Pirates! At the mention of the word, people think of Caribbean islands, skull emblazoned flags and a lifestyle of robbery. Rarely do people think about Texas when they are discussing pirates. Even not often seen as a pirate association, Texas history has several pirates and pirating episodes.

In its early history, the names of Luis Michael Aury and Jean Lafitte are the two major figures people have heard of. Technically, they were not the first pirates in Texas. The term, filibuster, is derived from a French word for pirates. Many of the early adventurers who came to Texas were called filibusters by the Spanish government. The Spanish government saw them as ‘land’ pirates, who were attempting to steal land from its empire in the New World. From a Spanish perspective, those early adventurers who dared enter Texas were nothing more than pirates, who when captured deserved a pirate’s death. Some of those early adventurers who dared entering Spanish territory include Philip Nolan, former Vice-President Aaron Burr, the Guiterrez-Magee expedition and Peter Ellis Bean. The Spanish regarded each of them as threats.

The first sea-going adventurers/filibusters associated with Texas were Xavier Mina, Luis Aury, Henry Perry and Jean Lafitte. Lafitte and Aury were both of French extraction. Aury had close associations with Simon Bolivar and his independence movements in South America. Xavier Mina was of Spanish extraction. Although Mina had fought against the French in Spain, he found himself aligned with them against the Spanish empire.

The Gulf of Mexico was filled with experienced French soldiers in the aftermath of the LeClerc French expeditions in Haiti and the Caribbean. With the British blockade, many of the soldiers could not return to France.Since the men could not return to France, they made their way to New Orleans or other locations in search of adventure.

The French-bornpirate, Luis Michael Aury set up the headquarters of his operation on Galveston Island. While away on business, in true pirate form, the Lafitte brothers took over his operation. The Lafitte pirate operation was a family operation using three brothers and led by Jean. The Lafitte’s took over the operation after they were removed from their headquarters in Barataria, Louisiana in the aftermath of the Battle of New Orleans. After the Battle of New Orleans, Lafitte tried obtaining the ear of the President James Madison, but was ignored. Undetered, he looked at other projects. During this time, Lafitte was involved in mapping out the area around Arkansas Post in Arkansas.

While Lafitte was absent, the pirates found another potential base of operations in Texas. They soon moved their operation to that location on Galveston, Island. Lafitte returned and began organizing the pirates further. The pirate organization set up the Republic of Campeche, and the Republic of Mexico. He made his me swear an oath of loyalty to the Republic of Mexico.(Note the Republic of Mexico at this time only existed on Galveston Island). Under these various entities the pirates issued ‘letters of marque’ that allowed them to seize and claim other vessels as prizes. Since the richest ships at the time were those belonging to Spain, the pirates swore loyalties to whatever group allowed them to prey on Spanish shipping. At this time, these actions (setting up Republics) were fronts for their raiding operations. The loot gathered from pirating was then used for trade with colonists living in Texas along the coastal areas.

Eventually the Lafitte organization and Aury had a falling out. Aury left to participate in activities concerning Florida. Lafitte, Perry and Mina participated in an attempt to invade Mexico and declare its legitimate independence from Spain, even though they had been employed by Spanish authorities at one time. The expedition ended up failing with one of its last stands occurring at Presidio La Bahia (Goliad).

Lafitte considered selling out the French colonists under General Lallemand who were settling near LIberty, Texas to the Spanish authorities, yet changed his mind. He later ended up rescuing them in the aftermath of a hurricane. Some of the colonists settled areas around Galveston Bay.

Lafitte was partially involved in the James Long expedition that sought to take Texas from Spain. His main focus was on his illicit activities. He was making too much money trafficing in contraband, slaves and booty to be interested in setting up governments and supporting independence movements. The colonists invading Texas would only serve to interfere with his operation, so he only provided luke warm support to them.

A turning point in his enterprises came when an emissary from the United States, George Graham arrived. Graham proposed that Lafitte and his pirates stage some false flag /faked invasion episodes along the Texas coast. The intention was that in the aftermath of the staged invasions, that a call for help would be sent to the United States, who would then arrive and seize the areas from Spain, similar to what happened with the Republic of West Florida and Florida. Lafitte turned down the idea. With his refusal, the United States dedided that his usefulness was over and sent the Navy to remove him.

Using the same authority cited in removing the Barbary pirates, the US Navy approached Lafitte and demanded he leave the area.Lafitte was eventually expelled from Galveston by the US Navy, although the headquarters was not in United States waters. Since they had engaged in piracy, the US Navy claimed the authority to remove them from the island. This is the same authority they exercised when they had earlier chased the Barbary pirates off the coasts of Algeria.

Although the removal of Lafitte formally ended the age of pirates in Texas, the issuing of letters of marquee did not. The young Republic of Texas issues letters of marquee to the first Texas Navy allowing them to prey on Mexican merchants sailing the Gulf of Mexico. The Texas Navy took control of the Western Gulf of Mexico and putting fear into the hearts of merchants trading with Mexican coastal cities.

Some of the historic locations in Texas associated with pirates include Lafitte's Well in Port Isabell, the location of the red house (maison rouge) in Galveston, and Presidio La Bahia in Goliad. Besides these official historic sites, there are many rumored treasue locations in various places along the Gulf coast of Texas. Over the years treasure hunters have circulated stories of the many buried treasures of this legendary pirate figure.

The city of Anahuac was orignially named "Perry's Point" after the pirate Henry Perry. The area of Anahauc has both a fort and a mission located there. Many of the sites have been buried in order to preserve them from the elements. The name of the city was changed when a Mexican military official, (General Manuel Mier de Teran) conducted a cultural cleansing of Texas place names in order to make them sound more closely associated with Mexico. Forts and place locations had their names changed at his request.