Beautiful Crescent: A History of New Orleans

by Garvey, John B.

  Queen Anne’s War ended disastrously for France, causing her to lose all of her colonies in America and nearly all in India. Her loss of Canada made the Louisiana colonists fear that there would soon be a change in domination. Indeed, on November 13, 1762, the king of Spain, Charles III, accepted by the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau the gift of Louisiana from his cousin, Louis XV, the king of France.

  Once before, in 1761, Louis XV had tried to give Louisiana to Spain in exchange for a loan on the condition that Spain would enter the war against England. Spain had refused. Now, in 1762, England declared war on Spain, and was wreaking havoc with Spain’s colonial possessions. France wanted peace with England, but this was impossible as long as England and Spain were at war. So, once again in 1762, Louis XV offered Louisiana to his cousin Charles III, but this time not on the grounds of entering the war but ending it. When England took Havana and invaded Florida, Spain accepted the offer. Louis XV truly believed that he was giving Spain something of little value. France had owned Louisiana since 1699 and had received no profit from it. In fact, France had spent huge sums of money on the territory. The king considered this loss one that would bring him little sorrow.

  The treaty was kept secret and on February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the French and Indian War. In this treaty, Louis XV ceded to England all of Canada and everything east of the Mississippi (except the Isle of Orleans, which had already secretly been given to Spain). Britain returned to Spain the Philippine Islands and Cuba in return for both East and West Florida. (After 1763, the British settled in Florida and the portion of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. This included the territory from Baton Rouge eastward through the Florida parishes to the Perdido River north of Lake Pontchartrain. Great Britain divided these colonies into East and West Florida.)

  The fact that New Orleans had been ceded to Spain remained unknown to the people of the city for almost two years. In truth, they were not too interested. During Kerlerec’s loose administration, they had done pretty much what they wanted. They had traded with the Americans, English, and Spanish, whomever suited their purposes. They weren’t interested in being governed by anyone. France had been negligent in its controls, and while the people of New Orleans had no great desire for independence, they did have a great desire for noninterference.

  As we leave this period of French colonialism, we find Louisiana an area with great style and little substance, relatively speaking, still in need of farmers for food supplies and products for export. The people still depended on trade for most of their other needs. The colonists of New Orleans were traders, not farmers. They preferred bargaining for their food to growing it.

  The historian Joe Gray Taylor titled this period “a study in failure” (Taylor 1976, 3). This seems a trifle harsh. John Law, on the other hand, had touted Louisiana “a little Paris.” A Paris it was not, but it was not too different from other infant colonies. One remarkable characteristic of the French in Louisiana was the staying power of their language, their customs, and their culture. Their influence on New Orleans has never been lost, though many other ethnic groups have settled in large numbers.

  The feeling, the flair, and the style of the city always were and still are French. The love of balls, celebrations, and holidays is a large part of its lifestyle. It was this lack of restraint that shocked the Spanish and surprised Americans coming into the city in the years to follow. The loose keeping of the Sabbath and the easy interpretation of religion that the French Catholics allowed amazed these newcomers, who jokingly remarked that it was caused by the humidity.

  The colony had not been fortunate in its governing officers, however. Taylor tells us, “Probably the origin of chronic corruption in Louisiana government can be traced back to the French attitude that political office was a form of property from which the holder should profit.”

  All of these harsh words were directed against French colonialism because the French approached Louisiana as a money-maker. It was never that, and so, in one way, it must be admitted that it was a failure. But a city was established, trade had begun, and New Orleans was a living, breathing, seductive lady, to whom much had happened. Now, the lady was to become Spanish, or so the treaty said.

  General Alessandro O’Reilly, sent to take over Louisiana for Spain in 1769.

  CHAPTER IV

  The Spanish Period

  Although the city remained tenaciously French throughout the period of Spanish domination, Spain’s influence in New Orleans is still felt today. Spanish colonial Louisiana became part of the existing Spanish colonial administrative structure, in which the governor of New Orleans reported to the governor general in Havana, Cuba, who in turn reported to the viceroy of New Spain in Mexico.

  New Orleans was strategically positioned within the transportation and communications systems of the Gulf of Mexico’s half moon that linked Cuba, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Mexico’s Gulf Coast and Yucatan with the rest of Central America. During the antebellum period and after, the port of New Orleans was a nexus of trade in goods and slaves, smuggling and piracy, capital ventures, immigration and emigration, troop movements, filibustering adventurers, and travel between the eastern United States and southern tips of North America.

  The first Spanish-language newspaper in the United States, El Misisipi, was founded in New Orleans in 1808. Prior to the Civil War, at least twenty-three periodicals in Spanish were published in the city. New York, the nearest contender of Spanish-speaking populations, had only thirteen newspapers. The major French language newspapers, L’Abeille and L’Avenir du peuple, both printed Spanish language sections throughout the 1830s.

  Nineteenth century expatriates and émigrés from around the Caribbean and Spanish America would have found New Orleans the least alienating city in the nation—besides the substantial population of Spanish speakers, most of their educated classes knew French and could get by without speaking a word of English. New Orleans’s dominance of the banana industry brought in massive waves of Hondurans in the 1940s, followed later by Cubans in the 1960s and other groups up through the present (Gruesz 2002).

  When the French colonials came to Louisiana, they brought their wives and families, and so their heritage remained intact. When the Spanish settlers came, they came in smaller numbers. Men often came alone and married Creole girls native to Louisiana. The language spoken in most of their homes was, therefore, French, as were the customs and traditions. The Spanish were assimilated into the already-established French way of life and made little change in the people they controlled. They were, perhaps, more sober in their Catholicism than the pleasure-loving French Creoles, but in time, the French even managed to convert the Spanish to a more lethargic religious life.

  The word “Creole” derives from the Spanish criollo, “a child born in the colonies,” according to John Churchill Chase in Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children . . . (1960). Therefore, native-born Orleanians of Spanish and French descent were designated Creoles, even if their parents were strictly European.

  Only one group of Spanish settlers arrived en masse to stay. They were the Canary Islanders, who settled in St. Bernard Parish in 1778. Colonists migrated to Louisiana from Spanish Florida and settled in the parish called New Iberia (New Spain).

  The most indelible impression left by the Spanish from their forty-year rule (1762-1800) is the Spanish style of architecture with which the Vieux Carré is stamped. Even this was the outcome of accident, not purposeful design, as we shall see.

  As to the beginning of Spanish rule, it is well to say that at the outset, the change in administration was not made without a struggle. The transfer of Louisiana from France to Spain had been legalized in the Treaty of Fontainebleau on November 23, 1762, but the treaty had been kept secret to all but the Spanish. The king of France continued to act as sovereign over Louisiana.

  In 1763, because of problems with the hierarchy of the Church, the Jesuits were expelled from the province of Louisiana and from the entire French Empire
. The Jesuit Order was disbanded throughout the world. The property of the Jesuits in New Orleans was confiscated, including land that had once been part of Bienville’s plantation. The Jesuits were reinstated by Pope Pius VII in 1801, and in 1837, began the first Catholic college for boys, St. Charles College in Grand Coteau. By 1847, they had established the second college in New Orleans, the College of the Immaculate Conception. The confiscation of their property in 1763 was questioned by a former Jesuit student, Thomas J. Semmes, because the French had ordered the confiscation when, by treaty, Louisiana had already been ceded to Spain. Semmes was right, but the Jesuits wisely dropped the suit since it would have involved most of downtown New Orleans.

  On April 21, 1764, Louis XV sent a letter to Jean-Jacques Blaise d’Abbadie, governor of Louisiana, informing him and the colonists of the formal transfer of Louisiana to Spain. Both governments seem to have been responsible for the delay in transferring the colony. The Spaniards felt that they needed a larger contingent of troops to take possession of Louisiana. The French Minister of State, the Duke of Choiseul, suggested that the French soldiers in Louisiana enlist in the Spanish army. Spain agreed, and the obstacle seemed to be overcome.

  When the colonists heard, in October 1764, of the concession to Spain, they were despondent. They had had a great affection for France in spite of the infamous Louis XV. But more than that, they had enjoyed the laissez-faire type of government and the freedom of trade they had been allowed. Many colonists left West Florida when it was ceded to England in 1763 and came to New Orleans hoping to remain Frenchmen. A meeting of the Superior Council was held, to which prominent colonists were called to discuss the event. At the meeting, the attorney-general, Nicolas Chauvin de Lafrenière, suggested that a representative be sent to Louis XV to ask him to revoke the act of concession. Jean Milhet, a wealthy merchant, was sent on this mission.

  In Paris, Milhet visited Bienville, then eighty-four years old. Together, they called on the Duke of Choiseul, who refused to let them see the king, expressed his sympathy, and told them that the concession was a fait accompli. Milhet was not to return to New Orleans until 1767 to report the news. For a while, the citizens of New Orleans had begun to hope that the Spanish king would not take possession of the colony. He had not appeared anxious to do so. More than three years had passed since the Treaty of Fontainebleau, and no Spanish official had yet appeared on the scene.

  Don Antonio de Ulloa

  On July 10, 1765, however, Don Antonio de Ulloa wrote to the Superior Council of New Orleans from Havana to inform them that he had been appointed Governor of Louisiana by Charles III of Spain. He arrived in New Orleans on March 5, 1766, and was greeted by the French Commandant and the acting governor, Charles Philippe Aubry, who had succeeded d’Abbadie on his death in February 1765.

  Ulloa did not assume authority in a public way. He had with him only two companies of infantry (a total of ninety men), since he had anticipated many enlistments among the French soldiers in Louisiana, but the French troops were unwilling to enlist in the Spanish army.

  This remained one of the problems that plagued Ulloa throughout his stay in the colony. Another important obstacle to good relations with the colonists was the decision of the Spanish court to enforce typical Spanish mercantile restrictions on trade in Louisiana. Two such decrees (in 1766 and 1768) prohibited trade with any country except Spain and its colonies. The colonists had long been free of such restrictions and were unwilling to submit to these hardships. A third conflict arose when Ulloa offered to exchange French currency for Spanish at seventy-five percent of its value, a ratio established by Louis XV. The colonists were furious but powerless.

  Never during his stay did Ulloa have sufficient funds to operate the government of the colony. The allotment was set at 150,000 pesos annually for the Louisiana colony from the treasury of New Spain. Repeatedly, Ulloa wrote letters, pleading for additional funds, as he was unable to pay salaries to those in the employ of the Spanish government, but funds were not forthcoming.

  Trouble between Ulloa and the Superior Council arose almost as soon as he arrived in Louisiana. Acting on Aubry’s advice, Ulloa refused to present his credentials to the Superior Council, even when they demanded to see them. The document of transfer, turning over the government of the colony to Ulloa, was signed by Governor Aubry only, and not in the capital city of New Orleans, but at the fort of La Balize at the mouth of the river. No member of the Superior Council was present.

  All this was done in La Balize, because Aubry warned Ulloa that the transfer could never be made in New Orleans without a large contingent of troops. Spanish control of the colony would not be recognized, in any case, until the Spanish flag flew over the Place d’Armes in New Orleans, but the status of the colony was never in doubt after 1764. The colonists recognized Ulloa as their governor, even if they did so half-heartedly. The use of Spanish currency was proof enough that the colony was a Spanish possession. Nevertheless, the colonists were prepared to oppose Ulloa and the Spanish government in every way possible.

  Actually, Ulloa was a man of merit, a formal naval officer and a distinguished scientist. Until 1764, he had been in Peru as governor of Huancavelica, where he undoubtedly met the Peruvian Marchioness d’Abrado, whom he married by proxy. The historian Gayarré describes Ulloa as a man “of medium stature, with stooped shoulders and pale cheeks . . . tactless, highly sensitive to criticism . . . retiring and unsociable” (Gayarré 1885, 270-71). It is no wonder the Creole colonists considered him haughty and “strange.” Even today, it seems strange that he waited in the fort at La Balize for seven months for his Peruvian bride without once coming to the city of New Orleans. In truth, it was through Aubry that Ulloa governed Louisiana during his entire stay in the province.

  In 1767, Milhet returned from France with the story of his failure. This news, in addition to the hostility aggravated by the trade restrictions, brought about an event known in history as the Revolution of 1768. It began with the signing of a petition by 560 influential colonists, asking the Superior Council to order Ulloa to present to that body his credentials, proving legitimacy of the Spanish regime he headed or face banishment as a disturber of the peace. Ulloa refused, considering himself the legal governor and therefore not subject to the demands of the Council. An impasse had been reached.

  After this, armed bands of colonists from the outskirts of the city, including Acadians and Germans and led by Joseph Villere, arrived in New Orleans. Fearing for Ulloa’s safety, Aubry convinced the governor to take refuge on board the Spanish frigate El Volante, anchored in the New Orleans harbor, while Aubry tried to calm the rebels. On November 1, 1768, Ulloa set sail for Havana. Legend has it that his ship was set adrift by drunken patriots returning from a wedding party. The Spaniard was thus expelled from the colony, and the revolution appeared to have succeeded.

  The colonists continued in their opposition. They had the Superior Council draw up a document entitled Representation to Louis XV, which was carried to France by Ensign Bienville de Noyan, a nephew of Governor Bienville, and other delegates, but the king refused to see them. It was becoming clear that Louis XV had disowned his subjects in Louisiana. The colonists in New Orleans, now numbering only 3,190 including slaves, could no longer resist the power of the king of Spain.

  General O’Reilly

  At this time, Don Alejandro O’Reilly, an Irish soldier of fortune and exile from religious persecution in his native country, now in the service of the king of Spain, was appointed governor and captain general of the province of Louisiana. He is known today as the Father of Spanish Louisiana.

  O’Reilly had an extraordinary military background. Because of his outstanding service in the Seven Years’ War and later in the reoccupation of Havana in 1763, he was recalled to Madrid. With his excellent record, he was appointed lieutenant general on July 15, 1767. Such zeal as he had exhibited in the service of King Charles III did not go unnoticed. The king believed him the right man to suppress the rebellion in Louisi
ana and establish proper colonial administration.

  King Charles sent O’Reilly with a cedula, appointing him commander of the expedition to bring Louisiana to order, “to take possession of it in my Royal Name . . . and punish according to the law, the instigators and accomplices of the uprising which occurred in New Orleans . . . I give you . . . such power and jurisdiction as shall be necessary . . .” (Texada 1970, 29).

  O’Reilly arrived at La Balize on July 20, 1769, on a frigate accompanied by 20 other ships and 2,056 soldiers, 46 cannons of various sizes, mortars, a large supply of arms and ammunition, medical provisions, and food. He sent his aide-de-camp, Lt. Col. Bouligny, with a letter to Charles Aubry, notifying the French of his arrival, informing Aubry of his royal commission to take possession of the colony, and asking his cooperation. Bouligny was greeted in New Orleans by a large crowd, including three Spanish officers who had been detailed by the colonists as security for debts owed them by the Spanish government. He proceeded to Aubry’s home to deliver the letter. Aubry now promised his cooperation and assembled the colonists in the Plaza to inform them of O’Reilly’s arrival.

  Three representatives were sent to greet O’Reilly. They promised submission and explained that their rebellion had been brought about by the “severe nature of Don Antonio and the subversion of privileges, which had been assured in the act of cession. . . .” (Texada 1970, 29). Then they asked for time sufficient for those who wished to immigrate to do so.

  O’Reilly replied that he wanted to become well-informed about the events that occurred before he acted. The men dined with him and then returned to New Orleans, full of admiration for O’Reilly.

  During the night of August 16, 1769, the Spanish convoy moved quietly into the city of New Orleans, and the colonists were awakened on the August 17 by cannon shot from the flotilla. When they arrived at the river, they found the Spanish fleet at anchor.