Jean Lafitte

He was born in Southwest-France in the year of 1780. He turned to piracy cause his brother was a pirate too. With him he practiced pirating and privateering out of Barataria Bay, south of New Orleans.

From the ships he plundered off the Carribean coast and in the Atlantic they kept a constant cargo of black marketed and very necessary provisions including Negro slaves. In 1814 General Andrew Jackson accepted Lafitte’s aid in combat with the British. In return for his help he and his crew were pardoned for their maritime crimes but lost their pirate privileges in Barataria Bay. During an increase in naval activity, Lafitte and his crew sailed towards Spanish occupied territory of Texas. He took over Galveston, from where he established his pirating activities.

Though no one knows for sure, it is believed that Lafitte took up residence on the Southwest Louisiana coast for several years towards the end of his life. In 1826 Lafitte’s schooner was finally sunk by a United States gunboat and now lies in its underwater grave at Shell Beach.