The original post by George Myer is a fun addition concerning the many legends associated with the proposed escapes by Napoleon from St Helena and his connections with the US.
The links between Jefferson/Chateau Lafite/Jean Lafitte and Napoleon however seem particularly tenuous, but it does sound a lot of fun.
In a quick scanning of info on the net I have not found anyone else making the suggestion that Thomas Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, was in anyway related to the pirate Jean Lafitte (whose name is associated with New Orleans and Louisiana) or even to the Marquis de Segur who owned Chateau Lafite in the 18th century (Of course, there is a Napoleonic connection with the de Segur family - a branch of the family were supporters of the Emperor and Philippe Paul, Comte de Segur, wrote a famous account of The Russian Campaign of 1812).
Jefferson was a wine connossieur and did purchase a large amount of Bordeaux from France, a favourite of his after a term as US Ambassador to France. A New Yorker article of 3 September 2007 mentions the story of the most expensive bottle of wine, a 1787 vintage sold at auction in 1985 for $156,000, reputedly from Chateau Lafite and said to have been owned by Jefferson because "1787", "Lafitte" and "Th J" are hand written on the bottle. I understand the authenticity of the bottle is still being questioned.
Apparently there are plenty of legends that the famous pirate Jean Lafitte, who is associated with Louisiana and New Orleans, was rumoured to have been involved in a rescue of Napoleon from St Helena and that both he and the Emperor died in that part of the US. I note there is a Jefferson Parish in Louisiana named in 1825 in honour of the President and there is a Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, a town called Jean Lafitte and a census district called Lafitte in the parish? Is that how the names Jefferson and Lafitte are linked?
I read in the Pelican Guide to New Orleans there are two Napoleon Houses in New Orleans. Apparently the first was the residence of New Orleans Mayor from 1812 to 1815, Nicholas Girod, who offered his home for the Emperor should he escape from St Helena. The legend for the second Napoleon House is that it was built by funds raised by Girod who had made plans with Dominique You to rescue Napoleon and bring him to New Orleans. The privateer You was a brother in law of Jean Lafitte and You had also been associated with General Leclerc (a brother in law of Napoleon) during the French campaign in Saint Domingue in 1802.
One can find a few links of these links between the names Jefferson, Chateau Lafite and Jean Lafitte but they seem to be quite tenuous and it is also entirely legendary that Napoleon escaped to Louisiana with the help of any of these families.
Emilio Ocampo has written about the many plots to rescue Napoleon from St Helena, many associated with the Emperor being taken to the US, Mexico or South America. The Smithsonian Magazine reports on 8 March 2013 about one of the bizarre legends outlined by Ocampo which concerns the British smuggler Tom Johnstone planned to rescue Napoleon by a new invention, the submarine! This film (and George Myer's story) are just another one of these fun "what if" suppositions.
Interestingly, there are a lot of connections between the Bonapartes and the US which could give rise to legends about Napoleon planning to escape there, and even his connections to famous US families. Napoleon's younger brother Jerome first married the American Betsy Patterson, and she had a family connection to a signer of the American Declaration of Independence Charles Carroll. Prince Achille Murat, the eldest son of Marshal Murat (another brother in law of Napoleon) and therefore a nephew of the Emperor, exiled himself to the US. Achille was a Mayor of Tallahassee in Florida and married a great grand niece of George Washington. Napoleon's older brother Joseph also escaped to the US and had an estate, Point Breeze, in Bordentown, New Jersey (earlier he had lived briefly in Philadelphia and I sought out Bonaparte House when I visited that city in 2007).
Tangentially, there are also similar legends about and escape to the US about one of Napoleon's lieutenants, Marshal Michel Ney who was executed by the Bourbons in 1815. It is suggested that he faked his death and escaped to North Carolina, dying there in 1846.
I am surprised there aren't similar legends associated with President James Monroe and Napoleon. Monroe probably has a better claim than Jefferson for connections to Napoloen. Monroe was a friend of Jefferson and he lived close to Jefferson's home Monticello in Virginia. Monroe's Highland Plantation is today a fine place to visit, now called Ashlawn-Highland. Monroe was also an Ambassador to France and his daughter Eliza was a close friend of Hortense de Beauharnais (daughter of Joesphine, step daughter of Napoleon, wife of Napoleon's brother Louis, and mother of Napoleon III). I visted Ashlawn Highland in 2007 and visitors can see the bust of Napoleon presented by the Emperor to Monroe and the paintings of Hortense and her brother Eugene given to the Monroe family by Queen Hortense on the christening of Eliza's daughter Hortensia. Surely the legend makers could come up with a story about Hortense and Eliza arranging a plan to rescue the Emperor from St Helena and bring him to the US!
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