Return to Table of Contents Go to Page [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] [41] [42] [43] [44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51]

PAGE 18

When this letter was written on July 28, 1803 from George Town, Kentucky, to New Orleans merchant Shepherd Brown, the citizens of New Orleans did not know that Louisiana had already been sold to the United States. Instead, they were uneasily awaiting the transfer of the colony from Spain to France. The French Colonial Prefect, Pierre Clément de Laussat, had arrived in the city only four months before and, in July, had not yet received official word that his task would be merely to oversee the orderly transfer of the colony to the Americans. Laussat learned of the Louisiana Purchase in August, perhaps about the same time that this letter, relating the success of Monroe and Livingston in Paris, reached Shepherd Brown. The unknown correspondent is eager to do business in New Orleans, soon to be freed from the uncertainties of colonial trade restrictions.      [Shepherd Brown and Co. Records, 1801-1804, #70]