Patriot and Pirate. Born Frederic You or Youx, he was a privateer, soldier, and politician. According to information he provided to his masonic lodge in New Orleans, he was born in Cette (now spelled Sète) in Languedoc, France. (Contrary to the spurious Diary of Jean Laffite, he was not the older brother of Pierre and Jean Laffite, nor was he known as Alexandre Lafitte). He served as an artilleryman in the French Revolutionary Army under Napoleon. In 1802 he accompanied General Charles Leclerc’s expedition to quell Toussaint Louverture’s Haitian Revolution.
