USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 6
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The condition of the Colony had always been sufficient- ly miserable, even under the best government, that of Bienville, who was a man of sense and unquestioned pro- bity, and approved courage. But he was always opposed by rapacious and corrupt factionists, who by the most ras- cally methods sought to thwart him in all of his just and wise measures. The advent of the year 1720 was marked by an act of insane folly that could only have emenated from the pure lust of greed. Gayarre. the learned and eloquent historian of Louisiana, thus comments upon what must have been regarded then as an act supremely foolish, and would now be scouted as the "madness of the moon :"
" The opening of the year 1720 was signalized by a proc- lamation of a remarkable nature, issued throughout the colony in the name of the Company. That proclamation informed the inhabitants of Lousiana that they might obtain from the stores of the Company at Mobile, Dau- phine Island, and Pensacola, all the merchandise and pro- vision necessary to their wants. In case the colonists should make it a condition of their purchase, that those provisions and merchandise should be delivered at New Orleans, they were to pay in addition a premium of five per centum ; ten per centum if to be delivered at Natchez :
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thirteen per centum at the Yazoo ; and fifty per centum at the Missouri and Illinois settlements. It was made obliga- tory upon the colonists to send to New Orleans, to Biloxi, to Ship Island, and to Mobile, the produce of their labor, which the Company engaged to 'purchase at the following prices : Silk, according to its quality, from seven and a half to ten livres ; tobacco, first quality, at twenty-five livres the hundred pounds ; rye, twenty-five livres per hun- dred ; superfine wheat flour, fifteen livres ; rye, ten livres ; barley and oats, ninety cents ; deer skins from fifteen to twenty cents per skin ; if dressed and without the head and tail, thirty cents ; hides, eight cents the pound.
"It is evident that the Colony could not prosper under the system adopted by its rulers. What inducement could any set of men have to emigrate to a country where they had not only to encounter the dangers of a sickly climate and of sav- age warfare, but where they were sure to associate with the dregs of the population of the mother country, and to be kept in a state of the most oppressive servitude ? They could purchase nothing except from the Company, at the prices fixed by it ; they could sell to none except to the Company, and at the prices which suited its convenience ; and they could not go out of the Colony without its per- mission. Was it not a servitude, a disguised servitude, not in name but in fact, and much worse than the open and barefaced servitude of the blacks? Where was the difference between the white slaves transported from Europe, and the black ones dragged from Africa by the emissaries of the Company ? If the blacks worked only tor the benefit of their white masters, both blacks and whites labored only for the uses and purposes of the almighty Company !"
During the year 1720 the Company seemed suddenly to have awakened to the importance of sending to the Louis- iana Colony a large number of people, and in the course of the year the population was increased by the arrival of more than a thousand Europeans, and five hundred ne- groes from the coast of Africa. Of the white immigrants, some three hundred were located in the vicinity of Natchez, and more than two hundred were located at the settlement
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on the Yazoo river. The remainder of the whites, and probably all of the African slaves, were located at various points in the present State of Louisiana.
By a royal ordinance the military force of the Colony was established at twenty companies of fifty men each, and this insignificant number, aided by the few and widely scattered colonists, constituted the only defense of the Colony against the hostile tribes of Indians which sur- rounded it-tribes that were able to concentrate, within a brief period, not less than three thousand brave and skill- ful warriors.
The Louisiana colonists had long complained of the character of the population introduced into the Colony from the old country, and they had also complained long and loudly of the non-introduction of women as wives for the colonists. These causes of complaint were apparently about being removed. The French ministry named three nuns, Sister Gertrude, and under her, Sister Louise and Sister Bergere, with full power to take a certain number of girls from the hospital-general in Paris, on condition that the girls should consent to emigrate to Louisiana. These girls were placed under the absolute control of Sis- ter Gertrude, and not one of them could marry without the consent of that Sister. It was also ordered that " con- victs and vagabonds should no longer be transported to Louisiana, for the reason that the king is convinced that their presence is a contagious source of corruption, not only for the Europeans, but also for the aborigines, who are kind-hearted, honest, industrious and well disposed to- ward the French."
"On the 3d of January, 1721," Gayarre tells us, " a ship of the company arrived with three hundred colonists who were destined for the lands granted to Madame de Chau- mont, at Pascagoula, and in February eighty girls, who were taken from a house of correction in Paris, called La Saltpetriere, were landed in Louisiana." "It would seem," adds that learned and venerable historian, "that dissolute women were not looked upon as being included in the recent royal edict which prohibited the transporta- tion to Louisiana of vagabonds or persons of bad morals ! "
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At this time, 1721, the French government appeared to be smitten with absolute madness, and adopted an ordi- nance which prohibited the colonists of Louisiana cultiva- ting the vine, hemp, flax, etc., on the ground that it was not good policy that any agricultural product should be cultivated in the Colony which might compete with the products of the mother country ! The French statesmen of that period seem to have been imbued with the sys- tem of "protection " which is to-day blighting the pros- perity of the people of the United States.
The fall and flight of John Law, the wide distress occa- sioned by the bursting of his bubble, caused an immense depreciation in the value of shares of the Mississippi Company, and the clamors of the deluded shareholders finally reached the ears of the regent and the ministry. The drain upon the treasury of France had been constantly increasing, and as is usually the case, a scape-goat had to be looked for, and hence the Regent and ministers began to complain "of the paucity and inefficacy of the ser- vices " of Governor Bienville. In vain did the directors of the company tell the ministry how Bienville had been ham- pered and thwarted by the officers of the government and the agents of the company, and thus those agents had checked and weakened all of his plans, and that they, the directors, would change those agents and would sub- stitute for them such as would actively co-operate with. and become entirely subordinate to him, and then he would have an opportunity to show what he could do when left to his own judgment. This, for a period, si- lenced the clamor.
In the month of March, 1721, two hundred Germans arrived in the Colony. They were sent by Law to his Ar- kansas concession, and had sailed from France on the eve of his flight from the country. These Germans were soon followed by five hundred negroes from the coast of Africa. Ordinarily this addition to the labor of the Colony would have been very welcome, but at the time of their arrival provisions were high and very scarce.
About this time it was ordered by a decree that the merchandise of the Company should be sold at New Or-
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leans, Biloxi and Mobile at fifty per cent. profit on their original cost in France; at Natchez and Yazoo, seventy per cent .; at Arkansas, one hundred per cent .; and at the Alibamons, at fifty per cent. This difference was made, as Gayarre tells us, on account of the "competition arising from the proximity of British settlements."
On the 27th of March it was determined that negroes should be sold, on an average, to the inhabitants of the colony for six hundred and sixty livres, for which notes were to be given payable in one, two and three years, pay- able either in tobacco or rice as might be agreed upon. When a purchaser failed to meet two payments, if he could not pay one-third of the amount then due, the slaves, after being advertised, were to be re-sold. If, on a second sale, the negroes did not bring enough to pay the Com- pany and meet all other expenses, the derelict purchaser was liable to imprisonment.
Tobacco, en feuilles or leaf tobacco, of fair quality. when received in payment of negroes, was rated by the Company at twenty-five cents per hundred pounds, and rice at twelve cents, when delivered at the Company's ware- house in New Orleans, Biloxi or Mobile. At this price for tobacco and rice, it would seem to be a herculean task for
the colonists ever to pay for an average negro. "The colony was divided into nine territorial districts," says Gayarre, "such as New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, Alibamons, Natchez, Yazoo, etc. There were to be for each district a commander or governor, and a judge, from whose decisions . appeals could be taken to the Superior Council sitting at new Biloxi."
"In the month of June, of the same year, 1721," adds the historian Gayarre, "there remained in the colony six hundred negroes, and four hundred out of the five hun- dred colonists who were in the country when Crozat sur- rendered his charter. Seven thousand and twenty indi- viduals had been transported by the Company in forty- three vessels especially employed for that purpose, from the 25th of October, 1717. to May, 1721. But of this num- ber about two thousand having died, deserted or returned
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to France by permission, the remaining white population did not exceed five thousand four hundred and twenty souls. The expenses of administration, however, although the territory was so thinly peopled, proved very consider- able, and amounted, this year, to 474,274 livres."
In March, 1722, the Company promulgated an ordinance which prohibited the sale of negroes in the Louisiana col- ony for transportation out of the colony, to the Spaniards or to any other subjects of a foreign nation, under the penalty of a fine of one thousand livres and confiscation of the negroes."
Bienville had long desired that the ships of the Company should enter the Mississippi river and come directly to New Orleans, and on the 20th of April, 1722, he addressed a long letter to the French government, in which he set forth the advantages of New Orleans and the disadvanta- ges of Biloxi as an entrepot of commerce. In that letter he said :
"I have had the honor to send to the Council, in my last letter, detailed information on the mouths of the Missis- sippi, and to give the assurance that vessels not drawing more than thirteen feet water could go over the bar with all sail set. without risk of stranding. It would not be difficult to render the pass practicable for larger ships, because the bottom consists of soft and moving mud. I would have already done so, if the engineers who are entrusted with the execution of the public works had shared my opinion. But their attention is engrossed by the improvements which have been attempted at Biloxi, and which I think. will have to be abandoned. Should the Company persist in sending their vessels to Biloxi, it will materially retard the progress of the colony, and will expose us to consider- able expenses. The vessels are forced to stop at Ship Island, which is fifteen miles from the mainland where our settlement is situated. To unload these vessels we are obliged to send to Ship Island, packet-boats; which in their turn, cannot approach Biloxi nearer than two miles and a half. Then other small boats are sent to unload the packet-boats, and these boats, small as they are, are stranded at a distance of a carbine shot from the shore.
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This statement of facts ought to be sufficient to convince the Council of the importance of ordering all vessels coming from France to enter the Mississippi, where they could discharge their cargo in two days. I assumed the responsibility of sending thither two flutes (small ves- sels) which crossed the bar with all sails set. I would have done the same with the other vessels. which have just arrived, if. we had not received the precise order of unload- ing them at Biloxi." To this plain statement of facts, it is difficult, at this day, to imagine what satisfactory reply could be made.
On the 4th of June a vessel of the Company arrived with two hundred and fifty Germans, and with this vessel came intelligence confirming the utter failure of Law, and the ruin and desolation which, following in the wake of the wreck of his bank and all of his roseate schemes, had swept over the entire kingdom. This news was alarming to the colonists, who feared, that in the presence of the overshadowing distress prevalent in the mother country, they would be neglected and left to their own resources. Partial supplies of provisions continued to arrive for a short period, but. as Gayarre tells us, the scene was des- tined to change. He says :
" Toward the close of the year, the supplies which used to be sent from France became more scanty, on account of the disorderly state into which the affairs of the company were falling. Famine again made its appearance in the colony, and it became necessary again, in consequence of the want of provisions. to quarter some of the troops, in small squads, among the Indians, and to scatter the rest on the banks of rivers, where they lived as they could, on fish and game. Fortunately, toward the latter part of Sep- tember, the colony was relieved by the arrival of a vessel well stocked with provisions and amunition. It brought the information that the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France, had entrusted the direction of the company to three commissaries. Ferrand, Faget and Machinet. The distress of the colony was increased by a hurricane which produced the most extensive damage, and De l'Orme, one of the principal agents of the company, who, in a letter of
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the 30th of October, renders an account of the effects of that hurricane, speaks of continual desertions among the soldiers, mechanics and sailors, and recommends, as a rem- edy, to the demoralizing influence of such derelictions of duty, to allow, in all the vessels of the company, free pas- sage to those persons who might be disposed to return to France."
Ever since the failure of John Law's bank. the currency of the colony had been in a very deplorable condition, constantly depreciating in value ; it finally became worth- less, and ceased to pass altogether. The company resorted to the funding of the notes issued by its officers and agents, and issued new cards in their stead, and new prom- ises and privileges were attached to these cards, which it was hoped would enable them to pass current in the col- ony. The time given for the funding of the company's notes was very short, and with it was coupled the pro- vision that all notes that were not presented for refund- ing before a certain day, should become null and void ! As these notes were scattered over an immense territory, the time for their presentation had already expired be- fore many holders were informed of the funding process, and in this way a considerable amount of the indebted- ness of the company was extinguished, literally sponged off of the slate. That this high-handed measure should have produced great dissatisfaction among the colonists, is not to be wondered at. Their protests were so loud and and long continued, that on the 28th day of December, an ordinance was issued authorizing the holders of these dis- honored notes to send an agent, with full powers to appear before the Council and protest against the robbery per- petrated against them. Early in the same month the Council of State had sent "Saunoy and de la Chaise to Louisiana to force the agents of the company to render an account of the merchandise sent by the company, and. of the goods which had been delivered to those agents by the clerks of Crozat, when the company was substi- tuted for him in the government of the province. They were instructed to depart with the utmost secresy and speed, to show their powers to the Superior Council on
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their arrival in Louisiana, then immediately to repair to the company's warehouses, to take possession of them, and to put the seals on all the papers of the agents." The three new commissaries, Faget, Machinet and Ferrand, who were entrusted with supreme power in the colony, were by no means reposing upon a bed of roses, for, as Gayarre tells us, "they had to cope with the discourage- ments of the colonists. who were constantly attempting to run away from their miseries, with the desertion, the insubordination and rebellious disposition of the troops, with a depreciated paper currency, heavy debts, hurri- canes and other calamities ; with unfaithful and roguish agents, with the spirit of discord which had always ex- isted among the officers of the colony, and now, in addi- tion to these numerous perplexities, they were threatened with a war from the Natchez Indians."
The three commissaries, now armed with supreme author- ity, concurred in what had long been the darling wish of Governor Bienville, to transfer the seat of the colonial government to New Orleans, and early in the year 1723 the removal to that city was accomplished, and Biloxi, Mississippi, ceased to be the capital of the Province of Louisiana forever.
The city of New Orleans, at that time, consisted of less than one hundred very humble houses, and contained a population of "between two and three hundred souls !" and presented a very marked contrast to the present pop- ulous and wealthy city enthroned like a queen upon the margin of the mighty Father of Waters, and within hail- ing distance of the Gulf of Mexico, which has been not inaptly termed the "Mediterranean Sea of America."
The condition of the colony had always been one of ab- ject misery. The colonists, looking alone to the home gov- ernment for their food supplies, necessarily involved a constant drain upon the treasury of the French govern- ment, and some idea may be gathered of the great ex- pense incurred, from a memoir of the period, in which it was estimated that the very limited number of people scattered over Louisiana and Mississippi, cost the govern-
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ment of France, for provisions alone, not less than one hundred and fifty thousand livres per annum.
By a treaty of peace entered into between France and Spain in 1723, Pensacola, which had been captured by the French four years previously, was restored to Spain.
On the 16th day of January, 1724, Governor Bienville received a dispatch from the home government which called him to France to make answer to the charges preferred. against him by his numerous enemies. His cousin, Bois- briant, was named for Governor ad interim.
Meantime the condition of the colony was constantly growing worse. To curtail expenses the military force in the colony was reduced from twenty to ten companies of soldiers.
The local government, the Mississippi or India Company, increased the general distress of the people by their insane tinkering with the circulating medium of the colony. Not content with the repudiation of their own paper currency, they attempted to alter the value of the coin of the realm, and the people of to-day will read with surprise, that this legacy of John Law, this child of his fertile brain, this Mississippi Company, not only attempted, but actually did, by public edict, add to, and detract from, the value of the coin of the realm, and Gayarre tells us, " that in the course of two years there was, by successive arbitrary ordinances, a rise and fall of nearly fifty per cent. in the value of the metallic currency of the country." .
In 1724 the white population of Louisiana was, as stated by La Harpe, about seventeen hundred souls. and the black population at thirty-three hundred. In New Orleans and vicinity there were about one thousand souls. includ- ing the troops, and the persons in the employment of the government and the company.
On his arrival in France, in 1725, Bienville presented his defense to the French Government. The combination against him was a very powerful one. It had spent years in maturing its plans, and it was at once apparent that Bienville was to be sacrificed to appease the malice of liis foes. In vain his own gallant services to the crown, and those of his father and brothers were recited. In vain were
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the sacrifices and sufferings of a quarter of a century's ser- vice in the province of Louisiana referred to. His enemies were destined to prevail-Bienville was fated to fall, and his friends were compelled to share with him in his mis- fortune. La Harpe, in what he calls his "historical jour- nal," earnestly defends Bienville against the charges of his enemies, and refers to the fact that during his twenty- seven years service in Louisiana, where he ruled with almost absolute power, while others grew wealthy on the distresses of the colonists, Bienville remained poor, his entire accumulations during his long and arduous service being the paltry sum of twelve thousand dollars. No bet- ter evidence could be adduced of the absolute integrity of the man and the officer.
Bienville having been dismissed from the office of Gov- ernor of the province, M. Periere was appointed in his stead. The fall of Bienville did not dull the malice of his ene- mies. On the contrary, that malice extended to all who bore the name or shared the blood of the deposed Governor of the province. His brothers, Chateaugne and Serigny, both of whom had rendered distinguished service to the government of France, and his nephews, Captain and Ensign Noyan, both gallant officers, were dismissed the service.
The departure of Bienville for France, in 1725, was re- gretted by the entire body of the colonists, who had learned to rely upon his integrity, and by the powerful and war- like tribe of Choctaw Indians, who were satisfied by years of experience, of his wisdom, his justice, and his truth.
Before leaving for France Bienville promulgated the famous "Black Code" of Louisiana, a code of laws estab- lished for the governance of African slaves, which code existed under both French and Spanish rule, and remain- ed in force in Louisiana long after it became a State of the American Union. What connection existed be- tween a code of laws for the government of slaves, and the expulsion of the Jews from the colony, or the declaration that the religion professed by the Roman Catholic Church should be the only religion recognized in the Louisiana colony, is somewhat difficult to discover, but it is never- . 5
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theless true that the promulgation of the black code car- ried with it, in its first article, "The expulsion of the Jews from the Colony," and in its third article, "Per- mitted the exercise of the Roman Catholic creed only. Every other mode of worship is prohibited." It is an odd combination, in which the Jews. the African and the Roman Catholic religion are strangely commingled.
Another singular law was promulgated about this time for the protection of domestic animals. The King of France, in accordance with the request of the Superior Council, issued a royal edict, announcing that the volun- tary killing or maiming of a horse or a horned animal by any one but the owner, should be punishable with death ! and that any person who, without leave from a compe- tent authority, should kill his own horse, his own cow, and sheep, or their young ones, if of the female sex, should pay a fine of three hundred livres ! Referring to the promulga- tion of this edict, Gayarre makes the following apt and pithy comment, the justice of which it is apprehended will be generally conceded :
"The enacting of such a law was no doubt prompted by the necessity of preserving against wanton destruction ani- mals which were so useful to the colony, and which it was extremely important to multiply. But as the human race was quite as scarce in the colony, and of a nobler and more precious nature, it seems that some scale of propor- tion should have been observed between the degrees of punishment to be inflicted for the killing of an ox, or of a man, and that the bipeds and quadrupeds should not have been assimilated under the same ægis of protection. What a wonderful change has taken place in our legislation, in our manners and customs, in the whole state of the coun- try, and in its very bones and sinews since 1724. This change is so great, that we can hardly admit the reality of the evidence, that, only a little better than a century ago, one might have been broken on the wheel, or decapitated in Louisiana, for having maimed or wounded a horse or a cow. It shows that blue laws were not confined to Connec- ticut.
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