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A General History of the Pyrates - Johnson (1725) - Coggle Diagram
A General History of the Pyrates - Johnson (1725)
What's queer about pirate life? Why might Cpt. Johnson be concerned about publishing pirate stories?
Preface
concerns over geography
English crisis over post-war labor (men who sail) (see Dutch fisheries)
a crisis of queer labor/job unemployment creates queer sailors
a queer disruption of hetero conjugal marriage
steal (from home country);
they are "vermin"
cowardly "in their holes"
Mary Read
economically precarious childhood; breaking down of conjugal family
the use of "it" (158
this authorizes a gender variant raising of Read (158)
"she thought it proper to let her nto the Secret of her Birth" (158)
"a roving mind" (158) (pseudo-psychology about ambiguous upbringing) aligns violence with masculinity, (of course she'd want military cause man)
when "love" comes up, she is seen as "mad" and she is in love.
oops a widow, back to "Man's attire"
Her Pyrate Career: "fight like a man"
heterosexuality keeps interrupting her pyrate life (oops, in love)
Anne Bonny
conceived out of wedlock with the maid and her father (while "lying in" -- a time of confinement for pregnant women often in 3rd trimester to secure safety of pregnancy)
the "lying in" reminds readers of Mr. Bonny's degeneracy; queer threats to the conjugal family FROM CONCEPTION
the silver spoons scandal: shows these pirates "don't come from good familieis"; more broken homes narratives
he loves his daughter, so it shapes the gender variance differently than Read
Father: I have to dress you up like a guy, I guess?
hints at and gives into predisposition for childhood violence: "fierce and courageous temper" (171)
dropping off a baby in Cuba reaffirms a lack of investment in hetero-reproductive conjugal family