In the early 19th Century, New Orleans boasted one of the largest ports in the world and a wealthy merchant class. That type of prosperity also attracted a saltier crowd: Pirates.
Chief among them, brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte, who were known to use the area’s labyrinthine swamps to plunder ships and smuggle goods, gold and enslaved people back to New Orleans. When the Brits sought Jean Lafitte’s help attacking New Orleans during the War of 1812, he instead warned U.S. authorities, eventually lending them his guns and expertise.
Lafitte’s men were later pardoned of past crimes by President James Madison, and most settled in the swamps outside the city.
PIRATES ALLEY
Did pirates really roam this walkway squeezed between the St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo? Hard to say. But plenty of scallawags, including Pierre Lafitte, were locked up in the prison that once stood where Pirate’s Alley Cafe stands today.
BLACKSMITH SHOP
Built starting in 1722, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop Bar is not only the oldest structure in the U.S. used as a bar, but – legend has it – was once used by the Lafitte brothers to conduct their business in the city.
