Pirates are
generally not associated with the cowboy-laden culture of Texas. Pirate icons such as Blackbeard and Henry
Morgan got their fame in the Caribbean Islands at the expense of Spain and her
New World colonies. Texas, during the
“Golden Age of Piracy,” was a frontier Spanish colony with little to offer a
pirate crew. Rum, gold and loose women
were severely lacking. The inhabitants
were mostly rattlesnakes and the Karankawas, an indigenous tribe of hunters and
gatherers that practiced ritual cannibalism.
For a few years in the early 1800’s, however, the Texas port of
Galveston was a pirate base - the home of notorious pirate Jean Lafitte.
Little is known about Lafitte’s youth. He was likely born in 1782 in France before immigrating to Saint Domingue (now Haiti) then New Orleans. He and his brother Pierre attended a military academy on the French island of Saint Kitts. A few years later, they were brokers for privateers and smugglers on the Louisiana island of Barataria, 23 miles south of New Orleans. Lafitte was not your basic slovenly, hard-drinking pirate; he was more like a mob boss. He enjoyed gambling, attractive women, fine dining, and fashionable attire. He was also well educated and spoke three languages.
In the 1790’s, Louisiana was a French colony peopled with a diverse mix of Spaniards, French, Creoles, and free blacks. New Orleans relied heavily on trade with the Caribbean Islands. That all changed with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. France’s Emperor Napoleon, strapped for cash, sold Louisiana to the United States for $15 million. Because of its war with France, U.S. merchant ships were often seized on the open seas by British warships, impressing their crews for service in the British Navy. In retaliation, the United States passed the Embargo Act of 1807 that barred American ships from anchoring at any foreign port and placed an embargo on goods imported into the United States. New Orleans merchants needed a new source for goods and merchandise. Jean and Pierre made a fortune smuggling goods and slaves into New Orleans with their pirate fleet, some of which were captured Spanish schooners. Goods and slaves were seized on the high seas, brought into Barataria, and then purchased or auctioned off in New Orleans. Slaves were in huge demand, but the slave trade had been outlawed in the United States, making slave ships beckoning targets.
The Lafitte brothers operated as privateers, legally authorized pirates through letters of marque issued by foreign governments. In the Lafittes’ case, the letter of marque was from the Port of Cartagena in Columbia, though none of the Lafitte’s pirated goods ever made it there. Most privateers held multiple letters of marque like a person today would have multiple credit cards, giving them wide leverage in pirating merchant vessels. By 1810, Barataria was becoming a booming port for smugglers, pirates and privateers, practically a separate nation within the United States - a separate pirate nation. Louisiana’s new territorial governor greatly resented the Lafittes’ privateering operations, which paid no import taxes and whose well-paid, experienced sailors could cause problems for the fledgling U.S. Navy. Commodore Daniel T. Patterson, commander of the U.S. naval squadron in the gulf and once a prisoner of the Barbary pirates, wrote, the smugglers “should they not be soon destroyed, it will be extremely hazardous for an unarmed vessel even American to approach the coast.” During November, 1812, a detachment of 60 U.S. troops invaded Barataria and arrested the Lafitte brothers. The brothers posted bond before disappearing and then not showing up for their trial. Louisiana Governor William C. Claiborne posted a $500 reward for the arrest of Pierre and Jean. The Lafittes, in turn, posted a reward for the arrest of Governor Claiborne. The Louisiana legislature, whose constituents benefitted from smuggling, refused to assemble a militia to suppress Barataria’s privateers.
In September, 1814, Patterson launched a second attack on Barataria with a small fleet of seven warships, scattering the privateers and capturing ten of Lafitte’s ships. Despite Patterson’s success, Claiborne had a bigger problem two months later - the British Navy. The United States had declared war on Great Britain in June, 1812 over the seizure of its vessels and the arming of hostile Indian tribes resisting westward expansion. Two years later, the British sacked Washington DC. By the end of 1814, the British had arrived in the Gulf and requested a meeting with Jean Lafitte. Meeting at his Baratarian home, they offered him and his fellow privateers land grants and British citizenship if he would support them. Despite its military setbacks, Lafitte felt the U.S. would eventually win out. He offered his support to Major General Andrew Jackson. Lafitte provided guns, ammo and men to Jackson during the Battle of New Orleans. For his support, Lafitte received a full pardon. Nevertheless, Lafitte renewed his privateering after the battle while also serving as a Spanish agent during Mexico’s revolt against Spain.
Pressure from the U.S. forced Lafitte to seek another base. In 1817, he established his new base at Galveston, giving it the name “Campeche.” Lafitte had seized the island from another privateer, Louis Michel Aury. He also built himself a house he named Maison Rouge (Red House). Eventually, 1,000 people settled there, mostly men. The better armed settlers held off the Karankawas, but could do little about the weather. A hurricane swept over the low-lying island in 1817, destroying most of Lafitte’s fleet.
After the seizure of a U.S. merchant vessel, Lafitte was forced to leave again, this time for the Yucatan Region of Mexico. He became ill and then returned to Barataria to die. The burning of “Campeche” by Lafitte and natural erosion have left no remains on Galveston Island. A Texas historical marker stands where Lafitte supposedly lived but the concrete foundations are actually from a house erected years later after Lafitte left. Lafitte gained renewed prominence with the popularity of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies. A theater for tourists, on Galveston’s Pier 21, presents a film entitled The Pirate Island of Jean Lafitte and a museum on the Strand, “Pirates ! Legends of the Gulf Coast,” that has a replica pirate ship and chronicles the life of Lafitte.
