Dr. Geanacopoulos Brings 'The Pirate's Wife' to Life

Historian and journalist, Dr. Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos, visits with us to discuss her riveting new book, The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd. “In the course of writing my first book, …The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates’ Wives, Families, and Communities, I learned about Sarah Kidd and I knew she would be worth a much deeper look.” This narrative nonfiction tells the story of Sarah, the wife of the infamous Captain Kidd, and her life as a pirate’s wife while secretly acting as his accomplice during his seafaring adventures. At the time, piracy was a way of life and the seas were rampant with hundreds of pirates. “The reason there was so much piracy and it took on the name, the Golden Age of Piracy, is that when there was peace time, sailors were unemployed and they had no way of making a living and so they resorted to other means of making a living, as mariners. When mariners were working on merchant ships for the British navy, the conditions were very, very harsh… for men who were sailors, turning to pirates, with the pirates, was a better way because onboard the pirate ship the conditions were better, the food was better, and they got a boat. It was a democratic organization so they were treated with respect while on British ships, and merchant ships they were not treated with respect. So men turned to piracy for that reason.”

Aside from being Captain Kidd’s wife, Geanacopoulos also delves into Sarah’s history. At the young age of 14, she arrived in New York as Sarah Bradley, with her father and two brothers. Within a year, she was married off to William Cox, one of the wealthiest men in the colony and by the time she was 21, Sarah was twice widowed and had married her third husband, Captain Kidd. While there are no portraits of Sarah, “she was described as lovely and accomplished. She was described as a lady of intelligence and exemplary piety…she was clearly very mature for her age and very attractive.” Geanacopoulos added, “…she had had a great deal of life experience that many of us have never had. She knew what she wanted. She knew a lot about men and marriage and love and lost.”