Our Flag Means Death: The Real Pirates That Jim Is Based On
Warning: contains SPOILERS for Our Flag Means Death.
Jim (Vico Ortiz) in the HBO comedy Our Flag Means Death is the only female pirate aboard the Revenge, whose character was inspired by real life pirates. Our Flag Means Death puts a comedic interpretation on the true story of Stede Bonnet, a Barbadian pirate in the 18th century who once worked with Edward "Blackbeard" Teach. Also called the "Gentleman Pirate" for his aristocratic background and demeanor, Bonnet is regarded by some historians to be one of the most incompetent pirates in history. The show is created by David Jenkins, with Taika Waititi (Thor Ragnarok, JojoRabbit)being one of the show's executive producers who also stars as Blackbeard.
As accurate as the show is to the true story's general specifics, Our Flag Means Death changes real life in a few ways. Revenge's crew, for example, consists of fictionalized characters due to no available record of who was part of the ship's 70-man crew. Pirates often grew their crews by kidnapping men from captured ships, taking in runaway slaves and indentured servants, or accepting desperately unemployed people. In Our Flag Means Death, Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) gathers an eight-man crew for his ship, who all found piracy as a last-ditch measure in life. In Jim's case, she became a pirate after murdering one of the several husbands of bar-owner Spanish Jackie (Leslie Jones), a powerful pirate queen in her own right in the Republic of Pirates.
Related: Our Flag Means Death Makes A Big Mistake With Its Blackbeard Flag
Jim, whose real name is Bonifacia Jiminez, isn't based on a real person, just like the rest of the crew in Our Flag Means Death. However, her character is inspired by real-life female pirates Mary Read and
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