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1808 |
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| South America & Caribbean:Events of this year in this region influencing Louisiana. | ||||||||||||
| North America:Jefferson decides two terms as president are enough and backs James Madison as his successor over Charles Pinckney, a Federalist. Importation of slaves is banned in the U.S. but illicit trade continues. John Jacob Astor is successful in the American Fur Co. John Stevens, brother-in-law of Robert Livingston builds a successful steamboat. | ||||||||||||
| Europe: Napoleon sets his sights on Spain, occupying fortresses and then forcing Carlos IV to abdicate. Joseph Bonaparte becomes king of Spain. Portugal asks for help from Britain, which invades and is victorious. Walter Scott, Francisco Goya, von Goethe, Christopher Marlowe and Beethoven are active in Europe. Vacuum packing in jars is a French military secret and earns a prize from Napoleon. Beet sugar successfully supplants cane sugar, which is unavailable in France. | ||||||||||||
| January 1808
January 1 President Jefferson's embargo of the Floridas goes into effect at the beginning of the year. January 30 La Salle De Spectacle De la Rue St. Philippe is opened by Bernard Coquet who had the original contract with the city in 1792 for the city's dance hall. The St. Philip Theatre continues traditions of the quadroon balls and dramatic productions. He bought the lot at 721 St. Philip in 1795 and builds a magnificent building of Philadelphia brick that will hold 700 people with a parquette and two rows of boxes. The building will be modified in later years to become the Washington Ballroom (1832) site of many masked Mardi Gras balls. In 1931 the site is purchased by the city, the building is demolished and in its place is built the present day McDonogh 15. |
February 1808
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March 1808
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April 1808 |
May 1808
May 2 The American minister in France, John Armstrong, is instructed tell the French that the U. S. would occupy the Floridas as a measure against the hostile designs of Great Britain. On this same date the Spanish rebel against Joseph Bonaparte. This was cause enough for Jefferson and War Secretary Dearborn to prepare seizure of Spanish lands from the Perdido to the Rio Grande. This depends on two conditions of peace being discussed by the United States and Great Britain and the continuation of the Dos de Mayo Revolution. The English yield nothing in the matters of impressing U. S. Sailors and their Orders-In-Council. May French refugees from Cuba double the French population of New Orleans. |
June 1808
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July 1808
July 4 The British make formal peace with Spain and the expedition being armed at Cork, originally thought to be heading for the Gulf Coast, lands in Spain to fight Napoleon. |
August 1808
August 18 A Joseph Pilie plan of New Orleans shows owners of lots but no lot lines. The Charity Hospital building built in 1794 by Almonester is located in what is now the neutral ground of Rampart at Toulouse. It burns down in 1809. The rope walk site, now belonging to Daniel Clark, blocks Chartres and Royal from Faubourg St. Mary. A city council commission of Samuel Winter and Benjamin Morgan negotiates to open it by 1810. |
September 1808
September 1 In a letter to the retiring president Claiborne notes early independence movements in Spanish America. Jefferson replies that friendship and the exclusion of European influence are the shared objectives of the U. S. and its neighbors. |
October 1808
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November 1808
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December 1808
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In 1808 Urquhart becomes House Speaker and Thompson replaces Prevost as Supreme Court Justice. U. S. ends importation of slaves. |
 The new market structure for New Orleans built this year somewhere on the levee will be destroyed by a hurricane in 1812. The Chateau des Fleurs is built in the city of New Orleans by David Urquhart in a style that is transitional from Louisiana's Colonial to Classic . It is remarkable for its luxurious gardens. In 1833 the house is purchased by Alexander de Lesseps, an affluent planter and cousin of the Comte de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal. Shortly after the Civil War it is sold to James Maumas who passes it on to his daughter Mrs. Anita Meraux. In 1939 a fire leaves it a shell and the 1947 hurricane finishes it off. |
Zachary Taylor begins his long and distinguished military career, but only after his older brother William is killed by the Chicasaws at Fort Pickering near Memphis. He had spent his first 21 years in Kentucky fated, it seemed, to the life of a gentleman farmer. |
Fort St. Leon in Bellechasse on the West Bank
of Plaquemines
Parish is rebuilt by Latour and garrisoned to defend New Orleans.
The fort is destroyed by Adm. Farragut during the Civil War in the Union’s
advance up the river.
Tchoupitoulas Plantation is acquired by Joseph Soniat du Fossat. Visited by Governor William C. C. Claiborne and, legend says, privateer Jean Lafitte. Chapitoulas Indians, whose name means river people, lived in this area of Destrehan in Jefferson Parish. |
The Spanish West Florida population at this time is 2/5 French or FrenchCreole, 2/5 American, British or German and only 1/5 Spanish. The Spanish soldiers of West Florida did not receive their pay for the year 1807 until early 1808. | The first Spanish language newspaper El Misisipi, a semiweekly appears in 1808. James Madison Wells |
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