A [novel] published in 1953 helped to popularize the claim that Point du Sable was born in 1745 in Saint-Marc in Saint-Domingue (later known as Haiti).
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (also spelled Point de Sable, Point au Sable, Point Sable, Pointe DuSable; before 1750 – 28 August 1818) is regarded as the first permanent non-Indigenous settler of what would later become Chicago, Illinois, and is recognized as the "Founder of Chicago".
The site where he settled near the mouth of the Chicago River around the 1780s is identified as a National Historic Landmark, now located in Pioneer Court. Point du Sable was of African descent, but little else is known of his early life prior to the 1770s.
Point duSable's successful role in developing the Chicago River settlement was little recognized until the mid-20th century. ==Biography== There are no records of Point du Sable's life prior to the 1770s.
It is likely that this couple was married earlier in the 1770s in a Native American tradition.
But letters written by other traders in the late 1770s suggest that Point duSable was at this time settled at the mouth of Trail Creek (Rivière duChemin) at what is now Michigan City, Indiana. In August 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, Point duSable was arrested as a suspected Patriot at Trail Creek by British troops and imprisoned briefly at Fort Michilimackinac.
Maillet on 13March 1773, and sold it to Isaac Darneille in 1783 before he became the first "permanent" resident of Chicago. ===Departure from Chicago=== Point du Sable left Chicago in 1800.
In 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, he was arrested by the British on suspicion of being an American Patriot sympathizer.
When he published this poem in 1813, DePeyster presented it as a speech that he had made at the village of Arbrecroche (now Harbor Springs, Michigan) on 4July 1779.
This footnote has led many scholars to assume that Point duSable had settled in Chicago by 1779.
But letters written by other traders in the late 1770s suggest that Point duSable was at this time settled at the mouth of Trail Creek (Rivière duChemin) at what is now Michigan City, Indiana. In August 1779, during the American Revolutionary War, Point duSable was arrested as a suspected Patriot at Trail Creek by British troops and imprisoned briefly at Fort Michilimackinac.
The site where he settled near the mouth of the Chicago River around the 1780s is identified as a National Historic Landmark, now located in Pioneer Court. Point du Sable was of African descent, but little else is known of his early life prior to the 1770s.
In the early 1780s he worked for the British lieutenant-governor of Michilimackinac on an estate at what is now the city of St.
From the summer of 1780 until May 1784, Point duSable managed the Pinery, a tract of woodlands owned by British officer Lt.Patrick Sinclair, on the St.
Clair. At some time in the 1780s, after the US achieved independence, Point du Sable settled on the north bank of the Chicago River close to its mouth.
In the claim Jarrot asserted that a "Jean Baptiste Poinstable" had been "head of a family at Peoria in the year 1783, and before and after that year", and that he "had a house built and cultivated land between the Old Fort and the new settlement in the year 1780".
Other records demonstrate that Point duSable was living and working under the British at the Pinery in Michigan in the early 1780s.
Point duSable 1780s establishment is recognized as the first settlement that continued on and ultimately grew to become the city of Chicago.
In the claim Jarrot asserted that a "Jean Baptiste Poinstable" had been "head of a family at Peoria in the year 1783, and before and after that year", and that he "had a house built and cultivated land between the Old Fort and the new settlement in the year 1780".
Maillet on 13March 1773, and sold it to Isaac Darneille in 1783 before he became the first "permanent" resident of Chicago. ===Departure from Chicago=== Point du Sable left Chicago in 1800.
From the summer of 1780 until May 1784, Point duSable managed the Pinery, a tract of woodlands owned by British officer Lt.Patrick Sinclair, on the St.
If he was born outside continental North America, there are competing accounts as to whether he entered as a trader from the north through French Canada, or from the south through French Louisiana. Point du Sable married a Potawatomi woman named Kitihawa (Christianized to Catherine) on 27October 1788, in a Catholic ceremony in Cahokia in the Illinois Country, a longtime French colonial settlement on the east side of the Mississippi River.
Clair, Michigan north of Detroit. Point du Sable is first recorded as living at the mouth of the Chicago River in a trader's journal of early 1790.
The earliest known record of Point duSable living in Chicago is an entry that Hugh Heward made in his journal on 10May 1790, during a journey from Detroit across Michigan and through Illinois.
In her 1852 memoir, Juliette Kinzie, Kinzie's daughter-in-law, suggested that "perhaps he [du Sable] was disgusted at not being elected to a similar dignity [great chief] by the Pottowattamies". In 1874 Nehemiah Matson elaborated on this story, claiming that Point duSable was a slave from Virginia who had moved with his master to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1790.
Perrish Grignon, who visited Chicago in about 1794, described Point duSable as a large man and wealthy trader.
The 1795 Treaty of Greenville, which ended the Northwest Indian War, and the subsequent westward migration of Native Americans away from the Chicago area might also have influenced his decision. ==Legacy and honors== ===Founder of Chicago=== The French came to the North American mid-continent region in the 17thcentury.
Point du Sable's granddaughter, Eulalie Pelletier, was born at his Chicago River settlement in 1796. In 1800 Point duSable sold his farm to John Kinzie's frontman, Jean La Lime, for 6,000 livres.
He sold his Chicago River property in 1800 and moved to the port of St.
Point du Sable's granddaughter, Eulalie Pelletier, was born at his Chicago River settlement in 1796. In 1800 Point duSable sold his farm to John Kinzie's frontman, Jean La Lime, for 6,000 livres.
Maillet on 13March 1773, and sold it to Isaac Darneille in 1783 before he became the first "permanent" resident of Chicago. ===Departure from Chicago=== Point du Sable left Chicago in 1800.
At the time, few Chicagoans had even heard of Point duSable, and the fair's organizers presented the 1803 construction of Fort Dearborn as the city's historical beginning.
By 1804, John Kinzie, who also settled in Chicago, had bought the former du Sable house.
When he published this poem in 1813, DePeyster presented it as a speech that he had made at the village of Arbrecroche (now Harbor Springs, Michigan) on 4July 1779.
Despite lack of evidence and the continued debate about Point duSable's early life, parentage, and birthplace, this popular story has been repeated and widely presented as being definitive. ===Peoria=== In 1815 a land claim that had been submitted by Nicholas Jarrot to the land commissioners at Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory, was approved.
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (also spelled Point de Sable, Point au Sable, Point Sable, Pointe DuSable; before 1750 – 28 August 1818) is regarded as the first permanent non-Indigenous settler of what would later become Chicago, Illinois, and is recognized as the "Founder of Chicago".
He died on 28 August 1818, and was buried in an unmarked grave in St.Charles Borromeo Cemetery.
He is therefore widely regarded as the first permanent resident of Chicago and has been given the appellation "Founder of Chicago". ===Memorials=== By the 1850s, historians of Chicago recognized Point duSable as the city's earliest non-native permanent settler.
In her 1852 memoir, Juliette Kinzie, Kinzie's daughter-in-law, suggested that "perhaps he [du Sable] was disgusted at not being elected to a similar dignity [great chief] by the Pottowattamies". In 1874 Nehemiah Matson elaborated on this story, claiming that Point duSable was a slave from Virginia who had moved with his master to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1790.
Juliette Kinzie, another early pioneer of Chicago, never met Point duSable but said in her 1856 memoir that he was "a native of St.Domingo" (the island of Hispaniola).
In her 1852 memoir, Juliette Kinzie, Kinzie's daughter-in-law, suggested that "perhaps he [du Sable] was disgusted at not being elected to a similar dignity [great chief] by the Pottowattamies". In 1874 Nehemiah Matson elaborated on this story, claiming that Point duSable was a slave from Virginia who had moved with his master to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1790.
The bill of sale, which was rediscovered in 1913 in an archive in Detroit, detailed all of the property Point duSable owned, as well as many of his personal effects.
A plaque was erected by the city in 1913 at the corner of Kinzie and Pine Streets to commemorate the Kinzie homestead.
Writing in 1933, Quaife identified a French immigrant to Canada, Pierre Dandonneau, who acquired the title "Sieur deSable" and whose descendants were known by both the names Dandonneau and DuSable.
In the planning stages of the 1933–1934 Century of Progress International Exposition, several African-American groups campaigned for Point duSable to be honored at the fair.
DuSable High School opened in Bronzeville, Chicago in 1934.
He speculated that Point duSable's father may have been a member of this family, while his mother was likely an enslaved woman. In 1951 Joseph Jeremie, a native of Haiti, published a pamphlet in which he said he was the great grandson of Point duSable.
A [novel] published in 1953 helped to popularize the claim that Point du Sable was born in 1745 in Saint-Marc in Saint-Domingue (later known as Haiti).
in a fanciful biography". ====Fiction==== In 1953 Shirley Graham drew from the work of Quaife and Jeremie in a historical novel about Point duSable.
Quaife dismisses both of these stories as being fictional. In her 1953 novel, Graham suggests that Point du Sable left Chicago because he was angered with the United States government.
The campaign was successful, and a replica of Point duSable's cabin was presented as part of the "background of the history of Chicago". In 1965 a plaza called Pioneer Court was built on the site of Point duSable's homestead as part of the construction of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of America building.
On 12October 1968, the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission erected a granite marker at the site believed to be Point duSable's grave in the third St.Charles Borromeo Cemetery. In 2002 an archaeological investigation of the grave site was initiated by the African Scientific Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
She and her husband co-founded the DuSable Museum of African American History, located on Chicago's South Side, which was renamed in honor of Point duSable in 1968.
The Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Homesite was designated as a National Historic Landmark on 11May 1976, as a site deemed to have "exceptional value to the nation".
The project was originally announced in 1987 by Mayor Harold Washington.
On 12October 1968, the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission erected a granite marker at the site believed to be Point duSable's grave in the third St.Charles Borromeo Cemetery. In 2002 an archaeological investigation of the grave site was initiated by the African Scientific Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
At this site in 2009 the City of Chicago and a private donor, Haitian-born, Lesly Benodin, erected a large bronze bust of Point duSable by Chicago-born sculptor Erik Blome.
In October 2010 the Michigan Avenue Bridge was renamed DuSable Bridge in honor of Point duSable.
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