William Charles Cole Claiborne (c. 1773–1775 – November 23, 1817) was an American politician and military officer who served as the first governor of Louisiana from April 30, 1812 to December 16, 1816.

[4] He was a descendant of Colonel William Claiborne (1600–1677), an English pioneer who was born in Crayford, Kent, England, and settled in the Colony of Virginia.

Earlier in 1797, he described his age to George Washington in vague terms: "Born, Sir, at a period, when every American Breast palpitated for freedom, I became early attached to civil Liberty. ...

The United States presidential election of 1800 was decided in the House of Representatives, due to a tie in the Electoral College, by which time Claiborne was over 25 years old.

[citation needed] When a smallpox epidemic broke out in the spring of 1802, Claiborne's actions resulted in the first recorded mass vaccination in the territory and saved the city of Natchez from the disease.

[citation needed] Relations with Louisiana's Créole population were initially rather strained: Claiborne was young, inexperienced, and unsure of himself, and at the time of his arrival spoke no French.

The white elite were initially alarmed when Claiborne retained the services of free people of color in the militia, who had served with considerable distinction during the preceding forty-year Spanish rule.

[citation needed] An event which is now said to have been the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history, the 1811 German Coast Uprising, occurred while Claiborne was the territorial governor.

U.S. military personnel arrived too late to capture the rebels or to prevent what amounted to their massacre at the hands of American militiamen or white planters who lived along the Mississippi River.

[15] After the Republic of West Florida won a short-lived period of independence (from Spain) in 1810, Claiborne annexed the area to the Orleans Territory on the orders of President James Madison, who determined to consider it as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Claiborne raised militia companies and in 1814 negotiated the assistance of French pirate and slave trader Jean Lafitte in defending New Orleans from an expected British attack.

[16] After the attack occurred in 1815, Claiborne wrote to Major-General John Lambert on March 25, informing him that two "distinguished citizens" of Louisiana, Michael Fortier and Chevalier de la Croix, had gone to his headquarters to Dauphin Island to retrieve fugitive slaves who had fled to the British Army and gained their freedom.

Lambert's subordinate, John Power, replied to Claiborne on March 30, stating that "I should feel happy, in rendering any assistance to those Gentlemen, to enable them to execute the object of their mission, but agreeable to the determination of Major General Lambert... he did not feel himself authorized to resort to force, to oblige them [to return to their enslavers], as they threw themselves on his protection, which they were entitled to, having served with the British Army and which they did voluntarily and without compulsion".

[citation needed] The Supreme Court case Claiborne v. Police Jury established the three distinct governing structures of the U.S. in Louisiana.

[citation needed] The Claiborne Building is located in downtown Baton Rouge and serves as an administrative center for the Louisiana state government.