Louisiana Purchase

Now the much larger United States had difficult questions to answer: How would Louisiana be governed? How would it be divided into states? Would those states be free states or slave states? What would happen to the Native Americans? It would take over one hundred years, a war over slavery, and the creation of thirteen new states before these questions could be answered.

In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory from the French for $15,000,000. The purchase made President Jefferson's dream of extending the U.S. west of the Mississippi River come true.

Now the much larger United States had difficult questions to answer: How would Louisiana be governed? How would it be divided into states? Would those states be free states or slave states? What would happen to the Native Americans? It would take over one hundred years, a war over slavery, and the creation of thirteen new states before these questions could be answered.

Mindy Hardwick - Children's Literature

The year is 1803 and Napolean settles into his hot bath. Suddenly, there is a knock on his bathroom door. Napolean's brothers, Lucien and Joseph enter. Napolean announces that he has decided to sell Louisiana to the Americans. Meanwhile, three thousand miles away, Jefferson is trying to buy New Orleans. Although the text begins with a storyteller's voice, and at times does hold to the promise of history told through story, the book has a tendency to revert to a factual accounting of the Louisiana Purchase. Due to the numerous facts which are not connected through a story, the young reader will easily become lost. Young readers would do best to choose another book to read about the Louisiana Purchase. 2004, Aladdin Paperbacks, Ages 7 to 10.

Sally Wern Comport is the illustrator of many books for children, including Brave Margaret by Robert D. San Souci. She resides in Annapolis, Maryland.