1. In 1817, Jean Lafitte founded a new colony on Galveston Island named Campeche.
64 Facts About Jean Lafitte
1. 2.
Jean Lafitte and his brother Pierre claimed to have been born in Bayonne.
3.
Jean Lafitte notes that still other contemporary accounts claim that Lafitte was born in Orduna, Spain, or in Westchester County, New York, north of Manhattan.
4.
Some sources speculate that Jean Lafitte was born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
5.
Families with the surname Jean Lafitte have been found in Louisiana documents from 1765.
6.
Jean Lafitte placed Pierre to be raised by extended family elsewhere in Louisiana.
7.
Jean Lafitte likely helped his brother to sell or trade the captured merchandise.
8.
Jean Lafitte was likely born in 1782, although he was not baptized until 1786.
9.
Pierre Jean Lafitte had an older son, his namesake Pierre, born from his first marriage to Marie LaGrange, who died in childbirth.
10.
Jean Lafitte withdrew his battered troops and ended French involvement in North America, selling the US what became known as the Louisiana Purchase in 1803: French-claimed lands west of the Mississippi River.
11.
Sources indicate that Jean Lafitte was sharp and resourceful, but handsome and friendly, enjoying drinking, gambling, and women.
12.
Jean Lafitte was known to adopt more aristocratic mannerisms and dress than most of his fellow privateers.
13.
Jean Lafitte's native language was clearly French, though the specific dialect is a matter of some debate.
14.
Jean Lafitte was evidently able to speak English reasonably well and most likely had a working knowledge of Spanish.
15.
Jean Lafitte was educated with his brother at a military academy on Saint Kitts.
16.
The Jean Lafitte brothers began to look for another port from which they could smuggle goods to local merchants.
17.
Jean Lafitte spent most of his time in Barataria managing the daily hands-on business of outfitting privateers and arranging the smuggling of stolen goods.
18.
Dissatisfied with their role as brokers, in October 1812 the Jean Lafitte brothers purchased a schooner and hired Captain Trey Cook to sail it.
19.
Robertson was incensed by Jean Lafitte's operation, calling his men "brigands who infest our coast and overrun our country".
20.
Jean Lafitte soon acquired a letter of marque from Cartagena, but never sent any booty there.
21.
Jean Lafitte requested approval to raise a militia company to "disperse those desperate men on Lake Barataria whose piracies have rendered our shores a terror to neutral flags".
22.
Jean Lafitte's ship grounded in shallow water where the larger British ship could not follow.
23.
Jean Lafitte was accompanied by a Royal Marine infantry captain, John McWilliam, who had been given a package to deliver to Lafitte.
24.
Many of the smugglers wanted to lynch the British men, but Jean Lafitte intervened and placed guards outside his home to ensure their protection.
25.
Jean Lafitte tried to convince the Americans that they had nothing to fear from him.
26.
Jean Lafitte sent a message to the Americans that few of his men favored helping the British but said he needed 15 days to review their offer.
27.
Jean Lafitte committed himself and his men for any defensive measures needed by New Orleans.
28.
Jean Lafitte was accompanied by six gunboats and a tender.
29.
An attorney representing Jean Lafitte argued that the captured ships had flown the flag of Cartagena, an area at peace with the United States.
30.
One of Jean Lafitte's men testified that the Baratarians had never intended to fight the US but had prepared their vessels to flee.
31.
Resentful of the raid on Barataria, Jean Lafitte's men refused to serve on their former ships.
32.
Jean Lafitte realized that the American line of defense was so short as to potentially allow the British to encircle the American troops.
33.
Jean Lafitte suggested that the line be extended to a nearby swamp, and Jackson ordered it done.
34.
Jean Lafitte formally requested clemency for the Lafittes and the men who had served under them.
35.
In late 1815 and early 1816, the Jean Lafitte brothers agreed to act as spies for Spain, which was embroiled in the Mexican War of Independence.
36.
Jean Lafitte was sent to Galveston Island, a part of Spanish Texas that served as the home base of Louis-Michel Aury, a French privateer who claimed to be a Mexican revolutionary.
37.
Jean Lafitte named his colony Campeche, after a Mexican outpost further south along the Gulf Coast.
38.
Jean Lafitte's men tore down the existing houses and built 200 new, sturdier structures.
39.
Jean Lafitte interviewed all newcomers and required them to take an oath of loyalty to him.
40.
Jean Lafitte conducted most of his business aboard his ship, The Pride, where he lived.
41.
Jean Lafitte forged letters of marque from an imaginary nation to fraudulently authorize all the ships sailing from Galveston as privateers.
42.
Jean Lafitte worked with several smugglers, including Jim Bowie, to profit from the poorly written law.
43.
Jean Lafitte was the sister of Marie Villard, the mistress of his brother, Pierre.
44.
Jean Pierre, her son with Jean Lafitte, died at 17 during a cholera epidemic in New Orleans in October 1832.
45.
Jean Lafitte was nursed back to health by Emma Hortense Mortimer.
46.
Jean Lafitte agreed to leave the island without a fight, and on May 7,1821, departed on The Pride.
47.
Jean Lafitte's men burned the Maison Rouge, fortress, and settlement.
48.
Jean Lafitte reportedly took immense amounts of treasure with him, and was accompanied by his mulatta mistress and an infant son.
49.
Jean Lafitte's men buried some of the cargo on the island and ran the captured vessel aground, but an American patrol spotted the ship and, after investigating, discovered the buried cargo.
50.
Several of Jean Lafitte's men were arrested and convicted of piracy.
51.
Almost half of the combined crew refused to sail as pirates; Jean Lafitte allowed them to leave aboard his largest ship, the brig General Victoria.
52.
In October or November 1821, Jean Lafitte's ship was ambushed as he attempted to ransom a recent prize.
53.
In late April 1822, Jean Lafitte was captured again after taking his first American ship.
54.
In June 1822, Jean Lafitte approached the officials in Great Colombia, whose government under General Simon Bolivar had begun commissioning former privateers as officers in its new navy.
55.
Jean Lafitte was granted a commission and given a new ship, a 43-ton schooner named General Santander in honor to Vice-president General Francisco de Paula Santander.
56.
In February 1823, Jean Lafitte was cruising off the town of Omoa, Honduras, on his schooner General Santander.
57.
Jean Lafitte was buried at sea in the Gulf of Honduras.
58.
Two amateur historians from Lincolnton, North Carolina have written a book claiming that Jean Lafitte actually faked his death in 1823 and eventually changed his name to Lorenzo Ferrer, moving first to Mississippi and then Lincolnton, where Ferrer died in 1875.
59.
Jean Lafitte is rumored to have buried treasure at many locations, including Galveston and sites along coastal Louisiana, such as Contraband Bayou in Lake Charles.
60.
In 1909, a man was given a six-year prison sentence for fraud after swindling thousands of dollars from people, by claiming that he knew where the Jean Lafitte treasure was buried and taking their money for the promise to find it.
61.
Jean Lafitte was said to use it as a base for arranging the transfer of smuggled goods.
62.
In 1948, John Andrechyne Laflin approached the Missouri Historical Society with a French-language manuscript he claimed was a journal Jean Lafitte kept from 1845 until 1850.
63.
Jean Lafitte wrote Jean Laffitte: Gentleman Rover, based on the journal.
64.
Jean Lafitte refused to allow anyone else to see the original documents until 1969, when he sold them to a professional document dealer.