New Orleans Under Spanish Rule and the Louisiana Purchase
In 1762 and 1763 France signed treaties ceding Louisiana to Spain. For 40 years New Orleans was a Spanish city, trading heavily with Cuba and
Mexicoand adopting the Spanish racial rules that allowed for a class of free people of color. The city was ravaged by fires in 1788 and 1794 and rebuilt in brick with buildings and a cathedral that still stand today.
In 1803 Louisiana reverted to the French, who sold it to the United States 20 days later in the
Louisiana Purchase. The final battle of the
War of 1812 was fought in defense of New Orleans; Colonel
Andrew Jackson led a coalition of pirates, free blacks and
Tennessee Volunteers to defeat a British force outside the city.
New Orleans in the 1800s
During the first half of the 19th century, New Orleans became the United States’ wealthiest and third-largest city. Its port shipped the produce of much of the nation’s interior to the Caribbean, South America and Europe. Thousands of slaves were sold in its markets, but its free black community thrived. Until 1830, the majority of its residents still spoke French.
Barataria Bay, inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, about 15 miles (24 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide, in southeastern Louisiana, U.S. Its entrance, largely blocked by Grand Isle and the Grand Terre Islands, is via a narrow Gulf channel navigable through connecting waterways into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway system. The bay is indented and marshy with many islands. The surrounding low-lying Barataria Country, south of New Orleans and west of the Mississippi River delta, is noted for its shrimpindustry (based on villages built on pilings above the coastal marshes), muskrat trapping, natural gasand oil wells, and sulfur production. The area is sometimes called Laffite Country for Jean Laffite and his brother Pierre, who in 1810–14 organized a colony of pirates and smugglers around the Baratarian coast. The name Barataria is derived from the Spanish word meaning “to deceive.” Grand Isle, accessible from the west via a road bridge, is a resort community with a state park at its eastern end.
