The French in North America, Part II: La Louisiane & Illinois

1. The French in North America, Part II:La Louisiane & Illinois

3. La Salle's dream was to build a trading colony at the mouth of the Mississippi River., which he had located in 1682. Between 1684-1687 he mounted an expedition with the support of King Louis XIV and private merchants. He and his colonists landed on the coast of modern Texas Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle 9th April , 1682, at the mouth of the Mississippi River near modern Venice, Louisiana

4. Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle

5. Shannon Lee Dawdy University of Chicago ‘Rogue Colonialism’ “Agents who acted beyond the reach of the state and its clerical pens, or who acted in its name, but not necessarily in its interests..” (2005)

6. Old Fort Niagara

7. Fort LaSalle 1669 • Fort Conti 1679 • For Denonville 1687-88 • Permanent fortification "French Castle" 1726 • British take site, and create Fort Niagara 1759 • British yield fort to the US 1796 • Fort Niagara recaptured by the British 1813 • Fort ceded to the US for second time 1815 Old Fort Niagara

9. The first fortified European settlement in what is now Indiana. Established as a military outpost to prevent British expansion into Ohio. The fort served as a trading post for beaver furs and buffalo hides, but the French also tried to convert the natives to Catholicism: fort therefore based on defensive strategy, the quest for wealth, and missionary zeal. Fort Ouiatenon 1717-1791

10. The fort served as link in the French trading post system that stretched from the Mississippi River through the Illinois Country to the St. Lawrence River, and a supply depot for fur traders in the western Great Lakes

12. Pieux-en-terre construction

14. Northwest bastion & outline of powder magazine Soil stain of palisade trench

15. Ste. Genevieve, Missouri French colonial town

16. Detail of 1704 map of Old Mobile showing Fort Louis (the fort site has not been located by archaeologists)

17. Conjectural model of Fort Louis based on the map information & knowledge of other French forts

18. Mobile was established in early 1702 by Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville to serve as the military, political, & economic center of the newly founded colony of Louisiana. Mobile was occupied until 1711, when the capital was moved to New Mobile (modern-day Mobile, Alabama). Archaeology has been conducted at Old Mobile since 1989, under the direction of Dr. Gregory Waselkov of the University of South Alabama in Mobile. -Port Dauphin, some 50 miles down river, served as the port for Mobile. It, too, has been the subject of archaeological investigation. -

19. Four types of architecture are represented by the remains found at Old Mobile • poteauxsur sole – “post-on-sill” • refers to structures with squared uprights on a groundsill • poteaux en terre - “post-in-ground” • refers to close-set squared wall posts set upright in a trench • pieux en terre – “stakes-in-ground” • refers to small round stakes placed upright in wall trenches • colombage • construction of sophisticated timber-framed buildings with vertical beams placed 3–4 ft apart on a plate, often braced at the corners with diagonal timbers.

20. pièce sur pièce – literally, “piece on piece” • a technique used at Ft. Louis, Ft. Toulouse, &c., involves placing hewn beams atop one another without digging trenches or post holes • In all styles the wooden architectural members were infilled by • Bousillage – daub - the walls were referred to as bousillé

21. 1702 map of Old Mobile

22. 1704 map of Old Mobile

23. Port Dauphin was the port for Old Mobile. Salvage excavations were conducted as part of a field school of the University of South Alabama, directed by Dr. Greg Waselkov.

24. Unearthing a perfectly preserved English wine bottle.

25. Structure 1 Remains of a house, perhaps occupied by a missionary, that once stood on sills laid directly on the ground, a building technique referred to aspoteaux-sur-sole.

26. Excavation of Structure 30, which was constructed with supporting posts set in a trench, a technique known as poteaux-en-terre

27. Structure 30 fully exposed, showing the interior poteaux-en-terre trenches enclosed by an external palisade trench. This may once have been a soldier’s home.

28. French faïence, a tin-glazed earthenware, is considered to be one of the most diagnostic artifacts of the French presence in America. This bowl is a variety of faïenceblanche known as Brittany Blue.

29. A variety of faïenceblanche known as Seine Polychrome.

30. A variety of faïencebrune known as Rouen Polychrome. Brown faience has a thick brown lead glaze on the exterior & the forms are often cooking vessels used in haute cuisine.

31. Other tin-glazed earthenwares found at Old Mobile & other French colonial sites Dutch delft Spanish majolica English polychrome delftware

32. Coarse earthenware from the potteries of the Saintonge area: right, green-glazed bowl fragments; below, yellow-glazed plate

33. A field school student carefully exposes an intact lead-glazed earthenware plate

35. On a cold winter day in 1687, the small French ship Belle ran aground on the Texas coast, the victim of a run of bad luck and a howling north wind. The Belle was the last of four ships of the expedition led by Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle.

41. Thousands of Venetian glass “seed” beads—568,798 in all—were contained in this  trader’s box, some piled in rows, others still strung on strands of thread, ready to be traded to the Indians.  Still nailed shut when it was uncovered, the box contained bits of the straw packing that had been placed underneath and over the top of the beads to protect them.