Pierre Lafitte

While not as much of a sailor as Jean, Pierre was the public face of the Lafitte operation, and was known for his wit and charm, in addition to his handling of the sale of smuggled goods.

His younger brother Jean gave contradictory information about his birthplace, including the French cities of Saint-Malo and Brest.

However, as Jean Lafitte's biographer, Jack C. Ramsay, stated, "this was a convenient time to be a native of France, a claim that provided protection from the enforcement of American law.

[1] It was common in the late 18th century for the adult children of the French landowners in Saint-Domingue to resettle in the Mississippi River Delta, which was also owned by France.

[2] According to Ramsay, Lafitte, his younger brother, Jean, and their widowed mother sailed from Saint-Domingue to New Orleans, Louisiana (New Spain) in the 1780s.

Records indicate that on March 21, 1803, Pierre Lafitte partnered with Joseph Maria Bourguignon to purchase a city lot, home, and outbuildings near Royal Street.

In January 1808, the government began to enforce the Embargo Act of 1807, which barred American ships from docking at any foreign port.

[16] Jean claimed to command more than 3,000 men and provided them as troops for the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, which greatly assisted Andrew Jackson in repulsing the British attack.

Jean spent the majority of his time in Barataria in managing the daily hands-on business of outfitting privateers and arranging the smuggling of stolen goods.

While the Lafitte brothers were engaged in running the Galveston operation, one client with whom they worked considerably in the slave smuggling trade was Jim Bowie.

They often provided solid material, but the Lafittes in fact played both sides, American and Spanish, always with an eye to securing their own interests.

No doubt, the charm of Pierre and his reputation as a man in the know figured heavily in the weight he was given by his immediate handlers, but he was never trusted by higher-up Spanish interests.