Louisiana Purchase - Slavery

Slavery

Governing the Louisiana Territory was more difficult than acquiring it. Its European peoples, of ethnic French, Spanish and Mexican descent, were largely Catholic; in addition, there was a large population of enslaved Africans made up of a high proportion of recent arrivals from Africa, as Spain had continued the international slave trade. This was particularly true of the area of the present-day state of Louisiana, which also contained a large number of free people of color. Both present-day Arkansas and Missouri also had some people holding slaves.

Some slaveholders feared that acquisition of the new territory might inspire American slaves to follow the example of those in Saint-Domingue and revolt. Southern slave-owners wanted the US to establish slavery laws in Louisiana, so they could be supported in taking their slaves to the new territory to undertake new agricultural developments, as well as to reduce the threat of future slave revolts.

The Louisiana Territory was broken into smaller portions for administration, and the territories passed slavery laws similar to those in the southern states but trying to encompass the preceding French and Spanish rule (for instance, Spain had prohibited slavery of Native Americans in 1769, but some slaves of mixed African-Native American descent were still being held in St. Louis when the US took over the Louisiana Territory). In a freedom suit that went from Missouri to the US Supreme Court, slavery of Native Americans was finally ended in 1836. The institutionalization of slavery under US territorial law in the Louisiana Territory contributed to the American Civil War a half century later. As states organized within the territory, the status of slavery in each state became a matter of contention in Congress, as southern states wanted slavery extended to the west, and northern states just as strongly opposed new states being admitted as slave states. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was a temporary solution.