bonnet’s friends arranged
to have the “gentleman” pirate placed under house arrest, and along with his
lieutenant, David Herriot the dandy was quartered at the mansion of the town
marshal. The sentries guarding the house were bribed, and in the middle of the
night, Bonnet and Herriot escaped, with the dandy disguised as a woman. They used
a small boat supplied by a sympathizer to escape to Sullivan's Island . The next
morning their absence was discovered and Colonel Rhett formed a posse to re-
capture Bonnet.
By the end of that first day, Rhett and a group of fifteen men located the pirate’s
hideout on Sullivan’s Island . Herriot was killed during the skirmish and Bonnet
surrendered, still wearing a dress .The "gentleman” pirate was shackled in the
dungeon the night before his crew was marched to the gallows at White Point
Gardens. Bonnet was brought to trial in front of Justice Nicholas Trott's court.
Bonnet pleaded his case, but was sentenced to be hanged. Bonnet sent urgent
pleas to the governor to repeal the sentence. Several townspeople came forward to
ask for his pardon, but Governor Johnson was unmoved by their pleas.
On December 10, 1718 , Stede Bonnet was hanged at White Point Gardens ,
weeping on the gallows. His body dangled for several days before it was dumped
into the low tide mud. Today, a marker at White Point Gardens memorializes the
event and the location of the executions. He never disclosed the real reason he
became a pirate.
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Stede Bonnet
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Bonnet's Jolly Roger
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Blackbeard
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Blackbeard's Jolly Roger
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