After reclaiming the colony from Spain by a secret treaty in 1800, Napoleon sent Pierre Laussat to govern Louisiana. Soon after Laussat sailed for America, however, Napoleon sold the colony to the United States. Laussat ended up presiding over the transfer of sovereignty over Louisiana was from Spain to France to the U.S. in the autumn of 1803 -- and his 20-day administration of the territory had significant ramifications.

This book describes his Louisiana papers, found in 1973 in bags in the attic of the family chateau in Pau, France, dusted with cayenne after Laussat left his last post in the Caribbean, and now housed at the Historic New Orleans Collection in the French Quarter. The book gives each document a succinct and informative description, so any researcher can get at the things he or she needs and decide whether to consult the original manuscript (many of which are in Spanish or French) as necessary.

When I began editing this book in the early 1990s, a number of people had worked on arranging and describing the manuscripts -- all of whom are acknowledged in the published guide. As editor I consolidated the several draft descriptions of each manuscript, re-writing and clarifying all the entries and making sure that everything made sense -- and I contributed a brief introductory essay about Laussat, the Louisiana Purchase, and the provenience of the manuscripts. This is an unusually coherent manuscript collection for the 18th and early 19th century Gulf South. Several years have now passed since my work on this guide to the Laussat papers immersed me in the sources about the Louisiana Purchase. During those years I had always been looking for a readable, reliable, and complete narrative history of the Louisiana Purchase. There are a few sound scholarly monographs, but I was looking for a book that would be a delight to read. Aside from Henry Adams writing in 1889-90, I never found one -- so now I am writing (under contract with Knopf) the book I wanted to read. It is a fascinated and surprising international story, with remarkable personalities. My book will be published in 2003 for the anniversary.