Hello lovely people!
Today we’re going to learn about gay pirates and add a fun, new character to my historical
profiles series: where we learn about the amazing people history class should have talked
about- the queer, disabled or feminist ones!
Having said that, I’m completely aware that some history teachers do actually play my
videos in their classes sometimes so…
- that’s a bit awkward now.
But I didn’t mean you! You’re a fun teacher!
- I mean, you probably even let everyone watch movies on the last day of term.
Madame Ching: The Most Powerful Pirate In History - she’s even in Pirates of the Caribbean!
Actual historical accuracy in a disney film! Who knew?!
Now, we’re led to believe that most pirates thought having a woman on your ship meant
ill fortune would befall you and… yeah, if Madame Ching and her tens of thousands
of merry men jumped on board your ship then ill fortune WAS soon to befall you! For she
was the Pirate Queen of China-
- self styled
She’d take your fortune and more if she got anywhere near your ship!
Goodness! I’m excited to tell you all about her. Don’t forget those of you joining us
for the first time to hit the ‘subscribe’ button below AND breaking news!
There are only 50 packs of the greetings card sets left in my merch shop and then they are
gone for good
so don’t delay, make sure you snap them up today
Did I say that for the rhyme?
Yes I did..
So, where did Madame Ching come from?
Well, like many historically important women or… unimportant women… little is known
about her early life. She was all but ignored by history until very recently and there is
scant documentation of her exploits, with, obviously, not much of it being in English.
The fact that she is known at all is largely due to the efforts of the scholar Dian Murray,
whose book ‘Pirates of the South China Coast, 1790-1810’ covers her exploits alongside
those of her husband.
We do know that she was Cantonese, born sometime around 1775, in Guangdong, and it’s believed
that she worked as a prostitute and/or a madame until in 1801 she married Cheng Yi, a very
well known pirate and the formidable commander of the Red Flag Fleet. Yi could trace his
family’s pirating roots back to the Ming dynasty.
- that’s between 1368 and 1644
So they were an OLD MONEY pirate family.
Sources differ on his motivation for marriage with the 26-year-old as some argue that it
was purely a business move intended to consolidate power and others say that it was because he
became infatuated with her beauty but I’d like to argue that since she flatout refused
to marry him unless she became a full and equal partner in the business with 50% shares…
She had some pretty attractive confidence too!
Following their marriage, Shih "participated fully in her husband's piracy" and became
known as Cheng Yi Sao (鄭一嫂; 'wife of Cheng Yi'). In records she is called Zheng
Shi, Madam Ching, Ching Shih and variations on these names: all of them mean wife or widow
of Cheng Yi. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End just went with ‘Mistress Ching’
And I would just like to take this opportunity to apologize for butchering the pronunciations
in this video. I’ve been spending a lot of time googling, and trying to lip pattern
from videos of Cantonese people saying the names
(yes my wife is half Chinese-Malaysian, no she doesn’t speak perfect, unaccented Cantonese)
hopefully I don’t butcher them too badly but if I do, please just slap a ‘deaf pass’
sticker on me and call it a day?
I’m working with what I’ve got and what I’ve not got is functioning ears.
Cheng Yi used his reputation and naval strength to bind former rivaling Cantonese pirate fleets
into a unified alliance and Ching Shih used the secrets she learned as a prostitute to
wield influence over the wealthy and politically connected power players in the area.
Soon they had unified many small groups of pirates into one massive fleet: a federation
of 70,000 men and 400 junk ships. Their coalition consisted of six fleets known by the colors
of blue, red, green, black, white, and yellow.
Into the marriage Cheng Yi brought an adopted son, Cheung Po Tsai, his sole legal heir,
into the relationship and together they had two more sons.
Six years into the marriage though, Cheng Yi died through… something. Might have been
suspicious. Might not have been. Can’t say.
- Reports state that he sailed directly into a storm and drowned, which is not in the least
bit fishy (!)
His death initially left Ching Shih in a precarious position: although she was his co-leader and
50% of everything was in her name, female pirate leaders were a rare phenomenon with
none up to this point!
- that we’re aware of. Pirates admittedly weren’t the best at writing down their illegal
activities. Which… Actually makes them pretty good outlaws.
Cheng Yi’s adoptive son and heir, Cheung Po Tsai, was originally the one to inherit
control of the Red Flag Fleet.
Which by the way is incredibly hard to say.
Red Flag Fleet
Unlike in Western countries, adoption of adults was often practiced in China at the time,
in order to establish a kinship basis for further interaction between families.
- There is also the pro that you already know how good a pirate someone will be before you
adopt them or whether they’ll be more of a gardener type… which would be a bit awkward
when you’re living on a ship, really.
Funny thing though… Cheung Po Tsai was more than just Ching Shih’s stepson–the young
fisherman had also been her husband’s lover!
- gasp!
Pirates!
- scandalous!
And gay!
- no really, quite, quite gay.
Strap in for a history romp.
In the 17th century, the pirate world was lived parallel to the traditional one, and
homosexual couples may have been the norm, not the exception. Their lives were oddly
egalitarian with same-sex civil partnerships and even… health insurance!
- minus the co-pays.
Sure, technically, it was illigal to engage in gay sex in many navies- Britain’s Royal
Navy punished ‘sodomy’ or ‘buggery’ with lashes and even hanging- but in reality,
captains found such relations useful onboard as they reduced tension and increased the
bond between men.
Pirates often recruited their crews from the merchant and military ships they attacked,
whose crews were already doing the deed, and it’s a lot easier to lure someone over with
‘hey that thing you like doing that you could be hung for if someone finds out…?
Well it’s a-okay with us!’
Piracy obviously also offered a release from the restrictions of society’s other sexuality
and gender based rules. You want to wear androdgenous clothing or go by a different name now? Go
for it!
Most of what we know about piracy in the west is actually born from buccaneers in the Golden
Age of Piracy, from the 1650s to the 1730s. Buccaneers were created on the island of Hispaniola
(which is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) in the Caribbean.
This had previously been a Spanish colony but by 1605 it had been abandoned by the colonisers
and thus became a haven for anyone wishing to escape them. Runaway slaves, mutinous soldiers
and sailors and protestants who fiercely opposed the Catholic Spanish, sheltered there together.
It was an almost entirely male society, so they lived in same-sex couples. Initially
they hunted the pigs and cattle roaming the island, which they smoked over a wooden barbecue
called ‘boucan’, earning them the name ‘buccaneers’. They would also sell the
hides and meet to passing ships.
The Spanish government worked hard to wipe out the buccaneers by destroying the animals
they hunted but this made them turn to piracy in a desperate attempt to survive. Because
that’s what happens when you make stupid plans, Spanish government, people steal your
gold!
Eventually this persecution even forced them off the island and onto the much smaller and
barren but more defensible island of Tortuga, off the north coast of Hispaniola.
- which is the one they go to in Pirates of the Caribbean!
Look at that coming full circle.
Tortuga was split between French and English colonies, which was excellent... because they
both hated the Spanish too! They were... less keen on the buccaneers’ more… homosocial
aspects however.
- The gay sex. They didn’t like the gay sex.
Don’t worry though, the French had a plan for that! Governor Jean Le Vasseur arranged
for up to 1,650 female prostitutes and petty criminals to be shipped from Paris to the
island. To which the buccaneers said
“Okay”
And continued their romps together. And their happy little lives that they had created in
their little homesteads. Now occasionally accented by women.
So here we have a new pirate community that had to start its own society, with new standards
and principals like… universal healthcare? Do we want that?
Well, being a pirate is generally pretty dangerous so: yeah!
And thus it was up to captains like privateer Captain Henry Morgan-
- that’s a state sponsored pirate, because the government didn’t like getting its hands
dirty, even then!
To draw up contracts with their crew before an attack. If they lost a hand or foot in
the battle, they would get 600 pieces of eight compensation.
That’s their money- pieces of eight.
Both legs were worth 1,800 pieces of eight, 200 for one eye and 2,000 if they became totally
blind.
I can’t tell you what that’s worth when adjusted for inflation but I’m still deeply
impressed.
Oh, and did they want to have gay marriage?
Well, a large number of them were already living in same-sex monogamous pairings so:
yeah!
- let’s gay up this pirate ship!
Their same-sex civil unions were called matelotage. Yes, mate- lotage. We all see what they did
there.
Those joined in matelotage shared all possessions, were called a ‘matelot’, (I love it) could
inherit property and choose to take punishment on the other’s behalf. Their relationship
was treated with solemn respect and would not be interfered with by other crew members.
- no matter how much you fancied one of the matelots!
But feelings of divergent sexuality weren’t the only freedoms outside the heteronormative
world that could be explored at sea… oh no, a small number of women also became pirates
and lived their lives as men to do so.
- although whether they would have identified as men or non-binary or ‘not woman’ had
they been given the language do to so we can’t say for sure because it’s difficult to apply
concepts that are so personal to historical figures…. We can’t just ask them!
Mary Read and Anne Bonny are the most famous female pirates and whilst both certainly spent
a large portion of their time living outwardly as men (and Mary had gone by the name of Mark
since childhood) it doesn’t appear that they identified solely as men, largely due
to how they referred to each other, so I’m going to hedge my bets and use female pronouns
but if someone else has a different interpretation or information then please correct me in the
comments.
So, Anne Bonny ’s father had stolen her away from his wife’s family when she was
young and dressed her as a young boy called ‘Andy’ to aid in his disguise. She grew
up with a fierce temper and had already started stabbing people by 13. She fled to the Bahamas
and began mingling with pirates.
- by which I mean getting drunk.
On the other hand, Mary Read, who was going by ‘Mark’ is said to have dressed as a
man to get honest (ish) work at sea but pirates took a ship she was on and forced her to join
them.
Read swapped ships onto the one owned by pirate Captain John ‘Calico Jack’ Rackham, where
she was bedazzled by his young and remarkably smooth faced lover, Bonny. Who didn’t bother
with niceties, latched right on and laid out her cards!
- I’m a woman and I’m VERY attracted to you!
To which Read said: excellent! Me too!
And a many merry night was had!
Until Calico Jack was like: um, excuse me, I thought this was my ship? Aren’t you meant
to be my lover? Do I need to make this new young scallywag walk the plank?!
And Anne Bonny said: don’t worry about it, she’s a woman too, we can just have a threesome,
everything is fine.
And that was fiiiine… for a bit.
- my god, lockdown clearly has me starved of human contact, I’m really getting into
this drama!
But then, they stole a ship from Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, recruited a crew and
captured many ships around Jamaica, amassing plenty of treasure. Again, great. But then…
On the 15th November 1720, Calico Jack’s crew were having a rum party on board when
a pirate hunter cornered them and stormed their ship!
Most of the men were too drunk to fight! Only Anne, Mary and one other pirate were alone
able to take on the hunters! Mary in fact got pretty angry about that and started shooting
the pirates themselves for not defending themselves which, is a pretty Mary thing to do.
Eventually the pirate hunters overwhelmed them. Rackham was sentenced to death and Anne’s
last words to him were: ‘Had you fought like a man, you need not have been hang’d
like a dog.’
Oooh… cold!
Especially considering the fact that Mary and Anne escaped immediate execution because
they were both pregnant with his babies!
Okaaay
Sadly it didn’t help Mary much as she died from a fever in prison. Anne however escaped
into the mist of history and was never captured again.
The gay history of pirating is rarely told but it’s there, front and centre, and it
shows how novel societies, created from scratch outside of the mainstream involve things that
are, uh… maybe common sense? Like healthcare. And gay marriage. And wearing whatever you
want and calling yourself whatever you want.
- Probably don’t steal other people’s gold though. That’s not great.
Flying back across the world to Ching Shih, although many things about pirating remained
the same in the East as in the West- being ‘okay with the gay’ for one thing- a magor
difference was that there was no stigma attached to women being on board a ship, or being bad
luck for the ship.
In Southern China, male and female couples lived together on the water, sharing in the
work and responsibilities equally. From fishing junks to pirate ships and everything in between,
women worked alongside men, and the captain's wife often succeeded her husband in the event
of his death.
Nevertheless, it wouldn’t have been easy for anyone, much less a pirate’s widow,
to control so many outlaws. She clearly had her work cut out for her!
And her first step was to neutralize the threat her husband’s gay lover-slash-adopted son
and heir posed. By marrying him.
Yep, she took Cheung Po as her lover and maneuvered herself back into power, obtaining leadership
of the Red Flag Fleet once again but this time it wasn’t a 50-50 split with her husband.
Oh no, this time it was all Ching Shih.
Under her leadership the Red Flag Fleet flourished!
With her keen business mind she ruled from the Yellow Sea to the Straits of Malacca with
a simple strategy: don’t waste time robbing merchant ships once they’ve left the ports,
just plunder entire wealthy towns!
Since the turn of the nineteenth century, poverty in China had been on the rise. Granted
the imperial court in Beijing and the mandarins were enveloped in luxury but the rural areas
were getting poorer and poorer.
Like a machiavellian Robin Hood, she would steal from the wealthy areas, charge them
a fee to stop the pirates from coming back then redistribute some of that wealth to the
impoverished countryside, earning her their loyalty and more importantly, a supply of
food, recruits and clean water.
- Oh don’t worry, she wasn’t soft though. She definitely murdered people, don’t worry.
Also got really rich. Everything you want in a pirate queen really (!)
However, whilst her pirates were adept at pillaging and general outlaw life they were
also forced to uphold a strict code of conduct. Absolutely no one was allowed to steal from
the common stock of treasure or from any of the villages that supplied them with food
and water on pain of beheading! No orders could be given that did not originate from
Ching Shih and no superior could be ignored… on pain of beheading.
Rape was explicitly prohibited as was cheating on your wife, on pain of… you guessed it:
beheading!
Ching Shih became one of the richest people on the planet at the time, with the largest
pirate fleet ever seen.
An East India Company employee named Richard Glasspoole was captured by Ching Shih’s
pirates in September 1809, and held until December of that year. In his account of the
ordeal, he estimated that there were 80,000 pirates under Ching Shih’s command, and
some 1,000 large junks and 800 smaller junks and rowboats. A figure that matches other
estimates from contemporary sources.
- In comparison, the famed Blackbeard commanded four ships and 300 pirates within the same
century.
So why the hell do we still talk about him?!
Who cares about Blackbeard?! If you’re going to play pirates with your children you’d
better be teaching them to play as Ching Shih, otherwise you’re just not setting them up
for success! She had so much money she even started pirate banks with pirate pension plans.
- oh and she was still only in her early thirties, if you weren’t already feeling inadequate.
This large, successful fleet allowed her to take on entire nation’s navies, squaring
off against the Chinese, British, and Portuguese. Sure, the Chinese navy tried to stop her,
but she sank 63 Chinese warships in one battle and the rest of the sailors fled, convinced
she was magic.
The thing that truly cements Ching Shih as the best pirate of all time however is that
she managed to get away with it all in the end, completely scot free!
In 1810, at the age of 35, she accepted an offer of amnesty from the Chinese government.
That’s it, she was given a full pardon for her crimes, allowed to keep all of her cash
and even set up a fund to help the pirates transition into civilian life!
Not much is known about her life following the surrender: she may have married a governor
and lived a quiet life as a respectable lady.
Another tale claims she ran a brothel and gambling house until the end of her days.
Or she might have run a massive land-based smuggling operation. Quite possibly she opened
a casino. Or did none of these things.
Because history is messy and the sands of time obscure the truth…
What we do know is that she lived until 1844, when she died at the grand age of 69, surrounded
by children and grandchildren and A LOT of money.
So remember kids: pirates are gay and the best one was a woman!
I would definitely not get a job as a history teacher.
Oh well!
If you’d like to see more of my jaunts into history then click the card in the top left
hand corner of the screen and let’s have some fun together.
Thank you so much for watching, remember to subscribe if you haven’t already and I’ll
see you in my next video!
[kiss]
Today’s Kellgren-Fozard Members Club Question is from Dana: if you could only have either
ice cream or cake but never the other, which would you choose?
Um… it would have to be ice cream, because it feels special! I could probably sprinkle
sweetener on bread and be like ‘sure, this is cake, mm-hmm, loving this birthday’ but
ice cream I can’t do without!