Charles Town, South Carolina. The Year of our Lord 1755

It was rare for a woman, any woman, much less a silver-haired, 56-year-old woman, to own and manage a large plantation.

But then, Anne Cormac was a rare woman.

In addition to her other business and philanthropic enterprises, Anne Cormac owned and operated the highly successful Goose Creek Plantation—400 acres of prime farmland which produced fine, long-strand cotton, a substantial indigo crop, rice, fodder for the animals and vegetables for her household. Miss Anne, as she was known, was a fixture of Charles Town society. She was the money behind the local banks and factors who managed the trade through the Charles Town port. And she was the driving force in the development of Charles Town's Cormac Theater, renowned for rivaling the finest theaters in England and staging the best Shakespearean productions in the New World.

While Anne Cormac began and ended her life with that particular name, it was the name she used in the in-between time for which she was, and is, most widely known. For in her impetuous youth, Anne Cormac was known as:

Anne Bonny, the world's first female pirate.

This is her story. In her own words.