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Overview
The colonial French served as explorers, soldiers, missionaries, fur traders, and colonists. Later, French priests and nuns were influential in promoting Catholicism in the state and in developing schools and hospitals. Father Gabriel Richard fled the violence of the French Revolution and became a prominent and influential citizen of the state as a U.S. Congressman and one of the founders of the University of Michigan. French observers of Michigan life included Alexis de Tocqueville. French entrepreneurs opened copper mines and a variety of service-oriented businesses. Louis Fasquelle became the first foreign-language instructor at the University of Michigan, and François A. Artault introduced photography to the Upper Peninsula. As pioneers of the early automobile, the French made a major contribution to the language used in auto manufacturing.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781628952599 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Michigan State University Press |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2016 |
| Series: | Discovering the Peoples of Michigan |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 105 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
French in Michigan
By Russell M. Magnaghi
Michigan State University Press
Copyright © 2016 Russell M. MagnaghiAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-62895-259-9
CHAPTER 1
Colonial Era in Michigan
For Michigan the French colonial era lasted from the 1620s through 1763 and had a number of important components. The first of these was the role of explorers who defined the Great Lakes region as one of the newer parts of the French Empire. Names like Etienne Brulé, Pierre-Esprit Radisson, Médard des Groseilliers, Duluth, and a host of Jesuit missionaries are associated with the exploration of this region.
Explorers
The first French explorers into the Great Lakes country were seeking gold and a route to the South Sea or the Pacific and ultimately Asia. In the 1620s Etienne Brulé, having been trained by the Indians, visited the region and noted the potential fur trade. He was followed by Jean Nicolet in 1634 who got as far as Green Bay seeking the route to China. Soon after Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers entered the Lake Superior country and outlined the advantages of the subsequent development of the fur trade and the role of the Hudson Bay connection.
Jesuit missionaries whose main task was to evangelize the Indians also observed the environment and the people and recorded their observations. From water-level observations, by 1671 two Jesuits, Claude-Jean Allouez and Claude Dablon, created an accurate map of Lake Superior that was soon published. A few military men like Antoine Laumet Lamothe, Sieur de Cadillac left their observations as well.
All of this exploration led to the French establishing territorial claim to the region. The economic minister or intendant, Jean Talon (1626–94), concerned about ownership of the Great Lakes region, sent Simon François, Sieur de St. Lusson (died after 1677), a military officer and deputy, to Sault Ste. Marie. He was ordered to claim Lakes Huron and Superior and all of the lands adjacent and beyond, both discovered and undiscovered, for Louis XIV. St. Lusson oversaw an elaborate ceremony, called "The Pageant of the Sault" at Sault Ste. Marie on June 14, 1671. Indian representatives of dozens of tribes and villages were invited to and witnessed the ceremony. Troops in formal uniforms stood at attention while the French royal standard and a cross were erected on a hillside and the land claimed for the king without getting Indian approval for his action. Then Jesuit Father Claude Allouez presented a unique homily to the Indians, showing them in Native terms the power and might of their new ruler, Louis XIV, into whose empire they had entered and could not leave without a terrible struggle.
René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643–87), was an important French explorer and entrepreneur in North America. In 1678 he obtained permission from Louis XIV to explore the Mid-Continent of North America from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, establish forts, develop the fur trade, make contact with Mexico, and possibly find a route to Asia. He manipulated this mandate into a colossal scheme to develop an inland empire with himself as viceroy. A year later, above Niagara Falls, La Salle had the forty-five-ton sailing vessel Griffon constructed, and then he sailed on board through the Straits of Mackinac into Green Bay. On its return voyage, laden with twelve thousand pounds of furs, the ship sank somewhere in northern Lake Michigan. The Griffon has numerous stories and legends attached to it and how and why it sank. Over the years various groups have sought the wreck of the vessel. The Great Lakes Exploration Group in 2001 felt that they had found the site. However, legal squabbles among the group, the state of Michigan, the federal government, and the government of France over ownership has dragged on with various problems being settled. In a sense the legend lives on.
Fur Trade
As the land was defined, the fur trader entered the scene as furs were considered the "gold" of the Great Lakes region. This trade brought the region and its people into the global market, for furs meant riches when demand was high and poverty when demand was low, constant features both the French and Indians had to face. The fur trading settlement of Fort Buade located in the center of modern St. Ignace at the Straits of Mackinac was the first such post in Michigan. Located at the crossroads of the Great Lakes it was an entrepôt and headquarters for the French traders and attracted Indians from great distances. Closed in the 1690s by Louis XIV because of the glut of furs on the market, it was reestablished in 1715. Located on the south side of the straits, Fort Michilimackinac continued as the major fur trading center in the Great Lakes and as a strategic military outpost. In July 1701 Antoine Laumet Lamothe, Sieur de Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain d'troit ("Fort Pontchatrain at the Narrows" of the Detroit River). This settlement along with Michilimackinac became important to the development of colonial Michigan. A third major trade-military post was Fort St. Joseph where Niles, Michigan, is today, first founded as a Jesuit mission site in the 1680s. In 1691 the trade-military post was established. In the north, Sault Ste. Marie, located at an important water entry into the Lake Superior country, was first founded as St. Mary mission by the Jesuits in 1668 and also became a fur trading center.
Missionaries
The next important contribution of the French was the introduction of Christianity to New France in 1632 by Jesuit missionaries belonging to the Society of Jesus. Beginning in 1641, when French Jesuit priests Isaac Jogues and Charles Raymbault visited the Ojibwa at Sault Ste. Marie, the Jesuits worked in the state for over a century. There was a short-lived mission called Ste. Thérèse at the end of Keweenaw Bay that was founded by Father René Menard in 1660. The first major mission located at Sault Ste. Marie — St. Mary's — was founded by Father Jacques Marquette in 1668, the mission of St. Ignace was founded at the Straits of Mackinac in 1671 followed by a neighboring mission of St. Francis Borgia, and in the 1680s another mission was established at the southern end of the state at Niles. At Detroit the first missionaries were Recollet fathers who ministered to both the French and Indians at Detroit. This proved to be a disaster for the Hurons, who drifted away from the faith. In 1728 the Jesuit Armand de la Richardie (1686–1758) was sent to Detroit to establish the mission of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption among the Hurons. His patient devotion worked, and by 1735 there were six hundred neophyte Christians. Evangelization was plagued with Indian unrest and intrigue by English traders. The mission was moved twenty miles down the Detroit River to Bois Blanc Island, and eventually it became the first Catholic parish in Ontario across the river.
The Jesuits established Ste. Anne church within the walls of Fort Michilimackinac after 1715 and the closure of St. Ignace mission across the straits. In 1742 they established a mission outpost for the Odawa at Cross Village southwest of Fort Michilimackinac.
The Jesuit missionaries were active throughout the state. In contrast to other mission experiences, the Jesuits in Michigan allowed the Indians to remain in their villages with the missions established nearby. They used the missions as headquarters, visiting and ministering to the Indians in their villages and staying with them during the long, cold winter months. The missionaries provided the Indians with basic religious instruction and education, medical assistance, and agricultural instruction. At times they had to face hostility between various Indian tribes and tried to maintain the peace.
Farmers and Farming
The first European-style farming and crops were introduced by the French missionaries and settlers. The missionaries introduced agriculture to the Ojibwa who never practiced farming and new crops to the Odawa and Hurons who were traditional farmers. The missions were usually the source of this farming activity. However in May 1749 a report tells us that the military engineer Joseph-Gaspard Chaussegros de Léry left Montreal accompanying a group of French settlers with "slips of vines, fruit stones, pips, and seeds of all kinds to take to Detroit." The French introduced pears and other fruit along with wheat, oats, peas, onions, chives, and garlic. Some of the pear trees first introduced by the French in Detroit are still flourishing and producing fruit. The French also brought with them livestock, which proved to be successful. Jesuit missionary La Richardie oversaw a number of farms that were developed for and by the Huron Indians around Detroit in the 1740s and 1750s.
Chroniclers
Not satisfied with introducing farming, crops, and livestock, the missionaries wrote of the environment and its botanical assets. Father Marquette wrote in detail about wild rice and how the Indians grew, harvested, and processed the staple. Others wrote about other native plants like rock tripe, a lichen that was used during times of famine, blueberries, and acorns. In 1721 Father Pierre Charlevoix wrote extensively about Michigan's environment and people. Much of this information can be found in the Jesuit Relations that were seventeenth- and eighteenth-century reports about the work of the Jesuits that were sent to France and published.
Laymen also left accounts of the Michigan environment. Cadillac was commandant at Fort Michilimackinac when he wrote beginning in the 1690s about his experiences at the Straits of Mackinac and later at Detroit. Other commandants also wrote of their experiences and the land and its resources. One of the more detailed accounts comes from the pen of Louis-Armand de Lom d'Arce de Lahonton (1666–1716), who wrote extensively about his experiences in the Great Lakes region. Although there were no French scientists in Michigan during the colonial era, Jacques-Pierre Daneau de Muy (1695–1758), born in Canada with strong European ties, played a role as military leader and botanist. In the fall of 1730 he was given command of Fort St. Joseph at what is now Niles, Michigan. His official duties were to maintain trade and keep the neighboring Potawatomi and Miami as allies. Although we do not know his training, his strong interest in botany allowed him to make a close study of plants in the area, primarily seeking pharmaceutical knowledge. He sent back plant specimens to the intendant at Quebec City for his inspection and for the Jesuits to classify. His knowledge and skill with local herbs apparently allowed him to cure several Indians. De Muy left the post after five years, and when he was sent to France he took with him a memorandum of his findings and a large collection of specimens to be analyzed by scientists for their medicinal properties.
Settlements
So far we have seen the development of missions, fur trading, and military posts, but it should be remembered that these communities also attracted settlers. The majority of the French colonial settlers to Michigan were born in New France, but a small number came directly from France through Quebec. Detroit, the largest community between Montreal and New Orleans, had a growing population of eight hundred in 1765. Most of the habitants were soldiers, merchants, fur trader, or farmers or a mixture of the group. Many of the French settlers in the Detroit area settled along the northeast coast of Detroit — modern Grosse Pointe. Here they developed narrow ribbon farms along Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, which eased transportation concerns by using canoes in the summer and sleds on the iced river in the winter.
Many of the early settlers came as adventurers or as army officers and soldiers and decided to remain in their new homes. This was true of Louis Beaufait who married and developed a farm in Grosse Pointe. Jean Chapaton, army surgeon, retired and developed a farm in Detroit. A notable Frenchman was Robert Navarre (1709–91) who was born in France and educated in Paris, and when he arrived in Detroit became the French notary public, in charge of witnessing the signing of legal documents. In 1736 he was responsible for collecting taxes and later for dealing with personal and property matters, much as a probate judge does today. He was familiar with local Indian languages and often served as an official interpreter. He held this position and that of post storekeeper until 1759. With the coming of British rule in 1760 after the loss of the French and Indian War, Navarre continued as notary. He may have been the author of the manuscript Journal of Pontiac's Conspiracy, 1763, an account of Odawa leader Pontiac's uprising in 1763 that served as the historical basis of Francis Parkman's early work, The Conspiracy of Pontiac. Navarre spent his later years with his wife, Marie Lothman de Barrois, on land granted him by the French government in 1747. He passed away in Detroit in 1791 after an extremely active and noteworthy career, and today his descendants are located throughout southeast Michigan.
If it was difficult to attract men to New France, fewer women arrived. The first intendant or economic minister, Jean Talon, was instructed to develop all aspects of the colony. After his arrival in 1666 he organized the colonial economy and offered inducements for early marriage and large families. Groups of usually orphan girls known as les filles du roi were sent from France and quickly found husbands in New France. The population that stood at 3,215 at that time rose to 6,000 within a few years. It was difficult to get French women born in Canada and those born in France to venture into the western frontier and the settlements of Michigan. For lack of "appropriate" white brides the men took Native brides. Some Frenchmen with social connections were able to marry French Canadian women in Montreal or Quebec. At one point Cadillac unsuccessfully lobbied for "Christianized" Indian women from Michilimackinac to be brought to Detroit as brides, but the Jesuits opposed his plan. The Indian, métis (mixed Indian and French ancestry), or French women on the Michigan frontier brought with them a civilizing influence. They also cleared and cultivated the fields and planted vegetable gardens and orchards, especially if their husbands were away fur trading. These young women processed and preserved foodstuffs and became successful farm managers. Some of them became involved in the fur trade and other business interests. The women raised families of as many as a dozen children and, lacking schools, taught them at home and passed on folk traditions and religion. They also became "doctors," using Native remedies along with a store of European medicines and lore when they or their children were ill. At times women protected their households against Indian attacks.
The life of Marie-Thérèse Guyon Cadillac is an example of a French woman on the Michigan frontier. After her husband founded Detroit in 1701 she decided to join him despite the difficulties of canoe travel on the Great Lakes. She left two daughters in a convent at Quebec. She and Marie-Anne de Tonty, traveling with Madame Cadillac's seven-year-old son, were the first European women to travel west. They arrived in Detroit in May 1702. Native Americans were surprised to see these first French women. The women quickly transformed Detroit into a proper settlement. Madame Cadillac took control of her husband's business affairs, especially when he had to travel to Montreal, and she served as doctor to the two hundred habitants and four thousand Native Americans living in the vicinity. The Cadillacs had six or seven children while at Detroit before Marie left in 1710.
The French and Indian War, as it is called in the Americas, is known by Europeans as the Seven Years' War. The war pitted the French and their Native allies against the English on many fronts. Unfortunately the French were defeated outside the walls of Quebec City on the Plains of Abraham in September 1760. It took a while, but in 1763 according to the Treaty of Paris the French claim to North America was relinquished to the English. In Michigan the French and French Canadians remained, if they desired, as did the métis. As a result of this turn of events New France, known to Voltaire as "the ice box," which never attracted many French immigrants, was no longer a destination for French immigrants during the English era that ended in 1796.
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Excerpted from French in Michigan by Russell M. Magnaghi. Copyright © 2016 Russell M. Magnaghi. Excerpted by permission of Michigan State University Press.
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