Documents Relating to the Purchase and Exploration of Louisiana

In an unprecedented legal agreement, Thomas Jefferson doubled the size of the United States in an afternoon. The Louisiana Purchase was an 1803 transaction in which the United States bought over 280,000 acres of land from the French. During the Napoleonic Wars between France and Britain, the slave uprisings in the French holdings in the Caribbean left France in financial trouble. Jefferson sent James Monroe and Robert R. Livingston to Paris to negotiate the buying of the city of New Orleans, a crucial port city for America. To their surprise, Napoleon offered the entire French territory for a price of $15 million. On December 20, 1803, the French flag was lowered in New Orleans and the flag of the United States of America flew in its stead. Between 1804 and 1806, under the orders of Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the new territory, bringing back samples of plants, foods and animals native to the area. These reports and more are included in this volume.