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Who Built the Pirate House of Waveland? « Russell Guerin
http://www.russguerin.com/history/pirates/who-built-the-pirate-house-
Russell Guerin
A Creole in Mississippi
2009-12-11 18:06:49
Who Built the Pirate House of Waveland?
Russell B. Guerin
for the Hancock County Historical Society
It all starts with a legend, one passed down orally in the traditions of Hancock County, but most clearly stated in the Works Progress Administration history project. It states that the “Pirate House” was “the plantation home of a famous pirate - or an associate of pirates - who gave signal aid to General Jackson during the War of 1812.” The builder was suspected of being an “over-lord” of pirates that plied the Gulf waters in the early 1800’s. He was said to have organized pirates, including the brothers Lafitte, to defend New Orleans against the British, “whipping them into an army of loyal Americans.”
A separate article by this writer has put forward the conclusion that the Pirate House was used for the purpose of smuggling slaves into Louisiana at a time when importation was banned under the provisions of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. It may be found on our website.
The house is said to date back to circa 1804. Some believe that it was owned by Jean Lafitte. We do know that Lafitte, or a man who spelled his name similarly, entered into five purchases in Hancock County, and in one, written in French, he was referred to as “Sieur” Lafitte, giving him an appellation of distinction as “Sir” or “Lord” while witnesses to the document were not so identified.
An argument against the Lafitte connection is that we know the real pirate was very busy in other places, such as Louisiana’s Barataria and Texas’ Galveston. His activities seem to have been broadly in the Caribbean, whereas there is little evidence of his pirating in Mississippi waters.
Lafitte will not be the main character of this investigation into who might have built, very early on, a magnificent house, a virtual palace, in what eventually became Waveland but at the time would have been a beachfront wilderness.
On balance, it must be assumed, that man would have been someone else.
He must have been wealthy, a person of great influence, and to fit the WPA report, someone who can be shown in history to have had contact with pirates and to have helped Gen. Jackson and New Orleans defeat the British.
After much investigation, and assuming that there is any truth to the legend, that man can only have been one Jean Blanque.
Blanque is nothing less than a historical puzzle. Not a great deal is known of him. There has been found no biography, no memoir, no chapter in any book about this person, nothing to really elucidate his character. What we know of him are facts that in many ways are contradictory.
The earliest mention of Blanque has him arriving in Louisiana on the frigate Surveillant, the same voyage that brought Pierre Clement Laussat, Napoleon’s appointment to be prefect of the colony just before the 1803 transfer. There is no indication that Blanque has any official duties relative to Laussat. The latter did mention Blanque in his memoirs, but only to say that he was “my faithful friend” and to call him by a peculiar title, “commissioner of war.” This seems to have referred to his duties in the French army before going to Louisiana.
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