What Happened to the People of Louisiana?

According to the 1800 U.S. census, there were 5.3 million people living in the United States. The 1810 U.S. census showed the Louisiana Purchase territory had a population of 97,000. Author Peter J. Kastor estimated that at the time the treaty was signed, the Louisiana Purchase included 11,000 slaves and 1,500 free blacks (Kastor).

Population Boom
Depending on the estimates, the Louisiana Territory added almost 100,000 people to the United States, an increase of nearly 1.9 percent. That may not sound like a lot, but consider that increase today: The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are about 300 million people living in the United States today. A 1.9 percent increase would be just under 6 million people, or about the population of the state of Missouri. (U.S. Census Bureau)

These mostly French-speaking people of Louisiana, who had been under Spanish rule for some time, had to be told they were now Americans. And many in the U.S. government considered the Louisianans heathens in the wilderness, unprepared for democracy. Much of the American opinion in government was that the people of Louisiana had been under Spain's authoritarian rule for their entire lives, so the people should only gradually be introduced to democracy and have the power of the vote. Some pushed for Louisiana to be a colony and unrepresented in Congress; others wanted to incorporate them immediately (this idea was popular with Louisianans, who weren't interested in being lesser citizens or colonists).

Many Southerners (and Northerners) were worried because slaves, free blacks and whites mingled much more freely in the Louisiana Territory, especially in New Orleans. Additionally, there was a bias against incorporating the non-Anglo, non-English speaking Catholics, which was the majority of the new citizens. Some feared that French Catholics would obey only the Pope, not the U.S. government (anti-Catholicism sentiment in the United States was present, if unspoken, in the 1800s).

New Orleans
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The city of New Orleans in the mid-1800s; a half century before, this city belonged to France.

In response came the Governance Acts of 1804-05, which outlawed the international slave trade (which made southerners especially happy because the demand for their "property" increased), and stated that as soon as the Territory of Orleans had 60,000 free residents, it could petition for statehood.

In the end, author Jon Kukla says, "Controversies over race, religion, law, language and culture not only delayed Louisiana's statehood until 1812, they worked like the rumblings of an earthquake along the vulnerable fault lines of 19th-century American society and government" (Kukla).

The remaining people from the Louisiana Purchase were Native Americans, composed of two major Indian confederacies: Choctaw in the east and Caddo in the west, as well as many other smaller factions. While there was some early talk of making part of the territory a nation within the United States, the discussion never got very far with Jefferson, who's administration's policy was to nudge -- sometimes by force -- the Native Americans farther west until the white settlers controlled the Louisiana territory completely. Part of the Louisiana Purchase land would eventually become the Trail of Tears, the deadly route used to force Native Americans out of their homes during President Andrew Jackson's administration.

While these new citizens were getting acclimated to their new country, the people of America had some pretty strong reactions of their own. Read on to see how they handled this change to their country.