SEPHARDIM-L Archives

Archiver > SEPHARDIM > 2002-09 > 1032890371


From: "Donalyn Snelling" <>
Subject: [SEPHARDIM] Pirate LaFitte - Sephardic Jew with Melungeon ties
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 2002 17:59:31 +0000


Many people are not aware that the Sephardic Jews were also of France early
on and more immigrated there during and after the Spanish and Portuguese
inquisitions. Many hid under the guise of Catholic and Protestant, including
French Huguenots. Others did truly convert in both countries. These Jews
also went to England with the Normans and Scotland. The Royal Scottish
Family of Stuart has just announced that they were in fact originally Jews,
as were many non-traditional Scottish clans (thanks Beth Hirshman and Don
P-Y).

I googled and came up with some interesting stuff such as an article @
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:yzamTizvMgIC:library.thinkquest.org/2831/robert/ffolks.htm+LaFitte+Jewish+frenchmen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
. It's easily reached by googling keywords LaFitte + Jewish + Frenchmen and
then cacheing, but since the article is no longer located there, I'm posting
it below. You will see several prominent American-Frenchmen and also note
the banking firm in France by the name LaFitte, often a dead giveaway for
Jewish roots.

I then googled LaFitte + Jewish -Jean for obvious reasons. There you will
see the name LaFitte over and over as a French Jewish surname. I
particularly like the 'LAZARE: Antisemitism, Its History and Causes'
article, with mention of a LaFitte as such, " ...the decree of March 17,
1808, forbidding the Jews to engage in commerce without a personal license
issued by the prefect, or to take mortgages without authorization; besides,
Jews were forbidden to settle in Alsace and the Rhine provinces, and the
Alsatian Jews were forbidden to enter other departments unless to engage in
agriculture. 139 These decrees issued for ten years, did not turn a single
Jew into a farmer, and if any of them became chauvinists, the obligation of
serving in the army had something to do with it. These were the last
restrictive laws in France; the legal assimilation was consummated in 1830,
when Lafitte had the Jewish creed incorporated in the budget." This article
in its entirety may be viewed at
http://www.abbc.com/aaargh/engl/BLantisem8.html .

It's true that LaFitte and William Gowen did affiliate after the Battle of
New Orleans and that does not surprise me. An article on that exists at the
Melungeon site of
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gowenrf/melun001.htm . Beth
Hirschman and Don P-Y have been kind enough to give me updates on their
DNA/Genealogical/Historical study, which I will be working up into an
article for the Sephardim List, and courtesy copying to the forums and the
Melungeons @ Topica List. Most families continue to be identified as
Spanish/Portuguese and probably Sephardic. More on that later.

Warmest regards,
Donalyn


>From the ThinkQuest Library at
http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:yzamTizvMgIC:library.thinkquest.org/2831/robert/ffolks.htm+LaFitte+Jewish+frenchmen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
. Be wary however of where they list LaFitte as dying. Thre are several
reports that he returned to the US and died here.

Famous Frenchmen

Henri Castro
John James Audobon
Jean Lafitte

Henri Castro

Henri Castro was a very successful empresario in the Texas Republic. He was
born in France of Portuguese Jewish ancestry in 1786. He arrived in the
United States in 1827. He returned to France in 1838 and became a partner in
the banking house of Lafitte and Company. There, he attempted to negotiate a
$5,000,000 loan for the Republic of Texas.

While in Texas in 1842, Henri Castro entered into a contract with the Texan
government to settle a colony of 600 French families on two grants: the
first west of San Antonio, and the second grant bordering the Rio Grande.
Although he was opposed by French diplomats in Texas and by the French
government, he was successful in his colonization scheme. By 1847, he had
settled 485 families and 457 single men on his grant along the Medina River.
There, he established Castroville, for which he was famous, in 1844, as well
as the villages of Quihi in 1845, Vandenburg in 1846, and D'Hanis in 1847.
While he was establishing towns, he spent his considerable fortune and
impoverished his family. On his way home to France, he died of yellow fever
at Monterrey, Mexico.

John James Audobon

Courtesy of Institute of Texan Cultures

John James Audobon was the Louisiana-born son of a French sea captain.
Educated in France, Audobon returned to America to oversee the family
property. His son, John Woodhouse Audobon, followed in his father's
occupational footsteps. In 1837, John J. Audobon, accompanied by his son,
John W., visited Galveston Island and nearby islands in a somewhat
disappointing search for new species of birds, animals, and plants. He also
traveled to Houston, then the capitol of the Texas Republic, and recorded
some observations of the village. He met President Sam Houston and members
of his cabinet. The scientist was unforgettably impressed with the striking
dress and dominating personality of the soldier-statesman. The
ornithological results of the trip can be found in the fourth volume of his
Birds of America.

Jean Lafitte

Courtesy of Institute of Texan Cultures

Born in Bayonne, France, Jean Laffite was the son of French father and
Spanish mother. He became a privateer at a young age, and until 1814, when
he was forced away by authorities, the base of his operations was Barataria
Island off the Louisiana coast. The following year he fought under General
Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. While he was at the Cresent
City, Lafitte offered to be a secret agent for the Spanish Crown. While on
an assignment, he became very familiar with Galveston Island. Lafitte
tactfully won the allegiance of the renegades, and since Spain was gradually
losing her Mexican dominion anyway, set up his own "Republic." Lafitte's
pirate "Republic" on Galveston Island numbered more than 1,000 people at the
peak of its notoriety in 1818.

His home was an impressive red painted structure with cannons mounted in the
second floor windows. Spain was powerless to dislodge him from his island
retreat, and America had no jurisdiction there. His downfall was brought by
unautorized piracy by his lieutenants on American ships. In May, 1820,
Lafitte and a handpicked crew sailed away on his favorite vessel, "The
Pride." In 1826, mortally ill, he returned to Mexico to die.





_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos:
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx

This thread: