The Territory of Orleans or Orleans Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

that existed from October 1, 1804, until April 30, 1812, when it was admitted to the Union as the

State of Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25th i ...

History

In 1804, all of the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase () was the acquisition of the Louisiana (New France), territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River#Watershed, Mississipp ...

south of the 33rd parallel became the Orleans Territory, and the remainder became the

District of Louisiana The District of Louisiana, or Louisiana District, was an official and temporary United States government designation for the portion of the Louisiana Purchase that had not been organized into the Territory of Orleans or "Orleans Territory" (the p ...

. (The District of Louisiana was later renamed the

Louisiana Territory The Territory of Louisiana or Louisiana Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1805, until June 4, 1812, when it was renamed the Missouri Territory. The territory was formed out of t ...

; and still later, when the Orleans Territory became the State of Louisiana, the Louisiana Territory was renamed the

Missouri Territory The Territory of Missouri was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 4, 1812, until August 10, 1821. In 1819, the Territory of Arkansas was created from a portion of its southern area. In 1821, a southe ...

.) The Organic Act of 1804, passed on March 26 for October 1 implementation, also created the

United States District Court for the District of Orleans The United States District Court for the District of Orleans was a United States district court created on March 26, 1804, by 2 Stat. 283 for implementation on October 1, 1804 to resolve disputes in the Territory of Orleans, the portion of the Lo ...

—the only time Congress has ever provided a territory with a

United States district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...

equal in its authority and jurisdiction to those of the states. Congress also established the Superior Court for the Territory of Orleans whose three judges were the top territorial court. On April 10, 1805, the Territorial Legislature organized 12 counties (starting from the southeast corner moving west and north): Orleans, Lafourche,

German Coast The German Coast (French: ''Côte des Allemands'', Spanish: ''Costa Alemana'', German: ''Deutsche Küste'') was a region of early Louisiana settlement located above New Orleans, and on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Specifically, from ...

, Acadia, Iberville,

Attakapas The Atakapa Sturtevant, 659 or Atacapa were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who spoke the Atakapa language and historically lived along the Gulf of Mexico in what is now Texas and Louisiana. They included several distinct b ...

, Pointe Coupée, Opelousas, Rapides, Concordia, Natchitoches, and Ouachita. These were replaced in 1807 by 19 civil parishes. The area that later became the

Florida Parishes The Florida Parishes, on the east side of the Mississippi River—an area also known as the Northshore or Northlake region—are eight parishes in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The Florida Parishes were part of what ...

on the east side of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

was not included in Orleans Territory at this time, as it was in the Spanish territory of

West Florida West Florida () was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. Great Britain established West and East Florida in 1763 out of land acquired from France and S ...

. This area was formally appended to the territory on April 14, 1812, after having been annexed forcibly by the U.S. in 1810, although Spain did not formally relinquish any of West Florida until 1821. The western boundary with

Spanish Texas Spanish Texas was one of the interior provinces of the colonial Viceroyalty of New Spain from 1519 until 1821. Spain claimed ownership of the region in 1519. Slave raids by Spaniards into what became Texas began in the 16th century and created ...

was not fully defined until the

Adams–Onís Treaty The Adams–Onís Treaty () of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty, the Spanish Cession, the Florida Purchase Treaty, or the Florida Treaty,Weeks, p. 168. was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that ceded Florida to ...

was negotiated in 1819. A strip of land known as the

Sabine Free State The Neutral Ground (also known as the Neutral Strip, the Neutral Territory, and the No Man's Land of Louisiana; sometimes anachronistically referred to as the Sabine Free State) was a disputed area between Spanish Texas and the United States' ne ...

just east of the Sabine River served as a neutral ground buffer area from about 1807 until the treaty took effect after ratification in 1821. The Orleans Territory was the site of the largest slave revolt in American history, the

1811 German Coast Uprising The 1811 German Coast uprising was a slave rebellion which occurred in the Territory of Orleans from January 8–10, 1811. It occurred on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the modern-day Louisiana parishes of St. John the Baptist Paris ...

. In the

1810 United States census The 1810 United States census was the third census conducted in the United States. It was conducted on August 6, 1810. It showed that 7,239,881 people were living in the United States, of whom 1,191,362 were slaves. The 1810 census included one ...

, 20 parishes in the Orleans Territory reported the following population counts: Map of Ouachita River in Louisiana

Leaders and representatives

William C. C. Claiborne was appointed Governor of the Orleans Territory; he held this position throughout the territorial period. Later he became the first Governor of

the state A state is a political entity that regulates society and the population within a definite territory. Government is considered to form the fundamental apparatus of contemporary states. A country often has a single state, with various administrat ...

of Louisiana. There were two Territorial Secretaries,

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

(1804–1807) and Thomas B. Robertson (1807–1811). Daniel Clark became the first Territorial Delegate to the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...

, in December 1806. Judge Dominic Augustin Hall was the

U.S. District Judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district. Each district cov ...

of the Territory. Judges of the Superior Court were John Bartow Prevost (1804–1808), Ephraim Kirby (1804) (died en route to New Orleans),

Peter Stephen Du Ponceau Peter Stephen Du Ponceau (born Pierre-Étienne du Ponceau; June 3, 1760 – April 1, 1844) was a French-born American linguist, philosopher and jurist. After emigrating to the Thirteen Colonies in 1777, he served in the American Revolutionary War. ...

(1804) (declined President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (, 1743July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the United States Declaration of Indepe ...

's appointment), William Sprigg (1805–1807), George Mathews, Jr. (1805–1813), Joshua Lewis (1807–1813), and Francois Xavier Martin (1810–1813). At its first meeting on December 3, 1804, the territory's Legislative Council consisted of

Julien de Lallande Poydras Julien de Lallande (Lalande) Poydras (April 3, 1740 – June 23, 1824) was a French American merchant, planter, financier, poet, educator and political leader who served as Delegate from the Territory of Orleans to the U.S. House of Represe ...

, William Kenner, John Watkins, William Wikoff, Benjamin Morgan, Eugene Dorcier, and George Pollock.

Footnotes

External links

The Political Graveyard
Secretaries of Orleans Territory {{DEFAULTSORT:Orleans Territory Louisiana Purchase Pre-statehood history of Louisiana Former organized territories of the United States States and territories established in 1804 1804 establishments in the Territory of Orleans States and territories disestablished in 1812 Louisiana Territory History of New Orleans

History

Leaders and representatives

See also

Footnotes

Further reading

External links