Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Fry And today's episode is a sponsored one. It's sponsored
Speaker 1: by the All New Explorer. They asked us to do
Speaker 1: something that was related in some way to exploration and
Speaker 1: then left it totally up to us how did we
Speaker 1: want to interpret that? So of course we had a
Speaker 1: big pile of ideas at the ready that fit in
Speaker 1: some way for that theme, and we finally decided to
Speaker 1: talk about Jan Boret, who was the first woman known
Speaker 1: to circumnavigate the globe. But her experience was not just
Speaker 1: about the travel like a lot of the women travelers
Speaker 1: that we have talked about, we're traveling to explore, uh,
Speaker 1: just mostly because they had disposable income and you know,
Speaker 1: had the means and the money to to do that
Speaker 1: kind of thing, and sometimes to do other work alongside
Speaker 1: all the travel. But like the travel was a major
Speaker 1: piece of it. She was working, and the work she
Speaker 1: was doing was taking her to places that were totally
Speaker 1: unexpected for somebody of her gender and her economic class
Speaker 1: in the eighteenth century. Jean Barret was born on July
Speaker 1: seventeen forty to Jean Barret and Jeanne Puscha. They lived
Speaker 1: in La Camel, France, which is roughly two hundred miles
Speaker 1: that's about three hundred twenty kilometers southeast of Paris. This
Speaker 1: is a rural, agricultural area, and Jeanne's father worked as
Speaker 1: a day laborer. He did not own any land or
Speaker 1: always have access to steady work, so the Beret family
Speaker 1: and others who were similarly situated were some of the
Speaker 1: poorest people in that part of Europe. We really know
Speaker 1: almost nothing about her upbringing or her early life, but
Speaker 1: she might have been trained as an herb woman, so
Speaker 1: somebody who knew how to grow and forage and prepare
Speaker 1: medicinal herbs. This is something that she would have learned
Speaker 1: from other women based on knowledge that was mostly passed
Speaker 1: down orally. We do know that when she was in
Speaker 1: her early twenties, Barret started working for a man named
Speaker 1: Philibert Commerson, who was about twelve years older than she was.
Speaker 1: He was from an affluent family and was formally educated
Speaker 1: in both medicine and botany. He much preferred botany, though,
Speaker 1: and he never established a medical practice. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of like social and economic circumstances, they were
Speaker 1: nearly opposite. Instead of going into that medical practice, Commerceon
Speaker 1: established a botanical garden in Chateagnon led Dome. In the
Speaker 1: late seventeen fifties, he visited Voltaire and one of his
Speaker 1: colleagues was Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, who was the person
Speaker 1: who helped establish that system of binomial nomenclature that is
Speaker 1: still used to classify organisms today, although that system, of
Speaker 1: course has evolved a lot since then. Linnaeus secured a
Speaker 1: commission from the Queen of Sweden for Commerceon to catalog
Speaker 1: Mediterranean fish. So in addition to his work as a botanist,
Speaker 1: he was also an ichthyologist. So if Barret was already
Speaker 1: rained as an herb woman, it would have made a
Speaker 1: lot of sense for Commerson to hire her. There is
Speaker 1: a twenty three page table of medicinal plants arranged in
Speaker 1: order of their virtues and according to the healing indications
Speaker 1: that is among Commerceonce papers, which biographer Glenn's Ridley suggests
Speaker 1: was actually Barret's work. If that is correct, and if
Speaker 1: the knowledge contained in that notebook was something that Barret
Speaker 1: had already learned before being hired. She would have been
Speaker 1: a very clear help to Commerceon's botany work from day one,
Speaker 1: but it appears that at least at first, commerce On
Speaker 1: hired Beret not as a botany assistant, but as as
Speaker 1: a domestic servant, and that would have been more stable
Speaker 1: and financially lucrative than what the family had been experiencing
Speaker 1: as day laborers. We don't know exactly when she started
Speaker 1: working for him, her formal employment sort of in seventeen
Speaker 1: sixty four, but she seems to have also been working
Speaker 1: with him in some capacity before that. It's possible that
Speaker 1: she started working there just after the death of Commerceon's
Speaker 1: wife at the age of party four. That happened shortly
Speaker 1: after she gave birth to their child, and it's possible
Speaker 1: that part of Bret's role working for him was to
Speaker 1: help care for this newborn. Ultimately, though, the baby was
Speaker 1: sent to live with an uncle, and at some point
Speaker 1: Beret and Commerceen's relationship became more personal rather than employer
Speaker 1: and employee. In seventeen sixty four, Bret became pregnant. Unmarried
Speaker 1: women were legally required to register their pregnancies, including naming
Speaker 1: the baby's father. Beret did register her pregnancy on August twenty,
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty four, but she traveled to another town to
Speaker 1: do it, and she took two men with her as
Speaker 1: character witnesses. They maintained that she had been assaulted by
Speaker 1: an unknown man and that that assault had resulted in
Speaker 1: her pregnancy. This baby was almost certainly Commerceons, with the
Speaker 1: character witnesses being a part of an effort to cover
Speaker 1: up what would have been something truly scandalous if people
Speaker 1: had actually known the facts of the situation. Barre and
Speaker 1: commerceon to Paris together in September of seventeen sixty four.
Speaker 1: She was given a salary of a hundred livres a year.
Speaker 1: They lived near the Jardin le Loois or the Royal Gardens,
Speaker 1: which is today known as the Jardin des plant In
Speaker 1: January of seventeen sixty five, Barrets surrendered her baby, named
Speaker 1: Jean Pierre, to a home for foundling children. Jean Pierre
Speaker 1: was placed with the foster family, although he died a
Speaker 1: couple of years later. The registry of Barret's pregnancy, Jean
Speaker 1: Pierre's birth, and his fostering and death are all documented
Speaker 1: in the historical record, but berets and commercials, thoughts and
Speaker 1: feelings on these events really are not part of any
Speaker 1: of those documents. Within a few months of surrendering, Jean
Speaker 1: Pierre Barret and Commerceens were preparing for a voyage around
Speaker 1: the world. This expedition of exploration and scientific discovery had
Speaker 1: been authorized by King Louis the fifteenth, and it was
Speaker 1: meant as both an exploratory voyage and a scientific endeavor.
Speaker 1: Admiral Louis Antoine Comte Bougambille, who had served in the
Speaker 1: Seven Years War, was in command of three hundred thirty
Speaker 1: men who were divided between two vessels, the Budeus, and
Speaker 1: in addition to being in command of the expedition as
Speaker 1: a whole, Boogambille was in command of the Boudous, and
Speaker 1: France was Chanard de la Giorde was in command of
Speaker 1: the Three scientists had been recruited to participate in this expedition, Commarcon,
Speaker 1: who was acting as royal botanist and naturalist, astronomer Pierre
Speaker 1: Antoine Veron, and cartographer char Routier de Ville. Among his
Speaker 1: other duties. Commercon was one of the people helping to
Speaker 1: plan the expedition's route. Commercant was given a budget to
Speaker 1: hire an assistant naturalist to take on this voyage to
Speaker 1: help him collect and catalog specimens and to illustrate what
Speaker 1: they found, but he could not take jam Barre, at
Speaker 1: least not legally. It had been illegal for women to
Speaker 1: be on French naval ships for anything other than a
Speaker 1: brief visit, since nine officers who broke this rule could
Speaker 1: be suspended for a month and sailors who broke it
Speaker 1: could be sentenced to fifteen days in chains. There is
Speaker 1: a lot that we don't know about the dynamics between
Speaker 1: Commercion and Barret. There were obvious and meaningful disparities between
Speaker 1: the two of them, especially when it came to power
Speaker 1: and wealth, stemming from both their relative social class and
Speaker 1: their genders, and as well as him being her employer.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, what happens next suggests that
Speaker 1: Barret was in this relationship willingly, and we're gonna get
Speaker 1: into that after we first pause for a little sponsor break.
Speaker 1: As they were preparing for their expedition around the world,
Speaker 1: Philibert commercial wrote out a will and that bequeathed his
Speaker 1: actual property to his son, but it also made it
Speaker 1: clear that all of the women, men's clothes, and similar
Speaker 1: possessions in his home belonged to his housekeeper, Jambret, to
Speaker 1: whom he left the household, furnishings and linen's along with
Speaker 1: six livres. The will also gave her the right to
Speaker 1: live in his home for a year after the date
Speaker 1: of his death, during which time she would organize his
Speaker 1: specimens and manuscripts and then send them onto the Royal collection.
Speaker 1: The will makes it sound as though jean Barret was
Speaker 1: staying behind while he was going on this expedition, and
Speaker 1: it also noted that she was sometimes known as Jean
Speaker 1: de Bonnefoy. Barret was not staying behind, though. Instead commerceam
Speaker 1: maintained that he had not been able to find a
Speaker 1: workable assistant to go with him on this voyage in
Speaker 1: spite of all of his efforts to do so. Then
Speaker 1: Jeanne Barret, dressed in men's clothing and using the name Bonafoy,
Speaker 1: arrived at the port of Rochefort, maintaining that she was
Speaker 1: looking for work. Commerson hired the disguised beret on the spot,
Speaker 1: and from that going on for much of the expedition,
Speaker 1: he consistently referred to her as male. Based on everything
Speaker 1: we know about the situation, this was a disguise and
Speaker 1: not reflection of her gender, so we will keep referring
Speaker 1: to her as a woman. Uh. This whole ruse seems
Speaker 1: like kind of a stretch to me. Um the idea
Speaker 1: that he would have just hired a random person on
Speaker 1: the spot, having failed to find somebody that met actual
Speaker 1: criteria for a botanists assistant on this voyage, But it
Speaker 1: seems like everyone thought that was it made sense. I
Speaker 1: guess that he hired an apparently random person at the dock.
Speaker 1: I feel like this is one of those things where
Speaker 1: it's like the excuse checklist of like, look, you all
Speaker 1: know who this is, and I know who this is,
Speaker 1: and she knows you all know who this is, but
Speaker 1: we have, um, you know, we've checked all the boxes
Speaker 1: for all you know, you can say you thought it
Speaker 1: was a dude the whole time. Yeah, this is um.
Speaker 1: This is also really to me the moment that if
Speaker 1: if she had wanted to get out of this situation,
Speaker 1: it would have been easy enough to not show up,
Speaker 1: which definitely would have been a reduction in the in
Speaker 1: the opportunities that were available to her. She probably would
Speaker 1: have had to go back home and and try to
Speaker 1: find some kind of other employment. But this this would
Speaker 1: have been an easier moment for her to kind of
Speaker 1: slip away if she did not actually want to go
Speaker 1: on this voyage. So the Atoll and the Budeau's planned
Speaker 1: to cross the Atlantic separately, traveling southwest across the Atlantic
Speaker 1: Ocean to rendezvous at Rio in June of seventeen sixty seven.
Speaker 1: From there, they would sail south along the coast of
Speaker 1: South America and through the Strait of Magellan. Then they
Speaker 1: would follow the western coast of South America before turning
Speaker 1: west across the Southern Pacific. Then to return to Europe,
Speaker 1: they would travel through the East Indies and around the
Speaker 1: Horn of Africa, then back north, obviously back to Europe,
Speaker 1: and they would make stops all along the way, gathering specimens,
Speaker 1: making maps, recording of the people in places they saw.
Speaker 1: They would also claim land where they could, and in
Speaker 1: one case they would give it up. One stop on
Speaker 1: the voyage involved surrendering the Falkland Islands to Spain. Commercant
Speaker 1: and Barret were to sail aboard the Atoil when they embarked.
Speaker 1: Commercon had so much equipment with him that he was
Speaker 1: given the captain's stateroom as his quarters. The captain's stateroom
Speaker 1: had its own private baths, which would have made it
Speaker 1: easier for Barret to conceal her sex while on board.
Speaker 1: The idea of easy is really relative here, though for
Speaker 1: almost two years Barret maintained a disguise that required her
Speaker 1: to bind her breasts. Today's chest binders are usually made
Speaker 1: with synthetic elastic fibers, which have some stretch, but these
Speaker 1: materials had not been invented yet when Barret was living.
Speaker 1: She would have been using bandages or strips of cloth,
Speaker 1: and giving the materials that were available at the time,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have been very stretchy or giving at all.
Speaker 1: This would have made this whole process a lot more
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and difficult, with the bindings also prone to slipping
Speaker 1: and shifting during the day. Working as Commerceal's assistant also
Speaker 1: required by Ray to do a lot of physical work
Speaker 1: in all kinds of weather and climate conditions, from the
Speaker 1: tropics to the far southern tip of South America, which
Speaker 1: is almost in the Antarctic circle. So even before accounting
Speaker 1: for the difficulties of travel and the work itself, Barret's
Speaker 1: job was inherently uncomfortable, often unpleasant, and very physically demanding.
Speaker 1: Added to that, there were storms that seriously damaged the
Speaker 1: ship and periods where they were becalmed and ran out
Speaker 1: of food. Illnesses spread among the crew, and there was
Speaker 1: intense seasickness at sea, and that often affected both Barret
Speaker 1: and commerceal so he was able to spend time out
Speaker 1: on deck that a lot of the time will help
Speaker 1: with seasickness because you can see the way the boat
Speaker 1: is moving. But Barret didn't have that option. She really
Speaker 1: had to weather all this in the confines of Commerceons
Speaker 1: quarters to try to protect her privacy and her identity.
Speaker 1: That would not have been a particularly comfortable place to
Speaker 1: try to ride that out. Even though bare meticulously maintained
Speaker 1: her disguise and Commerce and scrupulously addressed and referred to
Speaker 1: her as a man, Rumors began to spread throughout the
Speaker 1: ship that they were carrying a woman in disguise, and
Speaker 1: that happened not long after the Atwall set sail from
Speaker 1: Rochefort on December fourteenth, seventeen sixty six, and naturally, suspicion
Speaker 1: fell on Barret, who, among other things, did not have
Speaker 1: facial hair and didn't use the communal toilet facilities for
Speaker 1: the crew who shared her rank. Obviously, there are plenty
Speaker 1: of men who don't have facial hair, but that was
Speaker 1: one of the things that drew suspicion to her. On
Speaker 1: March seventeen sixty seven, the Atwall crossed from the northern
Speaker 1: to the Southern hemisphere, and the ship's crew had sort
Speaker 1: of a ritual baptism and quotation marks for people who
Speaker 1: hadn't previously crossed the equator. The details of this hazing
Speaker 1: ritual differed depending on the person's rank and for the
Speaker 1: officers servant, which was how Barret was classified. It involved
Speaker 1: being made to drop into a pool made of a
Speaker 1: sail cloth that was being dragged alongside the ship. The
Speaker 1: people who were having to do this we're also blackened
Speaker 1: with soot and prevented from getting out of the water.
Speaker 1: And because of all this water and mess involved, the
Speaker 1: men who were being made to undertake this ritual usually
Speaker 1: did it partly or completely nude. Because she was a woman,
Speaker 1: Barret would have had to do this still dressed. Uh.
Speaker 1: Commerceone does describe this ritual in his journal, but he
Speaker 1: doesn't make any reference to Barret's participation in it eventually
Speaker 1: at twas Captain France Swash and now de la Girode,
Speaker 1: was obligated to investigate the rumors about a woman on
Speaker 1: board his ship. Apart from it being unlawful for anyone
Speaker 1: to bring a woman on board, the rumors and efforts
Speaker 1: to figure out whether they were true, we're clearly causing
Speaker 1: a disruption. According to his logs, he questioned Barret about
Speaker 1: her gender, and she told him that she was a eunuch,
Speaker 1: framing it in terms of the men who guarded the
Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire, this seems to have at least temporarily stopped
Speaker 1: the suspicion, or at least reigned in the sailor's harassment
Speaker 1: of her to try to figure out if she was
Speaker 1: a woman in disguise. The Ottoman Empire's implementation of slavery
Speaker 1: included enslaving Christian men, although this practice was at least
Speaker 1: officially ended before this voyage was taking place, but horror
Speaker 1: stories about it still circulated in a lot of Europe,
Speaker 1: and the idea of being captured and enslaved and then
Speaker 1: castrated by the Ottoman Empire was frightening and disturbing. That
Speaker 1: probably led to the sailors treating Barret with a little
Speaker 1: more kindness than they had before. After this interrogation, the
Speaker 1: captain did put a stop to Barret sleeping in Commerson's quarters.
Speaker 1: From that point, Barret was always armed, especially when she
Speaker 1: slept or went ashore together specimens. Commerceng was frequently ill,
Speaker 1: and he had an abscess on his leg that didn't
Speaker 1: want to heal. So it was often Barret and not
Speaker 1: Commerceon who was doing the botany work on shore, and
Speaker 1: she was often doing it without him or anyone else
Speaker 1: to protect her. The plants that they collected in the
Speaker 1: earlier part of this voyage included the one that they
Speaker 1: named bougun Bia spectabilis, or the great Bugambilla, which is
Speaker 1: the name, of course for Bougambi, the commander of this expedition.
Speaker 1: It's still cultivated a lot as an ornamental plant today.
Speaker 1: That's very lovely blossoms, and Barret was likely the person
Speaker 1: who gathered it. Others aboard the atual eventually discovered Jean
Speaker 1: Barret's sex, but accounts disagree on exactly when this happened
Speaker 1: or how, and we're going to get into that after
Speaker 1: we have one more little sponsor break. Louis wrote the
Speaker 1: account that's most often cited as far as how Jan
Speaker 1: Beret was discovered to be a woman. This isn't just
Speaker 1: because he was in command of the whole expedition and
Speaker 1: was one of the most prominent people on it. It's
Speaker 1: also because, unlike the authors of all the other accounts,
Speaker 1: he later edited his journals into a book and had
Speaker 1: them published. His account of the discovery is noted as
Speaker 1: having been written on May nine, seventeen sixty eight, about
Speaker 1: six weeks after the expedition left Tahiti, which was the
Speaker 1: first time that the French had actually seen this island.
Speaker 1: Buga Villa writes that some business called him over to
Speaker 1: the atoll and quote, I had an opportunity of verifying
Speaker 1: a very singular fact. For some time there was a
Speaker 1: report in both ships that the servant of Monsieur de Commesson,
Speaker 1: named Barret, was a woman. His shape, voice, beardless chin,
Speaker 1: and scrupulous attention of not changing his linen or making
Speaker 1: the natural discharges in the presence of anyone besides several
Speaker 1: other signs had given rise to and kept up this suspicion.
Speaker 1: He went on to describe Barret as an expert botanist
Speaker 1: who had worked along side Commercean with quote so much
Speaker 1: courage and strength that the naturalist had called him his
Speaker 1: beast of burden. He went on to write quote. A
Speaker 1: scene which passed at Tahiti changed this suspicion into certainty.
Speaker 1: Monsieur de Commercon went on shore to botanize there. Baret
Speaker 1: had hardly set his feet on shore with the herbal
Speaker 1: under his arm, when the men of Tahiti surrounded him
Speaker 1: cried out, it is a woman and wanted to give
Speaker 1: her the honor's customary in the aisle. The Chevalier de Bernard,
Speaker 1: who was upon guard on shore, was obliged to come
Speaker 1: to her assistance and escort her to the boat. Okay,
Speaker 1: the honors customary to the aisle that he is referring to.
Speaker 1: We should clarify the French had virtually no experience with
Speaker 1: Pacific island cultures at this point, and they really widely
Speaker 1: misinterpreted a lot of actions and gestures as being an
Speaker 1: offer or an expectation of sex. And this includes ceremonial
Speaker 1: gifts of cloth which were given wrapped around a woman
Speaker 1: or a girl's body, along with various dances and a
Speaker 1: general acceptance of nudity is being socially acceptable. Also, bogambia
Speaker 1: Is writing about Tahiti and Tahitians in his journal really
Speaker 1: spread a highly romanticized idea of the island and reinforced
Speaker 1: the idea of the quote noble savage that was being
Speaker 1: spread at the time by romantic writers like Jean Jacques Rousseaux.
Speaker 1: According to Bougaville, the discovery changed the tone of Baret's
Speaker 1: relationship to the rest of the crew quote. After that period,
Speaker 1: it was difficult to prevent the sailors from alarming her modesty.
Speaker 1: When I came on board the Atoi Barret with her
Speaker 1: face based in tears, owned to me that she was
Speaker 1: a woman. She said that she had deceived her master
Speaker 1: at Rochefort by offering to serve him in men's clothes
Speaker 1: at the very moment when he was embarking that she
Speaker 1: had already before served a geneva gentleman at Paris in
Speaker 1: quality of a valet. That being born in Burgundy and
Speaker 1: become an orphan, the loss of a lawsuit had brought
Speaker 1: her to a distress situation and inspired her with the
Speaker 1: resolution to disguise her sex that she well knew when
Speaker 1: she embarked that we were going round the world and
Speaker 1: that such a voyage had raised her curiosity. Although Boa
Speaker 1: had grounds to be angry with both Commercial and Barret
Speaker 1: because they had been deceiving everyone on board and her
Speaker 1: presence on the ship was unlawful, he finishes his account
Speaker 1: of what happened in a way that's relatively respectaful, at
Speaker 1: least for part of it. After alluding to this trip
Speaker 1: around the world, he wrote, quote, she will be the
Speaker 1: first woman that ever made it, and I must do
Speaker 1: her the justice to affirm that she has always behaved
Speaker 1: on board with the most scrupulous modesty. And then it
Speaker 1: gets into the parts that's maybe less respectful. Quote she
Speaker 1: is neither ugly nor handsome, and is no more than
Speaker 1: twenty six or twenty seven years of age. It must
Speaker 1: be owned that if the two ships had been wrecked
Speaker 1: on any desert isle in the ocean, Barret's bait would
Speaker 1: have been a very singular one. Another account also connects
Speaker 1: the discovery of her sex to Tahiti, or at least
Speaker 1: to a Tahitian person. A man named Ahu Turu, who
Speaker 1: was a chieftain's brother, learned French while the expedition was
Speaker 1: in Tahiti and asked to be taken to France. When
Speaker 1: they departed, he described Barret as mahou, which is a
Speaker 1: term used in several Pacific island cultures to signify a
Speaker 1: third gender. After colonization by European powers, in many places,
Speaker 1: that term took on a disparaging connotation connected to cross dressing,
Speaker 1: and that being a pejorative term. A Hutaru died of
Speaker 1: smallpox before the voyage got back to France, however, but
Speaker 1: most of the other accounts placed this discovery of Jehan
Speaker 1: sex later and July of seventeen sixty eight on the
Speaker 1: island of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea, not in
Speaker 1: May in Tahiti. The ship's log for July eighteenth, seventeen
Speaker 1: sixty eight reads quote the physician Monsieur Commercon's domestic was
Speaker 1: discovered to be a girl who until now passed as
Speaker 1: a boy. Ships surgeon Flais Vives wrote about several moments
Speaker 1: in Baret's time on board. In his journals, he wrote
Speaker 1: of rumors about a woman in disguise, and then the
Speaker 1: captain's putting a stop to Barets sleeping in commercial's cabin.
Speaker 1: He writes as though he was present when the captain
Speaker 1: interrogated Bahret, and that she said she was a eunuch.
Speaker 1: This account of the discovery includes a reference to a
Speaker 1: body song about a woman named Geniton who was accosted
Speaker 1: by foreman in a field, suggesting that some of the
Speaker 1: crew may have physically assaulted her to figure out her sex. Yeah,
Speaker 1: most of his writing about her comes off as pretty gross.
Speaker 1: The Prince of Nassaucigen, who was on board as a
Speaker 1: paying passenger, also alluded to the discovery of Barret's sex
Speaker 1: and said quote, I want to give her all the
Speaker 1: credit for her bravery, a far cry from the gentle
Speaker 1: pastimes afforded her sex. She dared confront the stress, the dangers,
Speaker 1: and everything that happened that one could realistically expect on
Speaker 1: such a voyage. Her adventure should, I think, be included
Speaker 1: in a history of famous women. All together. These other
Speaker 1: accounts suggest that Jeanne Barret was discovered to be a
Speaker 1: woman almost a month after bougun Via reported in his book.
Speaker 1: It's not clear whether he fiddled with the timeline to
Speaker 1: take suspicion off of himself in some way, or if
Speaker 1: this was just a matter of where it seemed to
Speaker 1: fit while the journal was being edited. Regardless, though afterward,
Speaker 1: Barret continued dressing in masculine attire. That was what she
Speaker 1: had with her, but she stopped binding her chest after
Speaker 1: her identity was known. For his part, commercong claimed that
Speaker 1: he was totally surprised with this entire revelation, writing that
Speaker 1: Beret was quote a courageous young woman who, taking the
Speaker 1: clothing and temperament of a man and the curiosity and
Speaker 1: audacity to circumnavigate the world, accompanied us without us knowing it.
Speaker 1: I think he might have been covering his own tail there.
Speaker 1: He really it is, I mean just bordering all on
Speaker 1: impossible that he would not have recognized her, and this
Speaker 1: whole thing really did play out. Is just him hiring
Speaker 1: a random person at the dock like that? Just it's
Speaker 1: so far fetched, and he just seems to have kept
Speaker 1: up with this. Wow that turned out to be a woman.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any idea. Again, checklist reasonable deniability, uh.
Speaker 1: Bougaville's expedition left New Ireland on July eight. By December,
Speaker 1: they had traveled across the Indian Ocean toward the eastern
Speaker 1: coast of Africa. On December twelve, the ships left a
Speaker 1: small island now known as Mauritius, which was then a
Speaker 1: French colony known as e Defals. They left without Beret
Speaker 1: or Commerceal on board. Commerceal had been released from the expedition.
Speaker 1: The ship's astronomer left at that time as well. On Mauritius,
Speaker 1: Commerceal Embrey continued to live together and pursue their botanical work.
Speaker 1: This included making an expedition to the island of Madagascar
Speaker 1: and documenting various things on Mauritius. The island's governor was
Speaker 1: another botanist, a man named Pierre Plov, who had become
Speaker 1: friends with them, and it's pretty likely that Bogumba thought
Speaker 1: that it was best that they both be off the ship,
Speaker 1: and that a French colony with a friendly governor who
Speaker 1: was also a botanist made Mauritius the best situation they
Speaker 1: could probably find to accomplish getting them off the ship.
Speaker 1: Cover Song and Barre lived together on Mauritius for about
Speaker 1: five years. At first, they lived with Poava at the
Speaker 1: governor's residence, but when he was recalled to France they
Speaker 1: had to find their own lodgings. Commerceon had been chronically
Speaker 1: ill for much of their time together, and his condition
Speaker 1: worsened in the early seventeen seventies. He died in seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy three, leaving Barret without protection or support. So Barret
Speaker 1: once again found work, first working out a tavern and
Speaker 1: then running one. On May seventeen, seventeen seventy four, she
Speaker 1: married a non commissioned officer named Jean du Barnand, and
Speaker 1: by that point she'd been on Mauritius for seven years.
Speaker 1: It's not clear exactly when Barret returned to France, but
Speaker 1: when she did, that last leg of the journey made
Speaker 1: her the first woman known to have navigated the globe.
Speaker 1: Boo Gambia intervened on her behalf after she got back
Speaker 1: to France to make sure she wouldn't be punished for
Speaker 1: her time aboard ship, and a point in her favor
Speaker 1: in his doing this was that he didn't think that
Speaker 1: her example would inspire other women to do something similar.
Speaker 1: He thought she'd just be the only woman ever to
Speaker 1: circumnavigate the globe, and that quote her example is not
Speaker 1: likely to be contagious. This line of logic really reminds
Speaker 1: me of the way that people talked about Srijuana and
Speaker 1: is Dela Cruz and how her becoming a nun was
Speaker 1: going to keep her from inspiring other women to be
Speaker 1: similarly iconoclastic in their behavior. Instead, the opposite wound up,
Speaker 1: happening to being punished. The French Ministry of Marine recognized
Speaker 1: her work with the expedition and awarded her a pension
Speaker 1: of two livres per year, and then she also secured
Speaker 1: the money that Commerson had left her in his will,
Speaker 1: although by that point his death was long enough in
Speaker 1: the past that she didn't live in his house for
Speaker 1: a year. Not much as known about Jean Barret's last
Speaker 1: year's She did not get to do the cataloging of
Speaker 1: the collection that Commisson had hoped she would. Everything that
Speaker 1: they had collected on bougun VI's expedition and afterward was
Speaker 1: either in storage or impounded after connissons death. However, since
Speaker 1: the unorganized collection was not well known or associated with
Speaker 1: a prominent member of the nobility, it made it through
Speaker 1: the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. Today, at
Speaker 1: least six thousand specimens survive in museum collections, including the
Speaker 1: French National Museum of Natural History, part of which is
Speaker 1: on the site of the former Royal Gardens Yeah, a
Speaker 1: lot of that stuff still has its original handwritten labeling
Speaker 1: that was probably written by her. Jean Barret died in Saintavier, France,
Speaker 1: on August seven, and left her remaining property to Commerceans heirs.
Speaker 1: She was sixty seven. We know so little about Commisson's
Speaker 1: feelings towards her. He named a plant after her during
Speaker 1: the expedition, calling it Barettia bonafidia, although it turned out
Speaker 1: to be a species that had already been discovered and named,
Speaker 1: and he wrote of her very fondly. Here's a sample,
Speaker 1: cited in a biography published in three quote. Armed with
Speaker 1: a bow like Diana, armed with intelligence and seriousness, like Minerva,
Speaker 1: she eluded the snare of animals and men, not without
Speaker 1: many times, risking her life and her honor. He also
Speaker 1: praised her for doing all of this risky and difficult
Speaker 1: work without complaint. He did also call her his beast
Speaker 1: of burden, but he did that while trying to maintain
Speaker 1: this ruse that she was a man, and that really
Speaker 1: doesn't seem like a weird way for a man to
Speaker 1: talk about his male assistant at the time. Although the
Speaker 1: plant that Commercon named after her didn't stick, Barre did
Speaker 1: have a species permanently named for her in twelve. That
Speaker 1: was Solanum verita, which is part of a large and
Speaker 1: diverse plant genus that also includes the night shades. This
Speaker 1: particular species was selected to bear her name because of
Speaker 1: its leaves, which are really variable in their shape and size.
Speaker 1: This is also true of the species that Commercon had
Speaker 1: originally named after her, because he thought this very ability
Speaker 1: really reflected her life and her character, and like the
Speaker 1: fact that she had disguised herself as a man for
Speaker 1: so long and taken on so many jobs that were
Speaker 1: really unexpected for women at the time. Uh, my two
Speaker 1: cents are are that that is such a thoughtful way
Speaker 1: to look at the selection of her plant species that
Speaker 1: he wanted to be named for her, that it does
Speaker 1: suggest a very genuine affection between the two of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: her relationship with him definitely started as his hiring her
Speaker 1: to do work, but a lot of their life together
Speaker 1: they really seem to live basically as common law spouses,
Speaker 1: not so much as employer and employee, especially once they
Speaker 1: were off the expedition and she was no longer officially
Speaker 1: on his payroll, but they were continuing to live together
Speaker 1: essentially as a couple. I feel like her story is
Speaker 1: pretty complicated. There's it's clearly that she went through so
Speaker 1: much difficulty and and possibly even violence while on that expedition. Um,
Speaker 1: but also the fact that she was from really the
Speaker 1: poorest class of people where she was living, and a woman,
Speaker 1: and was able to go on this round the world
Speaker 1: voyage which was just a whole like universe away from
Speaker 1: the possibilities that were open to people in that same situation.
Speaker 1: It's really incredible to me. She sounds kind of spectacular.
Speaker 1: That's the person I would use the time machine to
Speaker 1: go back and talk to. Ye. Do you have a
Speaker 1: little bit of listener mail for us? I knew it's
Speaker 1: from Alyssa and it's titled Hove to Dar Rebel, Latina activist, teacher,
Speaker 1: and Alyssa writes, I saw a small video on Dar
Speaker 1: which I've left linked in the bottom, and was greatly
Speaker 1: intrigued by her because she's from my hometown. I looked
Speaker 1: her up, but I feel like my research on her
Speaker 1: would not do her memory justice. I love hearing your
Speaker 1: pieces on strong women and their quote unnatural ways for
Speaker 1: their time. I hope you all can help bring Hove
Speaker 1: to a dark to life, not just for me, but
Speaker 1: because she's just a kick ass Latina woman that deserves
Speaker 1: her name to be rung. Your podcast have gotten me
Speaker 1: through workouts, long trips, and workshifts, speaking of which, I've
Speaker 1: been caught a handful of times by customers while listening
Speaker 1: to your podcast. My favorite of these times being while
Speaker 1: listening to Marie Lawrence song. I believe the line was
Speaker 1: about her fiance and all the customer heard was erotic novels,
Speaker 1: and then I paused it and then there is like
Speaker 1: the laughing emo. G Thank you again for your work
Speaker 1: and dedication to the show. I hope hopefy to makes
Speaker 1: it on the list soon. Best wishes, Alyssa. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much Alyssa for this email. I don't know if
Speaker 1: Hovita will make it onto the show because a quick
Speaker 1: search found that the information available on her is a
Speaker 1: little sin. That doesn't mean no, it means it might
Speaker 1: just take a while to gather enough resources or maybe
Speaker 1: a six impossible episodes entry at some point. I think
Speaker 1: will be due for one of those before the end
Speaker 1: of the years. So thank you again Melissa for sending this.
Speaker 1: I love that story about being overheard by a customer
Speaker 1: and being like, well, that was just totally the wrong
Speaker 1: time for maybe a customer to walk in on this podcast.
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