Alphabet File page 211
Lafitte resented the label of pirate. He claimed to be a privateer, with a marque from the republic of Columbia to board Spanish vessels and seize their cargo. But there's evidence he attacked vessels of other nationalities as well and he never took prisoners.
Lafitte's Jewish back-ground provides clues to his motivations, particularly his intense hatred of Spain. It also may explain his social position in the life of New Orleans.
To see this dashing pirate as pioneer urban Jewish outsider is a kick. According to Nola Ross' mini-history, "Jean Lafitte: Louisiana Buccaneer," which draws heavily from his diary, he was born in Port-Au-Prince in 1782. His mother, Maria Zora Nadrimal, died soon after, and the young Jean was raised by his Jewish grandmother, Zora Nadrimal. His grandfather, Abhorad Nadrimal, was jailed, tortured and died in prison in Spain. Ms. Ross describes him as "an alchemist...and free-thinking Jew." Eventually Jean was raised on stories of his suffering, and this created his hatred of all things Spanish.
As for piracy, it ran in the family: his oldest brother, Alexandre Frederic, was a sea captain known in Louisiana as "Dominique You."
One can visit his grave in St. Louis Cemetery, marked not by a cross but by the emblem of a "free mason." Jean first went to sea under his brother's command.
We know something of how Zora raised him. Lafitte described her as training him "in the habits necessary to the development of a strong personality, prepared to face the vicissitudes of life with a firm and determined will and capable of ignoring all obstacles that would retard the development of my mind." Moreover, his grandmother had the ideals of the prophets, encouraging Jean to become a writer who would "unchain humanity and emancipate the poor from suffering and exploitation. But, though he was an accomplished writer, Jean chose the sword over the pen and this raises an uncomfortable point.
The Spanish ships Lafitte attacked were importing slaves from Africa - a trade illegal in Louisiana under
American law. To the planters of Louisiana, he was a hero, because fresh slaves were in short supply. But in ugly truth, he was a slave smuggler. Yet Lafitte never forgot entirely his grandmother's ideals. After leaving Louisiana, he founded a utopian pirate's den near Galveston. In later years, he actually became an early labor leader in St. Louis, affiliated with the international Working Men's
Association. In 1847 he met with Marx and Engels, writing,
"I heartily support the two young men. I hope and pray that their projects may become joined in a strong doctrine to shake the foundations of the highest dynasties and leave them to be devoured by the lower masses."
He opened an escrow account in a Paris bank to aid them.
There is even evidence that Lafitte tried to introduce
Marx to the young Abraham Lincoln.
A Jew and a pirate, a slave smuggler and communist, a frequenter of cabarets and quadroon balls but a loyal family man, the contradictions blur and dazzle.
As for how Jewish he was, let's note that Lafitte's first wife, and the mother of his children, was Christina Lavine, from a Danish-Jewish family.
Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop [in New Orleans] was a great place to hunt up Jean's ghost. There was a coal fire in the grate, and, staring into it, I could see slaves hammering iron grillwork on a forge. The Sephardic pirate lies on his hammock, conferring in Ladino with his older brothers, Dominique You and Pierre, the three sharing a family secret that bound them tightly for life. Unknown to the rest of
New Orleans, they were Jews. (From "A Buccaneer's Secret," By Rodger Kamenetz, Forward, June 28, 1993.)
THE PIRATE HOUSE is said to have been built in 1802 by a New Orleans business man reputed to be the head and overlord of the Gulf Coast pirates. It was a substantial planter's type cottage on the beach near Waveland and Bay
St. Louis. The builder's title was lost in the courthouse fire of 1853.
Legends are many of this old Pirate House. One has it that a secret tunnel ran from a sub-cellar into the Gulf, and through this tunnel pirates transferred their booty from ships to their strongholds beneath the house.
Unexpected openings and suspicious looking lockers and concealed closets in queer underground compartments gave the imagination vast room for bold adventure. (From "The Gulf Coast of Mississippi, by Nola Nance Oliver.)
The house stood at 649 N. Beach Blvd., Waveland, until it was demolished by Hurricane Camille in 1969. Today cement steps stand at the foot of the bluff as a memento of one of the county's most fabled homes.
LAFITTE, JEAN
Until very recently, the beginning and ending of the life of Jean Lafitte, whose exploits were well known to all school children in these parts, were dark mysteries.
Some recent works have shed new light on the life of the famous buccaneer.
Most biographers say that Lafitte was born "ca 1780," adding that nobody is sure. A Lafitte biographer, Catherine
Gonzales, wrote that information "about his early life is obscure,"and she catches up with him in 1810, when he opened his black-smith shop in New Orleans as a cover for smuggling.
As for Lafitte's last days, Gonzales wrote that "he was reported in many places, but most accounts say he died in the Yucatan peninsula about 1825."
The Encyclopedia Brittanica claims that "nothing authentic" is known about Lafitte's early years, and concludes that after the Americans destroyed his Galveston
Bay community, Lafitte "picked a crew to man his favorite vessel, The Pride, and sailed away to the legendary realms from which he had come."
Following are excerpts from the work of recent Lafitte scholars, one of whom was convinced that the famous privateer bought property in Hancock County and spent his last days in the "Pirate House" on the beach of Bay St. Louis-Waveland, a house built expressly for him.
Another has produced evidence that Lafitte was born in Port-Au-Prince in 1782 of Sephardic Jewish parentage.
Read them and decide for yourself. Edith B. Back
BAY HOUSEHOLDER? People investigating titles to land around Bay St. Louis have often pondered a name which appeared on a deed to property transferred on Dec. 6, 1825.
The deed for a hunk of land about two blocks up the bay from where U.S. 90 crosses it, was written in French and signed by Jean B. Nicaise and his wife, Genevieve, heavy land-holders of their day. It was made out to Sieur Jean Lafitto."
This was four years after the United States Navy had last seen and chased the ship of Jean Lafitte, the pirate, in the waters around Havana, Cuba.
This "Lafitto" (A Spanish spelling which Jean Lafitte requently used in his peak privateer years) lived at Bay St. Louis in quiet retirement for about twenty five years according to more deeds made out to him, and was reported to have died around 1850.
The oldtimers claimed that he had no visible occupation but seemed to live off what he already had. They also claimed he was known to be a famous "fighting man" in the Battle of New Orleans.