On this episode of Our American Stories, in 1803, Thomas Jefferson sent Robert Livingston and James Monroe to France hoping to secure New Orleans. Instead, Napoleon offered them something far bigger: the entire Louisiana Territory. For $15 million, the United States acquired roughly 800,000 square miles in one of the largest land deals in history.
Hillsdale College’s Brad and Dedra Birzer explain how the Haitian Revolution, Napoleon’s ambitions, constitutional doubts, and America’s hunger for the West all came together in the Louisiana Purchase, and why Jefferson believed the nation’s future depended on securing the land beyond the Mississippi.
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