French Swordsmistresses - 08/28/06 Anne’s instruction in swordfighting, mentioned in passing, is an extrapolation I have made from history. Here’s the thing: men sent to sea were typically sailors. Not many sailors have to worry about the finer aspects of swordplay. If you’re in a merchant vessel, then as today buying your way out of a fight is a better way to go. If you’re on a warship, the marines and soldiers on board take care of the fighting. A sailor – sails. Hence the name. But life at sea is not all sailing. Once your sails are set and your watch is in the crow’s nest and at the bow, no one besides the cook has much to do. If you’re a pirate, do you simply lay around, or do sailors’ jigs to the hornpipe? No! You learn how to fight. Most pirate fighting was brutish and nasty. In boxing and other blood sports today, there are a couple of rules: don’t hit below the belt, don’t hit a man who’s down, and don’t bite anyone’s ear off. In pirate fighting, the only rule is, He who is not dead at the end wins. In this sort of fight, women have a bit of an advantage. For one, they don’t have the obvious vulnerability. For another, they have secret weapons attached to their bodies that give most men pause. A bare-breasted woman in a fight will cause most men who’ve been out to sea for months to at least pause and look – and that’s long enough. But I digress a little. Pirates and sailors fight with the weapons at hand. Sometimes that’s a sailor’s knife with no blade guard (looks a lot like a big paring knife), and sometimes it’s a boat hook, a net, a harpoon, or a rope. Most pirates, though, learned a little bit about using a cutlass or a machete. These swords (or long knives, as many people consider machetes to be) have little decoration, and are short enough and plain enough to not get fouled on sail or rope or any of the hundred other things that clutter a deck. In close quarters, a machete can be wielded quickly and effectively, mowing down men like bamboo. They are not graceful weapons. But they are effective. Now to the women. In the 1600s, a peculiar character arose primarily in France: the female swordsperson. She often, but not always, dressed as a man, and was admired and sought after as a guest. I suppose the French found her dashing. Typically, she was said to be better at her trade than men were. Many French swordswomen fought duels over both male and female lovers, and they were often accepted at court. I tell you about these women in order to make a point: despite our 21st century preconceptions, a woman fighting with a sword was not as peculiar as we may think. Though it was not acceptable for women to tote swords around town, it was not at all surprising to find she had been trained in fencing and swordplay. Anne Bonny would have been unusual among the debutantes of old Charleston in sword practice. But her feisty nature would have been more surprising. It is recorded that she was an impressive swordswoman, and she was credited for teaching many men in her pirate crew how to use a sword effectively. Therefore, I have given her formal training. It makes sense to me. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho! - 08/25/06 Women in Anne Bonny’s time were in a peculiar position. Today, we often don’t appreciate the difficulties they went through. In the Americas, they could be servants, wives, debutantes (that was supposed to be Anne’s role), or independent widows. Typically, the lady with the most freedom was the widow, for she controlled her own money and, to a degree, her own fate. But there was a shortage of men. In New England, crippling wars with the Indians (King Philip’s War in the 1670s and King William’s War in the 1680s-90s) had literally decimated the population, killing about one in ten settlers. Most of the dead were men, leading to a gender imbalance and a preponderance of widows, those independent ladies. In the South, particularly around the Virginia and Carolina wetlands, yellow and dengue fever ravaged the settlers – again, especially the men. And throughout the region, men set out to sea and to war; press gangs from the British Navy roamed the streets, kidnapping young men still wet behind the ears; and courageous explorers – men, again – ventured beyond the Appalachians to open up the wilderness that lay there. This meant women were left alone. A lot. Any time there is a power vacuum, someone must step in to fill it. In this situation, it was the highly-capable women, who often had as much education as the men, who learned blacksmithing, bookselling, farming, and management. While you wouldn’t find a woman doctor or lawyer, you would find midwives and tavern keepers. And women left alone must also learn how to defend themselves. Anne Bonny would not have been in the precarious and exhilarating position of most of these women, of course; she was a pampered child of wealth. But her mother died when she was only eleven, catapulting her into a position of mistress of the home. At an early age, she had to learn the management of people, and how to police the plantation when her father was out of town. If a crisis arose, the overseer would have to get final approval of his actions from her. Add to this her impetuous nature, recorded in history, and it is easy to see why she learned how to fight, why she had genuine management skills (which will be important later in the story), and why she chafed at the role society lay at her feet: to be a wife and mother of a gracious plantation, nothing more. Previous Entries: Welcome - 08/23/06 |
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