City History: New Orleans

With the Spanish governor away on business, New Orleans area plantation owners induce a manhunt for the most famous maroon leader in Louisiana: Juan San Malo (also known as Jean Saint Malo). READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette Spaniards, Planters, and Slaves: The Spanish Regulation of Slavery in Louisiana, 1763–1803 by Gilbert C. Din Africans In Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth-Century by Gwendolyn Midlo Hall SOUNDS: French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav by volivieri -- https://freesound.org/s/110012/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Spain angers New Orleans plantation owners by rewriting the slavery codes. Maroon settlements offer an alternative way of life for enslaved people who run away. This upsets the slavocracy. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette Spaniards, Planters, and Slaves: The Spanish Regulation of Slavery in Louisiana, 1763–1803 by Gilbert C. Din https://64parishes.org/entry/slavery-in-french-colonial-louisiana SOUNDS: French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav by volivieri -- https://freesound.org/s/110012/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Spain builds up New Orleans but can't contain smuggling. White and black militias fight against the British in the American Revolution. Three hurricanes hit New Orleans in three years. The Great New Orleans Fires of 1788 and 1794 destroy almost all that's left. READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette "Early American Hurricanes, 1492-1870" by David M. Ludlum https://64parishes.org/entry/spanish-colonial-louisiana https://64parishes.org/entry/hurricanes-in-louisiana SOUNDS: French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav by volivieri -- https://freesound.org/s/110012/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

France gives New Orleans to Spain as an apology for dragging it into the Seven Years' War. New Orleans expels the first Spanish governor, Antonio de Ulloa. Spain sends the Irish-born Alejandro O'Reilly to lay down the law. (Sometimes known as the Revolt of 1768, the Creole Revolt or the Insurrection of 1768.) READ MORE: The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans by Lawrence N. Powell The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square by Ned Sublette https://64parishes.org/entry/french-colonial-louisiana https://64parishes.org/entry/code-noir-of-louisiana https://64parishes.org/entry/insurrection-of-1768 SOUNDS: French Quarter Bourbon walk.wav by volivieri -- https://freesound.org/s/110012/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Rebuilding after a catastrophic storm and the failure of Enlightenment planning. The rise of urban slavery and the skilled labor enslaved people provided. Widespread smuggling, barter economies, and neglect from France. Markets where enslaved and free Black people operated with relative autonomy. Growth of a large free people of color population and shifting racial and social norms.

A tour of New Orleans' risky geography and flood-prone location. Tales of early European efforts to find the Mississippi's mouth and the tricky delta navigation. The French gamble on a colonial empire and John Law's speculative finance that drove the city's impulsive founding and chaotic early years.