Below is a list of printed sources related to colonial and early national Louisiana. They are arranged in alphabetical order by title. The colonial era sources are quite voluminous. Most of the titles are in English, but some are in French. While not exhaustive, this list represents some of the most important printed collections of early primary sources related to Louisiana and the surrounding region. Additional collections of Louisiana primary sources may be found in various issues of the Louisiana Historical Quarterly. For help locating any of the volumes listed below, consult our Finding Published Sources page.

Colonial  

A Comparative View of French Louisiana, 1699 and 1762: The Journals of Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Jean-Jacques-Blaise d’Abbadie, ed. and trans. Carl A. Brasseaux (Lafayette, 1979)

Acts Passed at the Legislature of the Territory of Orleans, 6 vols. (New Orleans, 1806-1812)

A Defense of the Right of the Public to the Batture of New Orleans, Julien Poydras (Washington, 1809)

A Digest of the Civil Laws Now in Force in the Territory of Orleans…Adapted to Its Present System of Government, eds. James Brown and Louis Moreau-Lisler (New Orleans, 1808)

A General Digest of the Acts of the Legislatures of the Late Territory of Orleans, and the State of Louisiana…, François-Xavier Martin (New Orleans, 1816)

A Memoria of Francisco Bouligny, ed. and trans. Gilbert C. Din (New Orleans, 1977)

An Account of Louisiana, Being an Abstract of Documents, in the Offices of the Departments of State, and of the Treasury (Washington, 1803)

An Historical Narrative and Topographical Description of Louisiana and West-Florida, Thomas Hutchins (1784); ed. Joseph G. Trebe, Jr. (Gainesville, 1968)

A Report from Natchitoches in 1807, ed. Annie Heloise Abel (New York, 1922)

Athanases de Mézières and the Louisiana - Texas Frontier, 1768 - 1780, ed. and trans. Herbert Eugene Bolton, 2 vols. (Cleveland, 1914)

Béranger’s Discover of Aransas Pass: A Translation of Jean Béranger’s French Manuscript, ed. Frank Wagner, trans. William M. Carroll (Corpus Christi, 1983)

Calendar of Louisiana Colonial Documents, eds. Winston DeVille and Elizabeth Becker Gianelloni, 3 vols. (Baton Rouge, 1965)

The Canary Islands Migration to Louisiana, 1778 - 1783: The History and Passenger Lists of the Islenos Volunteer Recruits and Their Families, ed. Sidney Louis Villeré (New Orleans, 1971)

Census of Pointe Coupeé, Louisiana, 1745, ed. Bill Barron (New Orleans, 1978)

The Census Tables for the French Colony of Louisiana from 1699 through 1732, ed. and trans. Charles R. Maduell (Baltimore, 1972)

Codes Noirs et autres documents concernant l’esclavage, ed. Marc Serge Rivière (Beau Bassin, 2009)

The Critical Period, 1763 - 1765, eds. Clarence Walworth Alvord and Clarence Edwin Carter (Springfield, 1915)

Découvertes et établissements des français dans l’ouest et dans le sud de l’Amérique septentrionale, 1614 – 1754: Mémoires et documents orginaux recueillis et pub, ed. Pierre Margry, 5 vols. (Paris, 1876-1886)

Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley: With the Original Narratives of Marquette, Allouez, Membré, Hennepin, and Nastase Douay, ed. John Gilmary Shea (New York, 1852)

Documents Illustrative to the Slave Trade to America, ed. Elizabeth Donnan, 4 vols. (Washington, 1930-1935)

Documents Relating to the Commercial Policy of Spain in the Floridas, with Incidental Reference to Louisiana, ed. and trans. Arthur P. Whitaker (Deland, 1931)

Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, by Cavelier, St. Cosme, Le Sueur, Gravier, and Guignas, ed. John Gilmary Shea (Albany, 1861)

Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites, 32 vols. (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904-1907)

Equisse de la situation politique et civile de la Louisianae…, Louisianais [Pierre Derbigny] (New Orleans, 1804)

The Favrot Family Papers: A Documentary Chronicle of Early Louisiana, eds. Guillermo Náñez Falcón and Wilbur E. Meneray, 5 vols. (New Orleans, 1988)

Fleur de Lys and Calumet: Being the Pénicaut Narrative of French Adventure in Louisiana, ed. and trans Richebourg Gaillard McWilliams (Baton Rouge, 1953)

The German Coast: Abstracts of the Civil Records of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes, 1804 – 1812, ed. Glenn R. Conrad (Lafayette, 1981)

Historical Collections of Louisiana, Embracing Translations of Many Rare and Valuable Documents, ed. Benjamin Franklin French, 7 vols. (New York, 1846-1853)

The Historical Journal of the Establishment of the French in Louisiana, ed. Glen R. Conrad, trans. Joan Cain and Virginia Koenig (Lafayette, 1971)

Historical Memoirs of Louisiana: From the First Settlement of the Colony to the Departure of Governer O’Reilly in 1770, ed. Benjamin Franklin French (New York, 1853)

The History of Louisiana, Antoine Le Page Du Pratz (London, 1774; reprint Baton Rouge, 1975)

The History of the American Indians, Particularly Those Nations Adjoining to the Mississippi, East and West Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolina, and Virginia…, James Adair (London, 1775)

Iberville’s Gulf Journals, ed. and trans. Richebourg Gaillard McWilliams (Tuscaloosa, 1981)

Immigration and War: Louisiana, 1718 - 1721: From the Memoir of Charles Le Gac, ed. and trans. Glenn R. Conrad (Lafayette, 1970)

Interim Appointment: W. C. C. Claiborne Letter Book, 1804 – 1805, ed. Jared William Bradley (Baton Rouge, 2002)

Jean-Bernard Bossu’s Travels in the Interior of North America, 1751 - 1762, ed. and trans. Seymour Feiler (Norman, 1962)

The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610 - 1791, ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites, 73 vols. (Cleveland, 1896-1901)

Journal of a Tour in Unsettled Parts of North America in 1796t and 1797, ed. Jack D. L. Holmes (Carbondale, 1969)

Journal of a Voyage to North America, Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix (London, 1761)

The Journal of JeanCavelier: The Account of a Survivor of La Salle’s Texas Expedition, 1684 - 1688, ed. and trans. Jean Delanglez (Chicago, 1938)

Journal of Paul Du Ru (February 1 to May 8, 1700), Missionary Priest to Louisiana, trans. Ruth Lapham Butler (Chicago, 1934)

The Journal of Sauvole: Historical Journal of the Establishment of the French in Louisiana by M. de Sauvole, ed. and trans. Jay Higginbotham (Mobile, 1969)

Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro, ed. Helen Tunncliff Catterall, 5 vols. (Washington, 1932-1937)

La Salle, the Mississippi, and the Gulf: Three Primary Documents, ed. Robert S. Weddle (College Station, 1987)

The Letters of Marie Madeleine Hachard, 1727 - 28, Myldred Masson Costa, trans. (New Orleans, 1974)

Life, Letters, and Papers of William Dunbar, ed. Eron Rowland (Jackson, 1930)

Louisiana Recruits, 1752 - 1758: Ship Lists of Troops from the Independent Companies of the Navy Destined for Service in the French Colony of Louisiana, ed. Winston DeVille (Cottonport, 1973)

Louisiana Troops, 1720 - 1770, ed. Winston DeVille (Baltimore, 1965)

Louisiana under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States, 1785 – 1807, ed. Paul Alliot, trans. James Alexander Robertson, 2 vols. (Cleveland, 1911)

The Memoiré Justificatif of the Chevalier Montault de Monberaut: Indian Diplomacy in British West Florida, 1763 - 1765, trans. Milo B. Howard, Jr., and Robert R. Rea (Tuscaloosa, 1965)

Memoirs of My Life to My Son during the Years 1803 and after, Which I Spent in the Public Service in Louisiana…, Pierre-Clément de. Laussat (Baton Rouge, 2003)

The Merchant of Manchac: The Letterbooks of John Fitzpatrick, 1768 - 1790, ed. Margaret Fisher Dalrymple (Baton Rouge, 1978)

Mississippi Provincial Archives: French Dominion, eds. Dunbar Rowland, Albert Godfrey Sanders, and Patricia Kay Galloway, 5 vols. (Baton Rouge and Jackson, 1929-1984)

Nairne’s Muskhogean Journals: The 1708 Expedition to the Mississippi River, ed. Alexander Moore (Jackson, 1988)

Natchitoches, 1729 - 1803: Abstracts of the Catholic Church Registers of the French and Spanish Post of St. Jean Baptiste des Natchitoches in Louisiana, ed. Elizabeth Shown Mills (New Orleans, 1977)

New Travels in North America by Jean-Bernard Bossu, 1770 - 1771, ed. and trans. Samuel Dorris Dickinson (Natchitoches, 1982)

Observations on the Colony of Louisiana, from 1796 to 1802, James Pitot and Robert D. Bush (Baton Rouge, 1979)

Official Letter Books of William C. C. Claiborne, 1801 – 1816, ed. Dunbar Rowland (Jackson, 1917)

Old Cahokia: A Narrative and Documents Illustrating the First Century of its History, ed. John Francis McDermott (St. Louis, 1949)

The Papers of James Madison, eds. William T. Hutchinson, et. al., 10 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962 - 1977); 32 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977 - )

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, eds. Julian Boyd, et. al., 45 vols. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1959 - )

Police Code, or Collection of the Ordinances of Police Made by the City Countil of New Orleans (New Orleans, 1808)

The Present State of European Settlements on the Mississippi, Philip Pittman (1770); ed. Robert R. Rea (Gainesville, 1973)

Quest for the Promised Land: Official Correspondence Relating to the First Acadian Migration to Louisiana, 1764 - 1769, ed. and trans. Carl A. Brasseaux, et al. (Lafayette, 1989)

Reports of Cases Arguedand Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana and in the Superior Court of the Territory of Orleans, François-Xavier Martin (St. Paul, 1913)

Sacramental Records of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, eds. Earl C. Woods and Charles E. Nolan (New Orleans, 1987)

Sketches, Historical and Descriptive of Louisiana, Amos Stoddard (Philadelphia, 1812)

The Spanish Regime in Missouri: A Collection of Papers and Documents Relating to Upper Louisiana, ed. Louis Houck, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1909)

Some Late Eighteenth - Century Louisianans: Census Records of the Colony, 1758 - 1796, ed. and trans. Jacqueline K. Voorhies (Lafayette, 1973)

Spain in the Mississippi Valley, 1765 – 1794, ed. and trans. Lawrence Kinnaird, 2 vols. (Washington, 1946, 1949)

Sugar and Slavery, Family and Race: The Letters and Diary of Pierre Dessalles, Planter in Martinique, 1808 – 1856, eds. and trans. Elborg Foster and Robert Foster (Baltimore, 1996)

Territorial Papers of the United States, ed. Clarence E. Carter, et. al., 28 vols. (Washington, 1934-1975)

Travels in Louisiana and the Floridas, in the Year, 1802; Giving a Correct Picture of Those Countries, Berquin-Duvallon, Pierre Louis, and John Davis (New York, 1806)

Travels in the American Colonies, ed. Newton D. Mereness (New York, 1916)

The Vaudreuil Papers: A Calendar and Index of the Personal and Private Records of Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil, Royal Governor of the French Province of Louisiana, 1743 - 1753, ed. Bill Barron (New Orleans, 1975)

Voyage dans les deux Louisianes, et chez les nations sauvages du Missouri…en 1801, 1802 et 1803, M. Perrin du Lac (Lyon, 1805)

Voyage to Louisiana, 1803 – 1805, C. C. Robin and Stuart O. Landry (New Orleans, 1966)

Women’s Voices, Women’s Lives: Documents in Early American History, eds. Carol Berkin and Leslie Horowitz (Boston, 1998)

Early National

Acts Passed at the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana (New Orleans, 1812-1820)

A General Digest of the Acts of the Legislature of Louisiana, ed. Louis Moreau Lislet (New Orleans, 1828)

A General Digest of the Acts of the Legislatures of the Late Territory of Orleans, and the State of Louisiana…, François-Xavier Martin (New Orleans, 1816)

Chained to the Land: Voices from Cotton & Cane Plantations, ed. Lynette Ater Tanner (Durham, 2014)

Impressions respecting New Olreans: Diary and Sketches, 1818 - 1820, ed. Samuel Wilson, Jr. (New York, 1951)

Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro, ed. Helen Tunncliff Catterall, 5 vols. (Washington, 1932-1937)

Louisiana under the Rule of Spain, France, and the United States, 1785 – 1807, ed. Paul Alliot, trans. James Alexander Robertson, 2 vols. (Cleveland, 1911)

Mother Wit: The Ex-Slave Narratives of the Louisiana Writers’ Project, ed. Ronnie Clayton (New York, 1990)

Official Letter Books of William C. C. Claiborne, 1801 – 1816, ed. Dunbar Rowland (Jackson, 1917)

The Papers of Andrew Jackson, eds. Sam B. Smith, Harriet Chappell Owsley, et. al., 11 vols. (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1980 - )

The Papers of James Madison, eds. William T. Hutchinson, et. al., 10 vols. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962 - 1977); 32 vols. (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977 - )

Recollections of the Last Ten Years, Passed in Occasional Residences and Journeyings in the Valley of the Mississippi…, Timothy Flint and James Flint (Boston, 1826)

Reports of Cases Arguedand Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana and in the Superior Court of the Territory of Orleans, François-Xavier Martin (St. Paul, 1913)

Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana, Amos Stoddard (Philadelphia, 1812)

Sugar and Slavery, Family and Race: The Letters and Diary of Pierre Dessalles, Planter in Martinique, 1808 – 1856, eds. and trans. Elborg Foster and Robert Foster (Baltimore, 1996)

Twelve Years a Slave, Solomon Northrup (New York, 1853)