Men and Women in Pirating
Pirates were mostly male but there was a small minority of female pirates.
Male pirates were almost the same as they are stereotyped now in modern-day movies and books. Most were prejudiced against women with their belief that they were bad luck, and some captains would get their crew to actually sign contracts saying that they wouldn’t ever bring a woman on the ship.
The most common reason pirates dealt with women was for business. As men of the households left for war, many women stepped up to take care of their father’s, brother’s, husband's and son’s businesses. They would be allowed to trade, own ships, and other male-dominated jobs. They could be innkeepers and the heads of alehouses- where the women met lots of pirates, as they drank a lot.
In their inns they would provide hospitality for the pirates, buy illegally pirated goods and sometimes even hand out loans. When authorities came looking for pirates that the women were dealing with, they would even hide them.
Women also interacted with pirates by marrying them. This was uncommon because sending goods and booty to the wives waiting at home was not easy. The wives did not go pirating with their husbands. When pirates did come to town though, the wives were favoured, and often gave their houses as safe havens for other pirates.
The least common and closest interaction the women had with pirates was actually becoming one themselves. This was rare, for many reasons.
1.Most women would rather be at home with their family, cooking and cleaning,
as was normal in those days.
2.Pirates thought women were bad luck to a ship.
3.Most women also lacked the physical strength to do most of the work on the
ship. Infact, some men were not capable of running a ship either.
It was not uncommon for female pirates to actually have no one know they were female. They would dress up as men and pretend that was what they were if they were on a ship with pirates that were prejudiced to females.
In the Caribbean a lot of female pirates were identified by the way they dressed. They had a very unique appearance specific to their gender and culture. In most movies you see today, female pirates are dressed the same as male pirates, but that is not entirely accurate. Women would incorporate random items from the ship into their outfits, an example being the fishing nets, which fish-net stockings originated from.
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