Billions of people living in abject poverty and/or are being politically persecuted in 2025, but this guy is inconsolable because his pirate ancestor (whose DNA he shares is about 1/32). Give me a break. Here is an interesting poll question. Ask the average white person if he/she would prefer that their great great great grand daddy owned the plantation or was a poor white subsistence farmer living in a shack. Now ask the average black person if he/she would prefer that they were a descendent of the queen/king of a prominent Africa tribe or a poor villager living in the middle of the jungle? Trick question of course.
I‘d go with the middle ground. I’d like my great great great grand daddy to be the bastard son of the chambermaid. I get the benefits without the moral shame.
In the David Simon show Treme, the eccentric character Davis dressed up as Lafitte for a party (Halloween? Mardi Gras?) and said he was sad Lafitte owned slaves
"I learned this by testing the truth of the family stories that I’d grown up with about Jacinto Lobrano, my great-great-grandfather and the pirate Jean Laffite’s right-hand man, during a six-day trip along the Gulf Coast."
Speaking of Jean Laffitte the pirate, Cecil B DeMille directed The Bucanneer (1938), which was a loose biopic about his exploits in Barrataria, and how he helped General Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans, in 1815. The Bucaneer was later remade and directed by DeMille's son in law, Anthony Quinn. This version starred Yul Brynner in the title role as Lefitte and Charlton Heston as Andrew Jackson and was released in 1958.
Laffitte was well known in his time and inspired Lord Byron to write, “He left a corsair's name to other times/Linked one virtue to a thousand crimes.” He was a man who was condemned, exonerated, and condemned again for his actions by U.S. presidents.
But as the line is spoken in both films about Laffitte attests to his courage...
"At least I am leaving you, in an AMERICAN New Orleans."
Thanks Jean for all your help and keeping it real during your own time.
What a weird phrase and obviously false. I can't imagine an American school in which a verified pirate ancestor would not be celebrated by the boys at least.
If the tales are true, Jean Lafitte was something worse than a slave owner, he was a slave smuggler. After the passage of "The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807," Lafitte, in partnership with James Bowie, smuggled slaves into the United States from the Caribbean. Bowie worked the racket for two years, selling slaves throughout the South.
The Southern planter class, where would we be without them. (Oh God, where WOULD we be without them.)
When even the Southern politicians can foresee the looming socioeconomic disaster of slavery and take the first step to winding it down, the Southern planters demand yet more helots to replace their hopelessly depreciating capital goods rather than pay wages to free men. And Jean Lafitte steps up to to give the whole STUPID business another shot in the arm. Unforgivable. I pray his Y-chromosomal line ends with Alexander.
(I remember visiting Savannah with family and pointing out the location of the slave market to my father, remarking that we were still paying through the nose for slaves. "What were they thinking?!," hissed my father. A liberal family member was furious with us.)
"Though my ancestry is 95 percent British Isles, being even a tiny bit descended from a pirate made me different, maybe a little glamorous and potentially wild."
What is he talking about? The more British ancestry an American has the more likely he is to have pirate ancestors.
Colonial America was full of British pirates. They're still finding stashed loot all along the Atlantic seaboard.
I'll pack him another humble turkey sandwich if he drives to Connecticut to apologize for having an ancestor who raped and pillaged people because he was a pirate.
I wish his article came with a picture of himself. Whenever someone is highlight their black ancestry, they inevitably look white. It’s like Adam Serwer. Even Thomas Chatteryob Williams who looks North African but has a WASPy name. The latter isn’t as obnoxious though.
It's actually interesting, because pirates are of necessity much more murderous than plantation owners. In the same vein, pirates were already declared as the generic enemies of mankind - hostis humani generis back in ancient times.
Whereas outlawing of slavery only started with Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in 1772, Sommerset v Stewart. Breaking the pro-slavery precedent by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke 1749 in the case of Pearne v Lisle. Historically, it (outlawing) is very recent.
However, maybe it is because anti-slavery outrage is needed to feed the affirmative action and DEI. While pirates are totally irrelevant for that question?
They aren't putting away the Woke, are they?
Of course not. This is just getting started.
Billions of people living in abject poverty and/or are being politically persecuted in 2025, but this guy is inconsolable because his pirate ancestor (whose DNA he shares is about 1/32). Give me a break. Here is an interesting poll question. Ask the average white person if he/she would prefer that their great great great grand daddy owned the plantation or was a poor white subsistence farmer living in a shack. Now ask the average black person if he/she would prefer that they were a descendent of the queen/king of a prominent Africa tribe or a poor villager living in the middle of the jungle? Trick question of course.
I‘d go with the middle ground. I’d like my great great great grand daddy to be the bastard son of the chambermaid. I get the benefits without the moral shame.
agreed. It's so performative.
In the David Simon show Treme, the eccentric character Davis dressed up as Lafitte for a party (Halloween? Mardi Gras?) and said he was sad Lafitte owned slaves
Is it Cultural Appropriation for a Welsh-American to dress up as a French pirate? What if the French pirate was a little bit black?
"I learned this by testing the truth of the family stories that I’d grown up with about Jacinto Lobrano, my great-great-grandfather and the pirate Jean Laffite’s right-hand man, during a six-day trip along the Gulf Coast."
Speaking of Jean Laffitte the pirate, Cecil B DeMille directed The Bucanneer (1938), which was a loose biopic about his exploits in Barrataria, and how he helped General Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans, in 1815. The Bucaneer was later remade and directed by DeMille's son in law, Anthony Quinn. This version starred Yul Brynner in the title role as Lefitte and Charlton Heston as Andrew Jackson and was released in 1958.
Laffitte was well known in his time and inspired Lord Byron to write, “He left a corsair's name to other times/Linked one virtue to a thousand crimes.” He was a man who was condemned, exonerated, and condemned again for his actions by U.S. presidents.
But as the line is spoken in both films about Laffitte attests to his courage...
"At least I am leaving you, in an AMERICAN New Orleans."
Thanks Jean for all your help and keeping it real during your own time.
"The Pirate and the Pope"
I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn and a king
I've been up and down and over and out, and I know one thing
Each time I find myself flat on my face
I pick myself up and get back in the race
Atonement? What a weenie.
I think I'll get some t-shirts made up reading, "Pasteurize the Difference," and distribute them in the Castro.
What a weird phrase and obviously false. I can't imagine an American school in which a verified pirate ancestor would not be celebrated by the boys at least.
If the tales are true, Jean Lafitte was something worse than a slave owner, he was a slave smuggler. After the passage of "The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807," Lafitte, in partnership with James Bowie, smuggled slaves into the United States from the Caribbean. Bowie worked the racket for two years, selling slaves throughout the South.
The Southern planter class, where would we be without them. (Oh God, where WOULD we be without them.)
When even the Southern politicians can foresee the looming socioeconomic disaster of slavery and take the first step to winding it down, the Southern planters demand yet more helots to replace their hopelessly depreciating capital goods rather than pay wages to free men. And Jean Lafitte steps up to to give the whole STUPID business another shot in the arm. Unforgivable. I pray his Y-chromosomal line ends with Alexander.
(I remember visiting Savannah with family and pointing out the location of the slave market to my father, remarking that we were still paying through the nose for slaves. "What were they thinking?!," hissed my father. A liberal family member was furious with us.)
Steve, the link isn't in your tweet.
"Though my ancestry is 95 percent British Isles, being even a tiny bit descended from a pirate made me different, maybe a little glamorous and potentially wild."
What is he talking about? The more British ancestry an American has the more likely he is to have pirate ancestors.
Colonial America was full of British pirates. They're still finding stashed loot all along the Atlantic seaboard.
I'll pack him another humble turkey sandwich if he drives to Connecticut to apologize for having an ancestor who raped and pillaged people because he was a pirate.
Can't wait for this black fetishization to go the way of shag carpets.
Having a pirate ancestor that raped, robbed, and murdered was cool; dealing in slaves, though, now that’s really past the bounds of decency.
I hope the turkey sandwich was unharmed during this woman’s courageous confrontation with her past. In a Connecticut suburb.
It seemed like the article was written by a woman, but instead it's by a gay man.
I wish his article came with a picture of himself. Whenever someone is highlight their black ancestry, they inevitably look white. It’s like Adam Serwer. Even Thomas Chatteryob Williams who looks North African but has a WASPy name. The latter isn’t as obnoxious though.
Whoever came up with "Talcum X" for Shaun King deserves a prize.
It's actually interesting, because pirates are of necessity much more murderous than plantation owners. In the same vein, pirates were already declared as the generic enemies of mankind - hostis humani generis back in ancient times.
Whereas outlawing of slavery only started with Lord Chief Justice Mansfield in 1772, Sommerset v Stewart. Breaking the pro-slavery precedent by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke 1749 in the case of Pearne v Lisle. Historically, it (outlawing) is very recent.
However, maybe it is because anti-slavery outrage is needed to feed the affirmative action and DEI. While pirates are totally irrelevant for that question?