Stede Bonnet T-Shirt

Stede Bonnet, dubbed the "Gentleman Pirate," was born in 1688 in Barbados to a prosperous English family, inheriting a sizable estate after his father’s death in 1694. A plantation owner and former militia major, Bonnet lived a comfortable life until 1717, when he abruptly left his wife, Mary Allamby, and four children to become a pirate, despite lacking any maritime experience. He commissioned a sloop called Revenge, outfitted it with ten guns, and hired a crew of over seventy, paying them wages rather than shares—a rarity in piracy. Operating along the American East Coast, he briefly partnered with Blackbeard, though his inexperience often showed. Captured in 1718 after a skirmish at the Cape Fear River, Bonnet was hanged for piracy in Charles Town, South Carolina, on December 10, 1718, remembered as an eccentric figure who traded privilege for a doomed outlaw life.