Baton-Rouge Gazette (Baton-Rouge, La.)
Historic newspapers carry the language, views and graphic reporting of their time, including racist content. They are shown to teen and adult profiles.
866 issues from 1837 to 1853, published in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, digitised for Chronicling America.
Founded as a French trading post in the early 18th century, Baton Rouge was part of the British and later Spanish colony of West Florida from 1763 until 1810, when, as part of the short-lived Republic of West Florida, it was annexed by the United States. Located on the east bank of the Mississippi River and surrounded by sugar and cotton plantations, it developed into the main commercial center between New Orleans and Natchez. In 1846, through the influence of rural planters, the state capital was moved from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, even though its population at that time was less than 3,000.
The first issue of the Baton-Rouge Gazette appeared in February 1819. Its editors and proprietors changed frequently but included Theodore Devalcourt, William Grivot, Louis Sheppers, Hugh Alexander, Henry A.S. Mussenden, Albert P. Converse, Francis G. Henderson, John Dufrocq, William Adams, and Mayhew G. Bryan. In 1843, Editor John Hueston was killed in a duel with Alcee Labranche, a candidate for Congress, whom Hueston had insulted in the Gazette. Although initially nonpartisan, by the 1840s the paper’s political sympathies lay with the Whig Party.
A four-page weekly, the Gazette was originally issued with two pages in English and two in French. By the 1840s, French-language content had virtually disappeared. Each issue typically contained miscellaneous news items related to politics and commerce, as well as advertisements for local businesses, schools, and entertainment venues,…
- Genres
- News
- Published in
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States
- Collection
- Chronicling America
- Licence or status
- None stated by the archive
- Rights
- The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
- Credit
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities
- Who can read it
- Teens profiles and older (placed by Invisible Network from what the archive says; archives give no ratings)
- Archive
- Library of Congress