Background
Jean Lafitte was probably born in Bayonne, France, shortly before 1780. The many stories of his ancestry and early life are confused and contradictory.
(The Battle of New Orleans: Dec., 1814 British troops were...)
The Battle of New Orleans: Dec., 1814 British troops were preparing to land in force when a harried Andrew Jackson, charged with mounting an urgent defence of the critical port city, was confronted by the leader of the notorious Baratarian pirates. Jackson had already refused to collaborate with these "hellish banditti," but the charismatic smuggler would not be deterred. "You want flints?" he offered, "I have 7,500 flints available at a snap of my fingers. You want powder? I have kegs-full. You want rifles, axes, men? They're yours. I have a thousand fighting men, eighty of which are now rotting in the Cabildo. Jackson," he addressed the General flamboyantly, "I and my followers want to fight for America..." This was Jean Laffite, a 19th century Han Solo at war with the British Empire. His men, supplies, and counsel proved instrumental to winning the final battle of the War of 1812 for the fledgling American republic.
https://www.amazon.com/Journal-Jean-Laffite-Privateer-Patriots-Story/dp/1441415599?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1441415599
Jean Lafitte was probably born in Bayonne, France, shortly before 1780. The many stories of his ancestry and early life are confused and contradictory.
It seems likely that Laffite followed the sea from his early youth, and he may have been the "Captain Lafette" of the French privateer La Soeur Chérie when, in April 1804, she put into the Mississippi for repairs and provisions (Official Letter Books of W. C. C. Claiborne, II, 97-98).
Before 1809 he was established in New Orleans as joint owner, with his brother Pierre, of a blacksmith shop, which was operated by slave labor and was probably used as a depot for goods and slaves brought into Louisiana by a band of privateers and smugglers.
Shortly afterward--probably in 1810--Jean Laffite became the chief of this band at their establishment on the secluded islands of Barataria Bay. Under his shrewd direction, ten or a dozen ships sailed with commissions from the young republic of Cartagena to prey on the Spanish commerce of the Gulf. The goods and slaves they brought in Laffite sold to New Orleans merchants and Louisiana planters in flagrant violation of the United States revenue laws. His men were also accused by British and American officials of attacking neutral merchantmen; but in spite of proclamations by the governor of Louisiana and ineffective expeditions against, and conflicts with, the Baratarians, they continued to flourish.
The United States government was occupied by the War of 1812, and Louisiana was profiting by the work of Laffite. On September 3, 1814, three officers of the British army and navy visited Laffite, and offered him rewards in lands, pardon for past offenses, and a captaincy in the British army in return for aid in the impending attack on New Orleans. Laffite, having adroitly secured as much information as possible, put the British off with promises to consider the question. Then he promptly informed the Louisiana officials of the whole affair, although Pierre Laffite was even then in jail in New Orleans.
In spite of this patriotic act, a force under command of Commodore Daniel T. Patterson of the American navy and Col. George T. Ross of the United States army arrived at Barataria September 16, and, meeting with no resistance, destroyed the establishment, took the ships found there to New Orleans, and arrested the men. When this blow fell, Laffite was in hiding with his brother, who had escaped from jail. Immediately, he offered the services of the Baratarians to the American cause, and, December 17, 1814, Gov. W. C. C. Claiborne issued a proclamation of invitation to the Baratarians. Many of them responded and served in the battle of New Orleans. As a reward, President Madison, on February 6, 1815, pardoned them for past crimes.
The Laffites were not long in returning to their evil ways. They were interested in the privateering establishment at Galveston even before Luis de Aury left it, but it was not until September 1817 that Jean Laffite founded there his new establishment, Campeche (American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. IV, 1834, pp. 132-38). As president of the commune of Campeche (manuscript, Galveston), he commanded an increasing number of privateers, while Pierre made frequent, mysterious journeys to the United States. The privateers flew the flags of the countries revolting from Spain, and Jean Laffite was in 1819 appointed governor of Galveston under the short-lived republic founded by the American filibuster, James Long. He never rendered any considerable aid to the revolutionists, however, and his men worked solely for their own profit. They were, in fact, usually denominated pirates, and sixteen of them were convicted as such in New Orleans, November 22, 1819.
Another band of them in the same year raided the coast of Louisiana, causing an American cruiser to come to Galveston. Laffite hanged the leading offender, and pacified the Americans, but in 1820 an American merchantman was captured and scuttled in Matagorda Bay, and the United States government acted. In spite of the fact that Galveston had been acknowledged as Spanish territory by the treaty of 1819, Lieut. Lawrence Kearny was sent in the brig Enterprise to break up the Galveston establishment early in 1821. Laffite acquiesced quietly, and burning his town, sailed away.
The Laffites were known on the Spanish Main for several more years, but disappeared before 1825. They were probably already dead, one killed in a battle at sea, the other by fever in a Yucatan village; but of their deaths no facts are established.
(The Battle of New Orleans: Dec., 1814 British troops were...)
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In life, Jean Laffite was a romantic figure, a criminal leader with gentlemanly manners, noted for his hospitality, handsome, and ruthless.