You may know Jean Lafitte as a somewhat terrorist to Texas and its natives. However, without this mischievous pirate, Texas would not be the great state it is today. Lafitte committed many crimes and was a nuisance to Texans but was an important person to the development of Texas and its history. What were his contributions to Texas? Let’s take a look and see… Jean Laffite’s early life was much like other peoples. He was a very ordinary child with average working parents. He was born in 1790 in the beautiful and glorious city of Bayonne, France. The only extraordinary aspect of his life was that he grew up with a family of ten children in the south by the Adour river. Could you ever imagine waking up to ten rambunctious little rascals every morning? He was …show more content…
When he got older, Lafitte decided to move to the popular city of New Orleans in the early 1800s. During this period of time, New Orleans became a part of the United States. Upon arriving, he decided to open up a little shop of his own; a blacksmith shop. At this time, he became a privateer for countries that were in desperate need of his help. A privateer is a commander or crew member of a privateer, often regarded as a pirate. In 1808, Laffite and his brothers started smuggling slaves, many from Cuba, and sold them for very high prices. Lafitte decided it would be better for his business if he moved to an island called Grande Terre in Barataria Bay. This is when trouble started to brew. Americans and the new governor of New Orleans, William C. C. Clairborne, detested the smuggling, trading, and selling of slaves; so to try to resolve this problem, Clairborne issued a $500 reward to anyone who could turn in the mischievous criminal. However, Lafitte noticed the wanted posters and decided to make some of his own. He offered an even more tempting reward of $1000 to whoever delivered Governor Clairborne to Barataria; a city in Louisiana. Another interesting fact about Lafitte was that he prized