City History: New Orleans

The French tricolor rises over New Orleans. Three weeks later, the American flag takes its place. The last French governor has a weird, impactful year in New Orleans. READ MORE: "The Passion of the Prefect: Pierre Clément De Laussat, 1803 New Orleans, and the Bonapartist Louisiana That Never Was" by Eberhard L. Faber A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of Amer...

France secretly reacquires Louisiana, but only for a couple years. After military catastrophe in Haiti, Napoleon sells Louisiana to the United States. New Orleans's fate is changed forever. READ MORE: A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America by Jon Kukla The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Sp...

American settlers demand access to the Mississippi and New Orleans. Pinckney's Treaty chips away at Spanish control. "Kaintucks" and other Americans float downriver to New Orleans. READ MORE: A Wilderness So Immense: The Louisiana Purchase and the Destiny of America by Jon Kukla The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From S...

In 1791 and 1795, enslaved people plot to overthrow Louisiana's plantation system. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth-Century by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall "The Pointe Coupee Consp...

Revolutionary ideas make it to New Orleans. The new governor deports potential agitators. A conspiracy develops in Kentucky. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette "Conflicting Loyalties: The French Revolution and Free People of Color" by Kimberly Hanger "The 1...

The Louisiana economy collapses. Étienne de Boré figures how to make granulated sugar in Louisiana (just as the Haitian Revolution collapses San-Domingue sugar production). New Orleans area plantation owners profit. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette https://64parishes.or...

With the Spanish governor away on business, New Orleans area plantation owners induce a manhunt for the most famous maroon leader in Louisiana: Juan San Malo (also known as Jean Saint Malo). READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette Spaniards, Planters, and Slaves: The Spanish R...

Spain angers New Orleans plantation owners by rewriting the slavery codes. Maroon settlements offer an alternative way of life for enslaved people who run away. This upsets the slavocracy. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette Spaniards, Planters, and Slaves: The Spanish Reg...

Spain builds up New Orleans but can't contain smuggling. White and black militias fight against the British in the American Revolution. Three hurricanes hit New Orleans in three years. The Great New Orleans Fires of 1788 and 1794 destroy almost all that's left. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver...

France gives New Orleans to Spain as an apology for dragging it into the Seven Years' War. New Orleans expels the first Spanish governor, Antonio de Ulloa. Spain sends the Irish-born Alejandro O'Reilly to lay down the law. (Sometimes known as the Revolt of 1768, the Creole Revolt or the Insurrection of 1768.) READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The...

New Orleans rebuilds after another hurricane, flirts with the Enlightenment, wars against Native Americans, embraces smuggling, and establishes a form of slavery unlike what you'd expect. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette SOUNDS: French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav by vo...

A quick look at New Orleans's geography. European explorers try to find the Mississippi River's mouth. And the French make a bad economic gamble that results in the founding of New Orleans. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette SOUNDS: French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav...