Le dernier lever des couleurs : La cession de la Nouvelle-Orléans.

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This painting, whose author is unknown depicts the official ceremony transfering Louisiana under the US sovereignty on the 10th of March 1804. 

Anonymous portrait claimed to be of Jean Lafitte in the early 19th century, Rosenberg Library, Galveston, Texas

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Jean Lafitte (c. 1776 – c. 1823) was a French pirate and privateer in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. 

Lafitte is believed to have been born either in France or the French colony of Saint-Domingue. By 1805, he operated a warehouse in New Orleans to help disperse the goods smuggled by his brother Pierre Lafitte. After the United States government passed the Embargo Act of 1807, the Lafittes moved their operations to an island in Barataria Bay, Louisiana. By 1810, their new port was very successful; the Lafittes pursued a successful smuggling operation and also started to engage in piracy.

Though Lafitte tried to warn Barataria of a British attack, the American authorities successfully invaded in 1814 and captured most of Lafitte’s fleet. In return for a pardon, Lafitte helped General Andrew Jackson defend New Orleans against the British in 1815. The Lafittes became spies for the Spanish during the Mexican War of Independence and moved to Galveston Island, Texas, where they developed a pirate colony called Campeche.

Lassus, Les esclaves au travail sur la plantation de la Compagnie des Indes, face à La Nouvelle Orléans (1726) CAOM, DFC Louisiane 6A/71

Slaves working in a plantation belonging to the Compagnie des Indes, dacing New Orleans (1726)

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Indigènes portant des armes traditionnelles et françaises. Femme indigène portant un éventail de queue de dinde et un chicoua. Fille indigène tenant une massue et une pagaie
ARS MS 3459
Page 160

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Benjamin Dumont de Montigny was the son of a French lawyer. In 1719 he was sent to the concession of the Duke of Belle-Ile at Natchez. His legacy includes his memoires, published in Paris in 1753, as well as many maps and plans, and two manuscripts illustrated with picturesque drawings.

(The Natives of the drawing are probably part of the Natchez or the Chicasaw, two people from the Mississippi region, and who were at war with France in the early 18th century)

Jean Boudriot, Maquette de reconstitution de la Belle, l’un des bateaux de l’expédition de Cavalier de La Salle, perdu dans la baie de Matagorda en février 1686 Collection privée

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Model of La Belle, one of the ship belonging to the Cavalier de la Salle, lost in Matagorda Bay in February 1686.

todaysdocument:

Louisiana Purchase Treaty

In this transaction with France, signed on April 30, 1803, the United States purchased 828,000 square miles of land west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. For roughly 4 cents an acre, the United States doubled its size, expanding the nation westward.

via Our Documents »

Carte de la province de la Louisiane (autrefois dit le Mississipi), aux armes du maréchal duc de Belle-Isle, sans date (XVIIIe siècle).

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Prise de Possession de la Louisiane et du Fleuve Mississipi, // Au Nom de Louis XIV, par Cavelier de la Salle [de Rouen], le 9 Avril 1682 : Dédiée au Général T. Beauregard, et accompagné d’un texte explicatif : [estampe] / Lith. par Bocquin ; Imp. Lemercier & Cie, Paris

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In 1682, Cavelier de La Salle and the Italian Henri de Tonti descended to the Mississippi delta. They left Fort Crèvecoeur on the Illinois River, accompanied by 23 Frenchmen and 18 Indians. They built Fort Prud’homme (later the city of Memphis) and claimed French sovereignty on the whole of the valley, which they called Louisiane in honor of the Louis XIV of France. They sealed alliances with the Quapaw Indians. In April 1682, they arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi. La Salle eventually returned to Versailles, where he convinced the Minister of the Marine to grant the command of Louisiana to him. He claimed that Louisiana was close to New Spain by drawing a map indicating the Mississippi as much further west than it really is.

With four ships and 320 emigrants, La Salle set sail for Louisiana. La Salle was not able to find the mouth of the river in the Mississippi delta and attempted to establish a colony on the Texas coast. La Salle was assassinated in 1687 by members of his exploration party, reportedly near what is now Navasota, Texas.

Lettre de Robert Livingston à Joseph Bonaparte à propos de l’acquisition de la Louisiane par les Etats-Unis, en date du 8 mars 1804.

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This letter of Livingston insists on the financial aspect of the Louisiana purchase.

todaysdocument:

October 20, 1803 - When Thomas Jefferson’s envoys agreed to purchase Louisiana Territory from France on April 30, 1803, they did so without his direct approval. While Jefferson debated the constitutionality of the acquisition, French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte become impatient and threatened to void the treaty. Jefferson was forced to push for ratification, and received the consent of the Senate on October 20 by a vote of twenty-four to seven. The next day in Washington, the Americans and the French envoy exchanged ratified copies of the treaty.

Senate resolution of advice and consent to Louisiana Purchase Treaty, 10/20/1803; General Records of the U.S. Government