Lucy Brewer

Infobox Military Person
name= Lucy Brewer
born=
died=
placeofbirth=
placeofdeath=
placeofburial=


caption= A drawing supposedly of Lucy Brewer
nickname=
allegiance= United States of America
branch= United States Marine Corps
serviceyears=
rank=
commands=
unit= USS "Constitution"
battles=
awards=
laterwork=

Lucy Brewer (or Eliza Bowen, or Louisa Baker) is the pen name of a writer who purported to be the first woman in the United States Marines, serving aboard the USS "Constitution". Brewer's adventures were probably written by Nathaniel Hill Wright (1787 - 1824) or Wright's publisher, Nathaniel Coverly.

The legend

According to "her" book "The Female Marine" (original title: ("The Adventures of Lucy Brewer"), Brewer supposedly grew up on a farm near Plymouth, Massachusetts and, at age 16, fell in love with a boy named Henry. When she became pregnant, Henry refused to marry her, and she set out for Boston. In Boston, Lucy was tricked into prostitution after her baby died in childbirth. This series of seduction and betrayal precisely follows the strict line of the romance genre – until, that is, motivated by a patriotic desire to fight in the War of 1812, Lucy tricked her way onto the "Constitution", pretending to be a man named George Baker.cite journal
last =Medlicott Jr.
first =Alexander
title =The Legend of Lucy Brewer: An Early American Novel
journal =The New England Quarterly
volume =39
issue =4
pages =464
date =December 1966
url =http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0028-4866%28196612%2939%3A4%3C461%3ATLOLBA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5
accessdate=2007-05-26
month =Dec
year =1966
doi =10.2307/363418]

She served valiantly for three years and in many naval battles against the British before being honorably discharged, all the while keeping her true gender a secret. The book ends with Lucy returning to Plymouth as a woman and settling down into traditional married life. "She displays resourcefulness, self-reliance, and mobility—characteristics commonly deemed male that this female marine appropriates to deal with her extraordinary predicament," Elizabeth Reis notes. In the end, though, "All's well that ends well in The Female Marine, as characters revert to their true natures, aligned with prescribed categories of gender and sex. The chaotic world of gender impersonation settles into one of blissful morality, and Lucy accepts the conventions of the cult of true womanhood."cite journal
last =Reis
first =Elizabeth
title =Impossible Hermaphrodites: Intersex in America, 1620-1960.
journal =The Journal of American History
volume =92
issue =2
date =2005
url =http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/92.2/reis.html
accessdate=2007-05-25.]

No one by the name of Lucy Brewer (or that of her other pseudonyms, or that of her husband) can be found in historical records; in addition, it is highly unlikely a woman could have disguised herself for three years on the "Constitution", as the crew had little to no privacy.Medlicott 466.] (For example, no toilet facilities or private quarters existed on the ship, and physical examinations were thorough in the Marines.) In addition, "The Female Marine"'s identifying details of the "Constitution"'s travels and battles are nearly verbatim to accounts published by the ship's commanders in contemporary newspapers.Medlicott 466.]

In 1816, shortly after the publication of the first edition of "The Female Marine", a woman named Rachel Sperry, claiming to have run the brothel into which Brewer was supposedly tricked, wrote "A Brief Reply" to Brewer's tale. Sperry wanted "to give her all the praise to which she is entitled, in justice to her" military exploits, but claimed that rather than being tricked into prostitution, Brewer made "rapid progress in all the deceptive arts of harlotry" – deceptive arts, she implies, that served her well in tricking her way onto the "Constitution". [Quoted in Medlicott 469-70.] Rachel Sperry has no more historical record than Brewer, but the publication of "her" "Brief Reply" both spurred public interest in and gave weight to the legitimacy and veracity of "The Female Marine". [Medlicott 468-70.] As recently as 1963, in fact, the story was regarded as factual by some accounts. [Note: by Edward Rowe Snow, for example, in "Unsolved Mysteries of Sea and Shore", which even has a photograph of a woman supposed to be Lucy Brewer. Medlicott 466.]

Beyond the legend

According to Daniel A. Cohen, editor of a "The Female Marine and Related Works: Narratives of Cross-Dressing and Urban Vice in America's Early Republic", the true author of "The Female Marine" was probably Nathaniel Hill Wright.cite
author=Cohen, Daniel A.
title=The Female Marine and Related Works: Narratives of Cross-Dressing and Urban Vice in America's Early Republic
publisher=University of Massachusetts Press
date=1997] Wright was a young Massachusetts writer acquainted with Nathaniel Coverly, the printer of the "The Female Marine". Cohen writes:

Joan Druett writes that "Coverly could have been inspired by a fellow opportunist, Robert Kirby of London,"cite
author=Druett, Joan
title=She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea
publisher=Simon and Schuster
date=2001
page=109] , who published the tale of Mary Anne Talbot, an Englishwoman who served as a man in the Napoleonic wars. At any rate, Coverly's decision to publish the Lucy Brewer books was a sound one, as they became extremely popular. (Coverly also published the story of Almira Paul, figure similar to Lucy Brewer, who is probably also fictional.Cohen 151.] ) At least 19 editions of "The Female Marine" were published between 1815 and 1818. [" [http://books.google.com/books?id=-gLBOIhjsPQC&pg=PA51&ots=NMq7q4Ylbo&dq=%22nathaniel+hill+wright%22&sig=7DwO8Fseo4ibKiGjzWrpqClIEjc Lucy Brewer] ." "Encyclopedia of American Literature of the Sea and Great Lakes". Greenwood Press. Jill B. Gidmark. Page 51. Retrieved on May 26, 2007.] The books were aimed at sailors, prostitutes, and (in particular) "juveniles."Cohen 5.] Surviving copies, when signed, mostly bear the names of women, and are "typically worn and tattered – suggesting that many of the modest volumes were literally read to pieces by their eager purchasers."Cohen 6.]

Alexander Medlicott notes that "The Female Marine" is the "first American novel to employ a woman warrior as the focal point of the action" – though the "History of Constantius and Pulchera; or, Virtue rewarded" bears small similarities.Medlicott 468.] Interestingly, while "Constantius and Pulchera" was published anonymously in 1795, an 1831 edition included a poem by Nathaniel Hill Wright, [ [http://orbis.library.yale.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=2&ti=1,2&Search%5FArg=Constantius%20and%20Pulchera&SL=None&Search%5FCode=TALL&CNT=50&PID=i5oHOWSlbMjlkiy7QW71eFI1aIuAWr&SEQ=20070526181728&SID=1 Catalog entry] . Orbis Yale University catalog. Retrieved on May 26, 2007.] and is often listed in library catalogs as, including the Constantius and Pulchera novel, being authored by Wright. [ [http://worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/6799395 Catalog entry] . WorldCat. Retrieved on May 26, 2007.]

The official first female Marine was Opha Mae Johnson, though in 2001, a Marines message honored the achievements of women in the Marine Corps who form a "unique lineage [that] can trace its roots back to Lucy Brewer, the legendary woman who served aboard the USS Constitution during the War of 1812."cite web |url=http://www.usmc.mil/maradmins/maradmin2000.nsf/e8541731efbbabbe8525697a007125a9/56dc8a665e672c80852569ed000b3c78?OpenDocument |title=Observance of Women's History Month |accessdate=2007-05-26 |format= |work=]

ee also

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References

Further reading

*Daniel A. Cohen, "The "Female marine" in an era of good feelings: Cross dressing and the 'genius' of Nathaniel Coverly, Jr". American Antiquarian Society, 1994.

*Review of Cohen's book: [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=8674908562694 Urban Vice, Cross-Dressing, and Female Independence in the Early Republic] . Debra M. O'Neal. H-urban. October 1998.
*David Cordingly. "Women Sailors and Sailors' Women: An Untold Maritime History". Random House. 2001