Following their defeat in the Seven Years’ War, the French lost their North American colonies. Louisiana—which at the time went as far north as Illinois and encompassed both the eastern and western banks of the Mississippi—got divided between the Spanish and British. The Spanish took over the western side of the river, in addition to its crown jewel, New Orleans. It’s noteworthy that although the Spanish gained political control over the colony, few Spaniards migrated. Most residents remained French and continued practicing their unique, Louisianan culture. The forty years of Spanish rule in Louisiana was characterized by conflicts between Spanish officials and local residents (mainly over trade regulations), a new (and failed) attempt to build a plantation society, and tensions with the British that culminated in an invasion by Bernardo de Gálvez of British posts along the Gulf Coast and the river, including Baton Rouge. After the American Revolution, tensions rose between the new United States and the Spanish over navigation rights through New Orleans. The Spanish ceded Louisiana back to France in secret treaty with Napoleon in 1800. When Napoleon decided he had no use for the colony in 1803, he decided to sell it—against Spanish wishes—to the U.S. for $15 million.
The library holds the entire collection of Spanish colonial correspondence on Louisiana (the Papeles de Cuba from the Archivo General de Indias) on microfilm (1,027 reels). If using this collection, it is advisable to consult a published reference guide or PARES, the official online portal for Spanish government archives, which has a limited search function for the Cuban papers. Other items of note include the letters of Louisiana Governors Francisco Carondelet, Esteban Miró, and Manuel Gayoso de Lemos. The library also holds a number of land grants, given by the Spanish government to settlers in the region. If a plantation record has any documents listed from before 1804, there is a good chance it is a copy of a Spanish land grant.
Louisiana -- History -- To 1803.
Louisiana Purchase.
Gayoso de Lemos, Manuel, 1747-1799.
Carondelet, Luis Héctor, barón de, 1748-1807.
Miró, Esteban, 1744-1795.
Spain -- Colonies – America.