USA > Louisiana > Louisiana : its history as a French colony. Third series of lectures > Part 26
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Such was the embryo colony which France had created, and which she had possessed seventy years. Although ceded to Spain in 1762, it was not under the entire control of that power before the 18th August, 1769, when O'Reilly took formal possesion of the country. It had been much curtailed from its original territorial proportions, but still, from the Balize to its contested limits with the Mexican provinces, and to that almost unknown region which extended far beyond St. Louis, towards the sources of the Mississippi, it contained
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space enough for an immense population ; and a better administration than that of France, conducted on far different principles, might have obtained results more favorable than those which had crowned her efforts. It is not a high estimate to suppose that Louisiana, from 1699, the date of its colonization, to 1769, when it was finally delivered over to Spain, must have cost, directly and indirectly, from fifteen to twenty millions of dollars dis- bursed by Crozat, the India Company, and France, who never got any returns for this very large expenditure. Of all the great powers of Europe, France, with her spirit of enterprise, her brave and intelligent population, and her vast resources, had been the least successful in her attempts at establishing colonies ; and, after an infinite waste of courage and perseverance, of hardy labor, of blood and of treasure, she had lost, at last, almost every inch of her once almost boundless possessions on the continent of America. Spain and England had divided the shreds of that gorgeous mantle which adorned her shoulders, but which she had allowed to drop as a heavy incumbrance.
The preceding pages have been written to very little purpose, if they have not made apparent to the reader, the causes which checked the prosperity of Louisiana, and rendered her a worthless possession in the hands of France. Those causes lie on the surface of the history itself which I have sketched, and it requires no depth of research, nor any recondite analysis to discover them and appreciate their nature. To one of them, however, I must, in concluding this work, make a passing allusion, because it is still in existence, and exercises a fatal influ- ence over the destinies of Louisiana to this present day. It is, that those who came to her, never considered that they had found a home in her bosom. With the excep- tion perhaps of the Acadians and of the Germans whom
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Law had sent to the colony in 1722, those whom she received in her lap were not grateful for the hospitality, and deemed themselves to be miserable exiles. All the military officers and other persons employed by the government had but one object in view, that of availing themselves, to obtain promotion, of their services in that distant country, and of the reputation of perils which they were really exposed to, or were supposed to have encountered ; and they also bethought themselves of no- thing else than making money, by fair or foul means, ac- cording to their different dispositions, in order to return, with increased honors, or with ampler means of enjoyment, to their cherished native country, to the beautiful France, which they could not forget. With regard to that part of the population which was not composed of officials, a good many had been transported to Louisiana by force, and detested a country which they looked upon as a . prison. Others, whose coming had been the result of their own volition, had been deceived by wild hopes, by · unrealized promises, and by exaggerated representations of what they were to expect in the land to which their emigration had been solicited. They smarted under the anguish of disappointment, and if they labored at all, it was to acquire the means to go back, before closing their career, to their birth-place in Europe, and they had even impregnated their offspring with these notions. Unfor- ' tunately, Louisiana was a mere place of transient and temporary sojourn, nothing better than a hostelry, a cara- vansary, but no home for any one. How could it be loved, improved and beautified ? There were none of those as- sociations, not a link of that mystic chain connecting the present with the past and the future, which produce an attachment to locality. The waters of patriotism had not yet gushed from their spring, to fertilize the land. There were Frenchmen in Louisiana, but no Louisianians.
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Now a change had come in her progressive destinies, and she found herself a portion of the Spanish monarchy. But neither under the flag of France, nor under that of Spain was it, that Louisiana could have had the faintest conception of her future prosperity, and of the develop- ment of those immense resources, which, to unfold them- selves, required the touch of a mighty magician, whose in- cantations a quick ear might perhaps, even at that time, have heard from afar. It was not, when a poor colony, and when given away like a farm by a friend to another, royal though they were, it was not when miserably clad with the tattered livery of her colonial bondage, that she could foresee her glorious dismemberment into sove- reignties, the least of which occupies so proud a position in the eye of the world. This miracle was to be the consequence of the apparition of a banner, which was not in existence at the time, which was to be the laba- rum of the advent of liberty, the harbinger of the rege- neration of nations, and which was to form so important an era in the history of the rights of mankind.
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APPENDIX.
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APPENDIX.
Extract from the Despatch written on the 12th of October, 1750, by Livaudais, the Harbor Master and Chief Pilot.
MY LORD :
I have the honor to inform your excellency of the change which was produced at the mouth of the river (Mississippi), by the Equinox of last September. When the king's vessel, Rhinoceros, arrived in July, the bed of the Pass ran south south-east, and north north-west. This has been but too frequent for these twenty-five years, during which I have been employed here in piloting vessels in and out. I rarely took them out by the same way in which I took them in; and these changes generally happen in October, when this river has not much of a current. At that time, the tides ascend thirty-three miles. Now, it will be neces- sary for vessels wishing to come in, to cast anchor to the east north-east, and west south-west of the houses of the Balize Post.
Regulations of Police.
We, Pierre Rigaut, Marquis of Vaudreuil, Governor of the Province of Louisiana, and Honore Michel de la Rouvillière, the King's Counselor, Commissary-General of the Marine Department, and Intendant in this Province, decree in the name of the King :
ART. 1.
From the day of the publication of these present regulations, all per- sons, whatever may be their social condition, and under any pretext whatever, even with permissions from our predecessors, which we annul, are prohibited from distributing any intoxicating beverage, whatever may be its nature, and from allowing it to be used for drinking at their respective houses, or even to be carried away in large or small measures ; and any person, contravening this provision of our ordinance, shall be
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sentenced to be imprisoned for one month, to pay ten crowns in favor of the poor, and to have all the liquors found at his house confiscated on behalf of the king's treasury.
ART. 2.
There shall be established six taverns in the town of New Orleans, under commissions to be issued to that effect.
ART. 3.
The keepers of these six taverns are permitted to supply, with wine or spirits, no other persons than travellers, sick people, the inhabitants, and sea-faring men ; and this they must do with the requisite moderation. We forbid them to furnish these articles to a soldier, under the severest penalties, and to Indians and Negroes, under the penalty of paying a fine of ten crowns, of being sentenced to the pillory, and of forfeiting, by confiscation, all the wines and liquors found in the house and shop of the offender ; and should there be a repetition of said offence, said offender shall be sentenced to the galleys for life.
ART. 4.
We also forbid tavern-keepers, under the penalty of losing their privi- leges as such, to retail refreshments, on Sundays and other holidays, during divine worship.
ART. 5.
We also decree that said taverns shall be closed, under arbitrary penalties, at nine in the evening of every day, and, after that time, that no one be entertained in said taverns.
ART. 6.
Said tavern-keepers shall pay for their privilege, each, the sum of two hundred livres to the ecclesiastical treasury of this parish, which needs very much such relief, and also the additional sum of one hundred livres, for the maintenance of the poor of this town, who are in a great state of destitution.
ART. 7.
There shall also be granted the privilege of keeping two liquor shops (canteens), the one to the Major in command of New Orleans, and the other to the officer commanding the Swiss company. One of these shops shall be appropriated to the French soldiers, and the other to the Swiss
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-so that the military shall drink at the places only designated for them ; and the inhabitants, travellers, and seafaring-men, shall no more be received in these liquor shops, than the soldiers shall be received in the other taverns, which they must not even approach. The soldiers, how- ever, must not be forced into going to drink at any one of these two liquor shops ; but they must do so of their own free will ; and the keepers of said shops, should they give anything to drink to the inha- bitants, travellers, seafaring-men, Indians, and Negroes, shall undergo the same penalties inflicted on the other tavern-keepers, in the 3d article of this ordinance.
ART. 8.
Whereas we have been informed that certain individuals, instead of improving their lands by cultivation, have come to the town of New Orleans, or have removed to certain localities in the rural districts of this province, in order to establish therein some drunken hedge pot-houses, by which means, they do not only tempt the fidelity of the slaves, but also induce them to rob their masters by giving them intoxicating liquors in exchange for the produce of their pilferings, we request all the honest planters to watch the deportment of these individuals in the country, in order to make us acquainted with the disorders of which they are the authors, so that we may punish them with all the rigor prescribed by the ordinances.
ART. 9.
In order to check the disorders originating in the town of New Orleans, from the increased multiplicity of taverns which have been established therein without permission, we decree, that eight days from and after the date of the present publication, all the inhabitants of the German Parish, and of other parishes, who have abandoned their lands to come and settle here, shall return to their former places of residence, under the penalty of being treated as vagrants and perturbers of the public peace, and, therefore, driven away from the country as people of an infamous character.
ART. 10.
All free Negroes and Negresses, living either in the purlieus of this town or in its vicinity, who may become guilty of harboring slaves, in order to seduce them and excite them to plunder their masters, and lead a scandalous life, shall lose their freedom and become the slaves of the king. We beg his Majesty to make them part of his domain, by paying per head, for every one of them, five hundred livres, to be applied to the
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restoration of the church of this parish, which stands in extreme need of such repairs.
ART. 11.
Any Frenchman who shall be so infamous as to become guilty of the offence described in the preceding article, shall be whipped by the public executioner, and, without mercy, be sentenced to end his life on the king's galleys, &c.
ART. 17.
Any individual who shall buy from a slave any object whatever, with- out a specific written permission from the master of said slave, shall be sentenced, for the first offence, to the pillory, and, for the next, shall be condemned to serve on the king's galleys for life.
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ART. 19.
It having always been the intention of his Majesty that every indivi- dual, on his plantation or elsewhere, should punish his Negroes with moderation, as a kind father would correct his children ; and most of the inhabitants of this colony having misunderstood the king's wishes on this subject, and overlooking in their slaves such faults as are too impor- tant not to be repressed, we cannot recommend too much to the owners of slaves, to be more energetic in checking their disorders, and to chas- tise them without passion on all proper occasions. We give them notice that, if we discover any undue laxity in the exercise of the authority herein mentioned, we shall cause the slaves whom they treat with too much lenity, to be seized and punished with exemplary severity.
ART. 20.
We forbid all the inhabitants or citizens of this colony to permit on their plantations, or at their places of residence, or elsewhere, any assem- bly of Negroes or Negresses, either under the pretoxt of dancing, or for any other cause, that is to say, excepting the Negroes whom they may own themselves. We also forbid them to allow their slaves to go out of their plantations or premises for similar purposes, because his Majesty has prohibited all assemblies of the kind.
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ART. 21.
We also forbid the town and country Negroes to assemble in the town of New Orleans, or in its vicinity, or elsewhere, under any pretext whatever, under the penalty, for said Negroes, of being imprisoned and whipped, and, besides, under the penalty, for the masters, of a fine of ten livres, for every Negro who may thus have assembled with said master's consent.
ART. 22.
Should any inhabitant or citizen of the province permit on his planta- tion or premises an assembly of negroes other than his own, under any pretext whatever, he shall, for the first offence, pay one hundred crowns to the treasury of the church, and shall, for the next offence of the kind, be sentenced to work for life on the King's galleys.
ART. 23.
Any negro which shall be met in the streets or public roads, carrying a cane, a rod, or a stick, shall be chastised by the first white man who shall meet him, with the very same instrument of which he, said negro, shall be the bearer ; and should said negro be daring enough to defend himself or run away, it shall be the duty of the white man to denounce the fact, in order that the black man be punished according to the exi- gencies of the case.
ART. 24.
Any negro or other slave, proceeding either on foot or on horseback, in the streets of New Orleans, or on the public roads, during the day, and particularly during the night, shall be stopped by any white person meeting said negro or other slave, in order to inquire for his written pass; and should said slave endeavor to escape, we exhort the citizen, cognizant of the fact, to endeavor to know who that slave may be, and to denounce him, so as to have him punished according to his desert.
ART 25.
Whereas negroes break down all the horses of the colony by using them immoderately, and by stealing them, not only out of parks, but also out of their stables ; and whereas this is infinitely injurious to the agricultural labors of the colony and to the interests of individuals, we permit said negroes to be shot at when they are thus met on horseback, and when they refuse to stop on their being hailed.
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ART. 26.
Being informed that the negroes of the town are so licentious as to come out, at night, of the houses of their masters, which they leave abandoned and open, and thereby exposed to all sorts of casualties, in order to assemble with those of the country, who come prowling through the town, to commit every kind of malfeasances, and to be drinking at the taverns, to the amount of what they can obtain for what objects they have stolen from the public and from their masters ; we exhort and even order all the citizens carefully to watch these nocturnal excesses, to" which our police shall be actively alive ; and if, through our combined efforts we can discover the authors of such iniquities, the severe justice which shall be administered to them, shall intimidate all others who may be disposed to produce such scandalous disorders. The inhabitants of the country may powerfully contribute to put an end to this state of things, by retaining their negroes on their respective plantations.
ART. 28.
Any negro or other slave, either in town or in the country, who shall fail in the respect and submission which he owes to white people-that is to say, who may be so insolent as to elbow them on the high roads and public ways, and who, finally, forgetting that he is a slave, shall offend them in any way whatsoever, shall be punished with fifty lashes, and shall be branded with the flower de Luce on his back (sur la fesse), in order to make known, in case of need, the nature of his crime.
ART. 29.
All the negroes and other slaves who go to church, shall attend the first mass said in the morning. In the country they shall be led to church by the overseer of each gang, who shall take them back imme- diately after divine worship is over ; and should there be servants in the habit of following their masters to any other mass than the first one in the morning, said servants shall stop at the door of the church, and wait there for their masters, under the penalty of being chastised.
ART. 30.
We have just explained the respect and obligations due by the blacks to the whites, and particularly to their masters. But it is proper to inform the public that this does not apply indifferently to everybody. A private person, a soldier, or any other individual, has not the right to
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ill-treat a negro who is guilty of no offence towards him. In certain cases, the person offended may arrest him, and ask that he may be dealt with according to the dictates of justice, because the negro is subject only to the police regulations of the country and to the tribunal of his own master. Consequently, and in compliance with the orders of his Majesty, we forbid that any one should take the liberty to ill-treat slaves ; and for any violation of this prohibition, the person so offending shall undergo an arbitrary punishment, according to the circumstances of the case.
Decree of the Superior Council of the Province, referred to in Page 193 of Vol. II.
Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and of Navarre, to all who shall see these presents, greeting : We make it known that the Superior Council of the Province of Louisiana, having taken into con- sideration the humble representations made, this day, to that Court, by the planters, merchants, mechanics and others ; and whereas the relief of a people, to whom the Council is as a father, the support of the laws, of which it is the depository and interpreter, and the improvement of agri- culture and commerce, of which it is the patron, are the motives of the representations of said planters, merchants and others ; said Council has proceeded to adjudicate, as follows, on these important matters :
What momentous objects are these for the Council ! Can it, after ' having duly weighed them, give attention to any other subject, except so far as it may contribute to favor these ? Let it, for a few moments, suspend its arduous labors, to attend to those subjects, which are now represented as most worthy of its attention and ministry : and thou, dear country, whose prosperity is the object of our most ardent wishes ; thou, that art to us what Sparta, Athens, and Rome were to their zealous citizens, suffer us to pay a legitimate debt by consecrating to thee this weak tribute of our love. It will be dictated by our hearts, whose inspirations an obedient hand is ready to record.
Seven millions of royal paper constituted all the currency of this colony and the fortune of its citizens ; the total withdrawing of this capital, the payment of which his Majesty suspended by an edict of October 1759, has reduced the province of Louisiana to the most deplorable situation. We shall not undertake to enter into a detail of the calamities, of the ruined fortunes, of the downfall of families, which
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were the fatal consequences of that catastrophe. The Council, every time it assembles to take cognizance of the affairs of the unhappy victims of that event, has before its eyes a more striking picture of our misfor- tunes than it is possible for us to paint. Recovered from the depression into which they had been plunged, the citizens of Louisiana had begun at last to breathe ; they had considered the conclusion of the war as the end of their misfortunes, and entertained hopes that the return of - peace would be the moment destined for their relief. Agriculture (said the planter), that surest and most positive wealth for a nation, that pro- lific source from which flow all the blessings which we enjoy, will now be revived, and will repair, a hundred fold, during the peace, the losses which we underwent during the war; commerce, without which the fruits of the earth have neither worth nor value, will be vivified and pro- tected, said the merchant. Sweet illusions and flattering projects, what is now become of you? The planter, the merchant, all ranks and classes in the colony, undergo, in the most profound peace, misfortunes and calamities which they never felt during a long and bloody war.
The first stroke by which the colony was afflicted, was the information it received of the cession made of it by his Majesty to Spain. Nobody, doubtless, will be surprised at the profound grief which this news excited in all hearts. The French love their monarch above all things, and a happy prejudice makes all men naturally incline to the government under which they are born. Let us cast a veil over this event ; the pen drops from the hand of a Frenchman when he attempts to analyse it. What at preseent seriously occupies, and should engross the whole atten- tion of the court, is the contemplation of those facts which are the fore- runners of that slavery with which a new administration threatens the colonists of Louisiana. At one time we behold an exclusive company, which, to the prejudice of the nation, is empowered to carry on all the commerce of the remaining possessions of the French in North America ; we next see the appearance of an edict, which confines within the nar- rowest bounds the liberty necessary to commerce, and forbids the French to have any connexion with their own nation ; it is replete with prohibi- tions and restraints ; the merchants of Louisiana every where meet with obstacles to be surmounted, difficulties to be overcome, and (if it be allowable to make use of such an expression) enemies of their country to be overthrown. In Europe, a period of six months will sometimes elapse before persons that fit out vessels know whether they shall obtain passports ; we have no better success at St. Domingo, when expeditions to this river (Mississippi) are in question. The Prince of Monbazon, Commander General of the island, begins to refuse them. In Louisi- ana, in the very centre of the colony, where a person of the meanest
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understanding sees, at the very first glance, how much it stands in need of encouragement and patronage, we do not meet with more favor.
The government, about twelve months ago, forbade the importation . of Negroes, on the pretext that the competition would have proved injurious to a merchant of the English colonies, who was to furnish them. How terrible and how destructive a course of action is this ! It is depriving the colony of the materials best calculated to develop its resources ; it is cutting up by the roots a branch of commerce, which is of more consequence to Louisiana than all the rest put together. To promote systems of this sort is tantamount to the desire to convert into a vast forest, establishments which have cost infinite pains and trouble. The vigilance of the court will easily discover the cause of these con- trarieties ; the efforts of its zeal will destroy it ; and its affection for the colony will save it from destruction. Constraint keeps the affairs of the province in a state of languor and weakness ; liberty, on the contrary, animates all things ; no one is at present ignorant that the granting of exclusive privileges may be justly considered as a sort of vampire, which imperceptibly sucks and consumes the people, drains the currency, and crushes agriculture and commerce ; it is an oppressive method, which, for the happiness of mankind, has been long since banished from the French colonies.
To what fatality is it owing that Louisiana alone sees sparks of this devouring fire again struck out ! These are no panic terrors ; and of this the court will be convinced, after perusing the decree, with an extract of which we have here the honor of presenting them. We shall not scruple to affirm, that the carrying of the plan which it contains into execution, would ruin the colony, by giving agriculture and commerce the most dangerous wounds. The inhabitants of Louisiana already despair of the preservation of their country, if the privileges and exemp- tions which it has hitherto enjoyed are not continued ; if the execution of the fatal decree, which has alarmed all hearts and filled them with consternation, is not prevented ; if an ordinance, published in the name of his Catholic Majesty, on the 6th of September 1766, of which a copy is here subjoined, is not annulled as illegal in all its points, and as con- trary to the increase of agriculture and commerce ; if finally, the mild laws, under which the inhabitants have lived till now, were suffered to be violated. We should never forget the sublime discourse, which an illustrious magistrate addresses to the legislators of the earth : " Are you," says he, "desirous of abrogating any law, touch it but with a trembling hand. Approach it with so much solemnity, use so many pre- cautions, that the people may naturally conclude that the laws are sacred, since so many formalities are required in the abrogation of them."
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