Antebellum Louisiana (1812–1860)
The antebellum period of American history covers the first part of the nineteenth century, leading up to the Civil
War. The antebellum period in Louisiana begins on April 30, 1812, when it entered the Union as the eighteenth state,
and ends on March 21, 1861, when it joined the Confederacy. During its first years of statehood, political and cultural
conflict continued to revolve around tension between Louisianans of Anglo-American descent and those of French or
Spanish descent, frequently called Creoles. The state also was home to a significant population of Acadian refugees
known as Cajuns. The imprint of Creoles and Cajuns affected the state’s legal system (a combination of French civil
law and English common law), its religion (the greatest percentage of Catholics in the South), and its culture, whether
through its Mardi Gras celebration, foods such as gumbo, boudin, jambalaya, and étouffée, or unique musical traditions
that would ultimately become elements of jazz and zydeco.
In 1812, the new state’s population stood at approximately 80,000, including 35,000 slaves. In June, William C. C.
Claiborne, whom Thomas Jefferson had appointed as territorial governor nine years earlier, won election to lead the
state as governor. While Louisianans cheered their release from congressional control, statehood did not immediately
result in peace and prosperity
The War of 1812
The War of 1812 and especially the specter of British invasion towered over Claiborne's term. In November 1814,
General Andrew Jackson arrived in New Orleans to defend the Gulf Coast against a presumed British invasion. A
series of altercations culminated in the January 8, 1815, Battle of New Orleans in which a Jackson led force of federal
troops, state militiamen, Baratarian pirates, and free people of color/gens de couleur libres thrashed the British
regulars. Thanks to this victory, Jackson immediately became a state as well as a national hero, with New Orleans
renaming its main square after the general in 1851 and erecting an equestrian statue of him there five years later. Prior
to the Battle of New Orleans, Jackson had feared that Louisiana’s population lacked loyalty to the United States. That
apprehension proved unjustified.
The Constitution of 1812 set the ground rules for the state’s first political battles. It stipulated that voters had to
meet a taxpaying qualification (which generally equated to land ownership) and that state officers needed to meet even
higher property qualifications (to be governor one had to own at least $5,000 in property). Additionally, the voters did
not directly select many officers. Legislators chose the governor from the top two popular vote recipients, and the
governor, in turn, selected most other officers, including the attorney general, state treasurer, and state judges. Early
political battles centered on a candidate’s ethnicity rather than his stances on the issues. In the first years of statehood,
the gubernatorial office rotated between Anglo-Americans and Creoles, with Jacques Villeré and Thomas Bolling
Robertson succeeding Claiborne.
1. When was Louisiana’s antebellum period?
2. In the early years of statehood, why would there be political and cultural conflict?
3. What was the state’s legal system a combination of?
4. What did the Constitution of 1812 do for voters?
5. Describe early political battles.