New Orleans is
situated about 100 miles North of where The Mississippi flows into the Gulf of
Mexico which makes it a great shipping centre. It is the home and birthplace of
Jazz, and millions of tourists flock there every year not only for the jazz and
Mardi Gras celebrations, but also for the cities historical French Quarter. It
has been described as America's Most Interesting City.
The
Site
The Site of New Orleans was
explored by the Frenchman Rene Robert Cavalier, Seur de La Salle in 1682 when
he floated down the entire length of the Mississippi, from the Great Lakes in
the North (What is now Canada), to the Gulf Of Mexico. The French had already
established themselves in the North controlling the St.Lawrence River and The
Great Lakes. La Salle claimed the whole Mississippi basin from the Appalachians
to the Rockies in the name of France. He named it Louisiana in honour of Louis
XIV and his wife Queen Anne.
The area that was to be New
Orleans was the most unlikely site imaginable for the building of a city. From
the Gulf of Mexico to Baton Rouge 200 miles upstream, there was no ground high
enough to support the building of a city. It was an area of swampy marshland ,
annual flooding and hurricanes, excessive heat. A place plagued by mosquito's
and disease. Yet it was a place where a city ought to be built because
stategically it could control trade between the interior of America and the
rest of the world. Thomas Jefferson said of New Orleans,"There is a spot
on this globe the possessor of which is our natural and habitul enemy. It is
New Orleans".
The City was founded in 1718 by
Jean Baptiste le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville. He was governor of the Frech colony
Louisiana. He named it New Orleans after the Duke of Orleans who ruled France
for the boy King LouisXV.
The original city was laid down
by the French engineer Adrien de Pauger, and a series of three foot high levees
were built to keep out the flood water, and canals built to drain off the land.
Most of New Orleans is below sea level and at the present time it relies on the
world's greatest systems of drainage pumps to keep the water in check. The
systems 112 pumps can draw off 25 Billion gallons of water a day. Also 130
Miles of walls (levees) have been built to prevent floods.
The French
Before the Europeans arrived,the
Chickasaw, Choctaw and Natchez Indians lived on the site that was to be New
Orleans.
The city was founded in 1718 and
declared the capitol of Louisiana. The French ruled for forty years but
progress was slow,they failed to populate their colonies adequately due to
their attiude towards emigration in that they preferred France to the
Mississippi delta. Also the authorities took the attitude at first that it was
merely a buffer zone against British expansion. Various scemes were later tried
to attract more settlers, but most of them failed except for one which settled
2000 Germans emigrants just north of NewOrleans.Although there was no gold in
Louisiana the soil was rich and fertile and before long the Germans had
prosperous farms up and running.
The Spanish
France, defeated in the Seven
Years War (1756-1763) was forced to cede Canada and all territories between The
Appalachians and the Mississippi including Florida and the north of Louisiana
to Britain.The rest of Louisiana including New Orleans was ceded to Spain who
ruled for Forty One years.
New Orleans grew more under
Spanish rule but there was a natural distrust of them by the French population
and in 1768 the French Orleaners disliked the Governor so much they drove him
from the city. It was only when more soldiers arrived from Spain the following
year that Spanish rule was restored. The Spanish allowed Colonial and British
traders to trade through New Orleans at first but revoked this in the 1770's
because they feared that New Orleans was being brought more into the American
orbit. But this did not stop the Anglo Saxons in West Florida from trading.
They just found another route via Lakes Borgne, Pontchartrain and
Maurepas.
The
Americans
The signing of the Declaration of
American Independence in 1776 spelt the beginning of the end to Spanish rule.
In 1800, Spain and France were unable to hold New Orleans against the Americans
flooding into the Mississippi Valley. Napolean tried to re-establish the French
Empire in Louisiana by taking over control from Spain in 1802 , but the French
rule was brief. Napoleon decided to sell all of Louisiana to the Americans for
15,000,000 Dollars. Thomas Jefferson who negotiated the deal (The Louisiana
Purchase), pulled off one of the greatest real estate buy's in history.
Louisiana joined the Union in
1812. During the same year British troops tried to capture New Orleans but
General Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans
1815.
Civil War
In 1861 Louisiana joined the
Confederate States against the North in the Civil War. New Orleans importance
as a port made it the main target of the Union fleet which sailed up the
Mississippi from the Gulf of Mexico,After bombarding all the forts along the
Misssissippi the fleet reached New Orleans which was forced to surrender on May
11th. 1862.
After the war, trade slumped when
the coming of the railroad to the Mississippi Valley caused steamboat trade to
decline. US army engineers directed by James B.Eade deepened the mouth of the
Mississippi in 1879 to allow ocean going ships to reach New Orleans. This
increased port activity rapidly..
The Jazz
Age
By 1900 the population of New
Orleans was about 287,000. It was around this period that Jazz music evolved.
It is the only music entirely American invented. New Orleans Jazz it is
said, evolved from Ragtime as played by Scott Joplin, and of the songs of field
workers before the turn of the century. It started with the likes of Buddy
Bolden and Freddie Keppard although, what we know is only heresay for Bolden of
whom it was said blew so hard on his cornet that he could be heard more than a
mile away never recorded. If we are to beleive Bunk Johnson on his
Talking Records of 1942, he says Bolden blew so hard
that he blew his brain and ended his days in a mental institution. Keppard who
did record, but very little, was so afraid that other cornetists would copy his
fingering that he used to play with a handerchief over his hand.
The first jazz record was made in
1917 by Nick La Rocca and his Original Dixieland Jazz Band playing
Livery Stable Blues. Although the band was not that
outstanding, the record was a great success and it inspired others like Bix
Beiderbecke to take up jazz. It put jazz on the world map and it paved the way
for other jazz musicians to record.
By 1920 musicians such as King
Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong helped win worldwide recognition
for New Orleans as the Birthplace and centre of Jazz.
