The Pirates Laffite

by William C. Davis

  Marie Villard may have had some relatives among the new arrivals, for an Antoine Villard, a mulatto "gaboteur" or seaman from Mole, San Domingue, came that summer.16 Perhaps some Laffite cousins were also among the exiles.17 What is certain is that sometime during this influx of San Domingue refugees, Jean Laffite came to Louisiana intent on remaining. His arrival now, combined with his unquestionable experience at sea, put him in the mainstream of a number of other men of his stamp who were coming to Louisiana.

  French privateers were still off American shores, and still attacking United States shipping in the Caribbean. Baracoa and other Cuban ports had been their bases until the expulsion of the refugees that spring.18 Some of these sailors, remnants of the naval and military forces evicted from San Domingue in 1803, had become little more than freelance pirates. Some French privateers had also operated out of San Domingue, now sharing the island with Haiti, until this year, when San Domingue fell to the British and they, too, sought new bases at Guadaloupe, the last remaining French colony in the West Indies. Within a year Guadaloupe, too, would fall to the British.19 With no French ports to call home, the corsairs turned to the coast of Louisiana where even if the authorities were not amenable, the chiefly French and Creole population welcomed the wares they could provide. San Domingue refugees in New Orleans such as Henri de Ste. Geme financially backed some of the corsairs.20 Moreover, the wild coastline afforded both hiding and good anchorages, especially at Barataria. One who made the change of base was Louis Aury, by this time an experienced privateer commander and almost certainly a Laffite acquaintance.21 Many free men of color from San Domingue also made the move, most notably Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Savary.22

  When the United States and Spain severed diplomatic relations in 1809, it was an open door for privateers, for now taking Spaniards' property was almost patriotic, if still not legal. In fact, the corsairs were essentially pirates, for their prizes had to be taken to an admiralty court run by the corsairs' commissioning nation for adjudication to declare them lawful seizures, but now there were no French admiralty courts in the Caribbean and France was too far to take the prizes. The privateers seized upon the expedient tried by "Captain La fette" back in 1804 by transferring captured cargo to their holds, then bringing their ships to New Orleans pretending to be making emergency stops for repairs. Once there, they secretly sold their goods. They flew the French flag because Spain was then allied with Britain and at war with France, and because most merchant vessels in the Caribbean were Spaniards, and they made easy prizes. But the privateers were not necessarily French ships or crews. Some managed to outfit and crew themselves in New Orleans in spite of neutrality laws, and it was well known what they are doing. 23

  Just when Jean Laffite arrived in Louisiana is uncertain, but he was there very close to the time that Pierre returned, and may have come to New Orleans captaining a corsair vessel bringing a load of refugees.24 However, he appeared in New Orleans rarely if at all during his first year or two in Louisiana, choosing instead to base himself at Barataria. The pass into the bay lay at the west end of the island, usually running nine or ten feet of water at good tide, deep enough for most of the privateer vessels but too shallow for more substantial warships. Behind the island sat the best harbor on the coast, remote and difficult of access from New Orleans, and almost unsettled.25 Looking inland, the bay extended about eighteen miles and ended on the horizon, so it was a good sail to get to the bayous. Small islands covered with weeds, marsh grass, and brush pocked the bay's waters.

  Grand Terre, one of the barrier islands on either side of the pass, was six miles long and one to three miles wide, and barely more than marsh in most places. Indians once made use of it, though they may have been gone by this time. The highest point on the island rose to not more than five feet. A few groves of large live oaks provided some shade, and a so-called oak ridge ran along the island. Masses of driftwood washed up on the shore, brought down the Mississippi to the Gulf. Southerly winds prevailed, especially in summer, making the few small trees lean permanently toward the north. Perhaps due to the wind, there were no really bothersome insects, though the few mosquitoes were big and ferocious. The bay boasted an abundance of redfish and spotted trout, with oysters, crabs, terrapin, and shrimp all to be taken easily in the surrounding waters. Fruit and vegetables grew well. 26 An island aptly called Petite Isle sat just behind Grand Terre, the two being separated by a brackish bayou.

  A scattering of salvagers, scavengers, and coastal recluses lived on a semipermanent basis either on Grand Isle across the pass or in the vicinity. After the Embargo, a few of the fishermen there began operating a contraband trade from Grand Terre, chiefly off-loading goods from captured vessels onto American ships and then taking their cargoes under false shipping papers to New Orleans.27 Following the foreign slave trade prohibitions these men began smuggling in a modest fashion. But until the influx of privateers denied French ports, the operations on Grand Terre were never extensive or organized. That would change once the Laffite brothers reunited.

  It may not have happened overnight, but by the fall of 1809 men in New Orleans knew that a man seeking slaves could get them fresh from Africa at a good price at Grand Terre if he felt no unease about circumventing the law. Even men of prominence such as attorney John Randolph Grymes had no qualms about referring buyers to the barracón, or slave barracks, on the island where privateers kept blacks pending sales. By November Grymes was suggesting that customers get in touch with the man one buyer's son called "the notorious Captain Lafitte."28

  He had to mean Jean, for Pierre was neither a captain nor notorious. Just what Jean Laffite had done to achieve notoriety can only be surmised, but if he was the captain of La Soeur Cherie, then he might still be remembered in New Orleans, and as "notorious," and more so now for his known association with the growing band of miscreants at Barataría.29 If he had been a privateer captain, he seems to have abandoned the trade for something more lucrative and less hazardous, and there lay the entrepreneurial genius of the Laffites. Privateers risked the hazards of the sea, capture or death at the hands of the Spaniards, and arrest and prosecution by the United States. Here Pierre's experience as a merchant came into play. If the privateers limited their risk by landing their goods on Grand Terre rather than trying to bring their ships into New Orleans, the Laffites could act as middlemen between supply and market, either bringing buyers to the island in the case of slaves, or else getting the merchandise to New Orleans via means less dangerous than coming in through the port and its customs officers. 30 By the fall of 1809 the Laffites had a modest smuggling operation well founded, matching buyers with well-established slave importers. Jean took buyers to Grand Terre to make the sales, while Pierre stayed in New Orleans to handle the Laffites' business affairs there.31

  For the moment, their notoriety cannot have been great, for their names were entirely absent from the public press and the private correspondence of those charged with apprehending violators of the customs and slave laws. Indeed, complaints about Barataria were few as yet. Both Pierre and Jean moved freely in and out of the city. Pierre rented a house for himself and his family, probably on St. Ann Street, and Jean stayed with them when he was in town.32 People started to take note of Pierre. He was thirty-nine years old. Visitors saw a robust, powerfully built man of above middle height—about five feet, ten inches tall—with a light complexion and light brown hair growing or combed low over his forehead. Piercing dark eyes that were just a little crossed flashed from his face. When he spoke English with his heavy French accent, his teeth were brilliantly white.33

  Jean began to be noticed, too, and he presented a different aspect from his brother. He was tall, perhaps as much as an inch or two over six feet, and well proportioned. He wore side whiskers down his chin, and the pale cast of his skin despite his time at sea created an arresting contrast with his large dark hazel eyes and dark hair.34 He, too, showed unusually white teeth, and where Pierre may have been rather ungainly, Jean liked t
o dress in style and displayed some grace and elegance in his manner in spite of unusually narrow feet and small hands. He impressed people as an easy and genial conversationalist, and liked to tell stories of his experiences, no doubt with embellishments. "He would stand and talk upon any serious matter, with one eye shut, for hours, and at such times had rather a harsh look," recalled an acquaintance. "But he was tall and finely formed; his manners were highly polished, and in his pleasant moods, one who did not know him would have suspected him for being anything but a pirate." 35

  Jean had no trouble finding company among the many quadroon women of the town. That fall he was seen at Coquets St. Philip Street Ballroom in the company of a woman so slender she seemed barely out of girlhood, whose "liquid black eyes" dazzled one of Jean's acquaintances. Jean and Pierre appeared together, too, both playing occasionally at the ballroom's gaming tables.36 Jean's sociability worked to the brothers' benefit, for there were good connections to be made in New Orleans. Latour, a fellow refugee from San Domingue, now divided his time between the city and Baton Rouge making surveys for Livingston and other landowners. Before long Latour opened an office at the intersection of Royal and Orleans and began moving in important city circles, as well as buying slaves, including five masons in a single day, possibly from the Baratarian establishment. Soon he and both Laffite brothers knew one another.37 The Laffites may also have had some passing acquaintance with the lawyer Livingston, who was not universally popular just now, having been attacked as a Jefferson favorite and thus linked with the hated Embargo and Non-Intercourse acts.38

  Much broader cultural forces favored the success of the Laffites. The social mix of New Orleans worked in their interest. By 1810 the population was 24,552, of whom a mere 3,200 were English or American and the rest all French and Spanish. This refugee community and the French-Spanish creóles were generally in unison politically, arrayed often bitterly against the American element in the city. Since the American authorities opposed the nascent Baratarian enterprise, the refugee-Creole alliance naturally favored it. 39 "The foreign Frenchmen residing among us take great interest in favour of their countrymen, and the sympathies of the Creoles of the Country (the descendants of the French) seem also to be much excited," complained one of the Americans to whom the French were much less welcoming.40 More frank was the secretary of the Louisiana Territory, Thomas Robertson, who complained in April that the most recent arrivals from San Domingue were "desperadoes from St. Yago de Cuba accustomed to piracies and connected with the parties who furnish them with every facility to escape forfeitures or punishment."41

  The Laffites could not help but benefit from such sympathies. Besides hanging out with gamblers and the rougher sort at the Café des Refugiés and the Hotel de la Marine, the Laffites likely spent time at Turpin's cabaret at Marigny and the levee, which sold groceries and liquor, had accommodations, and became the regular haunt of the Baratarians when in town.42 In such environs, the brothers became well known to a population who were refugees like them, driven to make common cause in their effort to survive in their new home. It helped that Claiborne continued trying to keep slaves and free men of color out of Louisiana, never losing his fear of an outbreak of violence.

  The first privateers caught attempting to smuggle goods into New Orleans under the pretext of needing repairs came early that year. The Due de Montebello was sighted in February off the mouth of the Mississippi, followed by L'Epine, and then L'Intrépide.43 Aboard the first Porter found a number of blank privateering commissions, making it evident that commissions were to be filled out in New Orleans for vessels fitted out there, in violation of the international requirement that corsairs be commissioned in a home port of their commissioning nation. Porter learned at the same time that more than half a dozen other privateers were cruising off his coast, some expecting to come into New Orleans on similar pretenses. They were taking on their cannon unlawfully within Louisiana territorial waters at Breton Island, barely ten miles from the mouth of one of the passes into the Mississippi. With the dull and sluggish sailing ketches that made up most of his fleet, Porter had little hope of catching them at sea. 44 When the three privateer ships came into the river and anchored in the stream, Porter took his modest gunboats out to confront them and demanded their surrender for violations of the laws. They asked to be allowed simply to leave, and then New Orleans friends of the privateers asked him to let them go. Porter refused both requests, at last threatening to open fire on the corsairs if they did not surrender. They yielded and were taken to the city, though not incarcerated. Immediately the townspeople rose in an uproar, outraged that the privateers roamed the city at will, expecting that the district attorney would get their vessels re-leased. Philip Grymes told Porter that he had no authority to interfere with the privateers, but Porter insisted that he had properly libeled the vessels as prizes before the United States District Court on Royal Street, and that Grymes had no alternative but to try the privateers on the government's behalf. He even threatened to send them to another jurisdiction in Savannah, Georgia, and the district attorney finally agreed to try the case. The ships' crews stayed relatively peaceful while the issue remained unsettled, but when the case went to trial they came to the courthouse and acted in a threatening manner. The court charged the vessels' owners with unlawfully fitting out a privateer within the United States, and the intimidation seemed to work as Judge Dominic Hall decided that no proper nonintercourse law existed between the United States and Britain, and thus there were no restrictions on British goods coming into the country. In July the accused won an acquittal. 45

  Incensed, Porter complained to his superiors of "the many embarrassments thrown in my way by publick officers here." Disgusted, and castigating both Claiborne and district attorney Grymes, he announced almost petulantly in May that he would "decline making any further exertions to break up the system of iniquity that has been attempted by the privateers," including efforts to prevent illicit privateers being fitted out in New Orleans. If the government replaced Grymes, however, Porter would renew his efforts.46

  Porter found himself so reviled in New Orleans that he began watching where he walked and keeping a guard at his home at night. Bitterly he quipped that he would be safer in the corsair lair at Guadaloupe than in Louisiana. Finally the court condemned the boats and ordered their sale as legitimate prizes taken for violation of the Embargo and other laws, but their captains and owners began to hound Porter. Porter asked Judge Hall to take steps to protect him, but Hall showed either little interest or little ability to do so, and finally late in May Porter and his family returned to Washington.47 Even then, for years afterward the privateer captains badgered him with personal suits for detaining them and for their loss of property, forcing Porter eventually to engage attorney Edward Livingston, the brother of Robert Livingston, to defend him.48 This was a delicious irony, in that Robert Livingston had successfully defended the owners of the Due de Montebello. It was his first, though not his last, case in the pay of privateers and smugglers, which would not have escaped the notice of the Laffites.49 Porter finally resigned in July 1810, sick of what he saw as Claiborne's vanity, General Wilkinson's pomposity, and the attitude of the local officials and leading townsmen, convinced that "they all looked upon the country as a big orange which they had a good right to squeeze."50

  Thus the corsairs fooled no one for long. Almost immediately complaints of their deceptions appeared in that segment of the city's press that was more attached to the laws than to the French community.51 Privateers sailing under Napoleon's flag and letters of marquee were pathetically obvious, complained an editor in April. Napoleon had not a foot of land in the West Indies nor was his flag permitted to enter any port on the continents of South or North America.52 A few New Orleans merchants such as Joseph Sauvinet even armed and equipped their own privateers pretending French service, directly in violation of the neutrality laws. Sauvinet's brig L'Intrépide sailed from New Orleans in February 1810 bound to the Leeward Islands, w
here she took aboard a French captain who then brought her back to New Orleans pretending to be a French privateer.53

  Shifts in the Caribbean's balance of power set off a four-year heyday for privateering out of Barataria.54 It began even before the fall of Guadaloupe. In December 1809 the 250-ton brig Constance had been run aground off the mouth of the Lafourche by privateers who then stripped her down to her hull, leaving only several hundred barrels of salt too heavy to carry away. After taking the plundered goods up the Lafourche to the tiny village of Donaldsonville, where the bayou met the Mississippi, they got the brig back afloat and brought her to the Balize early in January. Authorities in New Orleans tried to prevent the prize brig from being sold as a legitimate capture in their port, and meanwhile alerted the temporary customs collector at Donaldsonville, Walker Gilbert, to be on the alert for the hidden booty before it could be raised from its hiding place and smuggled into New Orleans.55

  Once the French privateers began to base themselves at Barataria and its environs, they would follow essentially the same course. There were four main smuggling routes from Barataria Bay to New Orleans. One went up Bayou St. Denis or Grand Bayou through Lake Salvador to the Mississippi at Carrolton. Another went up Wilkinson's Bayou north then east. A third followed the Big Bayou Barataria, and the fourth used Little Bayou Barataria through Bayou Rigolets. 56 All of them brought the goods to points on the Mississippi well below New Orleans, yet well above the customs inspector at the Balize, and from these points either buyers or the smugglers could take them into the city for disposal. These Barataria routes and the Lafourche were virtually modus operandi that the Laffites would use for at least the next three years.