Another book in the Landmark series, this narrative nonfiction book introduces history buffs and pirate readers to Jean Lafitte and his brother Pierre who were quite a pair. Pirates or patriots or both? You can read the book and decide for yourself, but at the very least, the brothers Lafitte were a bundle of human contradictions and secrets and even heroics.
Contradictions: They were rich, educated, and urbane, but they lived for the most part in the swamps of Barataria, near New Orleans, where Jean Lafitte ruled over a rascally crew of over a thousand pirates with an iron fist. He was beloved by these men who would do almost anything for him. Jean and Pierre made a great deal of their money selling Africans into slavery, and yet their crew included men of every skin color and nationality.
Secrets: Hardly anything is known about Jean’s and Pierre’s youth and childhood. They appeared on the scene in New Orleans in about 1803 when Jean was twenty-four years old and Pierre a year or two older. They were at first privateers with a letter of marque but may later have become pirates. Jean hated Spain and the Spanish and said that he only plundered Spanish ships. Their other enemy who tried to have them imprisoned, tried and executed was American Governor William Claiborne, but they somehow became Claiborne’s friends and allies when New Orleans was threatened with a British takeover during the War of 1812. Then there’s also the secret of what happened to the Lafitte brothers after they were evicted from their second pirate lair on Galveston Island. No one knows.
Heroics: It is not too much to say that had it not been for Jean Lafitte’s loyalty to his adopted country of the United States, Louisiana, at least New Orleans, might be a British possession today. The British invaders had 12,000 men and vastly superior ships and weapons. General Jackson who led the American defense had about 700 regulars and access to a militia of about 1000 men. Then Jean Lafitte and Pierre Lafitte volunteered along with their crew of about 1000 Baratarians, and the British were defeated.
The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans gives children and adults an introduction to a fascinating time and event in American history. Read it as you are learning about Lewis and Clark or the War of 1812 or the Louisiana Purchase or Louisiana history—or just for fun and one more books about pirates, maybe. “People still argue about whether or not he (Jean Lafitte) was a pirate. They even search the marshes for buried treasure that they never find.”
May you find the buried treasure you’re looking for in all the Landmark books you read.