How Did The French Revolution Affect Louisiana

Kaitlin Pennington

The Accidental City

From the time French settlers first came to Louisiana to Spanish control of Louisiana to Louisiana in the era after the American Revolution, there have been many turns of events. Some of these events were significant enough to completely change Louisiana’s course of history. In The Accidental City, James Powell gives us an insight to the unpredicted creation of the city of New Orleans and how much of an affect that it had on the people and the future state of Louisiana.

Early in the French colonial era of Louisiana, the settlers lived peacefully with the Native Americans. “ In times of famine, various Indian nations […] fed the colony, even taking settlers and soldiers into their villages when colonial

The French were able to capture and enslave most of the remaining Natchez in 1730 with the help of the Choctaw Indians. Eventually the Natchez ceased to exist by 1735. The Natchez revolt was a huge setback for the French colony in Louisiana. The Natchez revolt “not only wiped out the tobacco concessions recently established near its villages, but also massacred the military garrison Bienville had installed at the site thirteen years earlier.” (p. 83). The revolt affected the French economy greatly. At the time, Louisiana relied heavily on mercantilism. “In French mercantilism, Louisiana’s assigned role was to become the kingdom’s sole source of tobacco and thus to free France from its dependence on Chesapeake tobacco re-exported from England.” (p. 93). The Natchez revolt “ effectively knocked the props from under tobacco production in Louisiana.” (p. 94). With the economy suffered greatly, the French realized that Louisiana was taking more than it could give back. The French pulled out of trade with Louisiana. Without mercantilism, New Orleans turned to smuggling to survive. In addition to the revolt affecting the economy, it also affected the social order of Louisiana. The major decrease in tobacco production gave slaves less work to do. Slave life shifted from strict slavery to more of an indentured servitude. The slaves were given some land to live on and they had to start feeding themselves. They were now allowed to wander freely and even hunt and fish with weapons. New Orleans went from being the French’s new world empire to an embarrassment to the crown. It went from a mercantilist economy to a smuggling city. In the end, the victory of finally defeating the Natchez came at a much greater cost than the French leaders of New Orleans