Scorned
in life by a thankless nation, driven to an
anonymous death, it is said Lafitte will never
rest until his honor is restored and he is
reunited with the woman he loves!
Jean Lafitte has been called by many names
– corsair, buccaneer, pirate –
a hero to some, a scourge in the memory of
others.
Lafitte is known equally for his heroism in
the Battle of New Orleans and for his acts
of piracy throughout the Gulf of Mexico. He
is remembered in Louisiana as a “privateer”
who braved the waters of the Gulf and other
pirates of the Caribbean to supply Louisiana
and a growing United States with food, cloth,
material resources and even slaves in the
desperate economic times of the late 18th
century.
But the legend of Jean Lafitte does not endure
in the collective memories of the Gulf South
states solely because of his humanitarian
acts or his notoriety as a pirate. Jean Lafitte,
whose origins are uncertain and whose end
unknown, still sails the deep waters of the
Gulf of Mexico with a fleet of corsair ships
at his command – or so the legend goes.
Who was Jean Lafitte?
His name is known all over the Gulf of Mexico,
throughout the labyrinthine waterways of Southwest
Louisiana, and on the streets of New Orleans;
his fame endures even to this day. Brilliant
and capable, Lafitte took the most sea-ravaged
group of cutthroats, smugglers and fishermen
and organized them into an efficient crew
of blockade-running buccaneers. With this
crew Lafitte was able to plunder merchant
and cargo vessels throughout the Caribbean,
the Gulf and even into the Atlantic keeping
a constant flow of black market goods moving
into Southern Louisiana and the Port of New
Orleans. Rich and poor alike sang the praises
of the Buccaneer Jean Lafitte, finding that
title a more fitting label than “pirate.”
Jean
Lafitte
Newell Convers Wyeth c. 1910
Gift of John Morrell and Co.
This dramatic pencil drawing indicates
the romantic nature of pirate legend
as seen by the artist and illustrator
N. C. Wyeth, father of famous American
artist Andrew Wyeth.
lsm.crt.state.la.us/cabildo/cab5.htm
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"Live Free or
Die Hard"
It is said that Jean Lafitte was born of the
French aristocracy on the island of Santo
Domingue and had fallen into a life of piracy
when he and his brother, Pierre, attempted
to escape Spanish dominance in the Caribbean.
Sometime before 1808, the brothers Lafitte
turned up in New Orleans where they established
themselves as blacksmiths, opening the infamous
Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop that still
stands at the corner of St. Phillip and Bourbon
streets in New Orleans’ French Quarter.
Soon, however, it became clear to many who
shared the brothers’ “entrepreneurial”
spirit that the shop was merely a cover for
the smuggling and piracy operations that were
already underway.
Around 1808 Lafitte made his home, and created
what he called his “Kingdom of Barataria”
in the wilderness, swampy lands west of the
City of New Orleans. The miles of marshlands
and bayous were perfect cover for the clandestine
activities of this “Terror of the Gulf,”
and Lafitte’s ability to supply merchandise
– fine linens and cloth from Europe,
spices from the Caribbean Islands, jewelry
from the silversmiths of Portobello, furniture
and building materials, and even slaves –
avoided the high taxes imposed by the government
of the Louisiana Territory; this was a boon
to the people of New Orleans.
His base was the island of Grand Terre and
its sister islands Grand Isle and Cheniere
Caminada. Here Lafitte’s pirate crews
laid up between raids; with cannons packed
and loaded and guns aimed at the Gulf, no
one could approach the Louisiana coast and
hope to get past the King of Barataria and
his brigands. On Grand Terre, in a place inaccessible
from the coast, and only reached through a
series of winding waterways, Lafitte built
his lair. This was the place where the pirate
Blackbeard had sheltered from the British
Navy in 1718. Lafitte felt it only appropriate
to claim the land for himself. With easy access
to the Gulf shipping lanes, Lafitte’s
location was perfect for the buccaneering
adventurers.
Soon there was a burgeoning pirate’s
port in full operation just half a day’s
ride from the outskirts of the City of New
Orleans, though it was blanketed by the thick,
jungle-like foliage and swampy marshland.
In fear of the very real danger of alligators
and Lafitte’s men, and wary of the very
probable danger of the infamous Loup Garou
or Louisiana werewolf, no one dared challenge
Lafitte’s right to the lands he claimed.
Jean
Lafitte "The Corsair" by
E.H. Suydam
Detail of an authentic Jean Lafitte
signature.
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The Pirate King set up his own rule of law,
a mixture of civil law and pirate code, called
the Barataria Oath; every man swore the oath
and broke it at great personal cost. Thievery,
ironically, was almost entirely unheard of,
so stringent were the punishments set out
by Jean Lafitte. Here, too, the pirate crews
brought their women, to share the tropical
Eden they had found under the rule of their
King.
Jean Lafitte was said to be a tall and handsome
man, with pale skin and deep blue eyes. His
long hands and aristocratic stature combined
with his reputation as a ferocious pirate
made him irresistible to women. And Lafitte
loved women. Seductive, amorous, sophisticated
despite his occupation, Lafitte easily wooed
and won a constant cadre of mistresses. Welcome
in New Orleans society, both Jean and Pierre
Lafitte were often seen attending the opera
or waltzing with beautiful mistresses at the
Quadroon Ballroom. The Lafitte brothers kept
beautifully appointed apartments in New Orleans
where they would entertain their female guests
until late into the night.
Though there are many associated with Lafitte
romantically, it is said he lost his heart
to only one: Clarissa Duralde Claiborne, the
second wife of Louisiana’s first Governor
Charles Cole Claiborne.
Clarissa Duralde was the daughter of a Louisiana
magistrate and a beautiful woman of Spanish
and Native American blood. Her origins, among
the Attakapas Indians, well-known as the Werewolf
Tribe of Southwest Louisiana, meant that Clarissa
possessed a wild and untamed nature that immediately
attracted the rogue seaman, Jean Lafitte.
According to one account, Clarissa came to
visit Lafitte in his beautiful kingdom by
the sea accompanied by other members of New
Orleans high society, because at the time
it was in vogue to visit the renegade who
was seen as the city’s link to the sumptuous
finery of Europe and beyond. Soon, however,
Lafitte would undertake the dangerous journey
to rendezvous with his lover Clarissa at the
homes of mutual friends who agreed to provide
haven for the two lovers.
It is said that Governor Claiborne himself
discovered the affair and never forgave Lafitte
for taking liberties with his wife. Lafitte
was outlawed as a pirate and a price was placed
upon his head. The price was never claimed,
of course, for there was no one brave enough
to undertake the task and so many remained
loyal to Lafitte.
When the War of 1812 loomed, the Governor
saw an opportunity to have others perform
his dirty work for him and the price was lifted
from Lafitte’s head. The renegade pirate
was made a privateer and given letters of
marque, allowing him to plunder at will the
British ships that were gathering in the Gulf
waters. Seeing an opportunity to redeem himself,
Lafitte took this commission and set about
pirating for the government.
As battles were joined more regularly with
the British, Lafitte made his presence known
on all the waters surrounding the City of
New Orleans. One battle against a British
frigate was fought on the northern shores
of Lake Pontchartrain not far from the mouth
of the Tchefuncte River near what is now Madisonville,
LA Another battle in which Lafitte and fleet
played a significant role was joined in what
in Lake Borgne near what is now called Shell
Beach. Throughout the battle the fleets of
the one-time outlaw pirate kept the coasts
and the seaward islands of Louisiana safe
from attack.
In the end it was his guns and the men under
his command that proved to be the deciding
factor for victory in the Battle of New Orleans.
Had Jean Lafitte and his pirate soldiers not
been in place manning the cannons and guns
he had so wisely placed south of New Orleans,
the war might have ended very differently
and the City would have been lost.
Jean Lafitte returned in triumph to New Orleans.
General Andrew Jackson, who had commanded
the US forces, wrote gushing commendations
in his honor and the US government completely
exonerated Lafitte of his earlier pirate deeds.
For a time, Lafitte was everyone’s hero.
He was even seen in the company of the Governor
and Mrs. Claiborne dining or at one of the
celebration balls. It is said that he even
resumed his long love affair with Clarissa
and this somewhat more openly than before.
But for all the accolades Lafitte missed his
old life. All his old friends, those colorful
veterans of his seafaring days – Renato
Beluche and Dominique Youx, veterans of Napoleon’s
navy; Louis Chighizola, who had lost half
his nose in a duel; and the doughty Vincent
Gambi. They had all returned to their lives
on the island of Grand Terre and had resumed
their colorful careers as brigands and smugglers.
Sometimes, Lafitte would visit them and these
visits began to make people think that perhaps
the hero had relapsed and returned to his
old ways as well.
Around this time, two things happened that
would remain with Lafitte forever. He asked
to have his ships restored to him: those vessels
he had used in defense of Louisiana but had
also used for ransacking the Gulf of Mexico
prior to the war. This, the government responded,
it could not do because the vessels and all
his goods had been obtained through acts of
piracy and were confiscate to the government.
This was the first blow.
According to legend, Lafitte decided to return
to his life of piracy, to his comrades and
his kingdom of Barataria and he asked his
beloved Clarissa to accompany him. It is said
that his heart was broken when she refused.
Lafitte left New Orleans for good and returned
to his Eden on the shores of the Gulf but
he would not find peace there. Word came to
him that his beloved Clarissa had repented,
had changed her mind and wanted to be reunited
with him, but that the dreaded yellow fever
had intervened and had taken her from this
world. When, at this same time, the governor
declared Lafitte and his men to be outlaws
yet again, they abandoned Barataria in search
of another port of call. Lafitte was a broken
man.
He and his fleet of eight ships found refuge
briefly in Santo Domingo, but ended up on
Campeche, now Galveston Island, where they
took up, with even more fury, their old pirating
ways. No ship was safe from attack now, and
Lafitte abandoned his old rule of not attacking
American ships – at least so it was
said. He flew the black flag of the pirate,
a man without a country, his only allegiance
to the wide and wild sea.
Soon, however, the governor of the Texas territory
tired of the pirates holed up just off his
coast and requested that the US government
do something about it. Then-President Madison
declared an all out war on piracy in US waters.
Lafitte and his men had to go.
In May of 1820 the USS Enterprise appeared
off the coast of Campeche and ultimately compelled
Lafitte to go. For the last off the coast
of the US the pirate fleet of Jean Lafitte
was seen at full sail, tacking eastward toward
the distant Caribe islands. The men of the
Enterprise watched as the black pirate flags
were unfurled in defiance, just as the ships
faded into the gloaming of approaching night.
Jean Lafitte sailed into history that night.
His fate and the fate of his crew is an enduring
mystery of the sea. Some claim he returned
to Louisiana in secret to live out his life
to a ripe old age and is buried on his beloved
Grand Terre. Others believe he traveled up
the east coast of the US and ended up in the
seaport of Charleston, others say Baltimore.
An enduring legend says that Lafitte continued
his pirate ways throughout the Caribbean and
his fame endures in the old pirate strongholds
of Portobello, Trinidad and Tortuga. One legend
says that he died at sea and his crew buried
him on the beautiful Isla Mujeres, the Island
of Women off the coast of Mexico.
Whatever his end, the legend of the Pirate
of Louisiana endures to this day among the
seafarers and fishermen who still ply their
trade in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
PIRATE
GHOST SIGHTINGS
Many are the tales of close encounters with
what some believe to be the phantom fleet
of Jean Lafitte; some claim to have seen the
pirate himself standing at the helm of the
lead vessel.
Workers on the oil platforms that dot the
Gulf of Mexico claim to regularly spot a billow
of sails on the horizon just before sunset,
always heading east into the gloom. Crews
of offshore supply vessels claim that in the
middle watch they have heard the flapping
of sail riggings and the cry of phantom voices,
calling out in the Creole patois once spoken
in Barataria commands to a ghostly crew. Small
boats, it is said, have been almost swamped
by the passage of the ghostly fleet that is
said to produce visible white foam where the
bows break the waves and a tremendous wake
in the dark waters.
The strangest story comes from the three man
crew of a charter fishing boat who, anchored
off Grand Isle in the dead of night, all claim
to have seen the apparition of a tall, pale
man, clad in black and wearing a wide-brim
hat such as Lafitte was known to wear, standing
on the aft deck of their sport fisherman.
It is said the apparition looked at them forlornly
then turned his head in the direction of Louisiana
and disappeared before their very eyes.
Significantly, the ghostly fleet and the apparition
believed to be the Pirate Jean Lafitte were
spotted just before the disastrous Hurricane
Katrina. Many have come to believe that seeing
Lafitte or his ships is a warning that something
evil is about to befall his beloved Louisiana
coast.
But the ghost of Jean Lafitte is not confined
to the open Gulf alone. Many legends exist
concerning Lafitte’s golden treasure
and there are as many hiding places as there
are versions of the tale. Most center around
the old Barataria area, Grand Terre and Grand
Isle particularly, and it is said that often
the ghosts of pirate watchmen can still be
seen, sitting on the spot where Lafitte’s
gold is hidden, guarding it forever into the
afterlife. Archaeological digs in the area
have turned up little of significance and
no gold, but the legends persist throughout
south Louisiana. Many believe that Lafitte
is coming back for his treasure one day.
Lafitte's
Blacksmith Shop Bar
941 Bourbon Street,
New Orleans, LA, USA
(504) 523-0066
One of the
all-time favorite tourist attractions of the
New Orleans French Quarter is Jean Lafitte's
Blacksmith Shop, on the corner of Bourbon
Street and St. Phillip Street. It was built
sometime before 1772, and is one of the few
remaining original "French architecture"
structures in the French Quarter.
The ghost of Jean Lafitte is also frequently
sighted at the infamous Blacksmith Shop in
the French Quarter of New Orleans. This is
where Jean and his brother Pierre hatched
many of their most famous plots and raids,
so it stands to reason that the pirate might
visit it in the afterlife. Some claim that
here, too, a treasure has been stashed, waiting
to be discovered. Many have claimed to have
encountered Jean Lafitte sitting in the darkened
rear of the bar, alone at a table with a brandy
in one hand, the smell of cigar smoke heavy
around him. When they look again, the figure
is gone. Others have been alarmed to see two
red eyes peering at them from the black depths
of the fireplace; still others claim to have
encountered what is believed to be the ghost
of Pierre Lafitte in the bar’s Ladies
Room.
One thing is certain, just as in life, he
is never far away and at a moment’s
notice he is still able to steal our very
breath away!
DO
YOU HAVE A TRUE ENCOUNTER WITH THE GHOST OF
THE PIRATE JEAN LAFITTE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE
TO TELL US ABOUT?
HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED HIM IN ANY OF HIS OLD
“HAUNTS”??
WE WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR HAUNTED ENCOUNTER
WITH
JEAN LAFITTE AND HIS PHANTOM PIRATES!
SUBMIT YOUR TALE <<HERE>>
ALSO
SEE:
WATER
IS MY GRAVE
Blackbeard’s
Pirate Treasure
JEAN
LAFFITE ON THE INTERNET
Jean
Lafitte: Gentleman Pirate of New Orleans
Jean Lafite, pirate. ... There is a national
park named after him, and along the Mississippi
below New Orleans sits the City of Jean Lafitte.
...
http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/lafitte/1.html
Jean
Lafitte Bistro ~ New Orleans Restaurant
Jean Lafitte Bistro is the newest addition
to the Moran family's long history as a ...
Veranda view from Jean Lafitte's Bistro The
adjoining veranda ...
http://www.jeanlafittesbistro.com/
Handbook
of Texas Online:
Jean Laffite (Lafitte), pirate, was born in
Bayonne, France, probably in 1780 or 1781,
the son of a French father and a Spanish mother.
...
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/LL/fla12.html
Jean
Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
Official National Park Service site. Located
in New Orleans, LA.
http://www.nps.gov/jela/
Jean
Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve
Home Page
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and
Preserve was established to preserve for present
and future generations significant ...The
park consists of six physically separate sites
and a Park Headquarters located in southeastern
Louisiana. The sites in Lafayette, Thibodaux,
and Eunice interpret the Acadian cultures
of the area. The Barataria Preserve (in Marrero)
interprets the natural and cultural history
of the uplands, swamps, and marshlands of
the region. Six miles southeast of New Orleans
is the Chalmette Battlefield and National
Cemetery, site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans
and the final resting place for soldiers from
the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World
Wars I and II, and Vietnam. At 419 Decatur
Street in the historic French Quarter is the
park's headquarters and visitor center for
New Orleans. This center interprets the history
of New Orleans and the diverse cultures of
Louisiana's Mississippi Delta region.
http://www.nps.gov/jela/jelaweb.htm
Jean
Lafitte
Jean Lafitte, or Laffite, c.1780-c.1826, was
a Louisiana privateer and smuggler who helped
US forces in the Battle of New Orleans at
the end of the WAR OF ...
City
of Jean Lafitte Tourist Commission
2654 Jean Lafitte Blvd.,
Lafitte, La. 70067 Ph: 1-800-689-3525
Twenty miles from
New Orleans, a small Cajun village stretches
along Bayou Barataria. Many travelers visit
New Orleans Louisiana but only the lucky few
discover the magical beauty and many tourist
attractions of Jean Lafitte, only 30 minutes
from the French Quarter.
www.gatewayno.com/history/Lafitte.html
Jean
Lafitte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the town named after him, see Jean Lafitte,
Louisiana. ... The descendants of Jean Lafitte's
men play an important role in Lovecraft's
story The Call of ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lafitte
The Legacy of Jean Lafitte
in Southwest Louisiana
It was their descendants who have perpetuated
the legendry of Jean Lafitte in Calcasieu
Parish (then St. Landry) almost to the present
day. ...
http://www.wtblock.com/wtblockjr/jean1.htm
Jean
LaFitte
Jean Laffite, pronounced lah FEET, (1780?-1826?),
was a New Orleans smuggler, pirate, and patriot.
... His family name was originally spelled
Lafitte. ...
http://members.aol.com/lostincave/LaFitte.html
Jean
Lafitte Swamp Tours
Located 15 Minutes outside of New Orleans
provides swamp tours by small airboat or larger
vessels.
www.jeanlafitteswamptour.com
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