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1796 |
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| Previous Hispanola: 1796 British reinforcements arrive, but most, like other fresh European forces succumb to disease.Next South America & Caribbean:Events of this year in this region influencing Louisiana. |
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| North America:John Adams and Thomas Jefferson elected President and Vice President; Tennessee becomes 16th state, originally part of North Carolina; Jean Pierre Laclede, whose father founded St. Louis for St. Maxent, starts a settlement in Oklahoma at Salina; U. S. Government Public Land Act spurs settlement in the west in 640 acre parcels. | |||||||||||
| Europe: Napoleon invades Italy and gains peace settlements; the Treaty of Ildefonso moves Spain to alliance with France against Britain, Louisiana mentioned as bargaining chip; Tallyrand returns to Europe; a storm prevents invasion of Ireland by French Fleet; Jenner improves small pox inoculation using cowpox; Robert Burns; Goethe. | |||||||||||
January 1796
 Spanish Officials: Alcaldes Ordinarios: Primer - Manuel Pérez Segundo -Carlos de La Chaise Sindico Procurador General Gabriel Fonvergne Mayordomo de Proprios Juan de Castañedo Juan Ventura Morales serves as Intendant from 1796 until 1799. January 1796; Sindico Procurador General Gabriel Fonvergne petitions the Cabildo to revoke the license for the black dances on Saturday nights in the city-owned dance hall. He explains that slaves of both sexes attended the dances without their owner’s permission and they resort to theft to get clothes for the dances. Sailors and other disreputable whites tell slaves about slave revolts in the Caribbean, inciting local blacks to similar rebelliousness. As a compromise slaves are forbidden to attend the dances and fines will be imposed for each slave allowed to attend with or without an owner’s permission. Opposition, however comes from the slave owners, who have seen slave morale raised by the dances. Governor Carondelet decides that the slave owners are right and bans whites from the dances, but still requires slave owner’s permission for slave attendance. Benjamin Sebastion is in New Orleans, via Nogales and Natchez, seeking a treaty between Spain and "leading notables" in Kentucky. This intrigue instigated by James Wilkinson. |
February 1796
February 19, 1796 The Cabildo and the governor agrees to extend the ban on importation of slaves. The planters may agree because the two export crops of an early era, indigo and tobacco, have declined. Carondelet receives a copy of the treaty signed in Madrid with Pinckney. With it are orders to suspend activities at the new post in Nogales and projects with Wilkinson. He still retains hope of seducing Kentucky. |
March 1796
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April 1796
Benjamin Sebastian leaves New Orleans for Philadelphia with Thomas Power an agent for Carondelet on his way to the Ohio country to deliver $10,000 to General James Wilkinson. Carondelet is appealing to Wilkinson to become the "Washington of the West" and states that the Spanish do not intend to carry out the terms of Pinckney's Treaty. Wilkinson alone profits from this mission. |
May 1796
May 14, 1796 Faubourg Ste Marie, laid out by Gravier and Trudeau in 1778, is expanded back from Nayades (St. Charles Ave.) to Dryades (then called Phillipa St.) by Trudeau. |
June 1796
June 27, 1796 Spain's first secretary Godoy tries to negotiate a secret treaty in which he offers to exchange Louisiana for Saint Domingue (Haiti) and French possessions in Italy. Although French diplomats agree, the Directory in Paris rejects the treaty because it is too favorable to Spain. Because Godoy wishes to rid himself of Louisiana other Spanish officials lose interest in the colony's welfare. |
July 1796
In July 1796 new building regulations ordered last year have not been enforced. The Sindico Procurador General recommends some additional measures and urges a six-month deadline, but they are still being ignored by August of 1797. In July 1796 a problem with the new cemetery, which is located near the basin at the head of the new canal. Both the canal and the cemetery are fixed before November by convict labor. In July 1796 the Cabildo prohibits woodcutters from felling trees on public land. It is concerned about its authority over public lands and asks Carondelet to clear up land titles or repudiate all grants that are unclear. He ignores the Cabildo , which will ask his successor Gayoso in October 1797. |
August 1796
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September 1796
September 8, 1796 A banner day for Andres Almonester y Roxas. The king is honoring Almonester for his many civic deeds by making him a Knight in the Order of Carlos III. Although he is not well liked he has accumulated a large fortune and has constructed, at his own expense, Charity Hospital, St. Lazarus Hospital for lepers, St. Louis Cathedral, the Presbytere and the Cabildo building that is soon to rise. The investiture takes place in the Cathedral. He holds a reception at his home and orders fireworks. A balloon is inflated in the Plaza de Armas floats above the city. |
October 1796 In October 1796 Spain is again at war with Great Britain because it has aligned itself with Republican France, rather than its former pro-monarchist European allies. The king imposes a war donation on the colony and the Cabildo encourages the colonists to display their loyalty by contributing generously. Because of the realignment first secretary Godoy wants to restore Louisiana to France, giving Spain a French buffer in Louisiana and letting France foot the bill to keep the military. |
November 1796
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December 1796
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| In 1796 Louisiana deals with a serious
flour shortage. Governor Carondelet
bans the export of flour, corn and rice. He seizes four hundred barrels
of corn from two ships anchored on the river. With the Cabildo's
permission bakers make bread with half flour and half rice, but it proves
unpalatable. They reduced the rice to one third. Next they forced Santiago (James) Fletcher to sell 397 barrels of flour to the city. When they try to return 80 barrels as spoiled goods Fletcher sues the city. The Cabildo orders the spoiled flour made into hardtack to avoid a complete loss. The flour is expensive and as it turns out, excessive when an expected shortage did not occur the following January. The Cabildo may have lost 12,000 pesos in the confusion. |
In 1796 Governor Carondelet
improves the canal that will bear his name. The Carondelet Canal is
widened to fifteen feet wide and six feet deep so that it is wide enough
to accommodate small ships. An eight foot wide path on each side facilitates
travelers and horses that pull flatboats. The city’s convicts and
150 slaves provided by area plantations constructed the canal, which
would often curve around large trees. The canal provides a short cut
to Spanish settlements in Mobile and Pensacola and helps drain the city.
A marble plaque commemorating Carondelet’s contribution is placed on Charity Hospital which stands on the turning basin right outside the San Fernando (rear) gate. Pedro Herrera serves as the first caretaker of the canal followed by Jose Antonio Garcia, but the position is voluntary and by 1802 the canal is filled with debris and vegetation and usable only by pirogues. By 1796 Carondelet has also ordered the construction of six floodgates near the city to divert floodwaters and diminish damage to New Orleans. |
The second recorded yellow fever outbreak.
638 people die, slightly more that 7% of the city’s population
of 8,756. Governor Carondelet’s
brother , a monk, is among the victims. Many of the victims are Protestant craftsmen who had recently arrived to rebuild the city. Catholic natives used mosquito netting to avoid the pests, but did not know that it also saved their lives. Home remedies included garlic, vinegar, camphor and hartshorn, but many people who can afford it simply abandon the city during the summer. |
In 1796
Juan Ventura Morales becomes acting Intendant.
Manuel Serrano, legal advisor to the intendancy, will serve briefly
as intendant in the absence of Morales.
The first opera is performed in New Orleans in 1796. |
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