South of New Orleans lies Barataria, a pirate enclave that gained prominence during the War of 1812. To enter the bay, pilots navigated ships through a narrow passage between two islands, Grande Terre and Grand Isle, that protected Barataria Bay from the Gulf of Mexico. Legend says the French who first came to the region so named it because it reminded them of Sancho Panza's unattainable island kingdom in Cervantes' Don Quixote. Its nearness to New Orleans-a three-day journey by pirogue through the bayous-and its relative inaccessibility attracted many pirates, including Blackbeard. By 1811, the area flourished as a pirate haven and several hundred people lived there. The person most associated with Barataria, however, is Jean Laffite. This gentleman pirate organized the Baratarians into a group of smuggling privateers who provided the elite of New Orleans with luxuries plundered from Spanish ships under a letter of marque from Cartagena. Aside from building a home he dubbed Maison Blanche, Laffite erected cafés, taverns, a hospital, brothels, and other buildings to make Barataria a thriving community. The enclave also included warehouses for plundered goods and barracoons for captured slaves. Laffite's constant avoidance in paying customs and flouting of the law, however, made him a thorn in Governor William Claiborne's side. In September 1814, while Laffite was absent from Grande Terre, the American navy destroyed his pirate haven.
Sometime after the Baratarians assisted General Andrew Jackson in defeating the British at the Battle of New Orleans, Laffite moved his base of operations to Campeche (on present-day Galveston Island in Texas). Like Barataria, the locale included a seaward island base that protected an inland bay where ships could anchor. He erected a commune that included various buildings for business, houses for his men and their families, and Maison Rouge where he entertained on special occasions. By 1818 Campeche was a lucrative haven for pirates, but a hurricane, conflicts with the Karankawas (a native tribe that lived in the area part of the year), and the United States Navy, which burned Laffite's commune two years later, brought about its demise.
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