The truth is New Orleans appears to me to be at the extreme of everything ... Changes take place here with almost the rapidity of thought.

Bishop Henry B. Whipple, Southern Diary, 1843-44

New Orleans - A City Develops In Spite of the River

By the mid-seventeenth century, the French had established themselves in North America by claiming and settling around the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, in the region now known as Quebec. They recognized the strategic importance that control of the waterways provided and sought to secure the mouth of the great Mississippi River. On April 9, 1682, the land now known as Louisiana was claimed for France by Robert Cavalier de La Salle and was named Louisiane, for Louis XIV. By 1700, there were French soldiers in the region to protect the area from encroachment by the Spanish, who already had colonies in Florida and had laid claim to the gulf coast of the North American continent. In 1717, John Law, a Scot, was given the exclusive charter to sell real estate and develop Louisiana for the French. Settlers from France and Germany were lured to New Orleans expecting financial opportunities and a healthy climate. Instead, most found an early demise in the mosquito and snake infested bayous.

Most historical commentators remarked on the poor, yet perfect location of the city founded in 1718 as New Orleans by Jean Baptiste Lemoyne de Bienville, the then Governor-General of Louisiana. Its history and development have been inextricably linked to the Mississippi River, with its large delta of below sea level swamp and marshland. The city is sited on a great bend in the Mississippi River bounded to the north, west and south by the river and the east by a large lake, Lake Pontchartrain. It lies near the mouth of the river, and near enough to bayous that could be navigated, so that a sheltered, deep-water port could be established.1 The strip of land almost a mile wide along the river's bend was the best and closest area that Bienville encountered while exploring northward from the mouth of the river It was on relatively high ground and was considered large enough for a development. Economically and geographically, this original crescent of land was the perfect site for shipping and control of the waterways, and the best location for building a new city. In spite of the lack of local building stone and other resources, and the almost yearly yellow fever epidemics and other plagues, "New Orleans grew rapidly and before the Civil War, was the wealthiest and third largest city in the United States."2

The city's geography and constant battle with water, the mix of French, Spanish and American cultures, the Creole society, the large influxes of immigrants, the almost yearly yellow fever or plague epidemics, the city's pattern of growth, and, of course the architecture, have all impacted the development of the cemeteries. See the Timeline for more events in history and the Project Bibliography for many excellent references on the history of New Orleans, Louisiana.

1. Donnald McNabb and Lee Madere, A History of New Orleans (New Orleans: Lee Madere, 1997), 3. Back

2. Joseph A. Stein, "New Orleans," Pencil Points v. 19 (1938 April): 197. Back