Louisiana Timeline 1800-1850

Historic Events

Pre 1600        1600-1700        1700-1750        1750-1800        1850-1900        1900-1925        1925-1950

Louisiana -  1800-1850

In 1800, after the revolution in France and under the rule of the First Consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, France won the territory back from Spain, building up troops in readiness for an assault on St Domingue and New Orleans. However, with his troops dying of yellow fever and the fight with England draining his resources, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the United States in 1803 for $15,000,000.

Following the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) a further 10,000 refugees were added to the population of Louisiana.

Marie Laveau was born in 1801.

Louisiana was purchased from the French on April 11th 1803 for $15 million.

Meriwether Lewis met his untimely and mysterious death on October 11th 1809 on the Natchez in what was then Louisiana territory.

On January 8th 1811, a failed slave uprising in the vicinity of New Orleans, ended with the heads of the slaughtered slaves being strung up outside the city.

The first steamboat arrived in New Orleans in 1812 and on April 30th, Louisiana joined the Union becoming the 18th state..

In 1815 the British army attempted an assault on New Orleans. Andrew Jackson defeated them in what became known as the Battle of New Orleans. Britain and France had been at war for three years but it had ended with a treaty two weeks before the battle, neither side had received news of the treaty. The site of the battle can be visited at Chalmette Battlefield and National Cemetery. 8606, W St Bernard Highway, Chalmette, LA 70043.

The pirate Jean Lafitte died in 1823.

In 1832 an epidemic of fellow fever and cholera claimed the lives of over 5,000 victims.

The first New Orleans locomotive streetcar was established in 1835 on St Charles Street.

The World Cotton Centennial or World's Fair, was held in New Orleans in 1844, when around one third of the nation's cotton passed through the city.

1849 Maunsel White made the first experimental batch of hot sauce, extracted from peppers imported from the Tabasco region of Mexico.

The Mississippi River levee breach in 1849 caused some of the worse flooding that the city of New Orleans had experienced with around 12,000 people losing their homes.

 

America - 1800-1850

In June of the year 1800, the US capital moved to Washington from Philadelphia.

On February 11th, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was elected President of the United States.

The Lewis and Clark (Meriwether Lewis and William Clark) expedition left St. Louis, Missouri in 1803, retuning in 1806.

In 1808 James Madison was elected President and set about regaining control of territories where France, Spain and England still had an interest. With France and Spain he reached amicable agreements but Britain proved difficult.
In the same year the importation of slave was prohibited.

America declared war on Britain in 1812 over freedom of the seas. For obvious reasons, this was known as the War of 1812.

In 1828 Congress passed the "Tariff of Abominations", as labeled by the South. It was a tariff which protected manufacturing interests of the Northern States at the expense of the Southern sates. But increasing the GDP of the country as a whole.

In 1821 New York gave free blacks the right to vote.

The pirate Jean Lafitte died after a battle at sea on February 5th 1823.

In 1824, Mexico established the Federal Republic of Texas

A little known fort called the Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas, was under siege from February 23 – March 6, 1836. American heroes such as William B. Travis, Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie were among those killed. Then on April 21, Sam Houston's army of Texans, defeated and captured Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto, marking the final stage of Texas' fight for independence.

Confederate war hero Sam Davis was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee on October 6, 1842.

In 1843 P.T. Barnum opened the American Museum on Broadway, New York and for the following 23 years this was one of the city's most popular tourist attractions. This was many years before the Circus collaboration, bearing his name.

The World's first telegraph wire was connected between Washington and Baltimore in 1844.

Salt Lake City was founded by the Mormons in 1847.

1848 witnessed the start of the California gold rush.

A cholera epidemic killed 5,000 people in New York in 1849.

The World - 1800-1850

Haiti declared its independence from French in 1804, becoming the first black colony to release itself from European rule and Napoleon Bonaparte was made Emperor of France.

Admiral Horatio nelson leads a British attack of the Franco-Spanish fleet at Cape Trafalgar on the south coast of Spain. However the British victory was marred by the death of Nelson.

England launched the first passenger train service in 1807.

In 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated in the Battle of Waterloo by Britain and her allies, Belgium, Germany, Holland and Prussia.

The first ever photograph was taken in 1826 by Joseph-Nicéphore Niepce.

The accordion, an intrinsic part of Cajun and Creole music, was invented in Vienna in 1828.

England outlawed slavery in 1833.

Britain gained control of Hong Kong after the so-called Opium War, between 1839 and 1842.

In Australia in 1844 the Protection of Children Act was passed, allowing Christian missionaries to kidnap and covert Aboriginal children. This lasted for nearly 120 years.

In 1846 scientists discovered cholesterol in blood.