Tag: Jean Laffite
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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…
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The Six Crew Members Who Deserted “La Bergere” in 1785
There are always stories behind the story. There are always stories hidden within the story. This is one of them. Let’s begin by thinking about how the headlines today often portray cruise ship horrors where passengers are stranded with non–working toilets, no hot water, no electricity, incompetent and non-responsive foreign crews and other such inconveniences…
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Jean Laffite as a Father
According to The Journal of Jean Laffite, the famed privateer was the father of five children. He was married when he was seventeen to Christina Levine who bore him two sons and a daughter in close succession: Jean Antoine Laffite, Lucien Jean Laffite and Denise Jeanette Laffite. After Denise’s birth, Christina died, and Jean did…
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Frugal Use of Resources in Privateering: How Dominique You Got His Start
Letters of marque were granted by governments to successful privateers, because this was an economical way to engage in war without a heavy outlay — and without burdening the populace with either taxation or conscription. In privateering, the profit motive required that every expenditure on equipment should ultimately result in a return on investment that…
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The Diverse Interests of Jean Laffite: Money, Medicine, and Temperance
It would probably come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the privateer Jean Laffite that he took a lifelong interest in the money market. He wanted to know how different currencies held up to each other, and how many Spanish Doubloons could be exchanged for a United States Treasury Note on any given day.…
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Jean Laffite and the Laflin Connection
Although the “Journal of Jean Laffite” was introduced to the public by John Andrechyne Laflin, a person with a shady past and a reputation as a forger, we cannot entirely discount his claim that there was some connection between the well-established Laflin family and Jean Laffite. Toward the end of the journal — actually…