Jean Lafitte: American patriot and
pirate. Lafitte was a pirate in the
Gulf of Mexico in the early
19th century. He established his own "kingdom" of
Barataria in the swamps and bayous near
New Orleans after the
Louisiana Purchase of
1803. He claimed to command more than 1000 men and provided them as troops for the
Battle of New Orleans (1815).
He is a great romantic figure, subject of numerous films and even of a poem by Byron:
- He left a corsair's name to other times,
- Linked one virtue to a thousand crimes.
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