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New Orleans History 1682-Post Civil War
By Jeff Crouere, Political Analyst
In its colorful history, many flags have flown over the City of New Orleans, such as the French, the Spanish, the Confederate States of America and the United States of America. Although originally, the land we now call New Orleans was inhabited by Indians, the Houma tribe. Some historians speculate that Indians lived in what is now the New Orleans area for thousands of years.
Modern history for New Orleans begins with the French explorers of the late seventeenth century motivated by King Louis XIV to bring home treasures and triumph for France. At that time, the city was almost completely unfit for human habitation. It lies about 107 miles from the Gulf of Mexico on a stretch of land between the mighty Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. In 1682, the area we now know to be New Orleans was crowded with mosquitoes, alligators and Indians when first the French explorer La Salle discovered it. He did not stay and moved on to what is now Texas before being killed by his own men. Later, in 1718, the French explorers Iberville and Bienville founded the city. The explorers named the city Nouvelle Orleans, after the Duke of Orleans. Iberville and Bienville discovered a city on a parcel of land that actually sits below sea level. This saucer topography has caused New Orleans to be adversely affected by floods, hurricanes and epidemics like yellow fever. Luckily for today’s residents, the surging waters of the Mississippi has been somewhat mitigated by a vast system of levees and the construction of spillways.
In four years, New Orleans became the capital for the immensely large province of Louisiana. The city was called by many the “Paris of America” for a very European outlook on life and a very unique style of architecture, especially the French Quarter. Due to wars in Europe, the Louisiana territory was later ceded to Spain in 1762. In 1800, Napoleon coerced Spain to give the territory back to France, but he did not keep it long, because in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was signed. In the French Quarter, in a building called the Cabildo, the signing of the Louisiana Purchase took place between France and the United States. This transferred the huge Louisiana territory from France to the United States. In 1805, the city was incorporated.
Right outside of New Orleans, in Chalmette, a key battle in the War of 1812 took place between British soldiers and a ragtag group of militiamen commanded by General Andrew Jackson. This Battle of New Orleans was a resounding victory for the Americans and helped seem the doom of the British in that war. After the first steamboat, the New Orleans navigated the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; the city prospered as a port city and began to see the benefits of increased trade and commerce. It served as the state capital of Louisiana from 1812 until 1849.
During the 1850’s, a yellow fever plaque afflicted thousands of New Orleanians, killing 10,000 in 1853 alone. Of the city’s population of 150,000, at least one-third fled the city the summer of 1853 to the Mississippi Gulf Coast or to the Northshore. Mosquitoes spread the disease, although medical experts at the time were unaware of the cause. Contributing to the problem was the city’s unpaved streets and open sewers. The drinking water was disliked by many residents who preferred backyard cisterns, where mosquitoes thrived.
The 1850’s also saw the slave market exploding. By that time, there were over 300,000 slaves in Louisiana, essential for the state’s agriculture based economy. At this time, New Orleans became the home to the biggest cotton market in the world. Soon thereafter, it joined fellow Southern states in seceding from the United States. On January 29, 1861, the Louisiana Legislature voted to secede by a margin of 113 to 17. By March 25, 1861, Louisiana had officially joined the Confederate States of America. It was an important naval and military base for the Confederacy. Yet, being the largest city in the Confederacy, taking New Orleans soon became a major aim for Union forces. Union forces attacked the city in April of 1862. A fleet of 40 Union warships, commanded by Admiral David Farragut, targeted New Orleans. Only 3,000 confederate militia were assigned to New Orleans to protect the city from attack and as Union forces advanced, the Confederate soldiers retreated north. By May 1, 1862, New Orleans was officially conquered by Union troops under the command of the hated General Benjamin Butler. For the next 15 years, Federal forces would control the life of New Orleanians.
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New Orleans History Post Civil War - 1946
After the war, the city again served as the state capital for a period (1865 to 1882), but the Reconstruction years were not kind ones for New Orleans. In fact, it was an awful time for New Orleans. During Reconstruction, New Orleans went from being a very prosperous city to a poor one. Banks in the city failed, many plantations in Louisiana were destroyed in the war. By 1874, the state had a debt of $53 million and was bankrupt. The elections that were held during Reconstruction were generally corrupt with fraud and voter intimidation running rampant. In fact, after the 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election, there was so much confusion that two different governors were named by two different election boards. Again in 1876, two separate governors were named, this time both were separately inaugurated. In the U.S. presidential election of 1876, several states, including Louisiana sent two separate sets of electors to the Electoral College. This led to a compromise in which the Republican President, Rutherford B. Hayes, was elected in exchange for the federal troops leaving Louisiana and several other Southern states. On April 24, 1877 federal troops officially left New Orleans, almost 15 years after they arrived.
The city continued to grow after Reconstruction. The boundaries of New Orleans expanded when nearby swampland was drained. The economy of New Orleans continued to be dependent on the port, which increased in activity when the jetties were built to deepen the mouth of the Mississippi River. Yet, in the midst of economic recovery from Reconstruction, other forms of activity flourished as well, specifically prostitution and gambling. Many of the 80+ gambling houses operated with police protection. A statewide lottery was established in 1868. It took in $20 to $30 million per year from all over the United States, yet returned 40% to the franchisers. Although it was started as a way to reduce public debt, much of the money wound up in political campaigns of the new corrupt political class who called themselves “Redeemers.” As gambling thrived, so did Mardi Gras. At first, carnival balls were held. Then, more public parades arrived. The Krewe of Comus began in 1857 and after a Civil War hiatus, parades returned with the Krewe of Rex beginning in 1872.
In 1888, the voters overthrew the “Redeemers”. The voters had enough of the corruption and began a show of force to bring about justice. Local citizens surrounded the polls with gun-toting allies backed by the Young Men’s Democratic Association. The new mayor, Joseph Shakespeare, reorganized the police force and cut City Hall bureaucracy, but he made enemies soon. His police chief was murdered and the citizens soon blamed the Mafia. A group of Mafia leaders were tried in court but found innocent amid charges of jury tampering. This outrage led a group of prominent New Orleans citizens to organize a public lynching of the accused Mafia gang members.
By 1900, there were 68,000 homes in New Orleans, but citizens still had to battle disease carrying mosquitoes. Epidemics such as yellow fever still occurred and instilled panic among New Orleans. Yet, the epidemics were finally terminated when the swamps were tamed. In 1893, the Sewerage and Water Board was formed. They proposed to drain New Orleans and finally eliminate the disgusting open gutters that populated New Orleans and made it a very unhealthy city. This project was a major one for it’s time and cost over $27 million. 12-foot screw pumps were invented to discharge over 10 million cubic feet of water each year. The project was finally completed in 1914. . Additional help arrived in 1937 when the Army Corps of Engineers completed the Bonne Carre Spillway to divert floodwaters from New Orleans.
The early 1900’s were a period of active expansion for New Orleans. The port continued to thrive and expand. In 1907, the corrupt Louisiana Lottery was finally disbanded after being headquartered for several years in Honduras. Nonetheless, corruption would not be driven out of Louisiana any time soon. Politically, a new kind of phenomenon was sweeping the state; his name was Huey Long. Long was a supreme populist who promised “Every Man a King” and “A Chicken in Every Pot.” Long was elected Governor and Senator and was poised to run for the White House. All of these ambitions ended in 1935 when he was shot dead in the Louisiana State Capitol Building.
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New Orleans History Post WWII - Present
"Louisiana Hayride” ruled New Orleans in the days of Huey Long and his cronies. For decades, politicians profited from political deals at the expense of the public. This corrupt practice only intensified after Huey Long was shot dead in 1935. In fact, the Governor who followed Long, Richard Leche, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison for a variety of offenses including mail fraud and tax evasion. Leche and the Long cronies perfected a variety of schemes to siphon funds from the public. According to author Mel Leavitt, “They systematically tapped Levee Board funds, diverting them to private investments. They used LSU and state materials, vehicles and personnel to build homes, buildings, garages, driveways. Double-dipping, phantom payrolls, even phantom buildings were among the many refinements developed by the governor and his statehouse gang.” In New Orleans, Long regular, Robert Maestri served as mayor for 10 years. He was an awful speaker, but he knew where the votes could be found and that made him a trusted ally.
All of that changed in 1946 when WWII veteran and political reformer, de Lesseps Story “Chep” Morrison defeated Maestri in a stunning upset. Morrison served as Mayor of New Orleans for 16 years. He made many infrastructure improvements such as new government complexes like City Hall and bridges such as the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and the Greater New Orleans Bridge. He presided over the final desegregation of New Orleans public schools in 1960, which was not marked by the racial strife found in other Southern cities. Morrison also gave New Orleans a home-rule charter in an effort to break the control from upstate political forces. Throughout his career, Morrison fought Earl Long, brother of Huey Long. Morrison failed in three races for Governor, never able to overcome anti-New Orleans sentiment from other parts of the state. Another part of Morrison’s problem was religion. Louisiana is split in half with a mostly Protestant North and Central section and a mostly Catholic south and west. At that time, Catholic New Orleans candidates almost never won statewide office and Morrison was no exception.
Morrison was followed by Mayor Vic Schiro who was a status quo Mayor who many critics believed did nothing, yet he got re-elected. During his two terms New Orleans grew tremendously. Business blossomed and the population hit the high mark of 600,000 at the end of the 1960’s. In the late 1960’s, New Orleans gained national recognition by landing its first professional sports franchise, the New Orleans Saints. Also, at this same time, voters approved the construction of the world’s largest indoor arena, the Louisiana Superdome. The Superdome was finally completed in 1975 at the cost of nearly $200 million, but it led to the booming of a new central business district on Poydras Street and the city’s landing of nine Super Bowls, more than any other city in the United States.
Moon Landrieu, a new type of progressive Democrat, followed Schiro. During Landrieu’s two terms, the city’s population became more than 50% black. Whites started to leave New Orleans for the growing parishes nearby, especially Jefferson Parish. In 1978, this black majority elected the first African-American mayor in history, Ernest “Dutch” Morial. Morial experienced great economic growth in his years in office. In 1979, the New Orleans Jazz professional basketball team left town after five years for Salt Lake City citing problems with the Superdome, the home of the team. In the early 80’s, due to the rise in oil prices, office towers sprang up on Poydras Street, adjacent to the Superdome. Eight new towers costing approximately $200 million enhanced the business atmosphere of New Orleans. At that time, the city passed the 20,000 hotel room mark as tourism reached over 6 million visitors a year. New Orleans received the honor of hosting the World’s Fair in 1984 and it led to the revitalization of the city’s riverfront. Although the fair was considered a financial disappointment, it led to great awakening in New Orleans as the city rediscovered the Mississippi River. New shopping malls, condominiums were built in the section of town known as the Warehouse District, which today is possibly the trendiest place in New Orleans to live. In 1988, New Orleans played host to the Republican National Convention, marking the first time the city landed the convention of one of the two major political parties.
With the oil bust of the late 1980’s, New Orleans suffered mightily. The economy dipped and several oil companies moved operations to Houston in cost-cutting measures. The population of New Orleans declined as many residents left for other economic opportunities. Also, crime became an ever-increasing problem, driving many New Orleanians to the suburbs. Crime was so rampant that New Orleans became one of the murder capitals of the United States. In this environment, Marc Morial, Dutch’s son, was elected. He focused mostly on battling crime and largely succeeded with the help of an expanded police force and the involvement of civic boosters who formed a foundation to raise money for police supplies and pay.
Today, New Orleans enjoys over 30,000 hotel rooms and a convention center that will now be expanded once again. The economy of New Orleans is driven first and foremost by tourism, with the oil and gas industry in decline. Major gambling in New Orleans began in the late 1990’s with the approval of a land-based casino at the foot of Canal Street. Harrah’s received the approval to operate the facility as a monopoly, even though there are three gambling boats in the metropolitan New Orleans area. New Orleans is on the verge of having professional basketball return to the Big Easy, with the Hornets poised to move from Charlotte. Former Cox Cable executive Ray Nagin and a new council have just been elected with a mandate for change and a new focus on bringing business to New Orleans.
New Orleans remains a racially mixed city, with people of different backgrounds sharing many wonderful neighborhoods. It has old customs like Mardi Gras which locals and tourists alike look forward to each year, as well as new customs like Jazz Fest, which has become a big hit in recent years. They are just more reasons for locals to love New Orleans and visitors to enjoy coming each year. Besides our major events, history and architecture, the food and restaurants of New Orleans stand out in the South and are on a par with any city in the world. Most visitors can’t come to the Big Easy and not put on a few pounds and love it while they are doing it. There is an unmistakable love of life in New Orleans and it can be seen in our many festivals and fairs and our general good nature, in spite of the hot summers, hurricanes, mosquitoes, bad streets and other ailments that locals gladly suffer through for the pleasure of living in the most unique city in America.
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