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1768 |
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| South America & Caribbean:Events of this year in this region influencing Louisiana. | |||||||||||
| North America:As riots and meetings call attention to tax grievences British troops appear in Boston to monitor the protests. The troops seize the Liberty owned by John Hancock and believed to be used for smuggling into the colonies. Cherokee lands in Virginia and Carolina colonies and Iroquois lands between the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers are ceded to the British crown. Charlotte North Carolina established. Explorers of the Hudson Bay Company resolve the nonexistance of a Northwest Passage to the Orient. | |||||||||||
| Europe: Bread is too expensive in France. Louis XV is reviled by the French people for wasting money on wars and his plush lifestyle while losing most of the country's colonies. Bread riots in London. James Cook is sent to the Pacific Ocean to observe an eclipse of the sun by Venus. Nonfiction by Stern; painting by Joshua Reynolds; theatre by Goldsmith; opera by Haydn | |||||||||||
| January 1768
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February 1768
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March 1768
March 23 The crown cancels an earlier decree of May 6, 1766 that permitted Louisiana to trade with other French colonies. This, along with other trade regulations and a ban on smuggling, raises the ire of the French Creoles. Economic conditions worsen over the summer. Captain-General Antonio Maria de Bucareli of Cuba sends only part of the Spanish subsidy to Louisiana. |
April 1768 |
May 1768
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June 1768
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July 1768
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August 1768
August 4 In a letter to Marquez de Grimaldi the King’s chief minister, Antonio de Ulloa reports licensing traders in return for maintenance of peace. Ulloa may have continued Gilberto St. Maxent’s an exclusive fur trade deal. August 10 Antonio de Ulloa writes that the financial affairs of the colony are in desperate condition.The maintenance of the Royal frigate of war is supplied and fed by Gilberto St. Maxent who believes it is a sound investment. |
September 1768
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October 1768
By October troops are assembling in Havana and Antonio de Ulloa publishes the restrictive trade regulations. The Superior Council votes to expel the Spanish governor of Louisiana. The French Creoles declare Ulloa an usurper and order him to leave the colony. They also spread propaganda to sway public opinion to their side and distort facts about Spanish intentions. They circulate rumors among the Acadians and Germans that the Spanish government would not pay them for provisions supplied to its officials. Also the Acadians are to be sold into slavery. Commandant d’Arensburg, leader of the Germans incites them into action. October 25 Antonio de Ulloa and Aubry dispatch Gilberto St. Maxent to the German Coast with funds to satisfy the Germans. But Lafreniere and Marquis send Villere and Verret to arrest St. Maxent at the plantation of Cantrelle, Commandant of the Acadians. October 28 - 400 Germans march to New Orleans under Villere to the Plaza de Armas meeting planters from below the city. This combined militia demand through Lafreniere that Ulloa leave the colony. October 29 Aubry persuades Antonio de Ulloa and his wife to board El Volante, which anchors in mid-river. Navarro and a handful of Spanish in town barracade themselves in Ulloa’s house. Gilberto St. Maxent is released and ElVolante leaves on April 1, 1769 The first revolution in America expels Antonio de Ulloa, as well as all other Spanish officials except treasury officials, Juan Jose de Loyola, Martin Navarro and Esteban Gayarré. They were held hostage to redeem bonds and paper money. The rebels make a major mistake in not immediately sending representatives to Paris to argue their case. Louis XV never considered reclaiming Louisiana because it had always been a huge financial liability. |
November 1768
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December 1768
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| The crown orders the governor to dismiss
the Superior Council and establish a judicial tribunal consisting of
an assesor (legal advisor), a Spanish escribano
and a French clerk. The governor is to be the chief judge with authority
to impose sentences on all persons. Instead Antonio
de Ulloa creates an assembly of three Spaniards and four Frenchmen.
He also leaves the Superior Council intact. Opposition to Spanish rule
and Ulloa’s presence continue to mount.
Among French residents who took the Spanish side: Jean Treadeau, Lassel, Barthelmy, Daniel de McCarty, Hypolite Amelot, Gran-Pré, Philippe Rocheblave, François Fleurian, Vilard, Molino, Lassias, Gilberto St. Maxent, Roche, Chevalier Bellevue, Pierre François Olivier de Vezin, Francisco Maria de Reggio, Honorato de la Chaisse, and Dreux, Many of them had been French Army officers. |
Rebels included Balthasar Masan (a retired infantry captain, wealthy planter, and knight of St. Louis), Pierre Marquis (a Swiss army captain in French Service), Jean Baptiste Noyen (a retired infantry captain), Bienville Noyen (a naval Lt. and nephew of the colony’s founder), Julien Jerome Doucet (a distinguished lawyer), Jean and Joseph Milhet, Pierre Caresse, Joseph Petit, Pierre Poupet (five prominent merchants), Pierre Hardy de Boisblanc ( a former member of the Superior Council and a prominent planter) and Joseph Villere (commandant of the German Coast) | On the West bank of the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, a typical colonial Louisiana structure is built. Later Valcour Aime (1798-1867) will practically rebuild Le Petit Versailles from the old plantation house that he inherits from his father near Vacherie, La. It is one of the most lavish plantations on the Mississippi River. It has marble floors and stairs and hidden stairs in the thick walls. Between the house and the River will be the famed gardens designed by a French landscape architect. It included a miniature Napoleonic fort with working cannon that welcomed visitors, a series of lagoons with stone bridges and waterfall, flowers and plants from around the world and a private zoo that included kangaroos. It is the birthplace of Marie François Alcee Fortier, Aime’s grandson and a historian (1856-1914). Earlier (1740-50s) it was La Vacherie (ranch) of the De Noyen Brothers, Bienville’s grandnephews of Blanpain, Ranson, Jacquelin . The house burned down early in this century and the grounds were deserted. |
Probably in 1768, Julien Poydras arrives in New Orleans from St. Domingue and begins merchant life as a peddler walking from town to settlement and laying the groundwork for his fortune. He eventually expands his trade to include representatives in Arkansas, Baton Rouge, Nacogdoches (Texas), Natchez, Opelousas, Ouachita and St. Louis. |
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