James Pitot

James Pitot
James Pitot
	Mayor of New Orleans
	In office; June 6, 1804 – July 26, 1805
Preceded by	Cavelier Petit
Succeeded by	John Watkins
Personal details
Born	November 25, 1761; Villedieu-les-Poêles, France
Died	November 4, 1831 (aged 69); New Orleans, Louisiana
Political party	Independent

James Pitot (1761–1831), also known as Jacques Pitot, was the third

Mayor of New Orleans, after Cavelier Petit served for a ten-day interim following Mayor Boré's

resignation. Because he had already attained American citizenship, he is sometimes called New Orleans' first American mayor.

Biography

Born Jacques-François Pitot in

France and fled that nation during the French Revolution. Jacques Pitot left Saint-Domingue (later Haiti) and settled in Philadelphia, where he became an American citizen, and then lived in Norfolk, Virginia.^[1] After his 1796 arrival in Spanish-held Louisiana, he prospered as a merchant

and became a member of the New Orleans city council.

James Pitot was appointed

city charter

of New Orleans was enacted, including the first public elections of aldermen or city councilmen.

After he resigned as mayor, Claiborne appointed him as Probate Court judge for the Orleans Territory, a position he continued to hold after Louisiana became a state. Judge James Pitot served the legal community until his death on November 4, 1831.^[2]

He was also President of the New Orleans Navigation Company, which was granted the right to operate a toll

age of sail. (Bayou St. John connects to Lake Pontchartrain, which in turn leads to the Gulf of Mexico.^[3]

Pitot's home alongside

1811 slave uprising.^[4]^[5]

Battle of New Orleans

Jacques Pitot is not properly remembered for his role as president of the

Daniel Clark. Clark's challenge was based on Claiborne's recognition of the militia battalion of free men of color in 1804, shortly after the United States took possession of the formerly French

province.

Pitot's action built upon the long-standing network of kinship, economic ties, trade, and cultural ties free people of color had, not only up and down the Mississippi River from New Orleans with both slave-holding whites and with enslaved people, but also throughout the Caribbean and Gulf trade region, including Jamaica, where the British launched their attack against New Orleans in December 1814.

British efforts to lure away both

free blacks to their side of the conflict were not as successful as they had hoped. Pitot's volunteer militia, including the free men of color, joined other units of free men of color, as well as numerous slaves, who were crucial to the defeat of the British invasion under the unified command of General Andrew Jackson

.

References

^ John Kendall's History of Louisiana, 1922, Chapter IV
^ Kendall, ibid.
^ Eaton, Fernin [1]
^ Eaton, ibid.
^ Rowland, Dunbar, Official Letter Books of Gov. W.C.C.Claiborne, vol. V, p. 93
^ Pitot, Henry Clement, James Pitot, 1761-1831; a documentary study
^ Eaton, ibid.

External links

Pitot in the Louisiana Historical Association's online Dictionary of Louisiana Biography (Scroll down.)
Pitot biography on New Orleans Public Library site, transcription from a 1940 WPA compilation; birth year given is incorrect.
Pitot's tenure as mayor (in Kendall's History of Louisiana, Chapter 4)

Preceded by Cavelier Petit	Mayor of New Orleans June 6, 1804 – July 26, 1805	Succeeded by John Watkins

[1] John Kendall's History of Louisiana, 1922, Chapter IV

[2] Kendall, ibid.

[3] Eaton, Fernin [1]

[4] Eaton, ibid.

[5] Rowland, Dunbar, Official Letter Books of Gov. W.C.C.Claiborne, vol. V, p. 93

[6] Pitot, Henry Clement, James Pitot, 1761-1831; a documentary study

[7] Eaton, ibid.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

Authority control databases
International	FAST ISNI VIAF WorldCat
National	Belgium United States
People	Trove
Other	SNAC IdRef

Biography

Battle of New Orleans

See also

References

External links