Ok, it's not fiction, but... History is Fun!
I am currently reading "Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition" by Barry R. Berg and, once again, I must say that I love learning history; it continually reaffirms and validates stuff I made up in total ignorance for the back-stories of my fictional characters.
I made up part of my character's backstory to include his early childhood. In it, his mother, through death by disease or a desire for freer whoring, left the 4-5 year old, whereupon he joined up with a band of pickpockets and the like to survive on the streets of where ever he was born. Additionally, my character as I know him in his adulthood is gay. Now, apparently, according to the research and theories of Berg, these two things tie in closely with one another. Not only that, but the situations I dreamed up for my character's backstory and personality are not only quite historically plausable, but down-right common and almost expected during my character's time, given his socio-economic situations.
Berg describes English social situations in the Late Stuart era in regards to the lower/poorer classes as one where the economic straights provided for poor nuclear families to be on average 3 people; mother, father, and eldest offspring (and most often male at that). This is not to say that such families didn't have more than one child, because, of course, they often had many more children than that. But, what often happened was children of poor families were regularly turned out of the household at relatively early ages, perhaps as early as 5-8 years. Berg reports children of both sexes were frequently made to work for minimal wages as early as the age of 3 and that boys, if kept in the household until the age of 7 or 8, were regularly sent into apprenticeships. Others, whose parents could not keep them even that long were sent to the homes of wealthier families to be trained and used as servants.
From this he goes on to discuss how many young servants or apprentices, being ill-treated or otherwise displeased, often ran away from their respective places of employ. From here, depending on their age and inclination, usually joined roving bands of 'vagabonds and miscreants' which populated all cities and towns in English Stuart society. These packs were almost exclusively male in makeup and ranged in age from 5-7ish to the mid-twenties. In the very rare cases of a female bing part of these bands, they were almost certainly the exclusive 'property of the leaders or physically dominating individuals' within the group. Otherwise, all communal and sexual contact was restricted to that of a homosexual nature. Berg muses that instead of what we might consider the norm today, it was heterosexual contact that was the extreme exotic, as opposed to homosexual contact, to members of these bands. Though the book was written in 1984 and there were different thoughts concerning the cause/basis of homosexuality, he puts in that 'if homosexuality is a learned response, there was no better location and social situation for it than these vagabond packs in English cities'.
Growing up in such pack-like commune, Berg says the likelihood of these youths growing up to eventually engage in piracy. This often happened as a result of a general migration of these groups from the more rural towns to the more metropolitan cities, and from general metropolitan cities to port cities where the greatest concentration of wealth generally was to be found. In these port cities, members of the bands of certain ages (16ish to however old) often joined up with merchantmen in need of hands or were pressed into service by the Royal Navy. Apprentices who had stayed as apprentices often were taken to sea at some point by their masters. And from these more legitimate maritime positions, piracy was an easy thing to stumble into, even when one wasn't looking.
Again, whether on navy vessels, merchantman, or aboard pirate crews, these men went from one all-male commune where homosexual activity was the norm directly into another. Berg points out that while a portion of the homosexual activity that took place (both documented and supposed) could be considered a result of situational constraints, the very situation (especially in cases of voluntary entry into the various types of crews, as opposed to 'pressed men') would very like have attracted those whose natural inclination was toward homosexual activity.
I find it a relief that Berg includes both the possibilieties of natural and situational homosexuality in his theories. In books I've read in the past, the authors only will accept one possibility or the other in their interpretations of their research and findings, and that has always resulted in very unlikely situations and theories that they are putting forth. Specifically bad in this regard was "Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash" by Hans Turley.
I have not yet finished "Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition", but I do recommend it to anyone interested in the probabilities of gay pirates and the like. Gay pirates; not just for PotC slash anymore!
I made up part of my character's backstory to include his early childhood. In it, his mother, through death by disease or a desire for freer whoring, left the 4-5 year old, whereupon he joined up with a band of pickpockets and the like to survive on the streets of where ever he was born. Additionally, my character as I know him in his adulthood is gay. Now, apparently, according to the research and theories of Berg, these two things tie in closely with one another. Not only that, but the situations I dreamed up for my character's backstory and personality are not only quite historically plausable, but down-right common and almost expected during my character's time, given his socio-economic situations.
Berg describes English social situations in the Late Stuart era in regards to the lower/poorer classes as one where the economic straights provided for poor nuclear families to be on average 3 people; mother, father, and eldest offspring (and most often male at that). This is not to say that such families didn't have more than one child, because, of course, they often had many more children than that. But, what often happened was children of poor families were regularly turned out of the household at relatively early ages, perhaps as early as 5-8 years. Berg reports children of both sexes were frequently made to work for minimal wages as early as the age of 3 and that boys, if kept in the household until the age of 7 or 8, were regularly sent into apprenticeships. Others, whose parents could not keep them even that long were sent to the homes of wealthier families to be trained and used as servants.
From this he goes on to discuss how many young servants or apprentices, being ill-treated or otherwise displeased, often ran away from their respective places of employ. From here, depending on their age and inclination, usually joined roving bands of 'vagabonds and miscreants' which populated all cities and towns in English Stuart society. These packs were almost exclusively male in makeup and ranged in age from 5-7ish to the mid-twenties. In the very rare cases of a female bing part of these bands, they were almost certainly the exclusive 'property of the leaders or physically dominating individuals' within the group. Otherwise, all communal and sexual contact was restricted to that of a homosexual nature. Berg muses that instead of what we might consider the norm today, it was heterosexual contact that was the extreme exotic, as opposed to homosexual contact, to members of these bands. Though the book was written in 1984 and there were different thoughts concerning the cause/basis of homosexuality, he puts in that 'if homosexuality is a learned response, there was no better location and social situation for it than these vagabond packs in English cities'.
Growing up in such pack-like commune, Berg says the likelihood of these youths growing up to eventually engage in piracy. This often happened as a result of a general migration of these groups from the more rural towns to the more metropolitan cities, and from general metropolitan cities to port cities where the greatest concentration of wealth generally was to be found. In these port cities, members of the bands of certain ages (16ish to however old) often joined up with merchantmen in need of hands or were pressed into service by the Royal Navy. Apprentices who had stayed as apprentices often were taken to sea at some point by their masters. And from these more legitimate maritime positions, piracy was an easy thing to stumble into, even when one wasn't looking.
Again, whether on navy vessels, merchantman, or aboard pirate crews, these men went from one all-male commune where homosexual activity was the norm directly into another. Berg points out that while a portion of the homosexual activity that took place (both documented and supposed) could be considered a result of situational constraints, the very situation (especially in cases of voluntary entry into the various types of crews, as opposed to 'pressed men') would very like have attracted those whose natural inclination was toward homosexual activity.
I find it a relief that Berg includes both the possibilieties of natural and situational homosexuality in his theories. In books I've read in the past, the authors only will accept one possibility or the other in their interpretations of their research and findings, and that has always resulted in very unlikely situations and theories that they are putting forth. Specifically bad in this regard was "Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash" by Hans Turley.
I have not yet finished "Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition", but I do recommend it to anyone interested in the probabilities of gay pirates and the like. Gay pirates; not just for PotC slash anymore!