Customer Reviews

The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Here's the bottom line on this book: If you're looking for a colorful folk tale of these characters, with all the atmospheric (and largely fictional) accoutrements, you're going to think that it's an "unreadable, tedious, overly detailed" bore.

If you want a well-researched narrative, one in which the author leaves no stone unturned in his search for authenticity, you'll like this book with all its warts.

This is a history book. It reads like a history book, with its emphasis on details, which brings our attention to facts that seek the more mundane truth of the matter. The life of the Laffites is so distorted by folklore that Dr. Davis has taken a hard line on archival detail and ambiguity.

He won't give you the answers to the questions he can't solve, and he won't give you the romantic picture of the setting he can't control.

This is a book for people more interested in history than pre-conceived imagery. Dr. Davis is a prolific author, and we know he has a tendency to crank out the words. That makes him subject to a few grammatical blunders from time to time, as he immerses himself in the subject matter. I will never criticize an historian for getting into his subject at the MINOR expense of a few mis-chosen conjunctions and misplaced commas.

For portraits of early American New Orleans and colonial Galveston, this book is a valuable contribution to the literature. I should mention that its annotation is extensive, as is its bibliography.

Pirates offers an interesting perspective of the period and the Gulf of Mexico. Most history is written about the winners. The Laffites are not winners, they are simply pirates operating under the ruse of being privateers. Davis portrays them as quintessentially fluid in their ability to change allegiances on a whim, or rather an utter lack of allegiance to anything other than their next deal. The smuggling of captured goods up into the bayou country is fascinating as is the acceptance of the brothers, their ilk and their trade by the citizenry of New Orleans (and the lower Mississippi River) for the inexpensive goods (and slaves)they provided.

Anyone interested in the early history of the US, anyone who liked David Niven's War of 1812, the intrigues of Aaron Burr and Col. James Williamson, Andrew Jackson's efforts in the west of the early 1800s, or the numerous plots to wrest Texas from the Spanish during this period, will find this a must read. (Ditto for all who live or are interested in southern Louisiana.)

In "The Pirates Laffite, the Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf," author William C. Davis presents an in-depth, thoroughly researched examination of the Laffite brothers' colorful lives, including new information about them discovered in archives of the United States and France. Davis separates the truth from romantic legend to reveal the Laffites as complex men adept at turning opportunities toward their advantage while skirting the edges of the law in the polyglot world of early 1800s New Orleans and the Gulf.
Written in an entertaining, chronological narrative style, this double biography is the most completely documented work ever written about Jean and Pierre Laffite. Most people are familiar with the legend of Jean Laffite and Galveston, or Jean Laffite and the Battle of New Orleans, but Jean's elder half-brother, Pierre, has received scant attention from previous historians and other writers. In "The Pirates Laffite," Davis aptly relates how Pierre was the mastermind of the Laffite brothers' operations, and that the brothers worked closely together for most of their lives, including the Galveston period.
Their true story, based on archival documents, letters and contemporary newspapers, paints a compelling portrait of enigmatic men on the edge of the new frontier of the Louisiana Purchase, seeking to make their mark on the world.
This book also sensitively tells the fascinating story of the Laffite's free black mistresses and children, carefully recorded from information in baptismal records, notarial archives, and other surviving documents. The women were involved in the then prevalent system of placage with the Laffites as their protectors.
"The Pirates Laffite" engages the reader magnificently, and even the sometimes lengthy footnotes are absorbing to read. A large book at 720 pages (with footnotes and index), it is a brilliant work about the Laffites' lives by a highly skilled historian. Davis, Director of Programs for the Civil War Center at Virginia Tech, is most well known for his numerous books about the Civil War. This finely polished double biography shows he is equally at home with the early national period of the southern United States and its people.

Several years ago as a guest at Jean Lafitte National Park in New Orleans, the park ranger informed our group, "Unfortunately, little is known about the Laffites." Thanks to Mr. Davis, that statement is no longer accurate.

Jean and Pierre Laffite's lives have always been intertwined with New Orleans, Andy Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans but there is much more to their amazing story than any of us ever realized. Their influence spanned not only New Orleans but the entire Gulf of Mexico from Cuba and Mexico to Jamaica, Panama, the Windward Islands, the Bahamas and Cartagena, Columbia. More amazingly, their influence was directly felt by Spain, Mexico, Washington, New York, the Carolinas, Florida and Texas. Yes, they were so early in Texas history that they are credited with founding Galveston after they were forced from Barataria Bay.

As opposed to the mythical bit players most of us are aware of, Jean and Pierre dominated piracy and intrigue throughout the Gulf of Mexico for over 20 years. Labeled as corsairs and buccaneers for their methods, these brothers ran a privateering cooperative that provided contraband goods to a hungry market and made life hell for the Spanish merchants of the Gulf. Piracy was a growth business and these boys were very serious entrepreneurs. Later, as piracy as an approved economic endeavor waned, they became critical members of a New Orleans syndicate that included lawyers, bankers, merchants and corrupt US officials.

This is their story, exceedingly well researched and superbly written, an unvarnished tale of national intrigue and foreign spying that defined and redefined not only piracy throughout the Gulf of Mexico, but the wars and population movements of the time.

As a physician graduate of Tulane, a former Naval Officer, a sailor, and a resident of the area. I found this book to be a treasure of information. Mr. Davis has done a remarkable piece of research, and his work reads like a textbook , done as seriously as any textbook of Surgery,and should stand as a reference for those interested in the area, the time, and its violent,colorful history and future, which persists into our century. I have given copies to others who study the history of that period. I have walked all those roads he names, and Mr. Davis is historically accurate, in my opinion. Enjoy the details of Gulf life.
Fair winds and following seas to you, Mr. Davis.
"Local knowledge prevails".

No planks to walk, talking parrots or eye patches here, this is history. If what you are looking for is the fictionalized, Hollywood version of the story of the brothers Laffite, you should look elsewhere. Over the years I have read a number of treatments of the Laffites, Jean and Pierre; everything from 50 page light-hearted folk tales to brief historical treatments, but nothing has compared to the depth of this book.

Mr. Davis has rendered a fairly complete tail of the adult life of the Laffite brothers in the environs of the Caribbean. This is not to say the the writing is completely accurate, the sources documented by the author and the extensive notes make it clear that much is tenuous and often downright obscure. The author does his best with the available resources and draws reasonable conclusions where warranted.

This is not a brief book, it tips the scales at 706, pages of which the actual prose totals 486 pages, the rest is notes, bibliography and index, all of which are informative and reference worthy. While I cannot say that the narrative was always riveting (it took my a little over three months to read, but then I have other distractions and seldom read just one book at a time). That said the read was interesting and not what I would consider boring, but then I am used to reading history.

Bottom line, I have added this to my pirate reference library and consider it a key reference to piracy during the early 19th century as it references many more than just the Lafittes during this period. P-)

It took me over a year to read this book. So dry was it and so heavily larded with details I kept putting it down and going on to other things. Indeed, there were times when I doubted I would finish it. And yet the value of the research won out. This one is packed to the gills with information about the people and times of Jean Laffite and, as the book points out, there were actually two pirates Laffite, not just the notorious Jean.

In fact, Jean was the younger brother and junior partner in the smuggling enterprise his older brother, Pierre, began in New Orleans before Jean even arrived in North America. Once here though, the lad quickly fell in with brother Pierre in what was to become a family business, demonstrating a talent for organizing and leading the rough bunch of cutthroats and thieves who had established themselves in the bayous and swamps south of New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi, on the island redoubt of Barataria. There the brothers organized a smuggling enterprise, fed by the privateering activities of a variety of freebooting ship captains and their crews who operated under the dubious legal authority of a number of rebel groups in the Spanish colonies. Privateering (piracy on the high seas sanctioned by the legal authority of a sovereign power via special commissions) had long been a key modus operandi on the world's seas and, as the old Caribbean pirates had been displaced by larger colonial populations and their increased extension of power, this method of piracy became the accepted one.

Spain by this time was significantly weaker than it had been and struggling to hang onto its vast and increasingly rebellious colonies, thus presenting a tempting target to the pirates, a target that the rebel groups in Mexico and South America were more than prepared to commission attacks on. New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi and the gateway to the Louisiana Territory (recently purchased by the United States from Napoleon's France), was something of an open and unruly city at this time, a place where smuggling was a way of life and privateering an important local industry. Still, neither smuggling nor privateering were welcome by the newly installed American rulers because they sapped needed revenue the American government sought to raise by taxing incoming goods and added unwanted friction to America's relations with other sovereign powers in the region. The New Orleans population, however, was not as averse to the pirates' activities as its new government.

The Laffite brothers made good use of the open and somewhat rough and ready New Orleans environment. While clashing repeatedly with the new American authorities, they managed to participate in the local economy without annoying their new rulers, who were too weak to completely suppress them in any case, overly much. In time the brothers' hold on Barataria and the smuggling trade grew to such an extent that they became the main movers in New Orleans corsair society, Jean demonstrating his leadership and organizing skills on Barataria while Pierre acted as respectable front man and "merchant" in New Orleans. Pierre seems to have been the outfit's brains for most of their years of operation though Jean was always an active and dashingly charismatic partner who boldy implemented his brother's plans and could act on his own initiative when required. The Laffites dealt in all manner of stolen goods, from liquor to textiles, weaponry to foodstuffs and, of course, slaves (whose importation had been outlawed since the founding of the United States). They carried on this latter illicit trade shamelessly for almost their entire careers, it serving as a continued source of their net worth almost to the very end of their days.

Most remembered for their role in the War of 1812 when, under their leadership, the pirates of Barataria threw in their lot with the United States rather than flip to England on British promises of amnesty and land grants, the Laffittes assisted Andrew Jackson to win the Battle of New Orleans in 1814 (the only American military victory in that war -- though it came two weeks after the war had officially ended!). Author Davis reports that the brothers actually played a much smaller part in the conflict than legend remembers, however. In fact, he finds no record of Jean's presence at the Battle at all and Pierre, who was reported by some eyewitness accounts as being on the scene, mostly served as an unofficial aide and "go-fer" for Jackson, carrying messages for him back and forth between different troop positions. He did apparently contribute by providing some helpful intelligence concerning the swampy back waters for Jackson's forces though. The brothers also provided Jackson with powder and shot, which they had secreted away, for his forces and one of their colleagues, a pirate captain called Dominique, did provide useful service as a cannoneer.

Though history remembers Jean Laffite as throwing his personal interests aside to join the Americans as a patriot, the evidence provided by this book suggests the Laffites had other motives since the record shows them double dealing with all parties routinely, never demonstrating much loyalty to anyone or anything beyond a commitment to furthering their own interests. It's at least arguable that the Laffites saw their interests as more closely aligned with a continuation of the looser frontier American regime than with a more omnipresent and controlling British restoration in the region.

Jean, himself, was apparently something of a gallant with the ladies and given to demonstrating his chivalry and magnanimity. Both brothers, however, showed a distinct aversion to excessive bloodshed throughout their careers and frequently went out of their way to treat their captives well, at Barataria and elsewhere in later years, while wielding a generally light hand with those who followed them. But despite their mannerisms and a flair for the dramatic gesture, they seem to have found their natural milieu among thieves and murderers and were largely and mainly at home in such company all their adult lives.

After the Battle of New Orleans the brothers attempted to rebuild their lost smuggling empire (Barataria having lost its security for them), throwing in with groups of "filibusters" aiming to foment rebellion against Spanish rule in Mexico and, later, in Texas. But the brothers could see that these groups of adventurers were unlikely to succeed so they secretly agreed to spy against their colleagues for Spain and invested large sums of their own capital in various enterprises to undermine their filibuster allies. Though they provided Spain with extensive information, much of it proved to be old and of limited value and the filibusters were so incompetent that they never managed to pose a serious threat to Spain's holdings -- though they did routinely prey on Spanish ships. In the end, the Spanish dropped the Laffites without reimbursing them for their outlays or paying them for their services and the brothers, who had betrayed their friends and colleagues as they plied their double game, became known among the corsairs as double dealers.

The brothers never quite found their footing after the Battle of New Orleans though they did manage to briefly create a second pirate base at what would become Galveston, Texas (then still part of Spain's colony of Mexico). Galveston, however, didn't last long and, as the Spanish cut them loose, they were eventually forced to abandon the new Barataria as they had been forced to vacate the old. Pierre and Jean tried again to rebuild their pirate empire but times were changing and, as the filibusters collapsed into impotency and the Mexican and South American rebels began to see that these men and the pirates with whom they associated were not to be trusted and withdrew their privateering commissions, piracy in the Gulf of Mexico and on the Caribbean became increasingly difficult to pursue. The resolution of ongoing territorial disputes between the Americans and Spanish which ceded Florida to the Americans and severed Texas from the Louisiana purchase in favor of Spanish claims, prompted the Americans to step up their efforts to clear the Gulf of pirates.

The Laffites fled from point to point, trying to reprise their past piratical successes but could find fewer and fewer safe or friendly ports from which to operate (having become personae non grata in New Orleans and Texas) and fewer and fewer vessels they could safely attack. In the end, Pierre fell ill to fever on an island off Yucatan and died there while Jean, a year or so later, met his end in a sea battle off the coast of Cuba. Their lives seem to have been an exercise in futility for they lived for the moment, spent more than they won, gave up a place in the new nation they came to be credited with helping save and left little behind but their mixed race paramours whom they abandoned in New Orleans when they fled that city in the 1820s. Pierre's descendants would remember little about him while it's not clear that any of Jean's children lived long enough to have descendants of their own. It's a sorry end to what America came to remember in legend as the swashbuckling hero pirate Jean Laffite who cast his lot with a desperate republic still struggling to be born.

The book is full of rich and extensive detail about the era, the activities and the colleagues of the two brothers and is invaluable for that. Yet the prose is dry and often hard to follow, the various people mentioned hard to keep track of. In sum, this is a tough book to read but the depth of information and scholarship achieved more than compensates for that. If these times and events interest you, this is a good book to have.

Stuart W. Mirsky
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

As all of the previous reviewers have said, this is a well researched book. The subject matter is almost intrinsically interesting - pirates, the history of a growing New Orleans, historical conflicts in Louisiana and the United States, et cettera. The book is well documented with careful footnotes, though at times (and especially at the outset) one is confronted with many uncertain but probable or possible pieces of history (perhaps this is to be expected, or at least understood as necessary, given the general lack of definitive or authoritative sources on the subject).

However, unlike other reviewers, I've found this text to be very poorly written and painful to read. The book is riddled with unclear and poorly written sentences ("Pierre Laffite probably visited there with his friends from earlier days when in New Orleans, though most likely he did not meet Marie Louise Villard there, but at one of Coquet's or Tessier's balls") and sentences in which the tense needlessly shifts from past to present and back again ("Pierre may not have entered into a formal placage arrangement with Marie Villard, for among other things he seems hardly able to afford the upkeep of a woman in New Orleans, but very soon she and Laffite began a relationship that would last for the next sixteen years"). Suffice it to say, Mr. Davis would have been well served by a better editor.

The history is engaging; the writing makes it painful.

This book simply got too bogged down in details and was poorly written. It is a very interesting subject but I simply could not get into it the way it was organized and written. The book jumps around and does not go into much of the naval history of the importance of corsairs. Overall very disappointed from a book that should have been very interesting and exciting to study.

Several new pirate coverage's are on the market this season; but none so extensive a coverage as William C. Davis' The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World Of The Corsairs Of The Gulf. Jean and Pierre Laffite's lives coincided with New Orleans' most colorful period in history, just after the War of 1812: they ran a privateering cooperative that provided banned goods to the market and their methods bordered on piracy. Author Davis' extensive history background lends to his scholarly yet lively survey of the Lafite brothers' practices and controversial methods.