The Female Marine, or The Adventures of Lucy Brewer, was first published in 1815 as a series of pamphlets sold in Boston. The series is the supposedly autobiographical account of Lucy Brewer, although controversy has surrounded the true authorship of the story as some believe it was in fact written by Nathaniel Hill Wright. Plot summary First Part: The Narrative of Lucy Brewer Sixteen-year-old Louisa Lucy Brewer lives the life of a farm girl in Plymouth, Massachusetts. She falls in love with a boy named Henry and becomes pregnant soon after. Henry's refusal to marry Lucy leads her to the city of Boston, which was then perceived as a port city of bustling opportunity. Lucy travels to Boston looking for a chambermaid job with better wages. After her baby dies during childbirth, Lucy is duped into a life of prostitution and struggles in a cycle of seductions and betrayals. Lucy speaks of the people and incidents she has seen during her three years working in West Boston. In 1812, she meets a first lieutenant of a privateer, who mentions in a conversation with Lucy that if he were a woman, he would disguise himself as a man and “rove about and see the world” just like Revolutionary war veteran Miss Sampson who disguised herself as Robert Shurtliff (70). Reluctant to return home to her parents or stay in the brothel, Lucy escapes by joining the Marine Corps to patriotically fight in the War of 1812. Dressing as a man and taking the name George Baker, Lucy disguises herself to go aboard the frigate U.S.S. Constitution. For the three years that she serves and fights in naval battles against the British, Lucy keeps her gender a complete secret. Afterward, Lucy chooses to return to her parents’ home after leaving six years prior. She transitions back into her life at Plymouth as a woman, traditionally marrying and living the rest of her life. She marries a man named Charles West. Lucy confesses that her reason for writing this story and revealing her double life stems from her desire to dissuade young girls from listening to the “voice of love, unless sanctioned by paternal approbation, and to resist the impulse of inclination, when it runs counter to the precepts of religion and virtue” (76). Second Part: Continuation of Narrative Lucy officially reveals her true identity at the beginning of Part Two, and briefly