This finishes up the deep dive into the General History of the Pyrates, the narrative it presents about Bonny and Read, the contemporary sources for elements of that narrative, and the basis for disbelieving the factual nature of the vast majority of the narrative. It isn't that I enjoy debunking potential sapphic encounters in history--after all, the Project is focused on historical fiction, and the General History is a whopper of a historical fiction--but I'm strongly invested in keeping track of the boundaries between history and wishful thinking. Bonny and Read's "sapphic encounter" tells us a great deal about how people of their time viewed such possibilities, though it tells us less about how such encounters might have actually played out. Is this a good inspiration for endless fictional retellings of Bonny and Read as a lesbian historic romance? There are certainly worse inspirations. Just don't confused the fictions with historic fact.
If you're interested in the "fictional afterlife" of Bonny and Read, I recommend listening to podcast episode 338. I don't yet have a transcript of the discussion with Helen Rodriguez, but the audio is worth the time to listen.
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