18 Facts About Mary Read

1.

Mary Read, known as Mark Read, was an English pirate.

2.

Mary Read began dressing as a boy at a young age, at first at her mother's urging in order to receive inheritance money and then as a teenager in order to join the British military.

3.

Mary Read then married and upon her husband's death moved to the West Indies around 1715.

4.

Mary Read's mother had married a sailor, with whom she had a son.

5.

Mary Read became pregnant again by another man and went to live with friends in the country to hide the shameful second pregnancy.

6.

At age 13, dressed as a boy, Mary Read found work as a foot-boy, and, then, employment on a ship.

7.

Mary Read later joined the British military, and the crew of a British Man of War.

8.

Mary Read later quit this and moved into Flanders where she carried Arms in a Regiment of Foot as a cadet and served bravely but couldn't receive a commission because promotion in those days was mostly by purchase.

9.

Mary Read moved on to a Regiment of Horse which was allied with Dutch forces against the French.

10.

Mary Read's ship was taken by pirates, whom she willingly joined.

11.

When Bonny told Mary Read that she was a woman because she was attracted to her, Mary Read revealed that she too was a woman.

12.

Speculation over the relationship between Bonny and Mary Read led to images depicting the two in battle together.

13.

Allegedly, Mary Read angrily shot into the hold, killing one, and wounding others, when the men would not come up and fight with them.

14.

Mary Read declared in front of the court that she had never committed Adultery and Fornication with any man of sorts on the ship.

15.

Mary Read commended the court before her but was ultimately tried after distinguishing the nature of her crimes.

16.

Mary Read disguising herself as a man and becoming a pirate in order to pillage and plunder is one thing that can be related to the concept of the cross-dressing woman warrior.

17.

Mary Read being seen as a transatlantic subject draws on the laboring class values, women warrior archetypes, as well as concepts of pirate freedoms.

18.

One last concept that can be interpreted with Mary Read is the idea of how they interacted in what is a predominantly male-dominated society.