1. Chapter 5: French Louisiane

2. Early Exploration
European nations began sending explorers to the New World in hopes of finding riches.

3. Hernando De Soto
1. In 1541, De Soto and about 600 men landed in Florida to search for gold.
2. They wandered across the southeastern United States
3. Treated Indians brutally as they hunted for riches.
4. he discovered the Mississippi River, crossed into Arkansas, discovered Hot Springs, and then traveled down the Ouachita River.
5. De Soto died from fever in southeast Arkansas
6. Few of his men survived and they had no gold or riches
7. Europeans did not send another expedition for over 100 years.

4. De Soto’s route

5. European Colonization
Late 1600s, Spain, England, and France had established colonies in North America.
Spain had colonies in Texas and Mexico.
English were establishing colonies along the Atlantic seaboard.
France had created New France in Canada.

6. La Salle, the Opportunist
French explorers Marquette and Joliet discovered the upper Mississippi River which exploring the Great Lakes region.
La Salle realized this was the river De Soto had found.
He wanted France to establish a colony at the mouth of the River.
He thought the Gulf Coast would be an ideal location for a French naval base.

7. Louisiane
Lower Mississippi had to be explored before a colony could be established.
King Louis XIV of France gave La Salle permission to lead an exploration party down the river.
They traveled from Canada to the Gulf in two months.
In 1682, LaSalle declared that France owned the land drained by the Mississippi River and would be known as Louisiane “Louis’s land”.

8. La Salle’s claims

9. How big was Louisiana?

10. Fort Louis
La Salle returned to France to gather settlers, supplies, and ships to set up a Mississippi colony.
On his return trip he missed the mouth of the River and ended up lost in Texas.
He and his men built Fort Louis, but starvation and hostile Indians took their toll.
LaSalle was killed by his own men in East Texas.

12. Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur de Iberville
France and England were enemies.
France learned the English were planning on building a colony at the mouth of the river.
France was worried about the English invading Canada by traveling up the River.
It became a race for control of the Mississippi River.
GLEs: 65, 66, 72, 78

13. Iberville Comes to Louisiane
French Minister Pontchartrain choose Sieur de Iberville to lead the expedition.
Iberville and his brother Bienville arrived in the Gulf of Mexico and anchored at Ship Island.

14. Finding the Mississippi
Iberville and Beinville explored the mainland and met Biloxi Indians.
They searched for and found the Mississippi River on March 3—Mardi Gras.

15. Baton Rouge and Pontchartrain
Iberville and some friendly Indian guides found a red pole sticking out of the ground.
Iberville called it baton rouge or “red stick”.
Iberville and his guides also found a shortcut to the Gulf and discovered the largest lake he had ever seen –Pontchartrain after his superior, Count Pontchartrain.
He named the smaller lake after his son—Count Maurepas.
They established Fort Maurepas, the first French settlement in Louisiane.
He had to return to France twice for supplies.

17. English Turn
Bienville entered the Mississippi River and spotted a large English ship anchored in the river.
Bienville lied and told them it was too late to start a colony because France had already established one and French troop were nearby.
He claimed the French would attack if they did not leave.
The English turned the ship around and this is how it got it’s name—English Turn.

18. English Turn

19. Fort de la Boulaye
Bienville established this fort on land 50 miles upstream from the mouth to the Mississippi.

20. Fort Louis de la Mobile and Dauphin Island
Fort Louis de la Mobile became the colony’s capital, and most of the settlers moved there.
Dauphin Island was another post built for the French.

21. Early Louisiana settlements

23. The Early Colonists The major problem was the small population.
Population was made up of soldiers, sailors, explorers, voyageurs, and 13 Caribbean pirates.
Voyageurs made their living paddling canoe, pirogues, and other boats for explorers and traders.

24. Voyageurs

25. A New Governor
Since they were short on supplies, Iberville returned to France where he found the French at war.
He was unable to send supplies and died in Cuba on the return voyage in 1706.
Bienville became governor at age 22.
GLEs: 64, 66, 72, 73, 74, 76, 78, 80, 81

26. The Coureurs de Bois
There was a lack of European women in the colony which was a major problem.
Coureurs de bois or “runner of the woods” were hunters and trappers who depended upon Indians to keep them alive.
They often dressed and acted like them, even marrying Indian women.
Bienville wanted these men to marry French Christian women and farm the land to end the chronic food shortage in the colony.

27. The Pelican Girls
23 young women sent from Paris to marry and help the population grow.
Nearly all the Pelican Girls found husbands and the population quickly rose to 195.

28. Bienville Stays
Bienville practiced nepotism, appointed family members to important positions and used the colony’s money and supplied as if they were his own.
He flaunted his power and wealth and feuded with the commissary.
As a result, he was convicted of corruption and he ordered back to France.
He eventually used his influence and was reappointed to his former position.

29. Economics in Louisiane
Mercantilism was the belief that each country or empire should have access to, and control of, raw materials needed to build and maintain a healthy economy.

30. Mercantilism

31. Mercantilism
It was a closed system, so Louisiane was not allowed to trade with any country but France.
France sent finished goods such as clothing, furniture, and ink to the colony.
Louisiane shipped raw materials such as fur, timber, and indigo back to France.
It was not a very profitable system and since it was easier and cheaper to trade with the Spanish, illegal trade with them was common.

32. The Fur Trade Fur trade was the main economic activity.
It was not very profitable.

33. Bartering

34. Farming There was never enough food.
Lack of knowledge, poor soil, flooding, and few seeds contributed to the problem, and the period became known as the Starvation Times.
Indians taught the French how to grow corn, squash, and beans and how to hunt and fish.

35. French Government in the Colony
The top official was a governor, chosen carefully by the French government.

36. The Commissary
This official was in charge of warehouses, trade, and supplies, while the governor was responsible for everything else.
The governor and the commissary began feuding over power.

37. A Proprietor
The King Louis XIV was tired of sinking money into the colony and getting nothing except trouble in return.
He needed to retain control of the Mississippi River, or England could travel up it and threaten Canada.
He began looking for a proprietor, an individual who took economic responsibility for the colony.
GLEs: 65, 66, 70, 71, 72, 75, 77, 81

38. Antoine Crozat
A monopoly is when a person or group has exclusive control over the production or sale of a product or service.
King Louis gave such power to Antoine Crozat.
Crozat was able to keep all the profits, appoint officials, and remain exempt from trade tariffs for 15 years if he met certain conditions.
He had to give the king 1/5 of any gold found in the colony, send a few settlers to Louisiane each year, buy goods from France, and govern by French law.

39. B. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac
He was a LA Governor who was a hungry, pompous, and corrupt man who loved fancy clothes and wigs.
He was very unpopular but succeeded in improving the colony and its leadership while serving as its governor.
The Superior Council began as an advisory group composed of the colony’s leading officials.
Its power grew and eventually it served as a legislature able to pass laws.

41. Melrose plantation

42. Louis Juchereau de St. Denis and Natchitoches
St. Denis explored much of Louisiane and learned Indian languages and customs.
Several tribes honored him by tattooing his legs.
The Caddo called him “Big Leg”.
He established an outpost in the western part of the colony to protect the border against the Spanish in Texas and Mexico.
The trading post he established on the Red River in 1714 was Fort St. Jean Baptiste.
It became Natchitoches, the oldest permanent settlement in the entire Louisiana Purchase territory.

43. Fort St. Jean Baptiste

44. The First Natchez War Natchez murdered four French traders.
Governor Cadillac sent Bienville and soldiers to punish the Natchez.
The Natchez were forced to execute the guilty warriors, live near Fort Rosalie, and cut the 2,500 logs required to build the fort.
The Natchez hatred of the French grew even more.

45. Bousillage

46. A New Proprietor - John Law
John Law came from Scotland
He gambled and he killed a man in a duel.
He traveled to France.
While there, he established a taxation system and started a national bank that slowed inflation.
He created the Company of the West and received a 25-year monopoly over both Louisiana and Canada. He kept all the profits.
He used a variety of methods to bring people to Louisiane.
His business interest met with both success and failure.
Law was involved in many scandals.
He lost all his money and died penniless in Italy.
He reinstated Bienville as Governor.

47. Populating the Colony
Law had to populate the colony with 6,000 white settlers and 3,00 slaves.
Law offered large land grants called concessions to wealthy Europeans.
Those purchasing concessions would pay for settlers to travel to Louisiane and work the land for them.
Poor Europeans who couldn’t afford to travel on their own become redemptioners.
They worked for a merchant or land-owner for three years to repay their passage to the colony.
During that time the employer had to provide free room and board.
At the end of the contract the employer was to provide land, tools, and supplies for the redemptioner so he could start his own farm.

48. Criminals Come to Louisiana
France didn’t want to lose its best people, so they began gathering people France didn’t want to send to Louisiana.
People began to view the colony as a penal (prison) colony.

49. Mississippi Bandits
Law hired gangs of thugs to seize homeless, drunk, and street people from the slums of Paris and other large cities.
The “Mississippi Bandits” forced them onto ships bound for Louisiane in order to increase the population.

50. A New Capital The capital at Mobile was too far away.
The capital was moved to Isle of Orleans and the city New Orleans developed in the area.

51. A New Governor
Bienville was ordered back to France and forbidden to return to Louisiane due to corruption.
Etienne de Périer became the New governor.
GLEs: 65, 66, 72, 77

53. A Difficult Life
Food shortages, crime, threats of Indian attacks and diseases took a tremendous toll.
Dangerous wild animals were also a threat.

54. The Company of the Indies
Law gained control of the East Indies Company, which had a monopoly on France’s Far East trade.
He merged the East and West companies and soon had a monopoly over the French African slave trade.
People bought stock in the company.

55. The Colony Grows
The colony’s population grew and led to the need of a local government.
Officials divided Louisiana into nine districts.
Each district had a fort and settlement, a commandant, and soldiers for protection.
GLEs: 64, 65, 66, 70, 72, 73, 74, 75, 78, 80

56. The Ursuline Nuns
They established the first charity hospital and began the colony’s first school for girls.

57. Ursuline Convent

59. The Code Noir-Marriage
Forbade blacks and whites to live together and to get married.
Any children born through interracial unions were slaves.
Blacks and French colonists could marry Indians.

60. The Code Noir-Freedom
The Superior Council had to give approval if a Frenchman wanted to free his common-law wife and children.
Freed slaves who had some French blood were called les gens de couleur libres.

61. The Code Noir-Cruelty
Slaves could not be educated, congregate in large numbers in public, or carry weapons.
Recaptured runaways could be branded, beaten, or have their ears cut off.
A slave who struck his master or ran away three times could be killed.
Since slaves were unable to testify in court, owners had little fear of punishment.

62. The Code Noir-Slave Rights
The Code recognized slaves as humans, so slaves could not be prevented from marrying.
A child under 14 could not be separated from his mother.
Slaves could not be forced to work on Sundays or religious holidays.
Owners had to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention and care for the slave if he or she was no longer able to work.

63. The Code Noir-Equal Rights
Freed slaves were equal to whites.
They could buy slaves, own property, and serve in the government or military.
Because of these rights, many free people of color were wealthy and influential.

64. Slave Culture
Due to a long interaction with Africa, the French did not consider Africans racially inferior and did not try to destroy slaves’ native culture like the English did.
African names, customs, food, language, and clothing survived better in Louisiana than in most American colonies.

65. Creoles The meaning has changed over the years.
Originally, a Creole was an African slave from Louisiane.
Children born to French or Spanish Louisianians were called Creoles.
Finally it came to mean someone of mixed blood.
Creole is also the name of a language that evolved in south Louisiana and a term used to describe buildings or foods of Louisiana origin.

66. Religion Only the Catholic Church was allowed.
All slaves had to be baptized.
The Code forbade Jews from entering the colony.

67. Voodoo A religion based on a mix of Catholic and African beliefs.
Nature and natural objects have life.
There are many spirits.
Magic, chants, spells, potions and charms are used.

68. Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau’s tomb

69. The Fort Rosalie Massacre
Occurs when Perier is governor.
Great Sun and a small group of Natchez warriors snuck into the fort on November 28, 1729.
The Natchez sneaked weapons into the fort and attacked the French.
Over 200 people died.

70. The Second Natchez War The entire colony was a part of the war.
It was civil war for Louisiane’s Indians.
Support was split among Native American tribes.
Slaves also fought in the war on each side.
War lasted two years.
The Natchez were defeated and Great Sun and his people were sent away as slaves.

71. The Natchez Surround Fort St. Jean Baptiste
Natchez who had escaped, surrounded the fort to lure St. Denis out

72. “Death to the Natchez!”
When St. Denis did attack with his warriors, they defeated the Natchez.
10 percent of the French population was killed.
Homes and villages were burned.
The Natchez Indians were nearly destroyed.
Other smaller Indian tribes were wiped out.
The Company of the Indies went bankrupt.
Louisiane was dangerously under populated.
The economy was in turmoil.

73. Bienville Returns
After the Natchez war the King needed Bienville to return as governor to help bring order to the colony.

74. The Chickasaw
The Chickasaw were friends with the English and united with the Natchez to attack Pointe Coupee.
Bienville demanded the Chickasaw Indians living in northern Mississippi turn over the Natchez living with them.
When they refused, the colony was once again at war.

75. Chickasaw warriors

76. The End of the Natchez
Bienville recruited slaves to fight, promising them freedom in return.
After three years, peace was finally achieved when the surviving Natchez were turned over by the Chickasaw and then sent to Saint-Dominique.

77. Saint-Domingue

78. The End of the Bienville
He was tired from war and asked to be replaced as governor.
He returned to France.

79. Pierre François Rigaud Cavagnal, Marquis de Vaudreuil
New governor, served for 10 years.
Easy going, fun-loving, and popular with the upper class.
He was called the “Grand Marquis”.
Improved the levee system
Created the Era of Good Feelings
Introduced elaborate Mardi Gras parties that have remained an important part of Louisiana’s social life
GLEs: 65, 66, 72, 73, 76, 77, 78, 81

80. Louis Billouart, Chevalier de Kerlerec
Governor during the French and Indian War.
He needed to feed starving citizens living in the colony, and the captain who went through the English Blockade who came with supplies was a Jew.
To do so he had to violate the Code Noir adopted by the Superior Council, which forbade Jews from entering the colony.
10 years later he was recalled to France, and found guilty of violating the Code Noir.

81. The End of French Louisiane
France went to war with England.
France lost the war.
French rule was ended by the French and Indian War.
King and proprietors weren’t making any money.

82. A. The Treaty of Fontainebleau
In a secret Treaty of Fontainebleau, France signed this treaty with Spain, which gave the Spanish Louisiane.
This was kept secret from the English.

83. B. The Treaty of Paris
Treaty between the French and English putting Canada under England’s control.
At this point the England controlled all the land east of the Mississippi River, except the Isle of Orleans.
Spain gave up Florida and owned the Isle of Orleans and the lands west of the river.

84. Louisiana’s borders after the French and Indian War