History Of New Orleans
History in New Orleans is everywhere. It is down every street, within the houses & buildings, and in the neighborhoods that make up this vibrant area. Even the mighty Mississippi and all the bayous have its own history.
I have found, in my travel prepping, that knowing a little bit of history from the place I visit helps me decide what I want to do while I am there. So in this post I want to give you some background history of New Orleans.
Colonial New Orleans
Before New Orleans was claimed the Indigenous People called it Balbancha, meaning “Land of many tongues”. The land was plentiful in resources between the Mississippi River & Lake Pontchartrain and the bayous and rivers were easy to navigate.
Explorer Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle claimed the area in 1682 for the French Crown. In 1718, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded La Novelle-Orleans. They began laying out a grid pattern of streets with a Place d’Armes (today’s Jackson Square) that would become known as Vieux Carre, meaning “Old Square”. But today the Vieux Carre is known as the French Quarter. In 1723 this became the capital of the French Colony of Louisiana.
In the same year of 1723, France ceded Louisiana to the Spanish because they were trying to keep it out of British hands. The Spanish ruled for the remainder of the 1700’s. The city functioned as a trading partner with Cuba and Mexico. During the Spanish colonization they moved from a tiny wood house village to a city of brick. This was largely due to the unpaid slave-labor.
Fires in 1788 & 1794 destroyed 1000’s of old French buildings. The Spaniards rebuilt in what we know as Spanish Colonial-Style. The Cabildo is an excellent example. They also are the ones to bring us those beautiful wrought-iron balconies and the above ground cemeteries. Also under Spanish rule, they made some liberal policies toward governing slavery. This enabled the growth of free people of color.
In 1800 Spain was done with the city and gave it back to the French. Shortly after, in December of 1803, Napoleon sold the colony to the United States for $15 million as part of the Louisiana Purchase. You see Napoleon was already fighting a war with the British and did not want to fight on two fronts.
Even though the colony was no longer French, the people held tight to the language, religion, and customs. Creoles, local born descendants of the early inhabitants with French blood, kept a sophisticated society that wasn’t found in any other American city.
History of the Pirates
Pirates Alley
It’s probably a pretty easy guess that the flow of goods between the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans would attract some unsavory sorts like smugglers & pirates. But I mean the city was originally populated with prisoners and prostitutes.
The most infamous of these was the pirate brothers Jean & Pierre Lafitte. Jean Lafitte played a major role in the Battle of New Orleans. In 1815, at Chalmette, he helped Major General Andrew Jackson defeat the British. Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop served as a pirate’s base dating back to the 1770’s. It is said to be the oldest structure housing a bar in the United States. You can visit it at 941 Bourbon Street. It is still a very popular place today.
Mardi Gras
The first ever historical record of Mardi Gras in the United States was in March of 1699. Iberville & Bienville sailed up the Mississippi River and made note of the mid-winter feast from their camp at Point du Mardi Gras. French colonist started celebrating Mardi Gras in Mobile Alabama. Of course, after the 1718 founding of New Orleans they began celebrating it there. It was basically a public festivity & private costume ball. A group of Anglo-Americans from Mobile formed the Mistick Krewe of Comus in 1857 and introduced formal parades and floats. And this is where we got the blueprint of our modern day Mardi Gras.
History of Antebellum New Orleans
In the 1800’s, New Orleans had one of the highest concentration rates of wealthy people. Although majority of the wealth came from sugar cane plantations, they moved sugar and cotton down the river on steamboats and New Orleans port transferred the products to ocean going ships. They made millions of dollars by doing this. Most of the luxury townhouses you see in the French Quarter and the mansions in the Garden District are a direct result of this commerce.
Furthermore, between 1803-1861, New Orleans was the nation’s busiest slave marketplace. New Orleans ranked as the 3rd largest city in the nation in 1840. And its port was the 4th busiest in the world. You had two main groups of control in New Orleans: the French-speaking Creoles and the English-speaking Anglo-Americans. The Creoles occupied the homes of the French Quarter and the lower Foubourgs. Anglos lived in the Central Business District, Lower Garden District and the Garden District areas.
Civil War & Reconstruction
In May of 1862, New Orleans was captured by Union Forces. After the war a progressive state constitution was passed to help establish civil rights for emancipated slaves. But after the end of Reconstruction in 1877, white-supremacists regained control. In 1896, the Supreme Court decision on Plessy vs Ferguson, legally sanctioned “seperate but equal” policies, came to pass.
Victorian New Orleans & The Dawn of Jazz
In the late 1800’s the city grew with arts and performance. Cute Victorian homes in cookie-cutter style sprang up. And so did the emergence of Jazz. This revolutionary new music has become New Orleans greatest contribution to the nation and the world. But don’t forget that New Orleans also help contribute to rap, hip-hop, and funk.
The Jazz Age also saw a rise in literary works. Greats such as William Faulkner and playwright Tennessee Williams also got inspiration from New Orleans and the French Quarter. Anyone ever heard of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’?
History of WWII
Andrew Higgins, a local shipbuilder, designed special vessels to navigate the shallow waters of Louisiana bayous. However, he realized that these vessels would work well to deliver men and materials onto the shallow beaches and they could avoid the deep water of the enemy. The boats were built in local shipyards and used on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. They were also of great use to the campaigns of the Pacific for island-hopping. Head over to the National WWII Museum to get all the details and to see some really cool aircraft.
Hurricane Katrina
On August 29, 2005 Katrina landed east of New Orleans. When this happened it drove a storm surge into the man made canals and breached the federal levees and floodwalls in many locations. Around 80% of the East bank flooded. Tens of thousands of people were trapped for days and over 1500 perished. Many of those who evacuated never returned. Some had nothing left to return to. Some neighborhoods, especially the Lower 9th Ward, still have reduced populations. You can still, almost 20 years later, see the devastation in some areas. If you are visiting, check out the Katrina Memorial while in town.
Summary
This was just some brief history on New Orleans. If you are planning a visit you should make sure to take a history tour. Most of the guides are local and very knowledgeable. Try a history & Voodoo combo or take a tour of the Treme for some Creole and Black history information. Enjoy!
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