Jade

of course Kelpie's grandson would feature prominently in my other favorite Sally Watson book lmaoao that side of the family rules apparently. speaking of the family tree that is SO CONVOLUTED holy moly
this and The Hornet's Nest are the two of this series that are distinctly more about justice and the rights and equality of all mankind. Feminism and abolition feature most prominently here. Jade and I are very very unlike but I loved her and Rory and the others. Throwing the Quartet into Anne Bonney and Mary Read's stories is a lot of fun -- very well done historically -- I am not really in a mood to expostulate on the matter of how this book deals with Jade's fight for freedom for all but I do think I just really really like these books show more LMAO and Jade, furious and always holding her own and standing up for what she believes.
Hysterical amount of romance in this one tbh but also historically accurate so let's go I guess?
Some really fantastic quotes from this one of Jade learning more than just bravado and recklessness.
“I don’t think God punishes us. I think He just lets His Law take its course. I think He has just one Law, that sooner or later, in this world or another, everybody reaps just exactly what he’s sowed. And I think the whole purpose of life is to learn some wisdom and courage from it.” He looked slightly astonished at himself, as if he hadn’t really known he believed all that until he heard himself saying it. Jade, deeply impressed, digested it for a while.
“What good will it do us to learn wisdom if we both hang?” she asked, more as a point of argument than anything.
Rory grinned. “You’ve got it backwards. What does it matter whether we hang, if we’ve learned a little wisdom?” show less

Melanie Lennox is supposed to be learning how to be a proper Virginia young lady. Her parents despair of her, however. She tried to free her best friend and slave, Joshua; she insists on associating with her disreputable grandparents; she sneaks off to learn fencing; and now she has released a fox which her neighbor had captured and planned on hunting. Her despairing parents send her off for more education at her uncle's heavy hands, but Melanie -- who calls herself "Jade" -- is captured by Anne Bonney, the legendary pirate queen. So begin a series of piratical adventures in which Jade is joined by the pirates (including the genuine figures Anne Bonney and Mary Read), two former slaves who are her best friends, and the sexily cynical show more and grumpy Rory.

How could I not have fallen completely for my beloved Jade? She fences her way across the Atlantic, freeing slaves, fighting evil, and demanding the rights of women and Africans -- all the while learning not to take herself too seriously.

Quotes:

"What does it matter whether we hang, if we've learned a little wisdom?"

"Always remember to demand more of yourself than anyone else. Otherwise you become merely a tiresome rebellious young girl who wants that the whole world should change to suit her whim. The world is full of such as these; most of them grow up at last, but they are not particularly admirable, enfin. They are against everything, for nothing." show less

Not entirely perfect, but pretty darn close. A children's book so modern in so many ways, I can't believe it was published in 1969.

Always a rebel against the conventions of the eighteenth century which require her to be a meek and obedient young lady, a sixteen-year-old girl joins the pirate crew that captures the ship she is traveling on.