The Captain and Thomasine

The Captain and ThomasineGrew up a girl, became a soldier, dressed as a woman,defended herself in stunning Jamestown court case. Cross dressing was not all that uncommon in the 17th Century, not among the English and not among the Native Americans of Virginia. But the Thomas Thomasine Hall case of 1629 was not about cross dressing as we think of it today. It was about choice dressing it was about Americas first known intersexual, her struggle for identity in a male female

Grew up a girl, became a soldier, dressed as a woman,defended herself in stunning Jamestown court case.

Cross-dressing was not all that uncommon in the 17th Century, not among the English and not among the Native Americans of Virginia. But the Thomas/Thomasine Hall case of 1629 was not about cross-dressing as we think of it today. It was about choice-dressing Ð it was about AmericaÕs first known intersexual, her struggle for identity in a male-female world and her choice to dress as a woman despite efforts of settlers in Jamestown to force her to dress as a man. Thomasine Hall testified during a March 25, 1629, session of the Council and General Court of Colonial Virginia that she was christened as a girl in Newcastle upon Tyne, named Thomasine and was raised as a girl. She considered herself a girl in childhood and a woman in adulthood. It was her wish to be called a woman, to be called Thomasine, which was her birth name.