A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana - (Page 18)

Claiborne felt more comfortable with his new political base. After the election of delegates to the convention, mostly drawn from the territory’s leading social and political figures, the convention began meeting in New Orleans on November 4, 1811. A special committee examined the federal constitution and other state constitutions, especially the Kentucky constitutions of 1792 and 1799. On January 22, 1812, the full convention, after numerous contentious debates and walkouts, approved the new constitution. The next day the convention approved a petition, asking Congress to annex West Florida to Louisiana. President Madison presented the Constitution of Louisiana to the House and Senate on March 3, 1812. Congress ratified the document on April 8. At first, West Florida east to the Pearl River (today’s boundary between the states of Mississippi and Louisiana) was not included in the state’s boundaries. Two days later, however, Congress added that portion of West Florida to the new state. Louisiana became the nation’s eighteenth state on April 30, 1812. According to historian Warren Billings and others, the 1812 Constitution of Louisiana was not particularly democratic or remarkable. It was important, he noted, because it “set the foundations for institutions that exist to this day. It started traditions of self-government that are acknowledged still. It contributed to the blending of Anglo-American precepts of law and constitutionalism with continental European practices into customs that give the state its distinctive legal coloration.” city prospered under United States economic protection, but also its commercial and familial connections with Northeast states were greater than most other Southern cities. New Orleans became synonymous with prosperity. It was a boomtown, pulsating with the energy of commerce, business, change, and expansion. The city’s Caribbean-flavored marketplaces teemed with the sights and smells of prosperity: produce, wild game, and seafood; spices, European wines, and hundreds of commodities that eventually found their way into Louisiana homes. The state experienced commercial and population explosions. By 1840 the population of Louisiana had reached 350,000, almost half of whom were either slaves or free people of color. New Orleans had become the fourth-largest city in the nation and vied with New York for the title of the country’s leading port. Those great changes were hastened by the arrival of Robert Fulton’s steamboat New Orleans in 1812 and Captain Henry ANTEBELLUM LOUISIANA Almost three years later, Louisianians fought alongside Andrew Jackson’s troops in late December 1814 and in early January 1815 to repel a British army at the Battle of New Orleans. Their stand dispelled any fears held by other Americans that Louisianians might not make loyal Americans. This people of diverse ethnic, social, political, and religious backgrounds fought side by side against a common enemy of the United States. The only known painting of this watershed event was an iconic painting by artist, theater scene painter, architect, and engineer Jean-Hyacinthe Laclotte, a member of the Louisiana militia said to have painted the battle scene from hand-drawn sketches composed during the conflict. Despite severe economic depressions in 1820, 1837, and 1839 and the deadly yellow fever epidemics of 1853 and 1856, preCivil War New Orleans rode high on a wave of economic prosperity as the nation raced toward civil war. Not only had the 18 COLONIAL THROUGH ANTEBELLUM LOUISIANA LOUIS ANTOINE COLLAS (b. 1775, Bordeaux, France – d. 1856, location unknown) Portrait of a Free Woman of Color Wearing a Tignon, 1829 Oil on canvas; 44 x 36 in. New Orleans Museum of Art Gift of Felix H. Kuntz  http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1154 http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1289 http://www.knowla.org/entry.php?rec=1154

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A Unique Slant of Light: The Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana

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