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ORLEANS, Louisiana in the 1840s: 1 through 10 of 14

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  1. Governor Claiborne Remembered 23 Years After Death...
    date January 20, 1840 to August, 1840map ORLEANS, Louisianatags New Orleans, Government, Politics, Urban Society, Governor Claiborne, Law, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War, Battle of New Orleans

    All the earth stood silent on December 20, 1803, as the Mississippi territorial governor rode in on the streets of New Orleans. Beautiful women adorned the balconies that hung over the Place d' Armes. Each country, represented by its own amount of officials and military, watched as the France flag descended and the American flag ascended succinctly down the pole, meeting halfway to acknowledge...

  2. From Freedom to Slavery
    date 1841map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Economy, Migration/Transportation, Race-Relations, Slavery

    Born and raised a freeman, Solomon Northup met a group of men in his hometown of Saratoga Springs one March day in 1841. They claimed to have heard of his propensity at the violin and requested to hire him to accompany their traveling circus performances. The pay was quite reasonable and Northup eagerly took on the job. He accompanied them the entire way down to Washington, D.C. without realizing that...

  3. Inheriting Property
    date September 22, 1842map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Economy, Migration/Transportation, Native-Americans, Slavery, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    By the 1840s, it was clear to most Americans that the United States existed on a fair bit of land. This vast space stretched westward, father than many imaginations even reached. Word trickled back east of rich soil and bountiful harvests, but also of great hardships. Thousands of Native Americans perished on the over 2000 mile long Trail of Tears in 1838. It was in this context that O.G. Murrell...

  4. The Louisiana Constitution of 1845
    date January 14, 1845map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Crime/Violence, Economy, Education, Race-Relations, Slavery

    By 1845, the public mind of Louisiana had decided that the state's current constitution, constructed in 1812, was too outmoded and contained too prominent elements of an aristocratic mindset. The Jacksonian idea of “equal ability of all' and the Democratic Party's characterization of the “common man' was pervasive, while the wealthy landowners and aristocrats still in existence became entrenched...

  5. A Country Wedding in 1846
    date November, 1846map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Arts/Leisure, Church/Religious-Activity, Women

    One November afternoon, Eliza Moore Chinn McHatten Ripley and her brother Dick set off for a farm not too far outside of their home in New Orleans. This short journey became a longer one as transportation troubles and creek flooding slowed them down. Eventually, Eliza and Dick found a place to stay over for a night before continuing on their way the following morning. They finally reached the farm...

  6. New Orleans Courts report thousands of whites recently jailed for vagrancy
    date 1847 to May 2, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Crime/Violence, Urban-Life/Boosterism

    As of May 2, 1847 the New Orleans Court Recorder reported that thousands of whites had been sentenced to the workhouse for acts of vagrancy. Often times the courts handed down these sentences without proof, trial, or opportunity to appeal. The fate of these vagrants represents a common occurrence throughout the South. Around this time period in South Carolina the leadership sold vagrants into slavery...

  7. The Runaway Slave
    date April 14, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags African-Americans, Law, Race-Relations, Slavery, Women

    For many enslaved people in the Deep South, slavery was the only way of life they had ever known. Regardless, stories of the North and specifically, a place referred to as Philadelphia, were incentive enough to prompt some to brave the terrifying unknown and escape the even more terrifying world in which they were already bound. At some point during the day - or perhaps it was the night - of April...

  8. Louisiana's Involvement in the Mexican War
    date July 8, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Politics, Urban-Life/Boosterism, War

    By the summer of 1847, the Mexican War had been going on for just over a year. Newspapers kept citizens up to date with daily progress by their American troops south of the border, including lists of the casualties as well as those enlisting. New Orleans residents opened up their Times Picayunes the morning of July 8 to read a familiar notice, entitled Departure of Troops. It announced that the steamship...

  9. Yellow Fever Epidemic in Louisiana
    date August 3, 1847 to October 18, 1847map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Health/Death

    In the summer of 1847, New Orleans became victim to another regular widespread epidemic of yellow fever. On Tuesday, August 3rd, The Daily Picayune stated that the Board of Health apprised the public that New Orleans was on the eve of an epidemic. They called for “the unacclimated who remain with us to heed the counsel of the board and avoid such exposure and imprudence as may increase their...

  10. The Theatre of Everyday Life
    date January 1, 1848 to January 1, 1850map ORLEANS, Louisianatags Women, Urban Society

    As the daughter of Don Andres Almonaster y Rojas, the Cabildo's original benefactor, the Baroness Pontalba was no stranger to the notion of civic duty expressing itself through architecture. After a tumultuous marriage and divorce to a Parisian nobleman, sensationalized in various newspapers, she returned permanently to her hometown and sought to transplant the culture and sophistication she had grown...

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