Origins
A number of details about Jean Lafitte's early life are obscure and often contradictory. In one document, Lafitte claimed to have been born in Bordeaux, France, in 1780. He and his brother Pierre alternately claimed to have been born in Bayonne, while other documents of the time place his birthplace as St. Malo or Brest. Lafitte's biographer Jack C. Ramsay says, "this was a convenient time to be a native of France, a claim that provided protection from the enforcement of American law." Other contemporary accounts claim that Lafitte was born in Orduna, Spain or Westchester, New York.
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