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1794 |
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| Previous Hispanola:March 1794; 5,000 regulars vs. Sonthonax who offers arms to blacks who see opportunity in future of uniting with Spanish Army of 14,000 advancing from east. June 1, 1794 Sonthonax abandons Port-Au-Prince. Saint Domingue now has two occupying armies; the British and Spanish who are both committed to preserving the plantation system and slave labor force. The British offer freedom and many blacks join the army, which now pits black against black. May 1794; Sonthonax returns to France to obtain validation of his decree but faces malfeasance charges, Toussaint abandons the Spanish and declares for the French Republic offering services of military commander. He forces the Spanish to retreat and rouses Rigaud in the South with blacks against the British. For 10 years an army of black soldiers, poorly armed and poorly provisioned will wage war against an alliance of foreign armies and white planters. Both British and Spanish encouraged slaves to surrender and then massacred them or sent them into slavery else where. Spanish moved into North, sent word to exiled French white planters in the United States to return and then urged blacks under their command to slaughter them, 800 whites died. Spanish raided northern estates, seizing slaves and plantation equipment and sending all to Cuba. Next South America & Caribbean: French Assembly ends slavery in its colonies; Toussaint L'Overture, Henri Christophe, Desalines take power in incredibly rich Saint Domingue, coffee and sugar crops are top revenue for France; Jay Treaty creates trade between U.S. and British West Indies. |
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| North America:Whiskey Rebellion by western farmers; General Anthony Wayne ends attacks by Indians on Ohio and Kentucky settlers and Chief Justice John Jay in London to maintain neutrality in exchange for removal of last British troops between Great Lakes and Ohio River; Congress votes to end U. S. participation in slave trade; Lancaster Road a success. | |||||||||||
| Europe: Reign of Terror continues and turns on Robespierre as moderates take over; Polish uprising fails; In Paris the Ecole Normale and Ecole Polytechnique will host many Creole students from Louisiana; Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason; William Blake; Robert Burns; Haydn. | |||||||||||
January 1794
 Spanish Officials: Alcaldes Ordinarios: Primer -Manuel Serrano Segundo - Nicolas D’Aunoy. Sindico Procurador General : Juan Bautista Sarpy Mayordomo de Proprios Juan de Castañedo. Francisco Rendon serves as Intendant from 1794 until 1796. |
February 1794
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March 1794
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April 1794
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May 1794
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June 1794
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July 1794
On July 25, 1794 the Spanish Council of State is carefully considering letters from General James Wilkinson to help separate Kentucky from the United States even as it discusses a proposed alliance with the Americans. Godoy will allow Carondelet to continue to cultivate Wilkinson. The proposal to the American president will be delayed by attaches in Philadelphia. On Wilkinson's advice Carondelet will occupy Nogales, also known as Chickasaw Bluffs and later Memphis TN, as a hedge againstintrigues, but also to help Kentucky insurrectionists. |
August 1794
August 10 and August 21, 1794 the New Orleans area is hit by minor hurricanes. Crops are ruined and shipping on the river is heavily damaged. Hurricanes exact a heavy price on the Cabildo’s coffers. Governor Carondelet asks for assistance, but it is not approved until December 25, 1794 and does not arrive until June 1795. |
September 1794
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October 1794
October 4, 1794 The first theater, El Teatro de la Comedia and El Coliseo, opens in New Orleans to offer a diversion to the paying public on St. Peter between Royal and Bourbon. It is operated by brothers Jean-Marie and Louis-Alexander Henry. |
November 1794
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December 1794
December 8 the Second Great Fire of New Orleans destroys 212 buildings, mostly warehouses, government structures, stores and barracks. The Cabildo had purchased six fire engines earlier, but low water in the river and wells hindered their use. The fire starts at the house of Don Francisco Mayronne (534 Royal). The Cathedral has just been completed through Almonester's efforts and it is dedicated two weeks later. A plan drawn by engineer Perchet shows the affected areas . The old French powder magazine explodes, causing the only deaths and destroying the ropewalk. Looting was a major problem throughout the city. After the 1794 fire the Cabildo moves to enforce building regulations to prevent future fires. Most of the new buildings are built of brick with tile roofs. Again master artisans are recruited from other colonies because the skills to rebuild are not found in New Orleans. Targets for destruction include wood and straw huts built by Capuchin priests after the 1788 fire and the Almonester buildings on the upper and lower sides of the Plaza de Armas. The latter however seems to be a result of the French dislike of Almonester. The governor responds a year later. |
In 1794 serenos, or night patrolmen, begin to serve, their predecessors being deputies to the ward commissioners. Serenos preserve the peace, keep street lamps lit and sound the alarm in case of fire. Although they have a police function they are under the authority of the Mayordomo de Proprios and are employees of the lighting department. The monthly commissioners also assist in supervising the eight to twelve watchmen and their two corporals. They are issued uniforms, badges, sabers, scabbards, halberds (iron spears) and ladders. In 1794 a canal is built to connect New Orleans to Lake Pontchartrain. This first canal is one and a half miles long and about six feet in width. It will be improved by Governor Carondelet in 1796. In addition to the canal 1794 is the year that Carondelet orders a drawbridge across Bayou St. John. The Cabildo has more involvement in this project than the canal. Originally a horse was to operate it but it worked so well that two men could raise it. Shortly after its completion the Cabildo built a small hut to house a sentry to guard and repair the drawbridge. A toll on ships passing the bridge pays for repairs and is collected by the sindic of the Bayou St. John district. |
Despite the adjustment of bread prices
by governor Carondelet
in 1794 some bakers begin mixing good flour with spoiled flour. The
Cabildo warns them that if it continues all of their bread would
be tossed into the river. A second offense would mean that the offending
bakers would be deprived of their profession for a year. The fire this
year destroys the flour reserve prompting Carondelet to order the Royal
Treasury to loan the Cabildo money to import flour.
In 1794 Carondelet orders eighty street lamps from Philadelphia and has them installed. Subsequent lamps will be manufactured and repaired in New Orleans. The system is modeled on the one in Havana and is sophisticated for a frontier town like New Orleans. Fuel for the lamps was fish oil, or bear or pelican grease and was the most expensive part of the system. The lamps were only lit on nights that moonlight was insufficient, averaging 22 nights per month. To pay for the lighting the Cabildo considers a frontage tax, which is found to be regressive. Governor Carondelet suggests a chimney tax which is approved. The fire of 1794 put a severe strain on the city’s income but Carondelet prevails upon the Cabildo to resist abandoning the lighting system. |
A group of Big and Little Osage chiefs
visit New Orleans and Governor Carondelet.
This type of visits by Native Americans from throughout the vast colony
is common during the Spanish era but it is discouraged by the governors.
The Indians bring gifts, dances, music, and the governors make a show
of military parades and fire power to impress upon the natives the seriousness
of Spanish control. The Indians also brought with them a ball game that the French called raquettes and the Native Americans called toli. It is the city’s most popular sport until baseball arrived. Raquettes is played in the Communes de la Ville or Congo Plains behind town and consists of two teams with short sticks held in both hands that helped players toss a small buckskin ball between two goal posts placed half a mile apart. Louis Duclot, a refugee from St. Domingue, publishes Le Moniteur de la Louisiane which is the first newspaper in Louisiana. It continues irregularly as a four-page weekly, bi-weekly or tri-weekly for more than two decades. Initially it has foreign news and agricultural and trade news but very little local information besides government decrees. General Jean Baptiste Labatut, a native of Bayonne, France emigrates to New Orleans in 1781 and is elected attorney general of the Cabildo in 1794. During the Battle of New Orleans he serves as one of General Andrew Jackson’s aides. |
Alejandro O’Reilly Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent | ||||||||
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