Dawn of Detroit
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60. The outcome of Francois’s case is not recorded. Askin Papers, Vol. I, 399–401. Ford, “Moravian Settlement” / “Old Moravian Mission,” 114–15.
61. Zeisberger Diary, Vol. 2, 1794, p. 380.
62. Madelaine Askin to John Askin, March 4, 1798, Askin Papers, Vol. II, 132–33. Alexander Harrow Papers, Feb. 13, 1797, Feb. 14, 1797, Feb. 28, 1797, March 27, 1797, July 22, 1797, June 1, 1798, March 25, 1799, BHC, DPL.
63. Kenneth W. Porter, “Negroes and the Fur Trade,” Minnesota History 15:4 (Dec. 1934) 421–33, 424. John Askin Estate Inventory - Detroit 1787, Jan. 1, 1787, “Debts due Me taken from . . . Book No. 11,” John Askin Papers, Burton Historical Collection, DPL.
64. Record Book of Macomb Estate, Macomb Family Papers, R2:1796, BHC, DPL. Bet and her sons do not seem to have ended up with Captain Harrow, who tried to buy them in the same year. F. Clever Bald, Detroit’s First American Decade, 1796 to 1805 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1948), 31.
65. Robert B. Ross, The Early Bench and Bar of Detroit from 1805 to the End of 1850 (Detroit: Published by Richard P. Joy and Clarence M. Burton, 1907), 137.
66. As quoted in Ross, Early Bench, 139.
67. May ledger book, James May Papers, D3: 1792–98, BHC, DPL; May Daybook, D3: 1798–1804, BHC, DPL. This may have been a different Pompey than the man Askin bought in 1775.
68. As quoted in Ross, Early Bench, 139.
69. John Askin Papers, Vol. II, 358.
70. F. Clever Bald, Detroit’s First American Decade, 1796 to 1805 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1948), 187, 134.
71. Askin Papers, Vol. II, 358–59.
72. Foot injury: Letterbooks of Phyn and Ellice, April 19, 1775, BHS. Toon’s death: Askin Papers, diary, v. 1, 50–58. Clinging to rock, frozen to death: Moravian Diary, Thames River, Ontario, June 3, 1807, December 1, 1800, translated by Del-Louise Moyer. These last two references are to enslaved men owned by Matthew Elliott.
73. Askin Papers, Vol. II, 563.
74. Bald, Detroit’s First, 75, 106, 151.
75. John Askin to Jam & McGill, May 15, 1800, Askin Papers, Vol. II, 293. Also quoted in Bald, Detroit’s First, 165–66.
76. John McCall was the printer in Detroit in 1796. According to Clever Bald, citing Silas Farmer, McCall was likely using a printing press formerly owned by William Macomb. Bald, Detroit’s First, 93, fn 6.
77. As quoted in Ross, Early Bench, 138.
78. Frederick A. Ogg, The Old Northwest: A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond (Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co.; Textbook Edition, Yale University Press, 1919), 99, 134–35. Brian Leigh Dunnigan, “The War of 1812 in The Old Northwest: An Introduction to the Bicentennial Edition, in Alec R. Gilpin, ed., The War of 1812 in The Old Northwest (1958; reprint, East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2012), viii. Bald, Detroit’s First, 138, 132. R.W. Dick Phillips, Arthur St. Clair II: The Invisible Patriot (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse LLC), 39.
79. As quoted in Bald, Detroit’s First, 132; Bald, Detroit’s First, 139.
80. Ogg, The Old Northwest, 78.
81. Michigan Censuses, 1796 Wayne County, 74. This figure is an undercount. Hundreds more residents lived in settlements stretching along the river for miles, making a total of 2,053. In addition, one hundred absent men were estimated by the census takers to have been missed.
82. As quoted in Bald, Detroit’s First, 140.
83. As quoted in Bald, Detroit’s First, 140. For a detailed account of the tobacco spitting incident and Bates’s view of French women, see Gitlin, Bourgeois Frontier, 147–148. For more on French elite adaptation to American expansion into former French territories, see Eberhard L. Faber, Building on the Land of Dreams: New Orleans and the Transformation of Early America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016).
84. As quoted in Bald, Detroit’s First, 141.
85. Bald, Detroit’s First, 161, 169. Clarence M. Burton, History of Detroit, 1780–1850, Financial and Commercial (Detroit, 1917), 43.
86. Notices in French & English: Corporation of the Town of Detroit: Act of Incorporation and Journal of the Board of Trustees, 1802–1805 (Detroit: Printed under the authority of the Common Council of Detroit with an Introduction by C.M. Burton, Historiographer, Burton Historical Collection, 1922), 44. Mail and news: Bald, Detroit’s First, 92–93. Mail: Observations relative to Wayne County by Sol. Sibley, for the perusal of Capt W. H. Harrison, 1800, Solomon Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL; Geo Wallace to James Henry, October 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL. Sibley’s views: Observations relative to Wayne County by Sol. Sibley, for the perusal of Capt W. H. Harrison, 1800, Solomon Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL.
87. Bald, Detroit’s First, 189.
88. Burton, History of Detroit, 43.
89. John Askin to Robert Hamilton, April 8, 1802, Askin Papers, vol. II, 372–74.
90. Solomon Sibley to S. C. Vance, Aug. 20, 1803, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL.
91. Quoted in Finkelman, “Evading the Ordinance,” 30. Onuf, Statehood and Union, 117.
92. Finkelman, “Evading the Ordinance,” 22, 23, 24, 36. M. Scott Heerman, “In a State of Slavery: Black Servitude in Illinois, 1800–1830,” Early American Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14:1 (Winter 2016): 114–39, 117, 118. Allison Mileo Gorsuch, “To Indent Oneself: Ownership, Contracts, and Consent in Antebellum Illinois,” in Jean Allain, ed., The Legal Understanding of Slavery: From the Historical to the Contemporary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 134, 137. Kinds of labor: Finkelman, 42; Heerman, 127, 129, 130.
93. Henry Hastings Sibley as slaveholder: Walt Bachman, Northern Slave, Black Dakota: The Life and Times of Joseph Godfrey (Bloomington, MN: Pond Dakota Press, Pond Dakota Heritage Society, 2013), 19, 20, 59, 198 n. 41. For more on slavery in Minnesota, see Christopher P. Lehman, Slavery in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1787-1865 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc., 2011), 114–141. “Governors of Minnesota,” Minnesota Historical Society, http://collections.mnhs.org/governors/index.php/10003986. “House Divided,” Dickinson College, http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/39873. Both accessed July 29, 2016.
94. Donna Valley Russell, ed., Michigan Censuses 1710–1830, 1782 (Detroit: Detroit Society for Genealogical Research, Inc., 1982), 49–57.
95. The Declaration of Independence, The Charters of Freedom, www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html. Accessed April 7, 2015.
96. Macomb County is formally named for Alexander Macomb, son of Alexander Macomb (William Macomb’s brother) and a War of 1812 veteran and Army commander in chief from 1828 to 1841. Macomb was born in 1782 in Detroit at the height of the city’s slaveholding period. Like his uncle William, Alexander’s father owned slaves and had seven enslaved people in his household the year the younger Alexander was born. Alexander Macomb likely inherited human property. Russell, ed., Michigan Censuses (Detroit Census of 1782), 54. Governor Lewis Cass established the name for Michigan’s third county in 1818. www.michmarkers.com/startup.asp?startpage=S0418.htm. Accessed May 30, 2016.
4: The Winds of Change (1802–1807)
1. Riddell, Michigan Under British Rule, 19–20. Northwest Ordinance, July 13, 1787; (National Archives Microfilm Publication M332, roll 9); Northwest Ordinance (1787), www.ourdocuments.gov. Accessed May 5, 2015. Miscellaneous Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774–89; Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, 1774–89, Record Group 360; National Archives; https://ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=8. Accessed June 2, 2016. Duffey, “Northwest Ordinance,” 956.
2. Adelaide’s elder sisters were Thérèse, Ellen, and Archange. Archange Askin’s husband was Captain David Meredith. Askin Papers, Vol. I, 13–16; Fashion: Cangany, Frontier Seaport, 49; Education: Jennifer Dionne, “Franco-Ontariens avant la lettre? La correspendence de la famille Askin” (PhD. Diss., University of Ottawa, 2007), 46–47.
3. Solomon Sibley to Samuel Vance October 1, 1802, Samuel C. Vance Papers, Manuscripts and Visual Collections Department
, William Henry Smith Memorial Library, Indiana Historical Society, Indianapolis, IN.
4. Wedding: Bald, Detroit’s First, 19. China: Elijah Brush to Hugh Martin, February 25, 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL; also quoted in Bald, Detroit’s First, 191. Silver: E Brush to Robinson and Martin, July 28, 1803; also quoted in Bald, Detroit’s First, 215. Elijah Brush to Martin & Robinson, July 11, 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL. Summer cloak, bonnet, shoes: E. Brush to Robinson & Martin, February 9, 1804, Sibley Papers, BHC, DBL, also quoted in Bald, Detroit’s First, 225. Men’s clothing: Brush to Martin & Robinson, July 11, 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL; Beaver hat: Elijah Brush to Robinson & Martin, Sibley Papers Aug 7, 1802, BHC, DPL. Catherine Cangany first makes this point that the Brushes ordered items from New York while most Detroiters could not; Cangany, Frontier Seaport, 45–46.
5. Bald, Detroit’s First, 215, 225.
6. John Askin to Alexander Henry, February 27, 1802, Askin Papers, Vol. II, 371.
7. John Askin to Robert Hamilton, April 8, 1802, Askin Papers, Vol. II, 372–74.
8. Askin to Hamilton, April 8, 1802, Askin Papers, Vol. II, 372–74.
9. John Askin to Isaac Todd, April 8, 1802, Askin Papers, BHC, DPL.
10. John Askin to Robert Hamilton, April 8, 1802, Askin Papers, Vol. II, 372–74; Bald, Detroit’s First, 197.
11. Elijah Brush to John Askin, March 22, 1805, Askin Papers, Vol. II, 459–60.
12. Bald, Detroit’s First, 197. Askin to James and McGill, April 8, 1802; Taxes in 1802, Bald, Detroit’s First, 193–94. Brush obtained title to the Askin farm in 1806. Sale of Brush Farm, Askin Papers, Vol. II, pp. 530–32; Jacobson, Detroit River Connections, 60–61.
13. John Askin Jr. to John Askin, November 11, 1807, Askin Papers Vol. II, pp. 583–84; Bald, Detroit’s First, 233.
14. Afua Cooper, “The Fluid Frontier: Blacks and the Detroit River Region. A Focus on Henry Bibb,” Canadian Review of American Studies 30:2 (2000): 130, 133.
15. As quoted in Reginald Horsman, Matthew Elliott, British Indian Agent (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1964), 46; Shawnee wife: Horsman, 144; quoted in Horsman, 48.
16. Quoted in “Matthew Elliott Essex County” (Toronto: York University, Harriet Tubman Institute, 2012), 4, 5; whipping and shackles: “Matthew Elliott,” 5.
17. William Henry Smith, ed., The St. Clair Papers. The Life and Public Services of Arthur St. Clair, Vol. II (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1882), 318–19. For a critique of the Northwest Ordinance’s effect on black and Native populations, see Sakina Mariam Hughes, “Under One Big Tent: American Indians, African Americans and the Circus World of Nineteenth-Century America” (Ph.D. diss., Michigan State University, 2012), 52–55.
18. Martha S. Jones, “Time, Space, and Jurisdiction ln Atlantic World Slavery: The Volunbrun Household in Gradual Emancipation New York,” Law and History Review 29:4, Law, Slavery, and Justice: A Special Issue (November 2011): 1031–60, 1034.
19. Askin Papers, Vol. II, 357–58. Simon Campaue Complaint, Sibley Papers, March 25, 1802, BHC, DPL. Jas. Henry to any or either Constables of the County of Wayne, July 3, 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL. In the Case of Toby, a Panis Man, in William Wirt Blume, ed., Transactions of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Michigan, 1805–1814 Vol. II (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1935), 404, 405. Mary Abbott, Complaint, June 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL.
20. Elizabeth Audrain married to Robert Abbott: Burton, History of Detroit, 20. Abbot v. Jones, September 28, 1807, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan Vol. II, 23–28.
21. Abbot v. Jones, September 28, 1807, in Blume, ed., Supreme Court of Michigan Vol. II, 23–28.
22. For unfree people’s negotiation of indenture contracts, see Heerman, “In a State of Slavery.” For enslaved people’s and free blacks’ use of law, see Laura F. Edwards, “Status without Rights: African Americans and the Tangled History of Law and Governance in the Nineteenth-Century U.S. South,” American Historical Review 112:2 (2007): 365–93; Ariela Gross and Alejandro De La Fuente, “Slaves, Free Blacks, and Race in the Legal Regimes of Cuba, Louisiana, and Virginia: A Comparison,” North Carolina Law Review 91:5 (June 2013): 1769–56; Ariela J. Gross, What Blood Won’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008); Martha S. Jones, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017).
23. A.J. Hull to Jaques Lassell, June 5, 1805, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL. Antoine and Anna Smith are also referred to as Anthony and Anne Smith in the records.
24. A.J. Hull to Jaques Lassell, June 5, 1805, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL.
25. Ste. Anne Records, October 15, 1803, June 22, 1816. The record referencing Angelique’s birth says she was born to an “unknown father.” This may have been an oversight in the record, or Antoine may no longer have been with his family.
26. Alexander Harrow to Robert Taylor his servant, conditional manumission of said Rob, July 2, 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL.
27. Ransom to Grant, August 7, 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL. John Reed: August 13, 1803, August 19, 1803, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL. James May was appointed U.S. marshal from August to November 1806; Farmer History of Detroit, 176.
28. S. Sibley to Col. Grant, August 19, 1803, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL.
29. Christian Crouch makes a similar point, arguing that enslaved blacks may have learned the terrain and how to negotiate it politically from the example of native people. Christian Crouch, “The Black City: African and Indian Exchange in Pontiac’s Detroit,” revision of Christian Crouch, “The Black City: Detroit and the Northeast Borderlands through African Eyes in the Era of ‘Pontiac’s War,’” paper presented at The War Called Pontiac’s conference, Philadelphia, April 2013, cited by permission of the author.
30. Charles St. Bernard, Indenture, October 4, 1799, Berthelet Papers, Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library.
31. Heerman, “State of Slavery,” 117. “Bob’s Indenture,” 1802, William Woodbridge Papers, 1763–1919, BHC, DPL. Preserved servitude contracts are few and far between in Detroit and most often identify poor whites and free Native American workers, but some of these records might be further evidence of the experience of enslaved people. For another Detroit indentured servant record, see Matt Henry, Justice of the Peace, July 31, 1803, Solomon Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL.
32. David Maney to Eliabeth Burnett, September 17, 1802, Sibley Papers, BHC, DPL. James May Papers, D3, 1792–98, Pomp: September 6, 1795, Black Betty: August 3, 1797, BHC, DPL. May Papers, D3: 1798–1804 Daybook, Burnett: August 27, 1800, La Leavre: December 3, 1800, Black Patty: April 10, 1801, BHC, DPL. Black Betty and Black Patty’s names are similar enough that they might have been the same person. May’s daybook also includes a payment reference for 1793: “cash lent him to pay Baby’s man,” Vincent Laframboise: June 1793, May Papers BHC, DPL. Macomb Papers, Ledger, August 27, Sept 3, September 10 1804, January 6, 1805, April 9, 1805.
33. Askin Papers, Vol. II, pp. 388–89.
34. Diary of the Reconnoitering Trip Made by Brothers Luckenbach and Haven, Accompanied by the Indian Brother Andreas, at St. Mary’s River, the Southern Arm of Miami, which Empties into Lake Erie, August 29, 1808 (B157F11 08-29-1808), Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, PA, translated for Tiya Miles by Del-Louise Moyer, 2015. Tanner, Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History, Maps 17, 18 pp. 85–88. Joseph Badger, A Memoir of Rev. Joseph Badger (Hudson, OH: Sawyer, Ingersoll & Co., 1851; Niles, OH: Niles Historical Society, 1997, 100, 130–31. “The Journal of Benjamin Larkin, 1794–1820,” in William Warren Sweet, ed., Religion on the American Frontier, 1783–1840: The Methodists: A Collection of Source Materials, Vol. 4 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1946), 241. Historian William Hart places the contemporary location of Negrotown at: “the intersections of County Routes 37, 29, and 40 just west of Belle Vernon, Ohio, and north of Upper Sandusky. Bill Hart, “Sources to ‘Negrotown,’ Ohio, 1800–1843,” unpublished compilation, 2016.
&
nbsp; 35. Diary of Fairfield Mission, Thames River, Ontario, Canada, 1792–1813, July 4 1797, Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, PA, translated for Tiya Miles by Del-Louise Moyer.
36. Kenneth W. Porter, “Negroes and the Fur Trade,” Minnesota History 15:4 (Dec. 1934), 421–33, 424. Bill Hart, “Sources to ‘Negrotown,’ Ohio, 1800–1843,” unpublished compilation, 2016.
37. Bill Hart, “Sources to ‘Negrotown,’ Ohio, 1800–1843,” unpublished compilation, 2016.
38. Bill Hart, Conversation with Tiya Miles about Negro Town, June 7, 2016, Middlebury, VT. For more on black-Wyandot relations in Ohio, see Sakina M. Hughes, “The Community Became an Almost Civilized and Christian One: John Stewart’s Mission to the Wyandots and Religious Colonialism as African American Racial Uplift,” NAIS: Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association 3:1 (2016): 24–45.