Famous Pirates
Origins And Early Life
Jean Lafitte was born in 1790, either in France or Hispanola, which is current day Haiti. Little is known of his childhood, but according to Harold I. Sharfman's book, Jews on The Frontier, the family of the tall and handsome buccaneer were Marranos, who in the 14th century converted to Roman Catholicism, but secretly continued to practice Judaism. It is known that in 1765, Jean Lafitte's grandmother, Maria Zola, fled from Spain on the heels of the murderous Spanish Inquisition. Her husband, Abhorad, was put to death for "judaizing."
The Pirate
Dubbed by many as a "citizen of the wind," after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 Jean Lafitte established Barataria, his own little kingdom of privateers and smugglers in the bayous near New Orleans. Jean Lafitte's men numbered about 1,000, and he provided them as troops assisting Andrew Jackson against the British in the Battle of New Orleans during War of 1812. Jean Lafitte was not a pirate in the true sense of the word, as his raids were mostly legitimized as privateering. Jean Lafitte never attacked an American ship. A man without a country, he still respected the American constitution and hoped that his little "kingdom by the sea" might someday reflect such ideology.
Jean Lafitte's base of operations was the French Quarter where he was well known as a patron of local taverns and quadroon brothels. Run out of New Orleans in 1817, he relocated to the island of Galveston, Texas, and established another "kingdom" he named Campeche. Jean Lafitte somehow obtained a lavishly furnished mansion, the upper portion of which was actually a fortress facing Galveston Harbor. Around 1820, Jean Lafitte married Madeline Regaud who was either the widow or daughter of a French colonist.
Later Life And Death
In 1821, the USS Enterprise was sent to Galveston to remove Jean Lafitte from the Gulf. He left peacefully on his ship The Pride, burning his fortress and reportedly taking vast amount of treasure with him. Jean Lafitte was never heard from again. Some say he lost his life in a hurricane around 1826, while a controversial manuscript known as the Journal of Jean Lafitte claims that he lived on until the 1840's, raising a family in St. Louis. The authenticity of the journal, however, is hotly debated and the name of Jean Lafitte will forever remain shrouded in colorful legend and mystery.
