Piracy in a New Era: Jean & Pierre Laffite in the Age of Revolutions

Almost a century after the "golden age" of piracy ended, Jean Laffite and his brother Pierre, built a thriving business on the American Gulf Coast through the sale of maritime plunder. As war raged across the Atlantic World from 1789 to 1815, they became notorious as pirates, privateers, smugglers, and slave traders. This presentation strips away the mythology and looks at how the Laffites adapted to the rapidly changing geo-political environment and how the conflicts that enabled them, also became the means of their destruction. Dr. Cavell is an Assistant Professor at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, La. The talk is free and open to the public.