Historical Fiction Book Club

Buy The Ballad of Jacquotte Delahaye from Bookshop.org

This “thrilling, swashbuckling story” (People) based on true events illuminates a woman of color’s rise to power as one of the few female pirate captains to sail the Caribbean, and a forbidden love story that will shape the course of history.

In the tumultuous town of Yáquimo, Santo Domingo, Jacquotte Delahaye is an up-and-coming shipwright, but her ambitions are bound by the confines of her self-seeking French father. When her way of life and the delicate balance of power in the town are threatened, she is forced to flee her home and become a woman on the run along with a motley crew of refugees, including a mysterious young woman named Teresa.

Jacquotte and her band become indentured servants to the infamous Blackhand, a ruthless pirate captain who rules his ship with an iron fist. As they struggle to survive, Jacquotte finds…