A Second Look at The Pirates Laffite

One of my favorite biographies is "The Pirates Laffite, the Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf,' By William C. (Jack) Davis. Published in May of 2005, this book met with good reviews, including a prominent one by the New York Times, but the horror of Hurricane Katrina killed interest in New Orleans related history by the end of the summer, and the book subsequently had mediocre sales. It merits so much better.

As a fan of Jean Laffite since the time I saw the 1958 "Buccaneer" movie when I was 9 years old in 1965, I fervently had wished for a book that would tell the true history of the privateer, minus the folklore that seemed to have a stranglehold on every biography, from Lyle Saxon's "Lafitte the Pirate" to Jack Ramsay's "Jean Laffite, Prince of Pirates." I wanted a prominent historian and skilled researcher to become as interested in the Laffites as myself, someone who could write a book on a par with Marquis James Pulitzer Prize winning biography of Andrew Jackson. Finally, in 1999, I got my wish. Davis, who is best known for his Civil War histories, just had published his "Three Roads to the Alamo" history of Bowie, Crockett and Travis, and in the process had become intrigued by Jean Laffite. He got a contract in place and began researching, contacting me for some leads. I found a new friend plus the realization of my quest.

Most of the Laffite enthusiasts at the time such as fellow members of the Laffite Society of Galveston thought there was little new to be learned about the Laffite brothers other than what had already been printed, but Davis proved them happily wrong, and boy did he, perusing thoroughly the vast holdings of original documents at the Notarial Archives of New Orleans, and visiting library locations across the United States for on-site research. He tracked down obscure and previously unknown Laffite materials including a letter written by Jean Laffite in 1814 to Edward Livingston which is at Princeton University in Livingston's papers. In Davis' travels, he gathered a formidable assortment of Laffite documents and related miscellany, all of which he evaluated with his experienced historian's eyes to sift the truth from the tall tale.

"The Pirates Laffite" is a hefty book at 706 pages, with many explanatory footnotes. The footnotes tend to scare off some readers who seem to want the "Laffite Lite" experience of Winston Groom's "Patriotic Fire: Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite at the Battle of New Orleans," but the notes are invaluable for the added depth they give to an understanding of the Laffites' world.

Perhaps most importantly, "The Pirates Laffite" finally gives elder brother Pierre his just due. The Jean Lafitte National Historic Park is named after the more famous brother, but it was actually Pierre who was present there at Chalmette battlefield on Jan. 8, 1815.

Written superbly in a flowing narrative style, "The Pirates Laffite" has a place of honor on my bookshelves. It continues to be a valued resource into the history of the early national period in the south and the smugglers, privateers and pirates who populated the Gulf of Mexico at the time.
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