The Founding of Detroit
-Chrissie

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            The various European colonial powers had different methods when it came to claiming territory in North America. The Spanish and Portuguese tended militaristic, establishing a presence in an area by force, then enslaving the natives to work with unreasonable goals. The English landed on the Atlantic shore and claimed the land by virtue of their virtue, in the form of an absolute assurance that God intended them to be there. All three sent families relatively early in their colonial exploits, exercising a claim to the land by virtue of populating it. The other major power who involved themselves in North America was France. Where the Spanish and Portuguese came to the Americas as conquerors by sword and faith and the English sought to conquer with a combination of mercantilism, religion, and force, the French began their colonial efforts with an overarching goal: monopolizing the fur trade. This is not to say the French had no imperial ambitions, they certainly did, or that they did not use force and religion as means to their ends, but they saw the fur trade as a channel to accomplish the rest. Once they were on this course, the French could send other colonists in the form of more soldiers, missionaries, families, and others who intended to stay in New France for the rest of their lives. Their relationship with the native tribes, even their allies, was not without conflict, but their focus on the fur trade meant their policies had to be less adversarial than other Europeans because they needed to have a regular trade with those local hunters who provided the furs. This did not mean it was universally peaceful, the French alliance with the Huron automatically put them at odds with enemies of the Huron, the Iroquois and their European allies. There was, of course, some conflict between these individuals and the tribespeople, but the French were far more accommodationist than any other European colonizers.

            The efforts in monopolizing the fur trade began in the first decade of the 1600s with the voyages of Samuel de Champlain. He was funded by Pierre de Gua, Sieur de Mots, who had been the recipient of a very generous contract from the French Crown which gave him 90% of the fur profits for some years to come. Champlain established a settlement at Quebec in 1608. From there, he made contact with the Huron tribe, who led him through the eastern Great Lakes and with whom he made agreements to trade furs for European goods. He was followed over the next century by voyageurs (French fur traders) and missionaries, who traveled around the Great Lakes area, trading and living with the local tribes in (relative) peace. The French set up trading posts between Quebec and the Great Lakes, with the most important at the Straits of Mackinac and Montreal.

In 1700, the French adventurer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac was given permission to establish a fort at the straits connecting lakes Huron and Erie. Fort Pontchartrain du détroit was established on 24 July 1701. It was named for Louis Phélypeaux, Compte de Pontchartrain, who was Chancellor of France at the time, and for this location at the straits, “détroit” in French. The first two constructions were the palisade and the Church of St. Anne; the church was finished first. Once this was done, they set to work bringing in a French population. Cadillac brought his wife and family to the settlement, and arranged for all of his officers’ families to emigrate as well. This served two purposes: first, it showed the local tribes that the settlement was a permanent one, second, it encouraged further French colonization by indicating that the area was relatively safe. Allotments were made within the fort for 68 homes with small yards and for 75 farming plots along the river. The farms had only a few hundred feet along the river, but that strip stretched as far as three miles inland; these came to be known as ribbon farms.

Some French colonists made their way to le détroit, but not as many as Cadillac and the Crown hoped. Potential inhabitants were put off by winters that were longer and colder than those to which they were accustomed, a fact which also meant a shorter growing season. They were further discouraged by accounts of tribal violence against colonists. And, lastly, there were reports of corruption by Cadillac, who was treating the colonists as if they were his serfs by requiring that they give him a share of their crops and pay to use the colony’s grain mill. Cadillac was removed from Detroit in 1710, relocated by the French government to be governor of Louisiana.

Over the next fifty years, Detroit grew only slightly, from a population around 200 in 1720 to just over 500 at the beginning of the French and Indian War in 1756. The British victory in that war pushed the French out of North America and laid the groundwork for the American Revolution, eventually moving Detroit into the territory of the United States.

Notes and/or Suggested Reading

Michael McDonnell, Masters of Empire.

Tiya Miles, The Dawn of Detroit.

Ted Morgan, Wilderness at Dawn.

Matthew Thick, The Great Water.