Jewish Pirate LaFitte
ED Noor: Is the world ready to hear of the exploits of a Long John Silverstein or a Captain Josh Sparrow?
There may not have been a Silverstein on the high seas in the 17th century, but there were swashbuckling buccaneers called Balthazar and Moses Cohen Henriques and ~ would you believe? ~ Rabbi Samuel Pallache. They pillaged and plundered Spanish navy vessels. Payback, if you will, for the murder and expulsion of many Jews from Spain at the end of the 15th century due to the Spanish Inquisition.
Long before Wall Street, Jews were prominent in the field of
piracy. Richard Sinai reminisces about his home town of New Orleans,
"anti-Semitism" and its connection to Jewish piracy.
By R. Sinai
January 17, 2013
As a child growing up in New Orleans, I was always aware of that
our city had a unique, colorful, and violent past. Before New Orleans was an
American city, it flew under French and Spanish, and in 1802 the Louisiana
Purchase took place.
I loved listening to stories of what life was like before
television, radios, and the Internet. My mother and father were the children of first
generation Russian Jewish immigrants.
My Grandmother said that the family had left for America because
of the pogroms. I hadn't yet understood why the Jews were always being
harassed. It was in grade school when I first heard the word "Jew"
used as a verb, and then came the crushing "Christ-killer".
I wondered why this was. I knew I was different from the
other kids; I was a "kike". I spoke to other Jews and they explained
that "Jews" were hated because we were known as the Chosen People and
that people were jealous, because Jews were smarter than other ethnicity. I
didn't believe it. After all ~ every other Religion or cult claims to be
favored by God. I've known a lot of Jews and some of them did not strike me as
'intelligent'. These excuses made no sense to me, so I began to search out the
truth.
JEWS PURGED FROM SPAIN
In 1492, when Jews were expelled from Spain, many decided to
cross the border into Portugal. After 5 years Portugal also decided to expel
its Jews.
Trade routes with the Caribbean were beginning to flourish; Many
Jews got involved in the thriving trade with the Caribbean Others
chose to remain behind in Europe, where they migrated to Holland.
.
When Christopher Columbus made his first voyage to the New
World, he was purported to have 5 Jews on the manifest:
・ Marco surgeon・ Bernal, physician;・ Alonzo de la Calle, bursar・ Gabriel Sanchez the Treasurer of Aragon・ Luis de Torres, the ship interpreter
Torres was the first man
ashore, the first to discover the use of tobacco. Eventually he moved to Cuba
and is the father of the Jewish-controlled tobacco business as it exists today.
.
.
THE TRIANGULAR TRADE
Aaron Lopez, a Jewish merchant, and ship owner, was one of the
wealthiest men in the new nation of America.
His ships sailed from Rhode Island to Curacao, Barbados, and
Surinam in the Caribbean. These Jewish merchants operated a 'triangular
trade'.
Slaves were taken from Africa to the West Indies and were traded
for molasses. The molasses was shipped to the Colonies (Newport, Charleston,
Savannah) and converted to rum. The rum and manufactured goods were shipped
back to Africa.
In Surinam alone, there were nearly 100 Jewish families by 1700
.They owned more than 40 estates and 9,000 slaves. By 1730, Jews owned 115
plantations and dominated the sugar export business which sent out 21,680,000
pounds of sugar to European and New World markets annually.
OY VAY! PIRATES
The most infamous and feared Jewish pirate predated
the Caribbean and plundered the Barbary Coast (North Africa.) He was Sinan "the Great Jew,"(d.
1546) Redbeard's second in command. Sinan was such a skilled navigator that he
was believed to be a practitioner of the Black Arts. He successfully
led 6,000 troops against the Spanish fortress at Tripoli, Libya. He "put
the garrison ~ all save a few ~ in
chains, and carried them off to grace his triumph."
Another lesser known, but nonetheless daring pirate, was Moses Cohen Henriques. In 1628,
Henriques joined forces with Admiral
Piet Hein who was with the Dutch West Indies Co. The duo was able to pull
off a gold and silver heist from the Spanish Navy. Emboldened by the raid,
Henriques and Hein continued raiding Spanish ships off the Cuban coast. They
successfully relieved the Spaniards of the Gold and Silver that was bound for
the New World.
A short time after, Henriques led a Jewish contingent to Brazil
where he established his own pirate island. Moses also became an advisor to
Henry Morgan, arguably one of the most famous pirates of all time. Moses
Henriques managed to evade capture throughout his exploits and was never held
to answer for his crimes.
JEAN LAFITTE
Jean Lafitte's family name was Lefitto. The Lefitto family lived
in the Iberian Peninsula for generations. Jean and brother Pierre were born in
Port-Au-Prince, Saint Dominguez and raised by their Sephardic Jewish
grandmother.
During the Napoleonic period, Lafitte relocated to French Santo
Domingo until a slave rebellion forced him to flee to New Orleans.
Jean and his brother Pierre sailed the Gulf of Mexico and
learned to navigate the maze of waterways just below the city of New Orleans.
Eventually, he became a pirate, but he always called himself a privateer
because that label has a more legal ring to it.
He carried a letter from Cartagena, (known today as Colombia)
authorizing Lafitte and his buccaneers (known as the Baratarians because of the
area where they operated) to capture Spanish ships and take any goods and
slaves on board. However, the "Cartagena Letter" was not recognized
by the United States, and Lafitte and his 1,000 followers were not welcome in
the United States.
In 1815, Lafitte warned the
American forces that the British would attack from the Gulf of Mexico. He knew
this because he had been approached by the British first. Andrew Jackson
accepted Lafitte's help.
Despite overwhelming manpower on the British side, the ragtag
irregular army of General Jackson was victorious. General Jackson saw that
Lafitte was pardoned for his acts of piracy, and made his family U.S. Citizens.
For all of his heroics or villainy, he is revered to this day as an American
hero.
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