In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

SHORT NORMAL LONG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First [54], ( Lines: —— 9.0pt ——— Norma PgEnd [54], ( chapter three Owning the West Florida Frontier The International Microcosm of the Louisiana Purchase An unanticipated problem manifested itself for Americans living in Spanish Louisiana and West Florida when in 1800 the bulk of Spanish holdings in the area reverted to French control. Within three years that territory would become part of the United States, fueling an expansionist drive that would transform the lives of frontier settlers. In recent years historians have examined in great detail many facets of the purchase and what it meant to Louisianans. Less clear has been its impact on West Floridians, whom the purchase would set on a course toward incorporation with the United States. In the fifteen years from 1785 to 1800, West Florida had gone from a sparsely settled region to one in which a wide variety of crops supported a burgeoning population. Large-scale wealth in the area rested on plantation slavery, though slavery of a different type than that known in the United States. However, for West Floridians all was not well. A great deal of change was on the horizon— change that might threaten West Florida’s development as well as the ability of plantation owners to prosper in a stable environment. The circum-Caribbean was rife with rebellion, and even the United States had seen a rebellion in Virginia . Also in 1800 ownership of Louisiana reverted to the control of a dictator seemingly intent on conquering all of Europe. The consequences would be far-reaching. Americans in West Florida would no longer be isolated from the U.S. government. Scots-Irish-English immigrants would find a government aside from Catholic Spain with which to deal. At the same time, the immediate aftermath of the purchase brought confusion over ownership as Spain protested the legality of the purchase and both Spain and the United States argued over the boundaries of Louisiana and whether the two powers would trade Louisiana for West Florida. Moreover, the Louisiana Purchase brought a major change in the Baton Rouge district’s relationship with the outside world. By 1803 the population had 54 Owning the West Florida Frontier • 55 SHORT NORMAL LONG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [55], ( Lines: —— 4.0pt ——— Norma PgEnd [55], ( grown to nearly eight times its 1785 count, reaching 1,513 people. This included 958 whites, 16 free people of color, and 539 slaves, an indication that the slave population was growing more slowly than the white. The area also had an economy that produced a wide variety of goods and enjoyed a stable relationship with the Spanish government.1 An Americanized Louisiana could change that by introducing a new and different set of slave laws nearby. Furthermore, the election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency in 1800 had a lasting effect on the Spanish presence in Louisiana and West Florida. Jefferson’s statement in 1786 that the fledgling nation was the “nest from which all America, North and South, [was] to be peopled” and that control of the Mississippi waterway would be vital to American interests offered a prescient view of the future of Louisiana and West Florida.2 Jefferson’s administration was expansionist, successfully buying Louisiana from the French and then working to acquire Florida from the Spanish by any means. In the 1790s Pinckney’s Treaty had secured free passage on the Mississippi for the United States, but the retrocession of Louisiana to the French in 1800 caused Jefferson some worries over the threat to American rights of navigation. Despite French ownership, Spain continued to administer Louisiana and when Juan Ventura Morales, a Spanish official, closed the port of New Orleans at the behest of King Charles IV in October 1802, Jefferson and Congress prepared for the possibility of war with Spain.3 In the meantime, Robert Livingston, the American minister to France sent to Paris to arrange either the purchase of New Orleans or a treaty guaranteeing more secure navigation rights, concluded one of the greatest land deals in U.S...

Share