The instructions President Thomas Jefferson gave his minister to France in 1802 were simple: negotiate the purchase of the port city of New Orleans from France. Located off the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans controlled entrance to the Mississippi River. And the Mississippi River controlled trade and transportation in the interior of North America. Jefferson did not want a foreign country controlling the fate and future growth of the United States.
In December 1803, the United States purchased France’s entire Louisiana territory. The deal included New Orleans and a vast expanse of land that extended west of the
