Pirates -- Louisiana -- Biography. |
Pirates -- Mexico, Gulf of -- Biography. |
Privateering -- Mexico, Gulf of -- History -- 19th century. |
New Orleans, Battle of, New Orleans, La., 1815. |
Louisiana -- History -- 1803-1865 -- Biography. |
Mexico, Gulf of -- History -- 19th century. |
Laffite, Jean. |
Laffite, Pierre, -1826? |
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Audience | Shelf Location | Material Type | Shelf Number | Current Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adult | Non-fiction | Book | 976.3050922 DAVIS | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
Jean and Pierre Laffite's lives were intertwined with the most colorful period in New Orleans' history, the era from just after the Louisiana Purchase through the War of 1812. Labeled as corsairs and buccaneers for methods that bordered on piracy, the brothers ran a privateering cooperative that provided contraband goods to a hungry market and made life hell for Spanish merchants on the Gulf. Later they became important members of a syndicate in New Orleans that included lawyers, bankers, merchants, and corrupt U.S. officials. But this allegiance didn't stop them from becoming paid Spanish spies, handing over information about the syndicate's plans and selling out their own associates.
In 1820 the Laffites disappeared into the fog of history from which they had emerged, but not before becoming folk heroes in French Louisiana and making their names synonymous with piracy and intrigue on the Gulf.
Author Notes
The author of more than forty books, William C. Davis is the director of programs at the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Historian Davis contemplates the New Orleans privateers Jean and Pierre Laffite, who loomed large in Gulf Coast waters-and in history-from about the time of the Louisiana Purchase and into the 1820s. Although adding little new research, Davis (Lincoln's Men), director of programs for the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies, does an admirable job of recounting the brothers' true story, separating fact from clouded legend. The senior brother and brains of the operation, Pierre, was born in Bordeaux, France, around 1770. His half-brother Jean followed about 12 years later. By 1803 the brothers were in New Orleans and soon embarked on careers as privateers with a presence extending as far as Pensacola and Galveston. Davis is particularly strong in revealing the brothers as complex if ruthless businessmen who, while savaging the trade of Spanish merchants on the gulf, formed the foundation for a profitable syndicate. Their associates included leading citizens and government officials on the take. The Laffites themselves, however, became notorious only when they courted the Spanish and betrayed their allies. Davis tells their story eloquently and with some admiration, while at the same time acknowledging that the freewheeling Laffites spent as voraciously as they earned and squandered their empire, leaving nothing behind but their legend. 8 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Most Americans familiar with Pierre and Jean Laffite associate them with their aid to American forces during the War of 1812. But the lives and exploits of these brothers were more complicated and interesting than a minor footnote of history. Davis, director of programs at the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and a teacher of history at Virginia Tech, has written an engrossing and exciting chronicle of these men and their times. Their story ranges from their ancestral homes in southwestern France to the Louisiana bayous, and it includes privateering, piracy, and espionage as France, Spain, Britain, and the U.S. vie for control of the Gulf region. Like other historians, Davis never quite gets a handle on the true character of the Laffites. At times, they seem to be brutal, ruthless buccaneers. At other times, they appear as entrepreneurs and savvy businessmen who skillfully navigate the borders of legality. Davis also provides an interesting glimpse at the culture of early nineteenth-century New Orleans, where a diverse ethnic and racial population fosters a rich social milieu. This is an excellent examination of interesting, tough men who knew how to survive in an interesting, tough age. --Jay Freeman Copyright 2005 Booklist
Choice Review
Brothers Jean and Pierre Laffite were two of the colorful characters who inhabited the exotic Louisiana colony during the early 19th century after the US acquired it in 1803. In 1815, when a British army invaded the lower Mississippi River valley and threatened New Orleans, Jean Laffite lent his expertise and some of his men and cannons to Andrew Jackson to defend the city. Most of the Laffites' lives beyond those two points are shrouded in mystery and legend. Several writers have tried to sort through the stories, folklore, and facts to produce coherent accounts of their activities, but none as successfully or completely as Davis (Virginia Tech). Using material gleaned from archival sources ranging across the US, France, and Mexico, from numerous contemporary and later newspaper accounts, and from pertinent secondary articles and books, Davis has constructed a compelling chronology of the Laffites' lives that surpasses Lyle Saxon's mishmash of history and legend in Lafitte the Pirate (1930) and avoids the problems encountered in other biographies. Davis's work surpasses in scope Jane Lucas De Grummond's The Baratarians and the Battle of New Orleans (1961). ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. J. P. Sanson Louisiana State University at Alexandria
Library Journal Review
The popular image of Jean Laffite, the pirate who helped Andrew Jackson defeat the British at the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812, has probably been shaped more by Yul Brynner's performance in The Buccaneer than by the annals of history. Davis (director for programs, Virginia Ctr. for Civil War Studies) addresses this shortcoming by first reminding us that there were actually two Laffites. While Jean got the glory, it was his brother Pierre who did the bookkeeping and other shore-based activities necessary for any smuggling and piratical enterprise. The success of the Laffite brothers, notes Davis, resulted from the unsettled international conditions fostered by the Napoleonic Wars. The tariffs and outright boycotts imposed on trade by the various combatant nations created a field day for smuggling and legalized piracy. Davis charts what is known of the Laffite brothers' activities during this turbulent time. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/05.]-Robert J. Andrews, Duluth P.L., MN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea, Our thoughts as boundless, and our soul's as free Far as the breeze can bear, the billows foam, Survey our empire, and behold our home!Vintage Bordeaux1770-1803PERHAPS IT IS FITTING for men whose lives so lent themselves to adventure and melodrama that their name traced its origins to a word meaning something like "the song." For centuries men named Lafitte inhabited the fertile reaches between the river Garonne and the Pyrenees Mountains that separated France from Spain. Proximity to the often lawless Pyrenees, and life in the part of France most remote from the center of politics and culture in Paris, encouraged a spirit of independence in the region's inhabitants, and a tendency to look as much to the world as to their country for opportunity. Among those named for "the song," that independence appeared in their stubborn refusal of a uniform spelling of their name. Lafitte, Lafit, Laffitt, Laffite, and more, all emerged between the river and the mountains, and for many the song in their name was a Siren's call to the broader world. Immediate access to the sea on the Bay of Biscay tied many of them to trade and seafaring. The lush vineyards on either side of the Garonne, and the Gironde estuary formed at its confluence with the Dordogne River, turned more of them into vintners.The ancient village of Pauillac perched on the west bank of the Gironde estuary exactly midway between Bordeaux and the Bay of Biscay at Pointe de Grave some thirty miles distant.1 It was about as far up the estuary as the limited maneuverability of sail could bring oceangoing ships, making it a natural port for the merchants of Bordeaux and the surrounding region. Though small, it was already the informal capital of the Medoc, and just now starting to blossom thanks to the produce of its vineyards. One Laffite family, and apparently only one of that spelling, lived in the village.2 Jean Laffite and his wife, Anne Denis, saw their son Pierre marry Marie Lagrange in 1769, but the young woman died, perhaps giving birth to a son Pierre around 1770.3 In 1775 the father Pierre remarried, this time to Marguerite Desteil, who bore six children at their home in the little village of Bages just south of Pauillac. Three daughters lived to maturity, as did a son Jean, born around 1782 or later but not baptized until 1786.4Most of the Laffites living in the Bordeaux were solidly middle-class merchants and traders, and the elder Pierre Laffite appears to have been in trade himself.5 Certainly he was able to give his two sons at least rudimentary schooling, though their written grammar, spelling, and syntax would never be better than mediocre.6 Whoever taught them to write- parent, priest, or schoolmaster- could not keep a natural independence out of their developing handwriting, for neither boy learned very good penmanship, but their teacher left some artifacts of his rote with them. All their lives, the half brothers signed their Excerpted from The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf by William C. Davis All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.Table of Contents
Preface: A Corsair's Name | p. xi |
1 Vintage Bordeaux 1770-1803 | p. 1 |
2 New Men in a New World 1803-1806 | p. 8 |
3 Brothers United 1806-1809 | p. 25 |
4 Brothers in Business 1809-1811 | p. 44 |
5 Dawn of the Corsairs 1810-1811 | p. 65 |
6 Origins of the Laffite Fleet 1811-1813 | p. 83 |
7 Lords of Barataria 1813-1814 | p. 107 |
8 The Rise of the Filibusters 1814 | p. 133 |
9 Patriots for a Price 1814 | p. 154 |
10 The End of Barataria 1814 | p. 181 |
11 The Fight for New Orleans 1814-1815 | p. 211 |
12 Spies for Spain 1815-1816 | p. 232 |
13 A Career of Betrayals 1815-1816 | p. 259 |
14 Distant Horizons 1816 | p. 281 |
15 The Birth of Galveston 1816-1817 | p. 307 |
16 A Season of Treachery 1817 | p. 326 |
17 Deadly Friends 1817-1818 | p. 349 |
18 Winds of Change 1818 | p. 367 |
19 The Dying Dream 1819 | p. 393 |
20 Farewell to Galveston 1820 | p. 419 |
21 The Last Voyage 1820-1823 | p. 445 |
22 The Legend of the Laffites | p. 466 |
Acknowledgments | p. 487 |
Notes | p. 491 |
Bibliography | p. 649 |
Index | p. 679 |