NOLA History: New Orleans in 1812

Next year, 2012, is an important milestone in the history of New Orleans. 2012 marks the bicentennial of three events: Louisiana statehood, the War of 1812, and the founding of Faubourg Treme. While the city’s starring role in the war doesn’t take place until 1815, New Orleans was still of strategic importance throughout the 19th Century. In preparation for the bicentennial we’ll be exploring the history of New Orleans in 1812 with a series of articles.

What was New Orleans like in 1812? Official census numbers put the population of the city at 8,500 in 1805, but many believe that number is low, figuring it to be closer to 10,000. The city, along with the rest of the Louisiana Purchase, had been part of the United States for nine years, but New Orleans was still very much Creole. Migrations of French planters from Cuba and Haiti, along with free people from the newly-formed Haitian republic, doubled the size of the city’s French-speaking population.

What about the Americans? Movement from the original thirteen colonies to the interior was in full swing, but this movement was more east-to-west than north-to-south. With the acquisition of Louisiana, Lewis and Clark headed west from St. Louis in 1804 (reaching the Pacific coast the following year), but most of the traffic between the American midwest and New Orleans was still explorers, trappers, and traders. Steamboats wouldn’t begin going back up the Mississippi until 1817, and Memphis, TN wasn’t founded until 1819.

This meant New Orleans had more in common with the various French and Spanish colonies along the Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean. The Creoles didn’t quite understand the intrigues of James Wilkinson, the first American governor of Louisiana, and his relationship with Aaron Burr. New Orleans continued to look to Europe, where former colonial masters France and Spain were still entwined in conflict with Great Britain and Russia. The Royal Navy, with its powerful presence in Jamaica and blockades of the French and Spanish coasts, was a strong influence on trade between the city and Europe.

New Orleans in 1812 had four basic neighborhoods. The main part of the city was what we now call the Vieux Carre’ (French Quarter), or “old square.” Across Canal Street, heading upriver, was Faubourg Ste. Marie. This neighborhood, which came to be known as the “American Quarter,” was slow to develop; in 1812, only two or three blocks up from Canal were laid out. Most of the land just downriver from the city had been part of a plantation owned by Bernard Xavier Philippe de Marigny de Mandeville. Beginning in 1806, de Marigny began to subdivide his land, taking advantage of the chaos in the Caribbean by selling plots where refugees with financial means could build homes and make a new start. Faubourg Marigny continued to grow, with de Marigny selling plots of land well into the 1820s.

To the north of the Vieux Carre was the city’s first cemetery, St. Louis Number One. As the swampland around the cemetery was drained and developed, another neighborhood emerged. By 1812, it became what we now know as Faubourg Treme.

This didn’t mean the land continuing upriver was undeveloped; it had been parceled out as plantations decades earlier. Planters regularly came into the city, many maintaining houses and apartments in town so they could conduct business of all sorts in the port.

The rich, fertile, farmland of the Mississippi Delta provided ample crops and livestock to feed the population of the city. Activity in the port attracted skilled and unskilled laborers alike, as well as tradesmen and professionals in various fields. Ship traffic moving through the port kept New Orleans in constant contact with Cuba, the Caribbean, and Europe. Exploration of the American interior was turning rapidly into settlement, making New Orleans an exciting place to be in 1812!

Edward Branley is the author of three books on New Orleans, Maison Blanche Department Stores (available 10/31/11), New Orleans: The Canal Streetcar Line, and Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans. He enjoys sharing his knowledge of the city’s history and culture with readers of his blogs, DailyKos.com, as well as speaking to various organizations in the metro area. He is @YatPundit on Twitter.

Tagged as: Louisiana Purchase, New Orleans bicentennial, New Orleans History, New Orleans in 1812, war of 1812