Jean Laffite Was A Mason?

Ernie Hartmann writes again: I agree with this man's suggestion. If Pierre and Alexander Laffite were Masons, them there is a high possibility that Jean Laffite was also a Mason and if he was not a Mason, then many of his contacts and associates were Masons and there is a possibility that this is why Andrew Jackson and Jean Laffite agreed to work together to defeat the British in New Orleans. Masons are suppose to assist their mason brothers anywhere they are, even if they are from different nations, religions, believes, economic status, educational levels, etc.

He is right about the signature. I have heard this before and I have seen it in books that explain the Masonic graphic symbolism. If this could be confirmed then this would be a different angle to the history, story and biography of the Laffite Brothers.

If we have the signatures of Pierre and Alexandre then one could consult with a Masonic historian or an expert scholar in Masonic graphic symbolism and he would be able to tell us. Another way is to do research in Masonic Lodges that go back to the first quarter of 1800 in places such as New Orleans and Santiago de Cuba. I was told that there is a possibility that these masonic records from Baracoa went to lodges in Guantanamo and Santiago de Cuba. Some might be at the Bacardi Museum and Historical Archives in Santiago de Cuba. The Hartmans of Philadelphia and Baracoa were not Masons but the Masons have some of their history in their archives for other reasons and I read a hand written document that a Mason in Baracoa allowed me to read with one of the stories written by a Mason about the Hartmann of Baracoa, Santiago and Philadelphia. This has little to do with the Laffite brothers, but the times that the Laffite and the Hartman brothers lived in Baracoa do match. Both the Hartmann and the Laffite lived in or visited Baracoa in the first decade of the 1800s and this is when the Franco-masons, as they are called, begin to come into Cuba and began to found their first Masonic Lodges in Cuba which the Spanish government and church in Cuba did not like but allowed it to a certain point.

In this reply I find another interesting detail that it might be of interest to me personally in relation to my own genealogy. My Hartman genealogy includes the last names Barthelemy and Lafont . Maybe this is a coincidence, but it might worth looking into. The spelling of the last name Lafont or La Font was change to Font in Baracoa but when I researched it I learned that originally was LaFont. The LaFont family came from Saint Domingue to Baracoa and Santiago de Cuba with the hundreds and thousands of French exiles from the Haitian Revolution and settled in Baracoa, Santiago de Cuba and New Orleans and later in Habana. In Baracoa the Barthelemy family, another French family from Saint Domingue, married into the LaFont family as well as into the Hartmann family. My great grand father's last names are Hartman Barthelemy and his mother last names are Barthelemy Font (LaFont). Barthelemy can be a name or a last name and in some families is both. In Spanish is Bartolomeo but in our genealogy has stayed Barthelemy and the spelling has not been change to a Spanish spelling and pronuciation.

This might be important because this Barthelemy Lafont that this person mentions here might had been one of the Mason that came from Saint Domingue to Baracoa to Santiago de Cuba and then to New Orleans which was one of the usual stepping stone for the French immigrant from Saint Domingue to take to escape the Haitian Revolution and there is a probability that this is were Jean, Pierre, Alexander Laffite and even maybe Rene Beluche and Simon Bolivar related to each other. Simon Bolivar was a Francomason and he traveled to France to meet with Francomasons in search of support for his independence movement. So, maybe, just maybe, this is were the link is for all these men: Franco-masons. After all, Free Masons, are a brotherhood of men that usually become influential in political and economic circles. Back in the 1700 and 1800s being a Corsair and a Slave Trader was relatively acceptable.

Maybe this becomes another new chapter to the history, story and biography of Jean, Pierre and Alexandre Laffite.