French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte took over the Louisiana Territory from Spain in 1800 and made plans to re-establish French dominance there. Napoleon was involved in a series of wars in Europe and eventually decided that he needed money more than he needed the Louisiana Territory and so sold the entirety of it to the United States for $15 million. (This was the Louisiana Purchase.) The southern part of this vast set of lands became the Territory of Orleans on March 26, 1804.

New Orleans, now in American hands, became a bustling port, with goods going in and out nearly constantly. It also became a large entry point for African slaves, with the first ships arriving in 1719. The largest slave revolt in U.S. history occurred in and around the German Coast settlement in 1811. Nonetheless, New Orleans soon had the largest slave market in the country. This was the situation when, in 1812, the territory of Orleans became the 18th state in the Union, the State of Louisiana, with its capital at Baton Rouge. The official date of statehood is April 30.

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