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The original was posted on /r/askhistorians by /u/TylerbioRodriguez on 2023-08-25 02:29:43+00:00.

Hello, I’m doing a research project on the female pirate Anne Bonny, and from prior research my educated guess is that she was a prostitute on Nassau from the mid 1710s to 1720 when she briefly became a pirate. Anne Bonny is something of my area of expertise.

The new season of Our Flag Means Death announced Minnie Driver as Anne Bonny and the one photo looks vaguely prostitute inspired but the clothing is all corsets and Marie Antoinette style hair and I know that’s wrong. The issue is, I’m not a historian of prostitution so I don’t know what is an accurate look. The best source I found was playwright John Gay in 1716 saying London prostitutes wore more tawdry attire compared to regular women, but I don’t know if that extends to the Bahamas or Jamaica.

Thank you, any assistance would be greatly appreciative.