Author: Aya Katz
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The Effect of the Changing Laws Concerning Privateering on the Career of Jean Laffite
Today, very few people have a clear idea of what privateering is and how it differs from piracy, despite the fact that the United States constitution still has a provision for the issuing of letters of marque and reprisal. Many people think that the word “privateer” is a synonym for “pirate”. But before the War…
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Remembering Pam Keyes: the woman who knew Jean Laffite
When I was writing my novel Theodosia and the Pirates, I was reading The Journal of Jean Laffite and trying to reconcile it with an 1823 obituary claiming he had died in a sea battle off the Honduran coast. The obituary troubled me. If the Journal was authentic — and I believed it was —…
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Governor Joseph Alston’s Record in the War of 1812
Joseph Alston was born in 1779 to a wealthy family in South Carolina. He attended the College of New Jersey, which was later renamed Princeton, but he never graduated. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, but he never practiced. He was a planter by trade and one of the wealthiest men…
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The Meaning of Treason: United States v. Aaron Burr
Under the English common law, treason was an inexact and nebulous charge, one that could be leveled at almost anyone by association. Speaking against the government might be treason. Having friends who were traitors might be treason. A person might never have raised a hand in anger against his King or the state and yet…
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Resisting the Japanese: The Rival Chinese Resistance Movements in WWII
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1941) merged into the Second World War following the attack on Pearl Harbor. After that, historians refer to the continued war in China against Japan as part of the Pacific Front of WWII. But these types of labels serve to obfuscate the shifting loyalties and general lack of ideological coherence of…
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Jean Laffite’s Curious Payment of Attorney Fees for the John Andrew Whiteman Defense
Jean Laffite regularly employed attorneys in the course of his business, and legal fees were a big part of his ordinary expenses. How big a part we may never know, as we don’t have access to his ledger books. He does not usually mention attorney fees in his journal, even when recounting events that involved…
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Was the Journal of Jean Laffite an Original, a Copy or a Forgery?
What is the difference between a forgery and a copy? How can you tell something is a good copy of an original document and has not been altered? And if it is, indeed, a copy, how do you go about recognizing alterations in the copied document? What is the distinction between a facsimile and just…
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An Interview with Pam Keyes about Jean Laffite
Pam Keyes is the Research Coordinator of the Laffite Society and a well known expert on the history of Jean Laffite and of the artifacts and written evidence that are available on the life of the famous privateer. In this interview, I asked her questions concerning Jean Laffite that have been preoccupying me for some…