Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark People
Who Made It Happen
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America for the central role he played in drafting the Declaration of Independence. During the...
Meriwether Lewis
Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) was a young army officer appointed by Thomas Jefferson to lead the Corps of Discovery on its 1804 to 1806 round-trip journey across the unknown continent to the Pacif...
William Clark
William Clark (1770–1838), a lifelong military man, was asked by his friend Meriwether Lewis to serve as co-leader of the Corps of Discovery on its 1804 to 1806 round-trip journey across the cont...
Robert Livingston
Robert Livingston (1746–1813) was a New York political leader of the Revolutionary era. He may be best known for serving on the five-man committee—alongside Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, B...
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) was a French military officer who rose through the chaos of the French Revolution to become Emperor of France. In the first two decades of the 19th century, Na...
Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint Louverture (1743–1803) was a plantation slave in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue. After slaves on the island launched an uprising in 1791, Toussaint liberated himself...
Sacagawea
Sacagawea (1787–1812) was a young Shoshone Indian woman who, while pregnant with her first child, accompanied the Lewis & Clark expedition on their journey to the Pacific. Traveling alon...