Booty: Remembering The Baratarians

I’m a giddy fan of reenactors. They dress up like our ancestors, even on the hottest, muggiest days, and go into the field to show our kids what those battles really looked like, or how a spinning wheel works. I believe that living history keeps history alive for that large group of us that just can’t sit down and absorb a history book or imagine what life was like “back in the day”. Those that forget history are also doomed to repeat it, after all.

For all those reasons and more, I was delighted to see this YouTube video making the pirate rounds on Twitter. It is a snippet from an upcoming documentary featuring the Baratarians, a reenactment group who work cannons, talk privateering and generally bring to life the world of my very own ancestors (and some of yours, perhaps). The doc, about Jean Laffite, the Battle of New Orleans, and Battery No. 3 on Rodriguez Canal, is entitled Robin Hood of the Bayous. Though I’ve a quibble here and there – I always have trouble with Laffite-as-Jack-Sparrow in poufy shirt and doo-rag and, one more time now, he spelled it Laffite not Lafitte – the overarching idea and focus of the project cannot in any way be argued with. More rather than less remembering of the Heroes of New Orleans is always a good thing. Happy Friday, Brethren; and enjoy: