Galveston Island
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Galveston Island is a barrier island on the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States, about 50 miles southeast of Houston. The entire island, with the exception of Jamaica Beach, is within the city limit
Aerial view of Pelican Island and the northeastern end of Galveston Island
Jean Lafitte
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Jean Lafitte was a French pirate, privateer, and slave trader who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his older brother Pierre spelled their last name Laffite, but English
Galveston Island
…he became a trader in Texas. (De la Porta was named supercargo for the Karankawa Indian trade and later became a full-time trader.) The privateer Jean Lafitte brought his men and followers from Louisiana to the island, naming his settlement Campeche, after the older settlement on the Yucatan Peninsula. For a…
Presumed portrait of Jean Lafitte
An 1837 woodcut of Lafitte, Governor W.C.C. Claiborne, and General Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812
US Commodore Daniel Patterson commanded an offensive force against Lafitte and his men at Barataria, 1814.
A rumor claimed that Lafitte rescued French Emperor Napoleon (pictured) from exile on the isolated island of Saint Helena and both of them ended their days in Louisiana. No evidence supports it.