The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 doubled the size of the United States and added over 800,000 square miles of territory west of the Mississippi River for $15 million. This culturally and ethnically diverse region had a French and Spanish colonial heritage and followed the Napoleonic Code rather than English common law. Louisiana became the 18th state in 1812 after meeting population requirements through immigration and with a constitution written in New Orleans. Two hundred years later, Louisiana retains a unique culture that blends French, Spanish, Catholic, and American influences.

2. Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the
United States of America of 828,000 square miles
of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana on
December 20, 1803.

3. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus
cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs
($3,750,000), for a total sum of 15 million dollars
(less than 3 cents per acre) for the Louisiana
territory.

4. The Louisiana Purchase added to the United States a
region very different from others on the American map.
Louisiana had a more ethnically and racially
diverse population than many parts of the
United States, and its political and social
systems were deeply rooted in the French and
Spanish colonial period.

5. Louisiana was named by explorer René-Robert
Cavelier in the mid 1600's to honor King Louis XIV
of France.

6. In 1804, the Louisiana Territory had a population of 35,932.
It did not have the population to qualify for statehood.

7. Massive immigration of both free and enslaved
Americans into the Territory saw the population
surge past the 60,000-person requirement by
1810.

8. According to the 1810 census, more than
76,000 people, about half black and half
white, resided in the Territory of
Orleans.

9.  Louisiana was the first state to have a
majority Catholic French- and Spanish-
speaking population.
 Louisiana's distinctive
French Catholic Creole
culture eventually blended
with the American English
Protestant culture to create
a distinct Creole-American
society.

10. Territory of Orleans
In 1804, the newly
acquired Louisiana
Territory was
subdivided, and the
portion below the
33rd parallel, which
eventually formed
the state of
Louisiana, was
named the Territory
of Orleans.

12. After the Orleans Territory came under U.S. rule, legal
battles ensued over the interpretation of the Civil Code,
which places emphasis on codified community laws, and
Common Law, which places greater reliance on judges for
legal interpretation over the traditional Catholic Rule.

13.  Cultural differences between Creoles and
Americans manifested themselves in a
variety of ways immediately after the
Louisiana Purchase. Creole residents of
colonial Louisiana had lived under the
Catholic Church, a political monarchy, and
the legal Civil (Napoleonic) Code.

14. In contrast, the new American political laws
enforced religious freedom, republican
democracy, and English common law.

15. Today Louisiana remains the only U.S. state
that follows the Civil Code, which is the most
common legal system in the world.

16. The United States government made Louisiana
residents go through a trial period before
admitting Louisiana as a state.

17. In 1811 President James Madison signed a
bill allowing the people of Louisiana to form
a state constitution.

18.  This was the first time it had
been proposed to make a
new state out of lands that
had not been part of the
original thirteen states.
 Some lawmakers feared this
would shift the balance of
political power west of the
Mississippi.
 Despite opposition, the bill
passed congress by a large
majority.

19. After the bill for
statehood was
passed, a
convention of forty-
three delegates met
at Tremoulet’s
Coffee House, in
November of 1811,
to write a
constitution for the
state of Louisiana. It
was presided over
by prominent planter
and politician Julien
Poydras.

20. Following the state constitutional convention in New Orleans
on April 14, 1812, President Madison signed the bill
approving statehood.
The bill
designated April
30, 1812, as
the day of
formal
admission.

21. William C. C. Claiborne
In 1812 Louisiana
voters elected
William C. C.
Claiborne to be the
first governor.

22. Governor William C.C. Claiborne (1772-1817)
 1816: Claiborne won an election for U.S.
senator, but died less than a year into his
term.
 Today his descendants include
former congresswoman and
ambassador Lindy Boggs
and designer Liz Claiborne.

23. State Flag
Louisiana's flag, though used since the 1800s, was not
officially adopted until 1912. The design consists of the
pelican group from the state seal, in white and gold,
and a white ribbon bearing the state motto, on a field
of a solid blue.

24. State Seal
The state seal was adopted in 1902 and features a
pelican tearing flesh from its own breast to feed
its young. The pelican and its three young are
surrounded by the Louisiana motto, "Union,
Justice, Confidence."

25. Baton Rouge

26. New Orleans

27. New Orleans
The Cabildo, on Jackson Square in New Orleans, was headquarters for Spanish
colonial administration. Built in 1795, it hosted the formal transfer of the Louisiana
Purchase from France to the United States in 1803. The building is now the
Louisiana State Museum.

28. Natchitoches
Metoyer Descendants, owners of Melrose Plantation
 Natchitoches is Louisiana's oldest settlement. At
the time of statehood, Natchitoches' population
stood under 2,000 persons but contained one of
the largest and wealthiest communities of Free
Persons of Color in the U.S.

29. Natchitoches
In the 1990s, the National Park Service designated the Natchitoches-
Cane River region as a National Heritage Area because of its distinct
Creole culture and today interprets the two historic Magnolia and Oakland
plantations for the public.

30. Monroe
Originally founded as the Spanish settlement of Fort Miro, the American town was
established in 1807.
 At the time of statehood, Prairie de Canots, as the settlement was
then known, was small but grew in importance with the rise of the
cotton in the mid-1800s and lumber in the early 1900s.

31. Alexandria
 Originally established as a trade post (post des rapides) in the
1780s, Alexandria was officially incorporated in 1819, and
emerged as an important cotton and lumber trade center for the
lower Red River Valley in the 1800s.
Bailey's Dam under construction on the Red River at
Alexandria, Louisiana, in May of 1865
Kent House
At the time of statehood, it remained a small river trade settlement.

32. Agriculture
Cotton and sugar crops were central to the growth of
Louisiana as a state.

33. Sugar Cane
The southern portion of the state emerged as
a sugar cane-growing region.

34. Cotton
Cotton plantations grew quickly in the central parishes
as well as along the Red River.

35. Two hundred years after statehood, Louisiana remains one
of the most distinctive states in the union. The state's rich
Creole heritage, the organization of parishes as local
political units, and the celebration of Catholic traditions
such as Mardi Gras.