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1770 |
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| South America & Caribbean:Events of this year in this region influencing Louisiana. | |||||||||||
| North America:The first confrontations between American colonists and British troops occur in New York after the troops tear down flags with slogans erected by the Sons of Liberty. This is followed by the first deaths at the Boston Massacre. The Massachusetts Spy is the first publication supporting colonial grievences.John Singleton Copely paints Paul Revere British population in North America is 2.2 million. | |||||||||||
| Europe:Austrian princess Marie Antoinette marries the future King Louis XVI and brings croissants to Paris. Voltaire: "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." Painter Francois Boucher dies; Theater by Beaumarchais. Parliament repeals tohe taxes introduced by the Townsend Act of 1767. Spinning Jenny adds more automation to the textile industry. James Cook claims Australia for Great Britain in the name of George III even though the Dutch have already been there. Poetry by Goethe, Goldsmith. | |||||||||||
January 1770
 Alcaldes Ordinarios are voting members of the Cabildo who are elected on January 1 of each year by the City Council (Cabildo) The first two are: Primer - Luis de La Chaise; Segundo Luis Trudeau. The Sindico Procurador General and Mayordomo de Propios are also elected each January 1 by the Cabildo. Sindico Procurador General: Louis Ranson; Mayordomo de Propios Juan Durel. |
February 1770
February 12 O’Reilly publishes additional measures governing the medical establishment, land ordinances, and instructions to post commandants. February 12 Alejandro O’Reilly medical decree divides the profession into physicians and surgeons. University trained physicians were preferred over surgeons who were often charlatans. Surgeons could be licensed after being examined for competence. Medical practitioners were expected to share their knowledge. He had to be Roman Catholic and present to the king’s army physician his knowledge, books and instruments. After passing the exam a six month service at Charity Hospital is required gratis. Medical doctors were required to be married or marry within six months after being licensed and could not be engaged in other businesses. The were required to donate time to Charity hospital and report any knife or gunshot wounds they treated. Surgeons had to itemize bills which could be contested in court and permission was required to treat minors or slaves. Surgeons were to meet each Monday with a Physician in a conference to spread medical and public health knowledge and they were encouraged to train midwives. February 18 O’Reilly’s land ordinances forbid the Cabildo from using municipal funds to construct and care for levees, bridges and the street gutters. This will be largely disregarded for the good of the community. According to the Code O’Reilly the council had the right, but not always the means to force owners to keep such facilities on private land in good condition. The Cabildo took it upon itself to build these vital facilities. Public works constituted the largest expenditure of city funds during the Spanish period other than the lighting system. The Cabildo’s authority extends only to bienes municipales (municipal property) that produced revenue for the city and the bienes comunales (commons or ejidos for city residents.) The Cabildo receives only minor responsibilities for land grants, but because it is the only cabildo in Louisiana its authority extends over the whole territory of Louisiana and after 1783, into West Florida. O’Reilly vests power for granting land to the governor because an intendency does not exist in the colony at this time. Previously the French had depended on the governor and the commissaire-ordinateur to agree on all land grants, but since they rarely agreed concessions were paralyzed. February 27 Sindico procurador general Luis Ranson attempts to create a constabulary (cuadrilleros) to apprehend runaway slaves. A similar plea is made by Ranson on May 6 to Governor Luis de Unzaga. Governor Unzaga does not agree, but a similar plan develops later. |
March 1770
March 1770, the Cabildo forbids the driving of carts on the levee fronting the city, even to unload cargo from ships. The levees during the Spanish period were approximately fifteen feet above ground level and thirty feet wide at the base. It exempted property owners whose lots fronted on the river, who had been given responsibility for upkeep by O’Reilly. |
April 1770
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May 1770
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June 1770
June 30, 1770, Sindico Procurador General Luis Ranson suggests a proposal to ship tobacco duty free to Saint Domingue (Cap Français) and bring in return bozales for agricultural labor. Tobacco at the time was the colony’s only export commodity that had a market abroad and a larger labor force was seen as a boost to productivity. The king approves the request, but the Cabildo is caught between a smaller subsidy from the Spanish and a trade regulation that permits shipping only to Spain and Cuba. Smuggling that existed during most of the French administration now thrives. |
July 1770
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August 1770
August 1770 the casa capitular is finished. It is 62 French feet by 24 feet wide with two principle rooms. A small corridor connects them and a small room contains archives. This building is destroyed in the fire of 1788. |
September 1770
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October 1770
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November 1770
November 3 following O’Reilly’s Feb. 12 1770 mortgage regulations requiring notice to Cabildo escribanos for any real estate transaction, Governor Unzaga issues an ordinance requiring transfer of land and slaves to be executed before notaries, or at least two witnesses. The ordinance is followed in New Orleans district, but at remote posts it is uncertain. |
December 1770
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The Cabildo takes the first steps at fire prevention. Two stonemasons are hired to inspect all the city’s chimneys. In 1775 a ten peso fine was established for failure to clean chimneys before the trice yearly inspections. These inspections provide the city with a census for a chimney tax. Shortly after its establishment the Cabildo requires cart owners operating in the city to aid in filling in holes and low places in the streets by depositing two cartloads of dirt each week. To enforce this regulation and achieve equitable participation by all cart owners, the Cabildo requires the vehicles to be numbered and registered. |
Although the French had long established a fortified post on the Red River to prevent Indian attacks on those portaging the rapids, the specific date of origin for Post du Rapide is not until 1770. Eight years following Louisiana's transfer to Spain in 1762, Etienne Layssard is appointed the post commandant at Rapides. | Jean François de Trépagnier, whose brother builds Ormond almost twenty years later, builds the Trépagnier House in 1770 in Natchez. Its walls are made of clay mixed with moss and shells between cypress posts, materials used since the first European built structures in Louisiana. Jean François is killed in St. Charles Parish in the slave uprising of 1811. After that the house is never occupied, falling slowly back into the earth from which it was built. |
Louis Billouart de Kerlerec Charles Philippe Aubry |
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