Three lies .. how Louisiana ended up in the US.
Lasalle purportedly taking possession of Louisiana for the French. The natives were very clear and supportive of this, I’m sure. (19th century woodcut)
Our Voodoo tour guide (yes, we took such a tour which was much more about NOLA history than Voodoo) spoke to us about three lies upon which Louisiana ended up being American, rather than French, English, or even Spanish.
Lie #1: Intrepid explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle floated down the Mississippi from Illinois in 1682 and claimed it for France. He returned to his homeland and told everyone that Louisiana was a place of gold and silver and magnificent riches (all lies) in order to fund his return voyage. In reality, it was a swamp. On that return voyage, he was summarily executed by one of his officers for .. long story short .. losing a battle to pirates, being completely lost, and running two ships aground. But after he was shot it seems that basically everyone on the crew shot or knifed everyone else on the crew, a small colony they founded floundered, and only 15 out of 300 colonists survived. Now, of course, you can find Lasalle’s good name stamped on many, many southern things.
Bienville who beat the British navy with a lie. Don’t play poker with him.
Lie #2: In 1699, nineteen-year-old Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville was canoeing down the Mississippi when he ran into a British Warship. Instead of doing the sensible thing and rowing like mad to get out of sight, he sidled up to the ship and convinced the captain that French forces were nearby, causing the warship to turn around and flee. There were no other French nearby. That location is now known as English Turn. If the English had simply shot him, dropped a keg of rum on him, or ignored him and claimed the river as England’s, France might never have ended up with Louisiana to sell to the Americans.
John Law, philanderer, gambler, economist, ruiner of France.
Lie #3: In the early 18th century, a Scottish fellow by the name of John Law was driven from his homeland because he evidently pissed off every husband in that bonny nation due to his penchant for married women while gambling and killing some fellow in a duel. No problem for those French royals who adopted him as truly one of their own. By 1717, he had essentially become the head of the French banking system and treasury along with all its trade with the New World.
In order to raise funds for France, in 1718 he created the Mississippi Company, which was to reap the riches of the Louisiana territory (remember LaSalle’s lies?). Then he sold shares in the company, and then more shares. Along the way, he created the world’s first paper money to ‘put more money into circulation’. All this led to a massive uptick (20x) in the Mississippi Company share price where even average Frenchmen were borrowing to invest in this wonderful new scheme. By 1720 … the results were in for France. 23% monthly inflation, fortunes destroyed in the collapse of the share price, and the French national debt skyrocketed.
All this led to the weakening of the French monarchy and a long term and ongoing series of financial difficulties of France. Which led to the French Revolution. Which led to Napoleon – who still had a difficult treasury situation to work out – so he sold Louisiana to an enthusiastic Thomas Jefferson and the Rest is History. Oh, and having ruined France, Law left with his tail between his legs and spent the rest of his life gambling throughout Europe before dying impoverished.