DEPARTMENT OF TEACHING & LEARNING Educate · Equip · Empower 7th Grade ELA: Pirate Text Set Directions: Read and annotate the connected texts in this packet. As you read, look for evidence of what ​ pirate life was like. Once you have read all of the texts, complete the questions that follow in a complete paragraph, then choose one writing prompt to write a full essay. Responses should be turned into your teacher, and can be completed on paper or digitally. Text 1: “Yo Ho (A Pirate’s Life for Me)” By Xavier Atencio ​ Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me We pillage plunder, we rifle and loot We're beggars and blighters and ne'er Drink up me 'earties1, yo ho do-well cads4 We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot Drink up me 'earties, yo ho Drink up me 'earties, yo ho Aye, but we're loved by our mommies and dads Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me Drink up me 'earties, yo ho We extort and pilfer2, we filch and sack Drink up me 'earties, yo ho Maraud and embezzle and even highjack Drink up me 'earties, yo ho Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me We kindle and char and in flame and ignite Drink up me 'earties, yo ho We burn up the city, we're really a fright Drink up me 'earties, yo ho We're rascals and scoundrels, we're villains and knaves3 Drink up me 'earties, yo ho We're devils and black sheep, we're really bad eggs Drink up me 'earties, yo ho 1 Pronunciation of “hearties,” which was another term for shipmates 2 To steal 3 A dishonest or unscrupulous man 4 A man who behaves dishonorably, especially toward a woman 1 DEPARTMENT OF TEACHING & LEARNING Educate · Equip · Empower Text 2: “Female Pirates You Should Know About” By Kristy Puchko When you think of pirates, you're likely picturing bearded buccaneers or peg-legged scalawags with names like Blackbeard, Barbarossa, and Calico Jack. While most pirates were men, there were women in these ranks of raiders who were just as merciless, notorious, and feared. Spanning the globe and centuries, we introduce you to the infamous she-pirates of the seven seas. Anne Bonny Born Anne Cormac in 1698, this Irish lass with luscious red locks and a dangerous temper became an icon of The Golden Age of Piracy (1650s-1730s) after marrying small-time pirate James Bonny. Anne's respectable father disowned her over the marriage, so she and her new husband moved to a portion of the Bahamas nicknamed the Pirates Republic, a sanctuary of sorts for scalawags. But the Bonnys were not happily married for long. They divorced, and she took up with Calico Jack Rackham, first as his girlfriend, then as his first mate of the ship Revenge. In October of 1720, she and the rest of Rackham's crew were captured despite Bonny and her buddy Mary Read's valiant attempts to fight off the advancing English forces. Bonny blamed Rackham for their capture. Her last words to him in prison are recorded as, "Sorry to see you there, but if you'd fought like a man, you would not have been hang'd like a Dog." He was hanged, but Bonny's pregnancy earned her a stay in prison. However, no historical record of her death sentence was found. Some speculate that her affluent father paid a handsome price to have her set free. Mary Read Best mate of Anne Bonny was Mary Read, an Englishwoman born of a sea captain's widow. While Bonny was said to wear clothes that identified her as female, Read had a long history of masquerading as male that dates back to her youth. Her mother would dress Read as her late older brother to wheedle money from the dead boy's paternal grandmother. Years later, she joined the British military as Mark Read. She found love with a Flemish soldier, but upon his untimely death Read headed to the West Indies. As fate would have it, her ship was taken by pirates, who pushed her to join their ranks. Dressing as a man, Read set sail with Anne Bonny and Calico Jack on the Revenge in 1720. Some stories suggest that only Bonny and Jack knew of Read's womanhood, and only because the latter grew jealous when the former flirted with "Mark." Later that year, a third in their crew would learn Read's secret, and she claimed him as her husband. When the Revenge was captured by pirate hunter Captain Jonathan Barnet, Read joined Bonny in "pleading the belly." But pregnancy from her unnamed husband would not save her. She died on April 28th 1721, from a 2 DEPARTMENT OF TEACHING & LEARNING Educate · Equip · Empower violent fever in her prison cell. No record is made of the burial of a baby. Some suspect Read and the infant died during childbirth. Sadie the Goat American pirate of the 19th century, Sadie Farrell earned her unusual nickname for her violent modus operandi5. On the streets of New York City, Sadie won a reputation as a merciless mugger by head-butting her victims. It's said that Sadie was chased out of Manhattan when a fellow female tough, Gallus Mag, brawled with her, biting off Sadie's ear. To flee the city, she wrangled a new gang to steal a sloop6 in the spring of 1869. With a Jolly Roger7 flapping above them, Sadie and her crew became pirates that swept the Hudson and Harlem Rivers for booty8. She'd lead raids on the farmhouses and posh mansions that dotted the river's side, occasionally kidnapping folks for ransom. By the end of summer these raids became too risky as the farmers took to firing upon the sloop as it drew near. So, Sadie the Goat returned to the mainland, where she made peace with Gallus Mag, who returned to Sadie her lost ear which had been pickled for posterity. Known now as "Queen of the Waterfront," Sadie took her dismembered ear and placed it in a locket, which she wore around her neck for the rest of her days. Queen Teuta of Illyria One the earliest recorded female pirates was actually a pirate queen. Once her husband Agron died in 231 BC, Teuta of Illyria became queen regent, as her stepson Pinnes was too young to rule. During her four years of reign over the Ardiaei tribe of what is now the Western Balkans, Teuta encouraged piracy as a means of fighting back against Illyria's domineering neighbors. This not only meant the plundering of Roman ships, but also the capturing of Dyrrachium and Phoenice. Her pirates spread out from the Adriatic Sea into the Ionian Sea, terrorizing the trade route of Greece and Italy. While Teuta's seafaring tribesman brought her kingdom great wealth and power, they also won her a great enemy. Romans sent representatives to Teuta for a diplomatic meeting. She scoffed at their pleas, insisting that her tribe sees piracy as a part of lawful trade. From there diplomacy went out the window. It's unknown what the Roman reps said next. But one ambassador was killed, while the other was imprisoned. So began a war between Rome and Illyria that lasted from 229 BC to 227 BC, when Teuta was forced to surrender on terms that cut down her power and forced her tribe to pay annual tribute to Rome. Though she continued to rail against Roman rule, she lost her throne. The rest of her life was lost to history. 5 a particular way or method of doing something, especially one that is characteristic or well-established 6 a one-masted sailboat with a fore-and-aft mainsail and a jib 7 Traditional name for the skull and crossbones flag that is associated with pirates 8 valuable stolen goods, especially those seized in war 3 DEPARTMENT OF TEACHING & LEARNING Educate · Equip · Empower Sayyida al Hurra A contemporary and ally of the Turkish pirate Barbarossa, Sayyida al-Hurra was a pirate queen and was the last woman awarded the title of al Hurra (Queen), following the death of her husband who had ruled Tétouan, Morocco. In fact, her real name is unknown. Sayyida al Hurra is a title that translates to “noble lady who is free and independent; the woman sovereign who bows to no superior authority.” She ruled from 1515-1542, controlling the western Mediterranean Sea with her pirate fleet while Barbarossa roamed the eastern side. Al Hurra's inspiration to take to piracy came from a wish for revenge against the "Christian enemy" she felt had wronged her years before when Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella ran her Muslim family out of Granada. She was a feared figure for the Spanish and Portuguese, whose historical records are peppered with paperwork involving reports about her exploits and ransoms. At the height of her power, al-Hurra remarried to the king of Morocco, yet refused to give up her seat of power in Tétouan. But in 1542, she was given no choice when her son-in-law overthrew her. The Yemen Times weighs in on her final chapter, writing, "She was stripped of her property and power and her subsequent fate is unknown." Ching Shih One of the most feared pirates of all time was this menace of the China Sea. Born in humble beginnings as Shi Xiang Gu, she was captured by pirates.