Pirate Is Such An Ugly Word; I Prefer Privateer, As The V Makes It Sound Cool

Lyle Saxon's Lafitte the Pirate is an attempt to discuss the life of both of the Lafitte brothers, but especially Jean, working strictly from more trustworthy sources. Which is a difficult task, as the story of Lafitte's life is presented many different ways, with stories gradually becoming more exaggerated as they're retold.

The Lafittes, Jean and Pierre, went from initially serving more as middlemen, or brokers, for smugglers and "privateers" (read: pirates) trying to make a profit off their goods in New Orleans. Eventually, the two built up their own organization, and armed with letters of marque from Cartagena, set to plundering ships themselves, then having grand auctions at their base on Grande Isle. For a time, they operated with impunity, as Governor Clairborne couldn't get the legislature to approve any actions against them. The military did finally destroy their base, but only when the British were preparing to invade New Orleans during the War of 1812, This after Jean Lafitte told a British contingent he would consider working with them, then immediately sent all they had given him to the American authorities. So ingratitude and poor prioritization. Despite all that, the Lafittes and their men joined Andrew Jackson's forces and helped fend of the Brits. Of course, a peace treaty had already been signed by then, but neither set of forces knew it.

After that, Jean's career suffered the gradually diminishing fortunes that seem typical of this life. Where he was once admired for his charm, style, and wit*, more and more merchants were annoyed with their business being undercut by the Lafitte's sales of ill-gained goods, and there was the story of the fine clothes of a local Creole woman whose ship had been destroyed being found in the Lafitte's warehouse by the military, so his reputation soured. He tried moving to Galveston and setting up base, but was eventually forced out there as well, and the scant reports of him after that indicate his attempts at piracy began to fare worse, as the ships traveled in armed convoys more often. The few sources there are indicate he was buried at Silan, in the Yucatan.

Saxon also takes the time to describe the histories of various other important parties, such as John Grymes, one-time D.A. of New Orleans, who left that job to defend Pierre Lafitte***, Clairborne, even a little for Andrew Jackson (I didn't realize he was suffering from malaria during the Battle of New Orleans). The book also provides a certain amount of detail into women's lives, though mostly in terms of the attempts of quadroon women trying to land a wealthy white guy for their daughters (dubbed "free women of color"). Since it was written in 1930, I wasn't entirely surprised to see slaves described as "savages" when they decided to revolt at one point. Something to keep in mind.

The last two chapters feel extraneous, with the first one detailing many of the embellishments fictional writers made to Jean's story, while the final chapter is about people still (in the 1930s, when the book was originally published) searching for the treasure the assume Lafitte must have buried (but never dug up, even as his resources dwindled). Even though neither chapter was more than 20 pages, they seemed interminable compared to Saxon's account of Lafitte's actual life**. You could probably give those a pass, as I felt Saxon was mostly mocking these folks for either believing in the treasure, or buying all the ridiculous stories about Lafitte.

One interesting tidbit. There are several illustrations in the book, all of various locales in New Orleans or Grande Island, drawn by and Edward H. Suydam. The work is quite nice, providing a good feel for not only the particular building, but also how structures were set with regard to each other and the streets in New Orleans. A person better versed in architecture would probably gain even more from them than me.

If the last name looks familiar, you might recall Arthur Suydam drew those zombie variant covers for Marvel a few years ago. He's drawn lots of other things as well, but that might be what some of you are most familiar with****. E.H. is Arthur's great-uncle from what I can discern, and they're both part of a line of excellent artist in the Suydam family. Their styles aren't the same, as E.H. prefers pencils and charcoal, Arthur's more an oil-painter according to his site. I can't say I figured it out based on similarities in the artwork (I'd like to, but no), as it was actually E.H.'s signature (specifically how he writes the "y" in "Suydam") that made me wonder about a connection.

* Clairborne offered $500 for Jean's capture, so Jean (presumably) jokingly had posters planted around the city offering even more than that if someone would capture the governor and bring him to Lafitte.

** As best he was able to piece together. At different points he notes certain documents one might expect to be present, say from a trial of Lafitte's men, are missing from court records. Maybe they were destroyed in storms, or burned, or stolen, any way it's sliced, they weren't there.

*** Supposedly for $20,000, which he wasted gambling as he traveled back to New Orleans from Grande Isle with it. By most accounts, he found this extremely funny.

**** According to his website, he also did illustrations for the recent re-release of Br'er Rabbit and the Wind in the Willows.