Louisiana Office of Tourism [2287IMG0045]

Bayous are natural waterways that formed in the Mississippi River delta to drain the overflow from the river during periods of flood. Brothers Jean and Pierre Lafitte, French refugees of the Haitian Revolution, migrated into the region and established a headquarters for their pirate operations - mostly slave smuggling - on Bayou Barataria, west of New Orleans. But piracy was not the only concern of some of the colony's fugitive inhabitants. Haitian free men of color, forbidden by territorial law from entering Louisiana, also sought refuge in Barataria. To avoid American authorities, many free black soldiers, including former French republican army officer Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Savary and at least two hundred free black French republican army veterans, entered Louisiana through the Lafittes' pirate settlement.