Editing Jean Lafitte (section)

===Saint-Domingue===
Some sources speculate that Lafitte was born in the French colony of [[Saint-Domingue]] (known as [[Haiti]] since it gained independence in 1804).<ref name=ramsay10/><ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite magazine | title=Saving New Orleans | author=Groom, Winston | date=August 2006 | magazine=Smithsonian | url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/saving-new-orleans-125976623/}}</ref> In the late 18th century, adult children of the French planters in Saint-Domingue often resettled along the Mississippi River in ''[[La Louisiane]]'', especially in its largest city of [[New Orleans]]. Families with the surname Lafitte have been found in Louisiana documents from 1765.<ref name=ramsay12>Ramsay (1996), p. 12.</ref> According to Ramsay, Lafitte's widowed mother migrated with her two sons, the elder Pierre and Jean, from Saint-Domingue to New Orleans in the 1780s. In approximately 1784, his mother married Pedro Aubry, a New Orleans merchant, keeping Jean with her. She placed Pierre to be raised by extended family elsewhere in Louisiana.<ref name=ramsay13>Ramsay (1996), p. 13.</ref>

According to Ramsay, as a young man, Lafitte likely spent much time exploring the wetlands and bayou country south of New Orleans. In later years, he was described as having "a more accurate knowledge of every inlet from the Gulf than any other man".<ref name=ramsay13/> His elder brother Pierre became a [[privateer]]; he may have operated from Saint-Domingue, where the colonial government frequently issued [[letters of marque]] to profit from the shipping traffic of other nations.<ref name=ramsay13/> 

Lafitte likely helped his brother to sell or trade the captured merchandise. By 1805 he is believed to have been running a warehouse in New Orleans and possibly a store on [[Royal Street, New Orleans|Royal Street]].<ref name=ramsay21>Ramsay (1996), p. 21.</ref>