Joseph L. Peyser

The late Joseph L. Peyser was Professor Emeritus of French at Indiana University South Bend. Professor Peyser spent the last twenty-five years of his life creating a body of translated documents t...

José António Brandão

José António Brandão is Associate Professor of History and Associate Chair of the Department of History at Western Michigan University. He is co-editor of The Iroquoians and Their World, an ongoing series of publications related to the history...

Edge of Empire
Documents of Michilimackinac, 1671–1716

Joseph L. Peyser

 Edited by

José António Brandão

This is a unique glimpse into the French fur trade of the Great Lakes region: Few places were as important in the seventeenth-century European colonial New World as the pays d’en haut. This term means "upper country" and refers to the western Great Lakes (Huron, Michigan, and Superior) and the areas immediately north, south, and west of them. The region was significant because of its large Native American population, because it had an extensive riverine system needed for beaver populations—essential to the fur trade—and because it held the transportation key to westward expansion.

It was vital to the French, who controlled the region, to be on good terms with its peoples. To maintain good relations through trade and diplomacy with the nations in the pays d’en haut, the French built a number of posts, including one at Michilimackinac and one on the St. Joseph River (near Niles, Michigan). These posts were garrisoned by French troops and run by French commanders who contracted with merchants to manage business matters.
Edge of Empire provides both an overview and an intensely detailed look at Michilimackinac at a very specific period of history. While the introduction offers an overview of the French fur trade, of the place of Michilimackinac in that network, and of what Michilimackinac was like in the years up to 1716, the body of the book is comprised of over sixty French-language documents, now translated into English. Collected from archives in France, Canada, and the United States, the documents identify many of the people involved in the trade and reveal a great deal about the personal and professional relations among people who traded. They also reveal clearly the process by which trade was carried out, including the roles of both Native Americans and women. At the same time, the documents open a window into French colonial society in New France.

CONTENTS:
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
62 chapters, comprised of 62 individual documents, from: Document 1-May 16, 1671: Copy of Saint-Lusson's Act of possession of the Northern Territories to Document 62-Mar. 30, 1734: Statement by Pierre Martin on [the topic of the soldier who was robbed and buried alive about 43 years ago]
Appendix 1. Untranslated French Terms
Appendix 2. Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-Century Legal Terms
Appendix 3. Missionaries Assigned to Michilimackinac
Appendix 4. Commanders at Michilimackinac
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

The Edge of Empire portrays little known details of the fur trade that took place at Montreal, Michilimackinac, and the western Great Lakes region during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Most of the documents, enhanced by informative annotations, are being published in English translation for the first time. Edge of Empire introduces us to men and women who played key roles in the governance and administration of New France, military expeditions, and the contentiousness of the fur trade. —Keith Widder, former Curator of History for Mackinac State Historic Parks and author of Battle for the Soul: Métis Children Encounter Evangelical Protestants at Mackinaw Mission, 1823–1837 and Michigan Agricultural College: The Evolution of a Land-Grant Philosophy, 1855– 1925

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"The French built Fort Michilimackinac about 1715....a detailed look at sixty-one French documents collected from archives in France, Canada, and the United States. Translated into English, these documents reveal personal and professional relations among people who traded, including women and Native Americans." - Michigan History