“Pirates, they attack with force. The upper crust, they strike with cutting remarks disguised as politeness.” So Stede Bonnet, self-described Gentleman Pirate, advises Blackbeard, the most feared pirate in history, on HBO Max’s comedy Our Flag Means Death. Set in 1717, the show follows Bonnet through a midlife crisis he attempts to solve by becoming a pirate. Bonnet and Blackbeard become unlikely companions, one with insight into high society protocols and the art of passive aggression, and the other with a notorious resume of bloody plundering, a dynamic that propels much of the show’s comedy.
Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard.
What viewers may not realize, however, is that Bonnet and Blackbeard (né Edward Teach) were historic figures, both appearing in A General History of the Pyrates, written by an unknown author under the penname of Captain Charles Johnson and published in 1724. The book was wildly popular in Britain, and its sensational tales from the high seas captured the public’s imagination. It was influential to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island as well as J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, and, of course, the showrunners of Our Flag Means Death.
Bonnet, Johnson notes, was a well-regarded member of society before he turned to piracy. Trying to understand why someone would give up wealth and social status for an outlaw existence, the author speculates that Bonnet had “been occasioned by some Discomforts he found in a married State.” Our Flag Means Death offers a queer interpretation of this line (which is also the title of episode four in season one), and of Bonnet’s 1717 liaison with Blackbeard and his crew. While the fates of both characters deviate from the story presented in A General History of the Pyrates, the show reminds viewers that history is open to interpretation.
The book also highlights “the remarkable Actions and Adventures of the two Female Pyrates,” Mary Read and Anne Bonny, listing them prominently on the title page. Unlike the accounts detailing male piracy, the chapter on Read focuses on her romantic relationships, including that with Anne Bonny, “who took a particular liking to her.” While Johnson glosses over their relationship, in Our Flag Means Death Read and Bonny appear as longtime lovers and antique store owners, unhappily retired from a life at sea. Still, the account in A General History of the Pyrates reveals how the lawless environment of the open sea offered the opportunity for freedom of gender expression and sexual orientation in an otherwise restrictive society.
A General History of the Pyrates is part of the UB Rare & Special Books Collection and was generously donated by Dr. Richard V. Lee and Susan B. Lee.