Historia Obscura | Pam Keyes | Activity https://historiaobscura.com/members/pam-keyes/activity/ Activity feed for Pam Keyes. Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:46:55 +0000 https://buddypress.org/?v= en-US 30 hourly 2 5fddc09ffc4fd89b800d8d9077120ab7 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=9018 Tue, 02 Oct 2018 00:58:57 +0000 A noise began from the back of the massive crowd, light at first, then swelling gradually as it spread, as the next speaker was introduced to the throng of some 6,000 present. The name of Major Davezac was […]

]]> 1864b19326cf92e56b0203ba648e0b03 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=9010 Wed, 21 Feb 2018 21:42:18 +0000 Privateer-smuggler Jean Laffite’s active service at the Battle of New Orleans on Gen. Andrew Jackson’s line is firmly verified by eyewitness testimonies found in newly digitized pension records of the Nat […]

]]> 108c05879d6d6b90d879dd1d66395c86 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=9006 Sun, 11 Feb 2018 21:56:35 +0000 Engineer-mapmaker, War of 1812 historian, architect and erstwhile secret agent Arsene Lacarriere Latour comes vibrantly to life in the new English translation of “A Visionary Adventurer, Arsene Lacarriere L […]

]]> f22b281a6c315f2813ae7eb8c23918b6 Pam Keyes posted a new activity comment http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-british-visit-to-laffite-a-study-of-events-200-years-later/#comment-34208 Thu, 04 Jan 2018 01:57:51 +0000 I should be getting your translation of Garrigoux’ bio of Latour by Friday, and will immediately begin reading it. Most likely, I will post a book review here on Historia Obscura within a couple of weeks.

In reply to - Pam Keyes wrote a new post When Commander Nicholas Lockyer sailed in HMS Sophie from Pensacola towards Jean Laffite’s Grande Terre encampment on Sept. 1, 1814, he already knew that the Baratarian privateer b […] ]]> ddea0bc05078e6738b0ba02561a00784 Pam Keyes posted a new activity comment http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-british-visit-to-laffite-a-study-of-events-200-years-later/#comment-34143 Mon, 01 Jan 2018 19:17:25 +0000 Thank you, Gordon, for the news of the newly published translation of the Garrigoux book, I shall have to get a copy, as I am not proficient enough in French to read the original edition.

In reply to - Pam Keyes wrote a new post When Commander Nicholas Lockyer sailed in HMS Sophie from Pensacola towards Jean Laffite’s Grande Terre encampment on Sept. 1, 1814, he already knew that the Baratarian privateer b […] ]]> e81c282b60b5294be69b5b09a91723d8 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8994 Sat, 18 Nov 2017 22:27:45 +0000  

Ethics meant everything to attorney John Dick, an Irish emigrant to New Orleans. He felt compelled in May 1813 to ensure everyone else knew that, too, even if it meant possibly provoking a duel with his […]

]]> 219b3878c4e93e15e943307de5d1be4d Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8987 Fri, 07 Apr 2017 21:22:24 +0000 Privateer Jean Laffite, a hero of the Battle of New Orleans, took control of the Island of Galveston in a bloodless coup two hundred years ago this April 8, taking the small pirate base which had been used […]

]]> 1d4dad3af51ebad268749552c1f907cd Pam Keyes posted a new activity comment http://www.historiaobscura.com/commemoration-of-a-hero-jean-laffite-and-the-battle-of-new-orleans/#comment-26064 Tue, 04 Apr 2017 00:00:28 +0000 I have invested too much time on this discussion today, considering I am working on a lengthy new article about the Philadelphia connection to early New Orleans. Everyone is entitled to their own viewpoint about what did or did not happen at the Battle of New Orleans, and it is true there are quite a bit of variances between historians. It would…[Read more]

In reply to - Pam Keyes wrote a new post Almost 200 years ago, privateer-smuggler Jean Laffite became a hero because he did something most people wouldn’t have done: in the face of extreme adversity, he had helped save New O […] ]]> 08d99af04f3408bd5f487b8a7b3cd344 Pam Keyes posted a new activity comment http://www.historiaobscura.com/beverly-chew-the-man-behind-the-curtain-in-early-new-orleans/#comment-21375 Sat, 07 Jan 2017 16:19:55 +0000 The Chew portrait was posted online at Ancestry.com by a descendant. Chew was in New Orleans at least as early as 1798 (with William Clark, no less!) His mission to Bilbao is still shrouded in mystery, but appears at this point in my research to be connected with political intrigue. It was not a simple merchant mission. More information about…[Read more]

In reply to - Pam Keyes wrote a new post Life was good for the New Orleans business firm of Chew & Relf in the early 1800s: young partners Beverly Chew and Richard Relf controlled a virtual monopoly of the banking, shipping, […] ]]> fc02a25e7aba6b69b065d4ff068f38f2 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8972 Sat, 17 Sep 2016 21:02:38 +0000 Spying, smuggling, and possibly abetting treasonous conspirators against the United States are not actions most historians would associate with explorer William Clark of Lewis and Clark 1803-1806 Expedition […]

]]> da017d8434b4bf9460cc5bd59341eab1 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8963 Wed, 18 May 2016 01:41:11 +0000  

Astonishingly, only one vote from a very young Tennessee state representative handed Thomas Jefferson the presidency of the United States in the 1800 Election.

The 25-year-old who cast that ballot was […]

]]> cb9b935ddbf16e4607454c8926047c39 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8935 Fri, 11 Mar 2016 19:33:11 +0000 When notorious Gulf Coast pirate William Mitchell came back from the dead in 1835, he looked like a zombie from Hell.

One-eyed, the man was covered with horrible scars, evidence of many deep and dangerous […]

]]> d088be8326f4fcbe22163b476d410fae Pam Keyes posted a new activity comment http://www.historiaobscura.com/beverly-chew-the-man-behind-the-curtain-in-early-new-orleans/#comment-9678 Mon, 07 Mar 2016 00:20:38 +0000 Thank you for the compliment about the Chew article. I did not know that Crawford’s instructions for revenue officers had originated with Hamilton.

Re the Le Brave case, no, I have never seen anything that Chew has written concerning that particular ship and/or trial. It is frustrating that the details about the trial have been lost, even the…[Read more]

In reply to - Pam Keyes wrote a new post Life was good for the New Orleans business firm of Chew & Relf in the early 1800s: young partners Beverly Chew and Richard Relf controlled a virtual monopoly of the banking, shipping, […] ]]> a535666fbf7d7b2ff22af16ab536410d Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8923 Thu, 18 Feb 2016 18:06:12 +0000 Methodist missionary Daniel F. De Putron sought more adventure in his life, so in late spring of 1841 he bought a small schooner in New Orleans, got a sidekick of an affable Irishman with the nickname of […]

]]> 82dfa0213c7a6c6869765759f9dcd7bb Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8918 Sat, 30 Jan 2016 23:56:55 +0000 Irish pirate Paddy Scott terrorized residents and visitors of the Mobile Bay area for some ten years over the 1820s and 1830s, earning himself national notoriety as that “vile pirate.” Oddly, no one now seem […]

]]> 1eaf727817d96bc3763a670d97104c2e Pam Keyes posted a new activity comment http://www.historiaobscura.com/beverly-chew-the-man-behind-the-curtain-in-early-new-orleans/#comment-8069 Sun, 10 Jan 2016 01:18:23 +0000 Thank you for your interesting comment. The Beverly Chew listed in 1914 was likely the New Orleans Beverly Chew’s grandson, who was famous in his own right as a rare book collector. The Pilgrims Society sounds quite fascinating indeed, I wonder if they were a branch of the Masons or Scottish Rite. Re whether or not the banker/customs collector…[Read more]

In reply to - Pam Keyes wrote a new post Life was good for the New Orleans business firm of Chew & Relf in the early 1800s: young partners Beverly Chew and Richard Relf controlled a virtual monopoly of the banking, shipping, […] ]]> 0480a268c5a3eb9bb6bf642ea3c0a772 Pam Keyes posted a new activity comment http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-laffite-portrait-proves-the-authenticity-of-the-laffite-journal/#comment-7096 Tue, 01 Dec 2015 20:29:10 +0000 Yes, it is compelling evidence for authentication of the Laffite journal. Even so, there always will be those who believe the journal is a forgery.

In reply to - Pam Keyes wrote a new post At least part of the Jean Laffite journal collection at Sam Houston Regional Library at Liberty, Texas can be proven authentic through association with a portrait of Laffite never […] ]]> 95fcb47f7910dc0f77f0ce32eca312c6 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8907 Tue, 01 Dec 2015 05:37:32 +0000 At least part of the Jean Laffite journal collection at Sam Houston Regional Library at Liberty, Texas can be proven authentic through association with a portrait of Laffite never a part of the archives of […]

]]> 51e2d2ddef0bfef207be9929e9499e3a Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/?p=8900 Thu, 19 Nov 2015 01:30:07 +0000 Life was good for the New Orleans business firm of Chew & Relf in the early 1800s: young partners Beverly Chew and Richard Relf controlled a virtual monopoly of the banking, shipping, trading, insurance, and […]

]]> 3e154cf3c022c22380239383949d1a58 Pam Keyes commented on the post, The Letter That Tried to Scuttle the Baratarians' Pardon http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-letter-that-tried-to-scuttle-the-baratarians-pardon/#comment-6063 Sat, 10 Oct 2015 15:24:55 +0000 Poindexter seems to have been quite jealous of Livingston’s close attachment to Jackson during the campaign against the British, particularly the fact that Livingston basically wrote every public speech Jackson […]

]]> cfcee1f5a8a8e1cacda451fef6097d02 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-letter-that-tried-to-scuttle-the-baratarians-pardon/ Sat, 10 Oct 2015 02:52:26 +0000 Thumbnail 

If George Poindexter had been Sec. of War or President during the end of the War of 1812, the Laffites and Baratarians would never have been pardoned for their service and assistance to General Andrew […]

]]> c93dd6bf53da265a9702b3ab109748e0 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/john-dicks-letter-to-monroe-honoring-the-baratarians/ Tue, 04 Aug 2015 18:07:07 +0000 Thumbnail 

John Dick, US District Attorney for Louisiana in 1815, was a man with a conscience, a strong devotion to what was fair and just, even when it conflicted with an earlier opinion that he had fostered. He […]

]]> 793150df9aeef24b1ca94e681159db92 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/nathaniel-pryor-the-unsung-veteran-of-the-battle-of-new-orleans/ Wed, 04 Mar 2015 05:24:28 +0000 Thumbnail

 

 

Among the American soldiers in the Battle of New Orleans, Capt. Nathaniel Pryor is one whose name shows up in no histories of that great battle. Oddly, Capt. Pryor, who served in the 44th Infantry […]

]]> cf9bf80be65292d3afaba535a39d5c85 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-spy-who-led-the-british-to-the-back-door-of-new-orleans-in-1814/ Sun, 11 Jan 2015 01:04:08 +0000 Thumbnail

Because he was multilingual and adept at spying, the 23-year-old Capt. Robert Cavendish Spencer, an ancestor of the current British royal family, was one of the most valuable assets the British forces had […]

]]> 7754c92f68fa2d7971166aecbd8295c6 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-last-battle-of-chalmette/ Mon, 05 Jan 2015 23:54:12 +0000 Thumbnail

The last battle of Chalmette was fought by genteel ladies wielding fountain pens, not swords, in 1935 as the site of the US triumph over the British was in the process of becoming a national historical park. […]

]]> 7d3823b9e298ab048a957f2964e88fff Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/pattersons-mistake-the-battle-of-lake-borgne-revisited/ Tue, 30 Dec 2014 00:55:00 +0000 Thumbnail

American Commodore Daniel T. Patterson made the single biggest mistake of the Louisiana portion of the War of 1812 when he deployed almost all of his naval force to patrol and spy along the coastal area of […]

]]> d1d462e89fc0147b12a7489b6a909324 Pam Keyes commented on the post, Eyewitness Report of Jean Laffite at Chalmette Battlefield http://www.historiaobscura.com/eyewitness-report-of-jean-laffite-at-chalmette-battlefield/#comment-4750 Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:59:28 +0000 Yes, I wish the author of the account would have signed his letter, but his note that Butler also was aware of the fact of Laffite’s service is significant.

]]> 42b0e6061cff167d9bb325f2830bd0ad Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/eyewitness-report-of-jean-laffite-at-chalmette-battlefield/ Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:02:20 +0000 ThumbnailMuch has been made this past year over just exactly where Jean Laffite was during the battles against the British in December, 1814, and Jan. 1815, particularly regarding Jackson’s line at Chalmette. Here is what […]

]]> a0019d3fbb22bb266093bbe712ed7aef Pam Keyes commented on the post, The Saga of Melita and the Patterson-Ross Raid at Barataria http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-saga-of-melita-and-the-patterson-ross-raid-at-barataria/#comment-4701 Fri, 19 Dec 2014 00:55:03 +0000 ADDENDA: There is a fascinating postscript to the story of the Melita, as after writing this article, I discovered the name of the ship was among the vessels Jean Laffite said were his, in the Journal of Jean […]

]]> d80c494e7288842f07448392e3e8aecf Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-saga-of-melita-and-the-patterson-ross-raid-at-barataria/ Mon, 15 Dec 2014 18:04:47 +0000 Thumbnail
A series of unfortunate events plagued Joseph Martinot, supercargo of the Carthagenian merchant schooner Melita. First, he had been stymied in his attempt to enter the Mississippi and arrive at New Orleans by […]

]]> 47683061803fb23ea4f5365531d9cf04 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-case-of-the-spanish-prize-ship-at-dauphin-island/ Mon, 08 Dec 2014 05:05:52 +0000 Thumbnail

Capt. Nicholas Lockyer of HMS Sophie was furious when he gave the order to weigh anchor just off Grande Terre island on Sept. 4, 1814. He and his fellow British officers had been released a couple of hours […]

]]> 017f8fbed9cf0d68260acff69933f772 Pam Keyes commented on the post, Cobbett the Body-Snatcher, or What Happened to Thomas Paine's Corpse http://www.historiaobscura.com/cobbett-the-body-snatcher-or-what-happened-to-thomas-paines-corpse/#comment-4303 Sun, 16 Nov 2014 00:01:44 +0000 How fascinating! But if the graveyard of the church has been cleared, where did all those burials go? They would have been re-interred elsewhere, right? The mystery continues, but I hope Paine’s bones did finally […]

]]> 13a83f431c8a9c1ed6b50d1e057f5b8f Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/cobbett-the-body-snatcher-or-what-happened-to-thomas-paines-corpse/ Mon, 27 Oct 2014 04:03:59 +0000 Thumbnail

Even  before Thomas Paine  had died, at least one of his “friends” had designs on acquiring his skull.

John Wesley Jarvis,  an artist who was a close associate of the  author of “Common Sense,” asked Paine […]

]]> c2febe993a9100016d058bd3bef27c20 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-poison-pen-duels-of-william-duane-and-peter-porcupine/ Thu, 16 Oct 2014 04:42:33 +0000 Thumbnail 

 

Some eight thousand  times a day, six days a week,  pressmen  cranked the heavy wooden press of the Weekly Aurora newspaper  of Philadelphia. They were printing platens of tiny type on the Aurora’s […]

]]> 267bf615f32015ce6e529b0ebc62a61c Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/laffite-talk-at-battle-of-new-orleans-historical-symposium-jan-10-2015/ Sun, 05 Oct 2014 19:55:26 +0000 Thumbnail 

Get your travel plans ready now for the Third Annual Battle of New Orleans Historical Symposium slated Jan. 9 and 10,  2015,  at Nunez Community College Auditorium at Chalmette, La., near the Jean Lafitte […]

]]> 51becde75f588c3763321bc60b51f6a7 Pam Keyes commented on the post, The Aurora Editor Snipes at Britain, Post War of 1812 http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-aurora-editor-snipes-at-britain-post-war-of-1812/#comment-3716 Tue, 30 Sep 2014 18:29:53 +0000 I believe Jackson was one of the avid readers of the Weekly Aurora, and there certainly had to have been some sort of connection to editor Duane, considering when Jackson became president, he named Duane’s son, […]

]]> 82abf1318d4dda209d50c5aa29debf3a Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-aurora-editor-snipes-at-britain-post-war-of-1812/ Tue, 30 Sep 2014 01:56:58 +0000 Thumbnail

With one of those quill pens he so often had wielded to acidulously attack targets in his Weekly Aurora newspaper at Philadelphia, Editor William Duane  reflected at length in March 1815 about the Causes and […]

]]> d89252fbbb7095274aa7d5ab5151c1e5 Pam Keyes commented on the post, Jean Laffite and the Treaty of Ghent -- Satirical Editorial of 1814 http://www.historiaobscura.com/jean-laffite-and-the-treaty-of-ghent_a-satirical-editorial-of-1814/#comment-3620 Thu, 18 Sep 2014 19:39:30 +0000 I just checked out articles in the Aurora for the weeks previous to the satire article re the Ghent business, and editor Duane discussed at length some of the preposterous demands of Great Britain in the September […]

]]> 853128ab638d48472f7a5113d603b4c8 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/jean-laffite-and-the-treaty-of-ghent_a-satirical-editorial-of-1814/ Thu, 18 Sep 2014 02:59:31 +0000 Thumbnail
While angling in the old newspaper archives, the following wonderfully  satirical editiorial about Jean Laffite and the War of 1812 Treaty of Ghent negotiations was discovered in the Nov. 11, 1814,  issue of the […]

]]> d035c41cb851723b3eb4925f31aaed4a Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-first-battle-of-new-orleans-poem/ Tue, 16 Sep 2014 02:41:19 +0000 Thumbnail
The following is believed to be the first poem written about the Battle of New Orleans, published in the New Orleans Gazette in either late February or early March 1815, and reprinted widely in newspapers […]

]]> 6690cec95ed34050d8e85311e65366f0 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/capt-percys-folly-at-fort-bowyer/ Sun, 14 Sep 2014 16:38:26 +0000 Thumbnail  

Young British Capt. William H. Percy found himself in dire straits on the afternoon of  Sept. 15, 1814. His ship, the sixth rate class HMS Hermes, was mired for the second time that day on a sand bar in […]

]]> 66b857a10630fe5b4b62051c7c5c5101 Pam Keyes commented on the post, The British Visit to Laffite: A Study of Events 200 Years Later http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-british-visit-to-laffite-a-study-of-events-200-years-later/#comment-3550 Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:31:13 +0000 Benjamin Latrobe, Barthelmy Lafon and Arsene Latour were all connected re architecture and the Laffites, and perhaps also with the Masons. I would go more into the answer to your question but currently I am […]

]]> e1ff9895d861581ea292543d93cc7056 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-british-visit-to-laffite-a-study-of-events-200-years-later/ Mon, 25 Aug 2014 03:13:02 +0000 Thumbnail

When Commander Nicholas Lockyer sailed in HMS Sophie from Pensacola towards Jean Laffite’s Grande Terre encampment on Sept. 1, 1814, he already knew that the Baratarian privateer base might soon be blown to […]

]]> dd83a7224001f7256fa4a08ef62ab316 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/yellow-fever-napoleons-most-formidable-opponent/ Tue, 08 Jul 2014 20:57:51 +0000 ThumbnailBy Pam Keyes

In mid-1802, French general Victor-Emmanuel LeClerc took up his pen to write back to his superior and sighed in the dripping, humid heat of Port-au-Prince. His brother-in-law, Napoleon, thought it […]

]]> 55b92dff9d4956a114bb32e3f1212f99 Pam Keyes commented on the post, An Interview with Pam Keyes about Jean Laffite http://www.historiaobscura.com/an-interview-with-pam-keyes-about-jean-laffite/#comment-2588 Sat, 12 Apr 2014 00:26:32 +0000 What plantation is it, I might know more about it. Laffite had connections with Destrehan plantation and Magnolia Grove, in addition to some in the Donaldsonville area and on the German Coast above New Orleans.

]]> d5773d96a0cd51bf70e4f1c813327f67 Pam Keyes wrote a new post http://www.historiaobscura.com/commemoration-of-a-hero-jean-laffite-and-the-battle-of-new-orleans/ Thu, 06 Mar 2014 18:33:31 +0000 ThumbnailAlmost 200 years ago, privateer-smuggler Jean Laffite became a hero because he did something most people wouldn’t have done: in the face of extreme adversity, he had helped save New Orleans for the Americans, even […]

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