page_title: Stede Bonnet
section_title: Popular culture
hierarchical_section_title: Stede Bonnet / Legacy / Popular culture
caption_attribution_description: Never my dear Stede Bonnet, did I dream you would see me in such plight: this was published in Frank R. Stockton (1902), Kate Bonnet - The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter, New York: D. Appleton, p. 260.
context_page_description: Stede Bonnet was an early eighteenth-century Barbadian pirate, sometimes called "The Gentleman Pirate" because he was a moderately wealthy land-owner before turning to a life of crime. Bonnet was born into a wealthy English family on the island of Barbados, and inherited the family estate after his father's death in 1694. In 1709, he married Mary Allamby, and engaged in some level of militia service. Because of marital problems, and despite his lack of sailing experience, Bonnet decided he should turn to piracy in the summer of 1717. He bought a sailing vessel, named it Revenge, and travelled with his paid crew along the Eastern Seaboard of what is now the United States, capturing other vessels and burning other Barbadian ships.
  Bonnet set sail for Nassau, Bahamas, to the haven for pirates known as the "pirates' republic", but he was seriously wounded en route during an encounter with a Spanish warship. After arriving in Nassau, Bonnet met Edward Teach, the infamous pirate Blackbeard. Incapable of leading his crew, Bonnet temporarily ceded his ship's command to Blackbeard.
context_section_description: Bonnet has been portrayed several times in literature. His life was turned into a story by Marcel Schwob in his book Imaginary Lives.  He is a major character in Tim Powers' On Stranger Tides, along with other famous piratical characters, particularly Blackbeard. In this novel, Bonnet takes up piracy after having been framed by Blackbeard, who has used Bonnet's hatred for his wife (only married two years in the novel) against him. Kate Bonnet: The Romance of a Pirate's Daughter, by 19th century author Frank Stockton, is a satirical novel relating the adventures of a fictional daughter of Bonnet named Kate. Portrayals of Bonnet also extend to video games, such as Sid Meier's Pirates! and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. In the 1941 film The Devil and Daniel Webster, the Devil summons Bonnet to join a Jury of the damned, announcing Bonnet and fellow seaman Floyd Ireson as "the fiendish butchers".
  A plaque commemorating Bonnet stands near Bonnet's Creek in Southport, North Carolina, on the Cape Fear River. The Yacht Basin Provision Company also holds an annual Stede Bonnet Regatta near Southport, commemorating the infamous pirate's dash for the ocean.
  The radio program This American Life produced a feature on May 5, 2017 on pirates. In the Prologue, host Ira Glass spoke to producer Elna Baker about the life of Stede Bonnet.
caption: Bonnet and his fictional daughter, Kate (Arthur Ignatius Keller, 1902)
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