Louisiana: Colonial Era

In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson wrote to his ambassador in France, "There is on the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of three eighths of our territory must pass to market." As Americans began to settle the rich agricultural lands of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, they faced a problem: to transport their crops they needed to go down the Mississippi and through New Orleans, then controlled by the Spanish, who routinely closed all traffic in the port to American shipping. As a result, when the Jefferson administration learned that Spain had ceded Louisiana, via a secret treaty, to Napoleon, the president decided that he would try to buy New Orleans from them. Napoleon ultimately sold not just New Orleans--the only real estate Jefferson cared about--but also the entire Louisiana colony which stretched up the Missouri River and to the Rocky Mountains. With the stroke of a pen, the U.S. doubled in size. 

Yet the Louisiana Purchase also created political and practical problems for the young nation. Did the president have the authority to expand the U.S. without the consent of congress? How would the U.S. integrate the French residents of Louisiana into the nation? Many Americans believed that French Catholics could never be good democratic citizens. How would the U.S. govern the new territory? How would it handle the unique legal culture already firmly in place in Louisiana? 

The majority of territory acquired, however, was not settled by Europeans of any sort. Instead, it remained fully in the hands of Indigenous nations who much preferred to dealing with the French and Spanish to the Americans. When the Osages, a powerful nation in Missouri and Arkansas, received a letter informing them of the Louisiana Purchase, they reportedly consigned it to flame and scoffed at the notion of becoming American subjects.

The collections below highlight the political controversies around the Louisiana Purchase, plans for the transition to American rule, explorations and descriptions of the new territory, and some later works commemorating it.  

Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806).

Louisiana Purchase.

Louisiana Purchase -- Centennial celebrations, etc.

Louisiana -- History -- 1803-1865.

United States -- History -- 1801-1809.