Jean Lafitte

This article is about the pirate. For the town named after him, see Jean Lafitte, Louisiana.

Jean Baptiste Lafitte
1776 – 1826 (?) 1854 (?)
19th century portrait of Jean Laffite
Type:	Pirate
Place of birth:	Bayonne, France (?)
Place of death:	Yucatan, the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, or Illinois
Rank:	Captain
Base of Operations:	Barataria Bay
Commands:	Pride
Battles/wars:	War of 1812 Battle of New Orleans

Jean Lafitte (1776 - 1854?), was a famous pirate in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century.

Biography

As a privateer and pirate, Jean Lafitte lived much of his life outside the law, and a number of details about his life are obscure. Some believe he was born January 24, 1776 as Jean Baptiste Lafitte in Bayonne, France, although a number of other cities in France also claim to be his birthplace.

He married (but did not have any children with) Madeleine Ragaud. Jean is also known to have had one illegitimate child with Catherine Villars; descendants of Pierre Lafitte (born 1816) live in Louisiana to this day. Both Ragaud and Villars were quadroons, one-fourth black and three-fourths French.

He is said to have been a friend of both Andrew Jackson and Napoleon Bonaparte. Lafitte allegedly tried to help Napoleon escape exile, but fearing capture he fled back to Louisiana when Napoleon didn't arrive at Lafitte's boat in Bordeaux at the exact hour planned. Stories also circulated that Lafitte buried Napoleon's treasure somewhere and that it has not been found even to this day.

Along with his 'crew of a thousand men' (the number he commanded was actually quite small, but, due to the loose confederation which he and his brother ran, the number of men engaged in their affairs was substantial), Lafitte sometimes receives credit for helping defend Louisiana from the British in the War of 1812, with his nautical raids along the Gulf of Mexico.

Jean and his older brother Pierre Lafitte established their own "Kingdom of Barataria" in the swamps and bayous near New Orleans after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. He claimed to command more than 3,000 men and provided them as troops for the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, greatly assisting Andrew Jackson in repulsing the British attack. The actual number he commanded was more likely a few dozen, although since they specialized in artillery their effect was substantial. Lafitte reportedly conducted his operations in the historic New Orleans French Quarter. General Jackson was informed of Lafitte's gallant exploits at the Battle of New Orleans by Colonel Ellis P. Bean, who then recruited Lafitte to support the Mexican Republican movement.

Of the two brothers, Jean was the most familiar with the naval aspects of their enterprise, while Pierre was more often involved with the commercial aspects. Pierre lived in New Orleans or at least maintained his household there (with his mulatto lover who bore him a very large family). Jean spent the majority of his time in Barataria managing the daily hands-on business of outfitting privateers and arranging the smuggling of stolen goods. The most prized "good" was invariably slaves, especially after the outlawing of the slave trade in the United States.

After being run out of New Orleans around 1817, Lafitte relocated to the island of Galveston, Texas establishing, as a nominal Jewish Texan ^{[citation needed]}, another "kingdom" he named "Campeche". In Galveston, Lafitte either purchased or set his claim to a lavishly furnished mansion used by French pirate Louis-Michel Aury, which he named "Maison Rouge". The building's upper level was converted into a fortress where a cannon commanding Galveston harbor was placed. Around 1820, Lafitte reportedly married Madeline Regaud, possibly the widow or daughter of a French colonist who had died during an ill-fated expedition to Galveston. In 1821, the schooner USS Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Lafitte from the Gulf after one of the pirate's captains attacked an American merchant ship. Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight, and in 1821 or 1822 departed on his flagship, the Pride, burning his fortress and settlements and reportedly taking immense amounts of treasure with him. All that remains of Maison Rouge is the foundation, located at 1417 Avenue A near the Galveston wharf. When Laffite left Galveston Island in 1820 he made Jao de la Porta, a Jewish Texan merchant a full-time trader. [1]

While the Lafitte brothers were engaged in running the Galveston operation, one client they worked with considerably in the slave smuggling trade was James Bowie. The Lafittes were selling slaves at a dollar a pound, and Bowie would buy them at the Lafittes' rate, then get around the American laws against slave trading by reporting his purchased slaves as having been found in the possession of smugglers. The law at the time allowed Bowie to collect a fee on the "recovered" slaves, and he would then re-buy the slaves (essentially a "slave laundering" act) and then resell them to prospective buyers.

The Lafittes were also engaged in espionage, and were, in effect, double agents. The notion of their loyalty to the United States, while much evoked by their own publicity, was highly dubious. The Lafittes (Pierre, in particular) spied for Spain through agents in Cuba and in Louisiana. While often providing solid material, the Lafittes in fact played both sides, American and Spanish, and always with an eye to securing their own interests. No doubt the charm of Pierre and his reputation as a man in the know figured heavily in the weight he was given by his immediate handlers, although he was never trusted by the higher-up of the Spanish interests. Of particular interest it should be noted that while running the island of Galveston for personal benefit, Pierre Lafitte tried to induce Spain to assault the island. This would have enhanced his standing with Spain while causing minimal real losses to the Lafitte operations.

In the early 19th Century, a price of $5,000 was placed on Jean Lafitte's head by the Louisiana Governor, William C. C. Claiborne. In response, Jean Lafitte put the same bounty on the Governor.

In early 1821, the U.S. Navy ran Lafitte out of Galveston, according to French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld. While leaving, Lafitte burned his compound. Thus, despite the great heights to which Lafitte rose, began his decline. He left with three vessels, but two of them deserted him a few days later when he refused to attack a convoy of Spanish merchantmen. From that point on, Lafitte's power and influence reached a low ebb, and he became a petty pirate and thief. He established a base on Mugeres Island off the coast of Yucatan, but it was just a small collection of squalid huts.

Herbert Asbury recounts his death in The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld. In 1826, Lafitte entered the little Indian village of Teljas, on the mainland, and died of fever after a few days' illness in a native hut. He was 47.

Lafitte's journal

The authenticity of the Lafitte Journal is hotly debated among Lafitte scholars, with some accepting the manuscript and others denouncing it as a forgery. The problem of authenticating the diary is confounded by the scarcity of genuine documents in Lafitte's handwriting for comparison. The most reliable genuine Lafitte documents are two short manuscripts from the library collection of Republic of Texas president Mirabeau B. Lamar, which are currently held by the Texas State Archives. Paper tests confirm that the Journal is written on paper from the 19th century, though no consensus exists about authenticity among the small number of handwriting experts who have studied the document. The original manuscript was purchased by Texas Governor Price Daniel in the 1970s and is on display at the Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center in Liberty, Texas. Translated versions of the journal have been in print since the 1950s.

Among other things, this diary would demonstrate that Jean Lafitte was Jewish, through descent from his maternal grandmother Zora Nadrimal. Harold I. Sharfman in Jews on the Frontier: An account of Jewish Pioneers and Settlers in Early America, accepted that Lafitte was of Jewish descent. The family were Marranos who converted under pressure to Roman Catholicism in the 14th century, but continued to practice Judaism secretly. In 1765, Jean's grandmother, Maria Zola, fled with her mother from Spain to France to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Maria Zola's husband, Abhorad (Jean's grandfather), was put to death by the Inquisition for "judaizing." (Sharfman, Harold I., Jews on the Frontier, Henry Regnery Company, Chicago. 1977. pp. 132-145). Recent scholars recognize Lafitte as a corsair or buccaneer who operated with Letters of Marque to legitimize his commerce raiding. As such, technically, Jean Lafitte was not a pirate in the true sense of the word^{[citation needed]}.

Biographical Notes from the Lafitte Society of Galveston Texas

No authenticated record of Jean Laffite's birth has been found, but it is generally believed that he was born sometime around 1780. When he applied for a French privateer commission in 1813 he claimed to be 32 years old; Pierre was believed to be about 40 in 1816. Their contemporaries nearly always distinguished between the two Laffite brothers as "the elder" and "the younger" and there is abundant documentary evidence that Pierre was the older of the two.

Pierre Laffite's death is well documented: he perished on the northern coast of the Yucatan peninsula in the fall of 1821. [Also reported] Jean Laffite disappeared into the "fog of history" after he escaped from prison in Puerto Principe, Cuba, in February, 1822. Reports of his death in a sea-fight in the Gulf of Honduras in 1823 have not yet been confirmed by primary sources. There are no confirmed "sightings" after the early 1820's.

Jean Laffite, the pirate, is occasionally confused with Jean Lafitte, father and son, of New Orleans. Lafitte pere came to Louisiana in the 1760's and settled in New Orleans, where he was a respected merchant. In 1777 he married Isabelle Roche. Their son, baptized Jean on February 7, 1779, was a mariner and immigrated to the French West Indies before the Louisiana Purchase. The Lafitte home was located at 3 Chartres St. and they had a small plantation in what is now Audubon Park. Old Jean Lafitte died in New Orleans on September 25, 1789, and is buried in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1; Isabelle died in 1806. Their son Jean appears to have died in a storm at sea around 1817--[Vogel.]

Pierre and Jean Laffite were Frenchmen and their nationality is always given as such in contemporary records. When asked, they claimed to be French citizens, and neither made any attempt to become naturalized after they came to live in the United States. When they applied to the French consul in New Orleans for a privateer commission in March, 1813, Jean gave Bordeaux as his place of birth. In 1816, his fellow conspirator Dr. Juan Mariano Picornell informed the Spanish secret service that Pierre Laffite's mother was a Spaniard from Orduna--which makes Bordeaux a plausible birthplace for the brothers--[Vogel.]

[Ramsay, in Jean Laffite, Prince of Pirates, takes the position that Pierre and Jean were born at St. Dominique and came to Louisiana as children in the 1780s with their widowed mother. This he believes accounts for Jean's superior knowledge of the swamps and bayous at an early age; knowledge that prepared him for leadership of the Baratarians and the Battle of New Orleans. According to this account his mother married a New Orleans merchant and this assured him of acceptance among the clannish inhabitants of the city. This acceptance would have been denied a newcomer--[Ed.]

Until conclusive proof of the Laffite brothers' nativity is produced the identities of their parents and siblings cannot be determined. French genealogists have, however, found documents which suggest that Pierre and Jean may have been born in Bordeaux (in 1772 and 1782, respectively), the sons of Antoine Laffite, a rope maker, and Guillemette Chataigne. Unfortunately, their names are common in that part of the world and researchers are still busy sorting out the various Pierre and Jean Laffites-- [Vogel.]

The names of the children born to this couple, in whom we are interested, are: A. Pierre Laffite born 12 April, 1772 B. Alexandre Laffite born 6 May, 1774 C. Jean Laffite born 15 August, 1782 (This information is presented and discussed in: Suduiraut, Bertrand Guillot, "Laffite, Brothers & Co., Buccaneers, or the Impossible Quest" Généalogie et Historie de la Caraibe. No. 82 (May, 1996), pp., 1618-1620. Also published in The Laffite Society Chronicles, Vol. III, Number 1(January, 1997). The presence of Alexandre raises the interesting possibility that this person may be Dominique (aka Frederic) You- Youx.--Ed.]

The fabricated Laffite genealogy in the Journal of Jean Laffite is the source of the twentieth-century legend that the Laffite brothers were descended from Spanish Jews. None of their contemporaries ever alluded to their being Jews or having Jewish heritage--[Vogel]

Folklore

Lafitte claimed never to have plundered an American vessel, and though he engaged in the contraband slave trade, he is accounted a great romantic figure in Louisiana and Texas. The mystery surrounding Lafitte has only inflated the legends attached to his name. Lafitte was said to be a master mariner; according to one legend he was once caught in a tropical storm off the coast of North Galveston and steered his ship to safety by riding the storm surge over Galveston island and into the harbor.

Lafitte's lost treasure has acquired a lore of its own as it, like his death, was never accounted for. He reportedly maintained several stashes of plundered gold and jewelry in the vast system of marshes, swamps, and bayous located around Barrataria Bay. One such legend places the treasure somewhere on the property of Destrehan Plantation, and Lafitte's spirit walks the plantation on nights of full moons to guide someone to the treasure's location. Other rumors suggest that Lafitte's treasure sank with his ship, the Pride, either near Galveston or in the Gulf of Mexico where some believe it went down during an 1826 hurricane. In the area of Galveston, it is commonly said that Lafitte buried his treasure on Galveston Island.

His legend was perpetuated in Cecil B. DeMille's classic film The Buccaneer and its 1958 remake, and even by a poem of Byron:

He left a corsair’s name to other times,

Linked with one virtue, and a thousand crimess^[1].

Other references to Lafitte

• Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in Louisiana is named for him.

• Lafitte, Louisiana is the name of a Cajun fishing village and tourist spot on Bayou Barataria, and Chalmette, Louisiana has a street named after the pirate.

• Lafitte is also the subject of the Contraband Days festival of Lake Charles, Louisiana, held during the first two weeks of May to celebrate rumors of buried treasure in Lake Charles and Contraband Bayou. The festival features a band of actors portraying Lafitte and his pirates, who sail into the city's namesake lake and capture the city's mayor, forcing him to walk the plank. No such event is known to have occurred, although there are unsubstantiated legends that Lafitte hid treasure in the area of the lake.

• Carl Ouellet played a gimmick in the World Wrestling Federation where he was supposedly a descendant of Lafitte. His ring name was a combination of the Lafitte brothers' names, Jean-Pierre Lafitte.

• "Who was Jean Lafitte?" was the correct question to the "final jeopardy" answer on the television game show Jeopardy! that aired on Thursday, August 23, 2007. The answer was, "When the Governor of Louisiana put a $500 price on his head, he responded by putting a price on the Governor's head."

Lafitte in fiction

The figure of Jean Lafitte has been used in a number of works of fiction.

• In the novel, Siren, written by Cheryl Sawyer Jean Lafitte is a main character along with the fictional Leonore Roncival.

• Yul Brynner assumes the role of Lafitte in the 1958 Hollywood Movie The Buccaneer.

• Jean Lafitte (John Dehner) befriends Hoss Cartwright (Dan Blocker) on "Bonanza", Hoss helps him clear his name of a murder charge in "The Gentleman from New Orleans", an episode aired originally February 2nd 1964 on NBC (Season 5, Episode 18).

• Lafitte is mentioned often in the Jimmy Buffett bestseller, A Salty Piece of Land, as the founder of the fictional village of Punta Margarita.

• He appears in the pages of DC Comics' Swamp Thing title, and is said to have been slain by a fellow pirate named Dark Conrad Constantine.

• The descendants of Jean Lafitte's men play an important role in Lovecraft's story The Call of Cthulhu.

• Lafitte appears as a minor character in the book Wet Grave, written by Barbara Hambly. Wet Grave is the sixth of her Benjamin January historical mystery series set in New Orleans.

• The breakfast cereal character Cap'n Crunch for a while had a pirate nemesis named Jean LaFoote, after Lafitte.

• Lafitte plays a prominent role in Isabel Allende's novel Zorro, where the real pirate and the fictional hero fall in love with the same woman in 19th century Louisiana.

• A fictional descendent, Johnny Lafitte, is the main character of Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel Pirate Blood.

• "Pirates of the Caribbean", possibly the most famous of the attractions at Disneyland begins at Lafitte's Landing in a New Orleans-themed area of the Park.

• Lafitte is a character that appears in the anime and manga series One Piece by Eiichiro Oda as a member of the Blackbeard pirates.

• Jean Lafitte is also one of the notorious pirates featured in the computer game "Sid Meier's Pirates!".

• Author Poppy Z. Brite used him in her short story "The Sixth Sentinel" in the collection Wormwood.

• Jean Lafitte appears as a "notorious" pirate in by Ascaron Entertainment.

• Anne Lafitte, a fictional descendent, is a minor cast member in the Playstation 2 Game Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

• Jean Lafitte also appears in the American Conquest Divided Nation computer game, helping U.S against the british army in the battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.

• Jean Lafitte is also the brother-in-law to an ancestor of the Phantom. Lafitte's sister Jeanette falls in love and marries the 13th Phantom as told by Lee Falk. See: Family tree of the Phantom

• In the science fiction novel Dujonian's Hoard (Star Trek The Next Generation: The Captain's Table, Book 2) Jean Lafitte makes an appearance as Captain of the Pride, and duels with Jean-Luc Picard.

• Jean Lafitte plays a role in the American Girl History Mystery, The Smuggler's Treasure.

Notes and references

1. ^ cf. Lafitte Society's selected bibliography.

See also

• History of the Galveston Jewish Community

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Jean Lafitte

On the life of Lafitte

• The Pirates Lafitte: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf
• Jean Lafitte: Gentleman Pirate of New Orleans — full-length book at CrimeLibrary.Com
• Lafitte, the Louisiana Pirate and Patriot — biography in the Louisiana Historical Quarterly

• Jean Lafitte Chapter from Yoakum's History of Texas, 1855
• Searching for the Real Jean Lafitte
• The Legacy of Jean Lafitte in southwest Louisiana

• The Jewish pirate

• Lafitte's activity in Texas and supposed treasure

• French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld, by Herbert Asbury Pages 154 - 171

Other sites

• Laffite Society

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