Louisiana Timeline

1802
South America & Caribbean:Previous Hispanola: February 1802; by mid-February 1802 the South Province to Port-Au-Prince had fallen to the French. Le Cap had been torched and abandoned by Christophe. By mid summer 1802 Toussaint makes a calculated surrender, but the French troops are succumbing to yellow fever (some 10,000.) LeClerc the French commander now has to rely on recruited black generals Dessalines and Christophe to fight black guerrilla forces. Toussaint now plots to keep Christophe and Dessalines from replacing him. July 1802; Toussaint is captured and sent to France where he will die the following April. The blacks sense that this is the prelude to a restoration of slavery, but 50% of the French Army is black and is led by Dessalines. August, 1802; Haitians confirmed Napoleon’s measures to restore slavery. November 1802 Black leaders meet to declare independence. LeClerc dies of yellow fever. Rochambeau is now French Commissioner in Saint Domingue. Next South America & Caribbean: Napoleon has sent his brother -in-law General Leclerc to quell the rebellion in Saint Domingue. He captures Tousaint L’Ouverture, but Leclerc and 22,000 of his troops fall to yellow fever. Napoleon also has reinstated slavery in French colonies. Alexander Humbold discovers the nitrate (used in gunpowder) value of guano found in huge quantities off the coast of South America.
North America:The United States Military Academy established at West Point, New York. Vaccination is used by the Boston Board of Health to stop smallpox.
Europe: Another short cessation of hostilities between European powers. Napoleon becomes first consul for life. A Scotsman, William Symington produces the first successful steam powered ship, a paddlewheeled tugboat. Madame Tussaud graduates from making French death masks of the guillotined to a wax museum in London. Photography has its beginnings in the lab of Thomas Wedgwood, an English doctor whose father was a famed potter. Beethoven produces his Midnight Sonata.
January 1802 Spanish Officials: Alcaldes Ordinarios   Primer - Nicolas Forstall   Segundo -Francisco Caiserguez Sindico Procurador General   Pablo Lanusse Mayordomo de Proprios   Juan de Castañedo. (Juan Bautiste Labatut (Francisco Duplessy?) elected first, rejected when he wanted higher fees for the office. Juan Ventura Morales serves as Intendant from 1801 until the end of the Spanish Era in November 1803. January , 1802 is the climax of the theater box controversy. It began in the early 1790s with a feud between Nicolas Maria Vidal and Colonel Francisco Bouligny, the regimental commander. When governor Gayoso died in July 1799 the two men became acting civil and acting military governors of Louisiana. Under Gayoso the theater box had been divided by a partition: one part for the Cabildo and the other for the governor. To spite Bouligny when he became ill, Vidal has the partition removed and gives the entire box to the Cabildo. In 1802 Salcedo orders the partition restored, retaining the larger section for the governor. The councilors became enraged and send Salcedo a formal protest. When he still refuses to budge they quit attending the theater and request an opinion from Jose Martinez de la Pedrera. The licenciado writes a letter of mock epic proportion, citing laws and precedents in defending the Cabildo’s right to the box. Salcedo follows Vidal’s advice and sends the entire controversy to his superiors in Havana, while the Cabildo appeals to the Council of the Indies. What began as a petty squabble contributes to the decline in morale and power of the Cabildo.	February 1802 February 12, 1802; another smallpox epidemic strikes New Orleans, the worst medical crisis during the Spanish era. The Cabildo meets on this date to decide a course of action and soon clashes with the governor over how to treat the disease. Governor Salcedo, is uninformed and after consulting clerics decides to oppose innoculation by variolation, which the Cabildo has ordered. Treatment is further delayed when the Cabildo discusses cowpox vaccination and local attempts to develop the serum. Governor Salcedo creates a permanant board of health.	March 1802 By March 22, 1802 more than thirty people have contracted smallpox and innoculations are needed immediately and the test serum fails. Governor Salcedo offers no resistance at this time. Over six hundred succumb to the disease will not run its course until the summer of 1803. An expedition to vaccinate persons with cowpox visits many Spanish colonies in 1802, unfortunately it does not reach New Orleans during the Spanish era. During the 1802 smallpox epidemic the Cabildo charges Dr. Luis Giovellina with criminal neglect in the vaccination and isolation of a slave child belonging to a Monsieur Otrayen. They claimed that he wanted the disease to spread and asked governor Salcedo to punish him. Salcedo tells Almonester's widow Liusa de La Ronde, who is administrator of Charity Hospital, to name a new chief surgeon, which was Giovellina's post. His incarceration is brief and he returns to the hospital. The action is more an attack on Almonester's hold on Charity Hospital than ignorance of Giovellina's attempts to understand the disease.	April 1802 April, 1802 Dr. Luis de Jaen, a lawyer of the Cuban audiencia arrives in New Orleans to conduct a belated residencia of Esteban Miro. Although he eventually absolves the deceased governor of all charges he finds many irregularities in the Cabildo's operations. By exceeding his authority vis-a-vis the council, Jaen dealt it a lethal blow.	May 1802	June 1802	July 1802 July 16 Castañedo, mayordomo de propios, registers a formal protest with the Cabildo, saying his suspension by Dr. Jaen come without authority. Dr. Jaen is in Louisiana to conduct the residencia of Miro. Jaen also charges Forstall, de la Barre and La Roche with malfeasance and suspends them from office. Governor Salcedo then jails the four men. After this incident the Cabildo's duties are minimal and routine. A proclamation dated July 30, 1802 for delivery to the province of Louisiana, but not communicated publicly by the government until the end of the year! Senor Don Pedro Cevallas: The King, having ceded to the French Republic the province of Louisiana, communicates the Royal order of delivery to the French Commissary. Inhabitants wishing to remain Spanish may pass to Havana to receive their destination. Also in July Gov. Salcedo gives permission to Carlos (Charles) Smith of Maryland to settle in Rapides (Alexandria, Rapides Parish) with his slaves after he had taken an oath of loyalty to Spain. Acting Intendant Morales orders Commandant Martin Duralde to seize Smith's slaves. Salcedo counters the order, but warns that no slaves that had been participants in Virginia mutinies would be allowed to settle.	August 1802	September 1802	October 1802	November 1802 Intendant Morales suspends the right to deposit which allowed American goods to pass through and be warehoused in Spanish territory.	December 1802 December 1802 Manuel Serrano the Intendant, dies leaving land claims in a confused state. Morales again becomes acting intendant and closes the office. The question of unconfirmed land titles, which constituted about 70 percent of all grants in Louisiana, remain unresolved long after the Americans take over land administration.
Governor Salcedo imposes the only two vetoes over the Cabildo during the Spanish era. The weakened Cabildo realized it could not obtain good advice from government council Vidal, so it hired Jose Martinez as its own licenciado. Governor Salcedo arrested and deported the lawyer for trial. The audiencia in Puerto Principe acquitted Martinez and ordered him to be paid. His other veto was against payment for another lawyer to represent Martinez in Puerta Principe. The money had been sent previous to his veto and the audiencia decided in favor of the Cabildo again.		The king finally responds to pleas for royal permission to introduce a new tax for the lighting system. He permits the Cabildo to use whatever means to raise the needed funds. They decide on a new food tax from butchers and bakers which leaves them a surplus.								ARRIVALS DEATHS Esteban Rodriguez Miro BIRTHS |Top of page|
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The government of New Orleans during the Spanish era was the most efficient Spanish city in the Western Hemisphere. It had to be, because the colony was certainly not self-sustaining and the subsidies, which started in the early French era and continued into the Spanish, only drained the royal coffers of Europe.

But Spanish New Orleans was not without its share of back-stabbing and petty squabbling, especially in the last decade when Spain’s interest in the colony was waning and the Creole leaders began to concern themselves more with perks and amenities.

The Theatre Box Controversy began in the early 1790s with a feud between Nicolas Maria Vidal and Colonel Francisco Bouligny, the regimental commander. When Governor Gayoso dies in July 1799 the two men became acting civil and acting military governors of Louisiana. Under Gayoso the theater box had been divided by a partition, one part for the Cabildo and the other for the governor. When Col. Bouligny becomes ill, Vidal removes the partition and gives the entire box to the Cabildo.

In 1802, Governor Salcedo orders the partition restored, retaining the larger section for the governor. The councilors became enraged and sent Salcedo a formal protest. When the sickly Salcedo refused to budge they quit attending the theater and requested a legal opinion from Licenciado Jose Martinez de la Pedrera, who writes a letter of mock epic proportion, citing laws and precedents in defending the Cabildo’s right to the box. Salcedo follows Vidal’s advice and refuses to return the Cabildo space. Vidal is one official who never flinches while playing on both sides of an issue. Salcedo sends the entire controversy to his superiors in Havana while the Cabildo appeals to the Council of the Indies.

What began as a petty feud between intelligent men became a defining issue of the era and contributed to the decline in morale and power of the government.