desperate
I mean, they were losing it to the British or selling it. Kinda had to unload it for cheap.
Sucked for the slaves, since instead of being freed in 1848 when France abolished slavery (for the second time), they had to wait until 1865, and even then they still had to live in the literal apartheid which was the Jim Crow South for a century more.
It sucked more for the American Indians. The Louisiana Territory was sparsely populated by Europeans and African slaves when it was sold. Most slaves in the area during emancipation were brought by Americans.
I've no doubt they'd have lost that land one way or another, although I suppose it could have gone to the British and made into part of Canada or something.
Yeah. It is the same reason why Russia sold Alaska. It was better to sell to Americans than have it get conquered by the British.
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