Jeanne Baré
Encyclopedia
Louis Antoine de Bougainville
Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville was a French admiral and explorer. A contemporary of James Cook, he took part in the French and Indian War and the unsuccessful French attempt to defend Canada from Britain...
's expedition on the ships La Boudeuse
French frigate La Boudeuse (1766)
The Boudeuse was a frigate of the French Navy, famous for being the exploration ship of Louis Antoine de Bougainville between 1766 and 1769.- First French circumnavigation :...
and Étoile
French fluyt Étoile (1767)
The Étoile was a fluyt famous for being one of Louis Antoine de Bougainville's ships in his circumnavigation between 1766 and 1769, along with La Boudeuse. She was commanded by Francois Chenard de la Giraudais, and was the storeship of the expedition.She carried naturalist and physician Philibert...
in 1766–1769. Baret is recognized as the first woman to have completed a voyage of circumnavigation
Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation – literally, "navigation of a circumference" – refers to travelling all the way around an island, a continent, or the entire planet Earth.- Global circumnavigation :...
.
Jeanne Baret joined the expedition disguised
Passing (gender)
Passing refers to a person's ability to be regarded as a member of the sex or gender with which they physically present. Typically, passing involves a mixture of physical gender cues as well as certain behavioral attributes that tend to be culturally associated with a particular gender...
as a man, calling herself Jean Baret. She enlisted as valet
Valet
Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer.- Word origins :In the Middle Ages, the valet de chambre to a ruler was a prestigious appointment for young men...
and assistant to the expedition's naturalist
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, Philibert Commerçon
Philibert Commerçon
Dr. Philibert Commerçon was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769.- Background :...
(anglicized as Commerson), shortly before Bougainville's ships sailed from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. According to Bougainville's account, Baret was herself an expert botanist.
Early Life
Jeanne Baret was born on July 27, 1740 in the village of La ComelleLa Comelle
La Comelle is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.-References:*...
in the Burgundy region of France. Her record of baptism survives and identifies her as the legitimate issue of the Jean Baret and Jeanne Pochard. Her father is identified as a laborer, and seems likely to have been illiterate as he did not sign the parish register.
Nothing definitive is known of Baret's childhood or young adulthood. She later told Bougainville that she had been orphaned and lost her fortune in a lawsuit before taking to disguising herself as a man. While she might well have been an orphan given the low life expectancies of the time, historians agree that other details of the story she gave Bougainville were a fabrication to shield Commerson from complicity in her disguise.
One of the mysteries of Baret's life is how she learned to read and write. One of her biographers, Glynis Ridley, suggests that her mother may have been of Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
extraction, a group that had a higher tradition of literacy than was otherwise typical of the peasant classes of the time.. Another biographer, John Dunmore, suggests that she may have been taught by the parish priest or taken on as a charity case by a member of the local gentry.
Relationship with Commerson
At some point between 1760 and 1764, Baret became employed in Commerson's household in Toulon-sur-ArrouxToulon-sur-Arroux
Toulon-sur-Arroux is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne in eastern France.-References:*...
, some 20km to the south of La Comelle. Commerson had settled in Toulon-sur-Arroux upon his marriage in 1760; his wife, who was the sister of the parish priest, died shortly after giving birth to a son in April, 1762. By the spring of 1764, Baret was serving as Commerson's housekeeper.
It is also evident that Baret and Commerson shared a more personal relationship, as Baret became pregnant in 1764. French law at that time required women who became pregnant out of wedlock to obtain a "certificate of pregnancy" in which they could name the father of their unborn child. Baret's certificate, from August 1764, survives; she declined to name the father, but historians do not doubt that it was Commerson.
At this time, Baret and Commerson moved together to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where she continued in the role of his housekeeper.
Baret apparently changed her name to "Jeanne de Bonnefoy" during this period. Her child, however, born in December 1764, was given the name Jean-Pierre Baret. Baret gave the child up to the Paris Foundlings Hospital; he was quickly placed with a foster mother, but died in the summer of 1765. (Commerson had left his legitimate son from his marriage in the care of his brother-in-law in Toulon-sur-Arroux.)
In 1765, Commerson was invited to join Bougainville's expedition. He hesitated in accepting due to often being in poor health; he required Baret's assistance as a nurse as well as in running his household and managing his collections and papers. His appointment allowed him a servant, paid as a royal expense, but women were completely prohibited on French navy ships at this time. At some point the idea of Baret disguising herself as a man in order to accompany Commerson was conceived.
Before leaving Paris, Commerson drew up a will in which he left to "Jeanne Baret, known as de Bonnefoi, my housekeeper", a lump sum of 600 livres along with back wages owed and the furnishings of their Paris apartment. Thus, while the story Baret concocted for Bougainville's benefit to explain her presence on board ship was carefully designed to shield Commerson from involvement, there is clear documentary evidence of their previous relationship, and it is highly improbable that Commerson did not connive in the plan himself.
With Bougainville
Baret and Commerson joined the Bougainville expedition at the port of RochefortRochefort, Charente-Maritime
Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.-History:...
in late December, 1766. They were assigned to sail on the storeship, the Etoile. Because of the vast quantity of equipment Commerson was bringing on the voyage, the ship's captain, François Chesnard de la Giraudais, gave up his own cabin on the ship to Commerson and his "assistant". This gave Baret significantly more privacy than she would have had otherwise on board the crowded ship. In particular, the captain's cabin gave Baret access to private toilet facilities so that she did not have to use the open head
Head (watercraft)
The head is a ship's toilet. The name derives from sailing ships in which the toilet area for the regular sailors was placed at the head or bow of the ship.-Design:In sailing ships the toilet was placed in the bow for two reasons...
.
In addition to Bougainville's own published account, Baret's story figures in three other surviving memoirs of the expedition: a journal kept jointly by Commerson and Pierre Duclos-Guyot; a journal by the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, a paying passenger on the Boudeuse; and a memoir by François Vivès, surgeon on the Etoile. Vivès has the most to say about Baret, but his memoir is problematical because he and Commerson were on bad terms throughout the voyage and his account -- largely written or revised after the fact -- is full of innuendo and spiteful comments directed at both Commerson and Baret.
When the expedition reached South America, Baret acted as Commerson's assistant on botanizing expeditions.
She cheerfully accompanied Commerson on the most troublesome excursions over rugged terrain and had a reputation for courage and strength.
Surviving accounts of the expedition differ on when Baret's true gender was first discovered by others on the ships. Bougainville's published account was that rumors that Baret was a woman had circulated for some time, but her gender was not finally confirmed until the expedition reached Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
. According to Bougainville, as soon as she and Commerson landed on shore to botanize, Baret was immediately surrounded by Tahitians who cried out that she was a woman. It was necessary to return her to the ship to protect her from the excited Tahitians.
Vivès also reported much speculation about Baret's gender early in the voyage, and asserts that Baret claimed to be a eunuch
Eunuch
A eunuch is a person born male most commonly castrated, typically early enough in his life for this change to have major hormonal consequences...
when confronted directly by La Giraudais (whose own official journal has not survived). Bougainville's account of the incident on Tahiti is not corroborated by the other journalists, although Vivès describes a similar incident in which Baret was pointed out as a woman by a Tahitian on board the ship. Vivès also describes a different incident on New Ireland some months later in which Baret was caught off-guard, stripped, and "examined" by a group of other servants on the expedition; Duclos-Guyot and Nassau-Siegen also recorded that Baret had been discovered to be a woman on New Ireland, but do not describe any assault.
After crossing the Pacific, the expedition was desperately short of food. After a brief stop for supplies in the Dutch East Indies, the ships made a longer stop at the island of Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
in the Indian Ocean. This island, also known as Isle de France, was then an important French trading station. Commerson was delighted to find that his old friend and fellow botanist Pierre Poivre
Pierre Poivre
Pierre Poivre was a French horticulturalist born in Lyon; missionary to China and Cochinchina, Intendant of the Islands of Mauritius and Bourbon, and wearer of the cordon of St. Michel...
was serving as governor on the island, and Commerson and Baret remained behind as Poivre's guests. Probably Bougainville also encouraged this arrangement as it allowed him to rid himself of the problem of a woman illegally on board his expedition.
Baret continued in her role as Commerson's assistant and housekeeper. It is likely that she accompanied him to botanize on Madagascar
Madagascar
The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...
and Bourbon Island in 1770-1772. Commerson continued to have serious health problems and he died on Mauritius in February, 1773. His financial situation on the island had deteriorated and Baret was left without the means to immediately return to France to claim the money due her from Commerson's will.
Later Life
After Commerson's death, Baret seems to have found work running a avern in Port LouisPort Louis
-Economy:The economy is dominated by its port, which handles Mauritius' international trade. The port was founded by the French who preferred Port Louis as the City is shielded by the Port Louis/Moka mountain range. It is the largest container handling facility in the Indian Ocean and can...
for a time. Then, on 17 May 1774, she married Jean Dubernat, a non-commissioned officer in the French Army who was most likely on the island on his way home to France.
There is no record of exactly when Baret and her husband arrived in France, thus completing her voyage of circumnavigation. Most likely it was sometime in 1775. In April 1776, she received the money that was due to her under Commerson's will after applying directly to the Attorney General. With this money, she settled with Dubernat in his native village of Saint-Aulaye
Saint-Aulaye
Saint-Aulaye is a commune in the Dordogne department in Aquitaine in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
where he may have set up as a blacksmith.
In 1785, Baret was granted a pension of 200 livres a year by the Ministry of Marine. The document granting her this pension makes clear the high regard with which she was held by this point:
- Jeanne Barré, by means of a disguise, circumnavigated the globe on one of the vessels commanded by Mr de Bougainville. She devoted herself in particular to assisting Mr de Commerson, doctor and botanist, and shared with great courage the labours and dangers of this savant. Her behaviour was exemplary and Mr de Bougainville refers to it with all due credit.... His Lordship has been gracious enough to grant to this extraordinary woman a pension of two hundred livres a year to be drawn from the fund for invalid servicemen and this pension shall be payable from 1 January 1785.
She died in Saint-Aulaye on August 5, 1807, at the age of 67.
Legacy and Controversy
For many years, Bougainville's published journal -- a popular best-seller in its day, in English translation as well as the original French -- was the only widely-available source of information about Baret. More recent scholarship has uncovered additional facts and documentation about her life, but much of the new information remained little-known and inaccessible to the general public, particularly outside of France. The first English-language biography of Baret, by John Dunmore, was not published until 2002, and then only in New Zealand. Other articles appeared only in scholarly journals.The 2010 biography of Baret by Glynis Ridley, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret, brought Baret to the attention of a wider audience and helped to overturn some of the old misconceptions about her life. However, Ridley's biography has also been highly criticized by some reviewers for its reliance on improbable chains of speculation that are not corroborated by any other primary or secondary sources.