Title:Alumna celebrates the swashbuckling women of history

Laura Sook Duncombe (L’11) has been obsessed with pirates since watching Peter Pan at age 5. Growing up, she felt drawn to alternative ways of being a woman, along with questions about the nature of right and wrong. These interests converge in her latest book, A Pirate’s Life for She: Swashbuckling Women Through the Ages.

The narrative collection spans time and space, from Norse princess Alfhild to Muslim ruler and pirate queen Sayyida al-Hurra, to the most successful pirate in history, Cheng I Sao. It explores the motivations of pirate women: revenge, escape, glory, adventure, and power. These historical figures took up piracy for different reasons, with a unifying desire for a better life.

“Every woman I know has been told at some point in her life, ‘this is a male-only space,’ whether implicitly or explicitly,” Duncombe says. “Pirates are relatable because we’ve all felt the desire to have something that we’ve been told we cannot have. These women said, ‘I’m gonna take it.’ I think that’s admirable—not the methods, but why they did what they did. We could all take a lesson from their courage, if not from their swashbuckling.”

In writing this book, Duncombe consumed official historical accounts with a grain of salt. She pored through archives in the Library of Congress and scoured the internet for songs and stories about female pirates. Considering that history is often written by the powerful, Duncombe advises readers to consider the source and the agenda behind every story.

“These women were used as tools by ruling class men, as cautionary tales,” Duncombe says. “Historians were twisting the stories for their own ends. When you’re listening to a story, you should see why that person is telling that story. It’s important to examine the biases of your storyteller, because none of us is without bias.”

Duncombe’s critical thinking served her well in her legal career. As a student at Georgetown Law, Duncombe sought to be a public defender, so she joined the Juvenile Justice Clinic, where she worked to preserve justice for children who admitted to wrongdoing.

“It was a matter of treating them fairly,” she says. “The justice system is stacked against minorities and people in poverty. That experience made me think about the relative nature of good and bad in an adversarial law system.”

In her research as a writer, Duncombe sees a link between socioeconomic inequality and piracy.

“Everyone is a product of their circumstances,” she says “Desperate people make choices that we wouldn’t necessarily agree with. You don’t become a pirate if you have another, better option.”

Duncombe celebrates the enduring appeal of pirate narratives.

“Everybody wants to be able to choose their own path,” she says. “You cannot put a dollar value on one’s freedom.”