LAFFITE, JEAN 1826), buccaneer, about whose earlier life nothing authentic is known, was the leader of a colony of pirates and smugglers located on the Baratarian coast south of New Orleans from 1810 to 1814. Holding privateer commissions from the republic of Carthagena, they preyed on Spanish com merce and illegally disposed of their plunder through merchant connections in New Orleans. All efforts to dislodge them were in vain, including an attempt by Commodore Patterson of the U.S. navy, who in June, 1814, captured their. ships, but did not destroy their business nor their power. The Baratarian gulf being an important approach to New Orleans, the British in their opera tions against that city in 1814 offered Laffite L30,000 and a com mission in the royal navy for his co-operation. But Laffite sent the British papers to the American authorities together with an offer to aid the Americans provided the United States would par don him and his men. This offer, General Andrew Jackson, badly in need of men, accepted, and in the battle of New Orleans, the Baratarians, in charge of the artillery, signally distinguished them selves. President Madison issued a public proclamation of pardon
for them. Laffite might henceforth have followed an honourable career, but instead, in 1817, with nearly a thousand followers, he occupied the island site of the future city of Galveston, Texas, and from this depot continued his privateering against the Spanish. He seemed to lose control somewhat and when pressure was brought to bear by the United States in 1821 because several of his lieutenants had attacked American ships, Laffite suddenly picked a crew to man his favourite vessel, "The Pride," and sailed away into the legendary realms from which he had come.
See C. Gayarre, "Pierre and Jean Lafitte," Magazine of American History, vol. x., pp. 284-298 and 389-396 (1883) ; G. Cusacks, "Lafite, the Pirate and Patriot," Louisiana Historical Quarterly, vol. ii., PP. (1919) ; and general histories of Louisiana and Texas.