i A Thesis CJsan«*•» Larfife Presented.to.the Faculty of the Rice Institute In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. by William Richard Bridgwater 1930. , "-TO I '*"'' Jean Laffite Bibliography Unpublished Sources Laifite manuscripts in the Rosenberg Library at Galveston. Published Sources American state papers. Documents, legislative and executive, of the Congress of the United States. Washington, 1834 - 1861. Volumes used: Foreign relations, IV Naval affairs, I - III Claiborne, W.C.C. Official letter boohs of W.C.C. Claiborne, 1801 - 1816. Dunbar Rowland, editor. 6 v. Jackson, 1917. Debates and proceedings in the congress of the U- nited States; with an appendix containing state papers and public documents, and all the laws of a public nature with a copious index. Fifteenth Congress - second session: comprising the period from November 16, 1818 to March 3, 1819, inclusive. Compiled from authentic materials. Washington, 1855. Jackson, Andrew. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson. John Spencer Bassett, editor. Washington, 1926 - Lamar, Mirabeau Buonaparte. Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar. Charles Adams Gulick, Jr., editor. 6 v. Austin, 1924. Latour, Major A. Lacarriere. Historical memoir of the war in West Florida and Louisiana in 1814 - 15. With an 8 tjIs S • Philadelphia, 1816. Secondary Material Abney, A. H. Life and adventures of L.D. Lafferty; being a true biography of one of the most remarkable men. of the great southwest, from an adventurous boyhood in Ar¬ kansas through a protracted life of almost unparal¬ leled sufferings and hairbreadth escapee upon the frontier of Texas; in which are given many highly interesting incidents in the early history of the republic of Texas, with a brief review of affairs in Mexico during the same period. New York, 1875. Adams, Henry. History of tbs United States of America during the administration of James Madison, Vol. II. Vol. VIII in History of the United States. New York, 1921. Second edition. Arthur, Stanley Clisby. The story of the battle of New Orleans. Issued as part of the official programme of the ceremonies commemorating the centenary of that battle on the completion of one hudred years of peace between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the United States of America. Louisiana Historical Society publications, Vol. 6. New Orleans, 1915. Baker, D.W. 0. A Texas scrap book. Made up of the history, biography, and miscellany of Texas and its people. New York, 1875. o Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of the north Mexican states and Texas. In the Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Volumes XVI and XVII. gan Francisco, 1884. Brown, John Henry. History of Texas from 1685 to 1892. 2 v. St. Louis, 1892. Dixon, San Houston. The men who made Texas free. The signers of the Texas declaration of independence. Sketches of their lives and patriotic services to the republic and state with a facsimile of the declaration of independence. Houston, 1924. Dixon, Sam Houston. Romance and tragedy of Texas history: being a record of many thrilling events in Texas history under Spanish, Mexican and Anglo-Saxon rule. Houston, 1924. Foote, Henry Stusrt. Texas and the Texans; or advance of the Anglo-Americans to the South-west; includ¬ ing a history of leading events in Mexico, from the conquest by Fernando Oortes to the termination of the Texas revolution. 2 v. Philadelphia,1841. Fortier, Alcee. History of Louisiana. 4 v. New York, 1904. Garrison, George P. Texas: a contest of civilizations. Boston and New York, 1903. Gayarre, Charles. History of Louisiana. The American domination. Vol, IV in History of Louisiana. New York, 1866. Hatcher, Mattie Austin. Opening of Texas to foreign settle¬ ment, 1801 - 1821. In University of Texas bulletin, No. 2714. Austin, 1927. Hutchison, Rev. J. R. Reminiscences, sketches and addresses selected from my papers during a ministry of forty- five years in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. Houston, 1874. Hunt, Charles Havens. Life of Edward Livingston. With an introduction by George Bancroft. New York, 1864. Kennedy, William. Texas: the rise, progress, and prospects of the republic of Texas. 2 v. London, 1841. Marshall, Thomas Maitland. History of the western boundary of the Louisiana purchase, 1819 - 1841. In the University of California studies in history. Berkeley, 1914. Marphis, J.M. History of Texas from its discovery and settle¬ ment with a description of its principal cities and counties, and the agricultural, mineral, and material resources of the state. New York, 1875. Phelps, Albert. Louisiana. A record of expansion. In American commonwealths seribs. Boston and New York, 1905. Rives, George Lockhart. The United States and Mexico, 1821 - 1848. A history of the relations between the two countries from the independence of Mexico to the close of the war with the United States. 2 v. New York, 1913. Stephens, John L. , Incidents of travel in Yucatan. 2 v. New York, 1843. Thrall, Homer S. Pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879. Em¬ bracing the period of missions, colonization, the revolution, the republic, and the state; also, a topographical description of the country; its rivers, mountains, soils, minerals, agricultural products, live stock, population, resources, wealth, etc.; together with its Indian tribes and their wars, and biographical sketches of hundreds of its leading his¬ torical characters. Also a list of the counties with historical and topical notes, and descriptions of the public institutions of the state, asylums, penitentiary, schools, churches, railroads, etc. St. Louis, 1879. Walker, Alexander. Jackson and New Orleans. An authentic narrative of the memorable achievments of the Ameri¬ can army, under Andrew Jackson, before New Orleans, in the winter of 1814, '15. New Yotk, 1856. Wortham, Louis J. History of Texas from wilderness to common¬ weal th. 5 v. Fort Wofcth, 1924. Yoakum, H. History of Texas fromfrts first settlement in 1685 to its annexation to the United States in 1846. 2 v. New ,,.York, 1856. Periodicals and Newspapers American mercury, VII, 214 - 219. February, 1926. " Lister, Walter B. Portrait of a pirate. Oentury magazine, XXV, 852 - 867. April, 1883. Gable, George W. Plotters and pirates of Louisiana. De Bow's Review of the southern and western states. Devoted to commerce, agriculture, manufacture, internal im¬ provements, statistics, general literature, etc. XI - XIX. 1851 - 1855. (a) XI, 372 - 387. Anonymous. Life and times of La£itte. (b) XII, 111 - 113. Editorial comment on life and times of Lafitte. (c) XII, 222. Quotation from the National!intelligen¬ cer. Lafitte at New Orleans. (d) XIII, 101 - 102. Account of Lafitte from the Philadelphia bulletin (e) XIII, 204 - 205. Letter on the subject of Lafitte. (f) XIII, 378 - 383. Kilpatrick, , Early life in the southwest: the Bowies. (g$XIII, 422 - 424. Ingraham, J. H. Letter concerning sources for a life of Eafitte. (h')XIV, 46 - 48. Anonymous. Ool. Ellis P. Bean, or fifty years ago in Texas. (i) xV, 572 - 584. (Brown, John Henry). Early life in the southwest: Captain John McHenry, pioneer of TO X8 s • (j) XIX, 145 - 157. (Walker, Alexander?) Lafitte the pirate — early times in the southwest. Magazine of American history with notes and queries, X, 284 - 298, 389 - 396. October and November, 1883. Gayarre, Charles. Historical sketch of Pierre and Jean Lafitte, the famous smugglers of Louisiana, 1809 - 1814. Niles' Weekly register, IV - XXIV. 1813 - 1823. Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Society. Later, the Southwestern Historical quarterly. VI - VII. (a) VI,145 - 158. Barker, Eugene C. The African slave trade in Texas. (b) VI, 162 - 165, VII, 242 - 243. Winkler, E. W. Notes on the Texas republican United Service Magazine,1851W.B. Life of Jean Lafitte, the pirate of the Mexican Gulf. Reprinted in Littell's living age, XXXIII, 433 - 446. March 6, 1852. United States magazine and democratic review. VI, 33 - 42. July, 1839. T. Oruise of the Snterprize. A day with La Fitte Yale Review. XVIII, 116 - 134. September, 1928. Dobie, J. Frank. The mystery of Lafitte^s treasure. Jean Laffite Jean Laffite\.rrived in New Orleans during the first decade of the nineteenth century. Of his life before that time nothing is definitely known. He was of French birth and blood, and was, according to the most generally accepted story, born in Bordeaux about 1780. But there is no good reason for prefer¬ ring this place and date to the many others given in other ac- 2 counts. Who his family was, and what the adventures of his youth were, no one ha& yet discovered. It seems likely that he was a sea - faring man, and he was possibly, even probably, the Captain Lafette commanding the French privateer La Soeur Gherie when, in April, 1804, that vessel, "being in a leaky condition and short of provision", put into the Mississippi for repairs. La Soeur 0h6rie was mounted with five guns and had evidently been 3 cruising against the British commerce of the >»est Indies. What her fate was after she had been repaired and provisioned to go out again into the Gulf remains unknown. Five years later, Jean Laffite was well - known in 1 New Orleans as the joint owner, with his brother Pierre, of a black¬ smith shop on St. Philip Street, between Bourbon and Dauphine Streets'^ The Laffites themselves did not labor at their forge; the work of the blacksmith shop, if the usual story is to be believed, was done entirely by slaves. From the first this shop was probably a mere cover for a more lucrative business — slave - running. This practice was wide spread in the Louisiana^,territory where new plantations were being cleared and negroes were much in demand. In spite of the laws, that demand was being filled. Many negroes were undoubtedly being brought into New Orleans, and what better depot for smuggled slaves could have been devised than a blacksmith shop where many negroes were at work? The Laffite shop may, of course, have been quite legitimate, or it may have begun its existence as an ordinary smithy only to become a station for imported slaves when the Laffite brothers found their business unprofitable.