Ohio History Journal

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THE EARLY FRENCH SETTLEMENTS ON THE GREAT

THE EARLY FRENCH SETTLEMENTS ON THE GREAT

LAKES.

 

 

JOHN M. BULKLEY.

The French emigrants scattered along the northwestern

frontier previous to the year 1760, were chiefly from the prov-

inces of Picardy and Normandy in France. Without aspiring

to the aristocratic rank of the noblesse, who had congregated in

the region of Quebec and Montreal, they were accustomed to

reverence the authority which had before been exercised over

them under the French monarchy in their native land.

The French colonies upon the shores of Michigan had been

founded for the purposes of extending the dominion and prose-

cuting the fur trade into the Indian territory. The Frenchmen

who were sent out from the headquarters of the Colonial govern-

ment were expected to undergo the hardships of the forest in

accomplishing their objects. They consisted of the command-

ants of these posts, merchants, Jesuits, priests, traders, soldiers

and the peasantry. A small part of the population was local.

The inhabitants belonged to a system of machinery in religion

and trade, which was constantly being moved from post to post.

The most important individuals at the trading posts, next to

the Commandants, were the French merchants, who generally

had their houses near the forts, and the half-breeds, the off-

spring of the rangers of the woods and the Indians. The old

French merchant at his post, was the "head man" of the settle-

ment. Careful, frugal, without much enterprise, judgment or

rigid virtue, he was employed in procuring skins from the In-

dians, or traders, in exchange for manufactured goods. In the

absence of any better form of government the merchants were

revered as the patrons of their settlement. Their policy was to

exercise their influence with paternal mildness so as to prevent

rebellion, to keep on good terms with the Indians in order to

secure their trade, and they frequently placed themselves in the

position of adviser and confidential friend.

(341)