Personal Narrative: My Lifestyles In New France

Respond to the question: How do you think the male-female breakdown of the population would have affected life in New France at that time?

When Norse F. Rabalais who was born and raised in Simmersport, Louisiana (Avoyelles Parish) was a child there was no navigation lock to lower ships to the Mississippi, the water just poured out, ships with it, and flowed into the distributary known as Atchafalaya. A lot of parishes above New Orleans and quite a bit north of Baton Rouge (Louisiana’s capital) there’s a navigation lock in Mississippi’s bank allows ships to drop out of the river. Because of nature, they drop up to thirty-three feet then can go west or south. This is something very strange and rare between the river and its adjacent terrain. That adjacent terrain is known as Cajun country. The local parishes are Pointe Coupee Parish and Avoyelles parish.

In December 1684, LaSalle reached what he thought was Apalachee Bay near the northwestern bend of Florida.He had sailed past the Mississippi Delta which was a navigational error.They continued to sail west.Beaujeu returned to France with news of the expedition’s problems in 1685.Meantime LaSalle built Fort Saint Louis and planned an overland trek.The sinking of the Belle didn’t help matters.By 1687 fewer than

The expeditions of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of the newly purchased Louisiana Territory radically shaped American scientific knowledge as well as relationships with Indians. The framework for their expedition was laid far before they first set sail from the mouth of the Missouri River is 1804. In 1801, France reacquired its North-American “Louisiana territory” from Spain after a series of secret deals with Spain brokered by French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. Almost immediately, US trade at the port of New Orleans was blocked, enraging many Americans. Realizing that this presented a bottleneck on US expansion and trade, president Thomas Jefferson sent his Secretary of State, James Monroe, to Paris to discuss the possibility of purchasing the territory.

The provisions of the Treaty of Paris of 1763 surprised the colonists of Louisiana. New Orleans residents were apprehensive and in some cases hostile. Few residents want to be subject to Spanish rule. So much so that a group of wealthy merchants travel to Paris to convince Sieur de Bienville to secure a meeting with King Louis XV. But the King is committed to the transfer and will not meet with them. Louisiana’s fate is sealed.

However, by November 1803, prolonged fighting, yellow fever, and the loss of sixty thousand soldiers forced Napoleon to admit defeat. In France’s defeat, he (Thomas Jefferson) saw an opportunity to gain navigation rights on the Mississippi River, which the French controlled. This was a matter of crucial concern to Americans living west of the Appalachian Mountains. Jefferson sent fellow Virginian James Monroe to France to offer Napoleon $2 million to ensure Americans the right of navigation and deposit (that is, offloading cargo from ships) on the Mississippi.

Nuns played a great part in the day-to-day life in New France. The first nuns arrived in the New World along with the Jesuits in 1639 to convert the Aboriginals from their own beliefs to the Roman Catholic faith. While the nuns were in New France they ran the churches, schools for girls, hospitals, and orphanages. Both French and Aboriginal girls took part in the education provided by the nuns. The girls were basically being prepared for adulthood, they were taught how to read, write, sew, and knit. Since Native girls were part of the school, the nuns learnt their language and created dictionaries and grammar books in their tongues. In the hospitals the nuns were to take care of the sick. The nuns didn’t have much protection against

Meantime, there was free navigation on the river. Everybody imported and exported on the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River was perhaps to in the Louisiana Purchase. Napoleon hoped to use the Mississippi Valley as a food and trade center to supply the island, Hispaniola, which was to be the heart of his empire.

In fact, the Expedition had been so momentous in American History in that not only does the Expedition ultimately realize the aforementioned colonial dream to find a route to connect the Atlantic to the Pacific , but the overall magnitude of the expedition’s significance ultimately puts the Louisiana Purchase as well as other accomplishments of Jeffersonian presidency, into perspective. Thus, by further exploring the revolutionary context of the Louisiana Purchase and the War of 1803, in addition to analyzing the central figures of the Expedition, we can better observe the profound impact the Corps of Discovery has brought upon to better define the American national

We are on our journey to North America led by John Smith! We are planning to build another English colony. Some of the men are afraid we might “disappear” like the Roanoke colony, which I have to admit I am too. But, we are still seeking gold and silver so we must continue. We were told to find a river for a trade route connecting with the Pacific Ocean. All we have seen lately is water, water, and more water. I hope we reach land soon and maybe even meet some natives! I don’t know how much longer I can stand only seeing water!

Being able to transfer goods to ocean-going ships facilitated the process of trade. New Orleans opened trading access to the Mississippi and the rest of the world (192). By controlling the New Orleans port, the United States had the capability to trade with overseas nations. Previously, states further inland had to transport their products all the way to the East Coast which took several weeks due to the poor transportation routes which included crossing or going around the Appalachian Mountains. The US economy was now able to grow at a much greater rate. Furthermore, as part of the Louisiana Purchase treaty, the United States was given full control of the Mississippi River. “Americans living on the frontier west of the Appalachians were dependent on shipping their agricultural goods…to New Orleans. Thus, they needed the Mississippi” (McNeese 25). Being on the west of the Appalachian Mountains made it difficult to transport products, however now with occupation of the Mississippi, crops and goods could be transported west of the mountains in a more efficient manner. The Mississippi River economically guided the west successfully, and without the river, there would have been a lot of economic pressures which would have endangered the stable union (Kastor 36). The river became increasingly important and allowed the trading of goods from the North to the South. Without the river, there would have been significant pressures on the

There were many early expeditions from Europe to North America, most in search of a

Next came the French explorer, Robert Cavalier who claimed the entire Mississippi Valley for France in 1682. The first French settlement was started in Biloxi which today is called Ocean

The lifestyle in France, just like in all other European countries, has changed dramatically since the early 1700’s. People went from farmers to factory owners to all of the professions of today’s society. The main reason for the great changes in lifestyle that occurred in France was the Industrial Revolution, which urbanized most of France. But the Industrial Revolution was not the only thing that changed France. The monarchy fell the church changed, and the role people had in their jobs and family life change drastically.

The French are all about preserving their culture and being individualized. They often take great pride in the French products and the French style, and believe in keeping the French culture “pure” so they also limit the amount of foreign goods that are being imported. But during the World Wars the French began to allow foreigners to immigrate into France to take jobs due to an increase in job shortages. The immigration from the World Wars added to the diversity of the French culture. Ever since the 1850’s there has been a steady flow of immigration into France, and now nine percent of the French population is made up of immigrants (Gofen 62). The break down of the cultures in France is eighty-five percent of the French population is Roman