(Review) Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition

So, being the committed slasher that I am, one of the first things I did when beginning my Pirates of the Caribbean research was look for books about pirate sexuality. I found and read two that addressed the subject in detail, and thought I'd give some summary/review for the benefit of those attempting to discuss 17th Century pirates and their sexuality.

(Note: I should probably mention that there was no equivalent term for "homosexual" or "gay" in the 17th Century. Not only did the words not exist in their current meaning, there was in fact no actual formal concept of same-sex sexual preference. Same-sex sexual relationships were instead defined in the courtroom by the legal definitions of sodomy, which is why that term is used so frequently in my summaries.)

( Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition by B. R. Burg )