Jean Lafitte
Galveston, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Notorious pirate. Settled here in 1817 with his buccaneers and ships; under Mexican flag, continued his forays against Spanish shipping in the Gulf. On this site, he built his home, Maison Rouge (Red House), which was part of his fort; and upper story was pierced for cannon. It was luxuriously furnished with booty from captured ships. Leaving Galveston in 1821, upon demand of the United States, he burned his home, fort and whole village; then sailed to Yucatan. In 1870, present structure was built over old cellars and foundations of Maison Rouge.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The notorious privateer Jean Lafitte made Galveston Island his base in 1817, sailing under the Mexican flag as he preyed on Spanish shipping in the Gulf. Here he built Maison Rouge, a red house doubling as a fort with an upper story pierced for cannon and furnished lavishly with plunder. Forced out by the United States in 1821, he burned his home, fort, and village and sailed for the Yucatán; the present structure rose in 1870 atop his old cellars and foundations.
Why it matters
Lafitte's Gulf Coast colony marks the lawless, contested frontier of early Texas, when empires, pirates, and new nations vied for the coastline.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Presbyterian Church
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Founded on New Year's Day 1840 in an old schoolhouse called the "Academy," First Presbyterian Church took root in Galveston when Texas was still an independent republic. Its congregation raised a first building by 1843 and the present sanctuary between 1872 and 1889, a structure that survived the great fire of 1885 and even sheltered burned-out schools afterward. Battered by decades of Gulf storms, it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Carla in 1961 and restored the next year.
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Galveston, TX
After the pirate Lafitte was driven from Galveston, West Indian settlers arrived and the island grew into the chief port of a rising Texas, declared a port of entry by Mexico in 1825. It briefly served as capital of the Republic when President Burnet's cabinet fled the interior during the 1836 San Jacinto campaign, and Michel B. Menard soon bought the townsite for $50,000. During the Civil War, Confederate forces evacuated the city in 1862 but retook it in 1863 under General John Bankhead Magruder, capturing Union ships and troops and holding it to the war's end.
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Long a crossroads for Native peoples, privateers, and Spanish and French explorers, Galveston Island briefly became the seat of the Republic of Texas in 1836. As Santa Anna's army pushed east, President David G. Burnet's improvised cabinet fled Washington-on-the-Brazos and sheltered here until the Texan victory at San Jacinto. From this port the fledgling Texas Navy, later reorganized under President Lamar and Commodore Edwin W. Moore, guarded the coast against Mexican invasion until U.S. annexation in 1846.