Louisiana PurchaseThe Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the

United States of America of 828,000 square miles of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana on

December 20, 1803.

The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs

($3,750,000), for a total sum of 15 million dollars (less than 3 cents per acre) for the Louisiana

territory.

Louisiana had a more ethnically and racially diverse population than many parts of the United States, and its political and social systems were deeply

rooted in the French and Spanish colonial period.

The Louisiana Purchase added to the United States a region very different from others on the American map.

Louisiana was named by explorer René-Robert Cavelier in the mid 1600's to honor King Louis XIV

of France.

In 1804, the Louisiana Territory had a population of 35,932. It did not have the population to qualify for statehood.

Massive immigration of both free and enslaved Americans into the Territory saw the population

surge past the 60,000-person requirement by 1810.

According to the 1810 census, more than 76,000 people, about half black and half

white, resided in the Territory of Orleans.

Louisiana was the first state to have a majority Catholic French- and Spanish-speaking population.

Louisiana's distinctive French Catholic Creole culture eventually blended with the American English Protestant culture to create a distinct Creole-American society.

Territory of Orleans In 1804, the newly

acquired Louisiana Territory was

subdivided, and the portion below the

33rd parallel, which eventually formed

the state of Louisiana, was

named the Territory of Orleans.

After the Orleans Territory came under U.S. rule, legal battles ensued over the interpretation of the Civil Code, which places emphasis on codified community laws, and Common Law, which places greater reliance on judges for

legal interpretation over the traditional Catholic Rule.

Cultural differences between Creoles and Americans manifested themselves in a variety of ways immediately after the Louisiana Purchase. Creole residents of colonial Louisiana had lived under the Catholic Church, a political monarchy, and the legal Civil (Napoleonic) Code.

In contrast, the new American political laws enforced religious freedom, republican democracy, and English common law.

Today Louisiana remains the only U.S. state that follows the Civil Code, which is the most

common legal system in the world.

The United States government made Louisiana residents go through a trial period

before admitting Louisiana as a state.

In 1811 President James Madison signed a bill allowing the people of Louisiana to form

a state constitution.

This was the first time it had been proposed to make a new state out of lands that had not been part of the original thirteen states.

Some lawmakers feared this would shift the balance of political power west of the Mississippi.

Despite opposition, the bill passed congress by a large majority.

After the bill for statehood was

passed, a convention of forty-three

delegates met at Tremoulet’s Coffee

House, in November of 1811, to write a constitution for the

state of Louisiana. It was presided over by

prominent planter and politician Julien

Poydras.

Following the state constitutional convention in New Orleans on April 14, 1812, President Madison signed the bill

approving statehood.

The bill designated

April 30, 1812, as the day of formal

admission.

William C. C. Claiborne

In 1812 Louisiana voters elected William C. C.

Claiborne to be the first governor.

Governor William C.C. Claiborne (1772-1817)

1816: Claiborne won an election for U.S. senator, but died less than a year into his term.

Today his descendants includeformer congresswoman and ambassador Lindy Boggs and designer Liz Claiborne.

State FlagLouisiana's flag, though used since the 1800s, was not officially adopted until 1912. The design consists of the

pelican group from the state seal, in white and gold, and a white ribbon bearing the state motto, on a field

of a solid blue.

State SealThe state seal was adopted in 1902 and features a

pelican tearing flesh from its own breast to feed its young. The pelican and its three young are surrounded by the Louisiana motto, "Union, Justice, Confidence."

Baton Rouge

New Orleans

The Cabildo, on Jackson Square in New Orleans, was headquarters for Spanish colonial administration. Built in 1795, it hosted the formal transfer of the Louisiana Purchase from France to the United States in 1803. The building is now the Louisiana State Museum.

New Orleans

Natchitoches

Natchitoches is Louisiana's oldest settlement. At the time of statehood, Natchitoches' population stood under 2,000 persons but contained one of the largest and wealthiest communities of Free Persons of Color in the U.S.

Metoyer Descendants, owners of Melrose Plantation

In the 1990s, the National Park Service designated the Natchitoches-Cane River region as a National Heritage Area because of its distinct Creole culture and today interprets the two historic Magnolia and Oakland plantations for the public.

Natchitoches

Monroe

At the time of statehood, Prairie de Canots, as the settlement was then known, was small but grew in importance with the rise of the cotton in the mid-1800s and lumber in the early 1900s.

Originally founded as the Spanish settlement of Fort Miro, the American town was established in 1807.

Alexandria Originally established as a trade post (post des rapides) in the 1780s,

Alexandria was officially incorporated in 1819, and emerged as an important cotton and lumber trade center for the lower Red River Valley in the 1800s.

At the time of statehood, it remained a small river trade settlement.

Kent House

Bailey's Dam under construction on the Red River at Alexandria, Louisiana, in May of 1865

Agriculture

Cotton and sugar crops were central to the growth of Louisiana as a state.

Sugar Cane

The southern portion of the state emerged as a sugar cane-growing region.

Cotton

Cotton plantations grew quickly in the central parishes as well as along the Red River.

Two hundred years after statehood, Louisiana remains one of the most distinctive states in the union. The state's rich Creole heritage, the organization of parishes as local political units, and the celebration of Catholic traditions such as Mardi Gras.