Editing Jean Baptiste Point du Sable

{{short description|Early founder of Chicago (died 1818)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{featured article}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable
| image       = Jean Baptiste Point du Sable Andreas 1884.jpg
| alt         = Black and white sketch of the bust of a man.  His features are darkly shaded.  He has dark wavy hair and a goatee.
| caption     = There are no known portraits of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable made during his lifetime.<ref>{{cite news|last=Davey|first=Monica|title=Tribute to Chicago Icon and Enigma|url=http://www.wehaitians.com/tribute%20to%20chicago%20icon%20and%20enigma.html|access-date=25 August 2010|newspaper=New York Times|date=24 June 2003}}</ref> This depiction is taken from A. T. Andreas' book ''History of Chicago'' (1884).<ref>{{cite book|last=Andreas|first=Alfred Theodore|author-link=Alfred T. Andreas|title=History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, volume 1|year=1884|publisher=A. T. Andreas|at=Front matter|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchicago01inandr|access-date=25 January 2011}}</ref>
| birth_date  = before 1750
| spouse = [[Kitihawa (Catherine) Point du Sable|Kitihawa]] (also known as Catherine)
| children = 2
| death_date  = {{Death date|1818|08|28|mf=y}} 
| death_place = [[St. Charles, Missouri|St. Charles]], [[Missouri Territory]], U.S.
| nationality = unknown; (traditionally said to be from [[Saint-Domingue]], which later became Haiti)
| other_names = Point de Sable, Point au Sable, Point Sable, Pointe DuSable
| known_for   = Founder of [[Chicago]]
| occupation  = Trader
}}

'''Jean Baptiste Point du Sable''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒɑ̃ batist pwɛ̃ dy sɑbl}}; also spelled '''Point de Sable''', '''Point au Sable''', '''Point Sable''', '''Pointe DuSable''', or '''Pointe du Sable''';{{#tag:ref|''Pointe de Sable'' is French for 'sand point'.<ref>{{cite book|last=Junger|first=Robert|title=Becoming the Second City: Chicago's Mass News Media, 1833–1898|year=2010|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0252077852|page=3}}</ref> Point du Sable biographer John F. Swenson notes that during Point du Sable's lifetime, his surname was recorded as ''Point de Sable'' (or a variant spelling thereof).<ref name="Swenson" /> The 1936 renaming of New Wendell Phillips High School to DuSable High School established the common rendering of the surname as ''DuSable''.<ref name="Ganz2012">{{cite book|last=Ganz|first=Cheryl R.|title=The 1933 Chicago World's Fair: A Century of Progress|year=2012|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0252078521|page=184}}</ref>|group=n}} before 1750{{#tag:ref|Milo Milton Quaife suggests, "It may reasonably be assumed that Susanne Point Sable [Point du Sable's daughter] was not less than sixteen years old when she became a bride [in 1790]. With this starting-point, we may conclude that Point Sable himself was born not later than the year 1750."<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|pp=42–43}}</ref>|group=n}} – August 28, 1818) is regarded as the first permanent non-Native settler of what would later become [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], and is recognized as the city's founder.<ref name="Baumann59"/> The site where he settled near the mouth of the [[Chicago River]] around the 1780s [[Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Homesite|is memorialized]] 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. During his career, the areas where he settled and traded around the [[Great Lakes]] and in the [[Illinois Country]] changed hands several times between France, Britain, Spain and the United States. Described as handsome and well educated, Point du{{nbsp}}Sable married a [[Potawatomi]] [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] woman, ''[[Kitihawa Point du Sable|Kitihawa]]'', and they had two children. In 1779, during the [[American Revolutionary War]], he was arrested by the British on suspicion of being an American [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] sympathizer. In the early 1780s he worked for the British lieutenant-governor of [[Michilimackinac]] on an estate at what is now [[St. Clair, Michigan]].

Point du Sable is first recorded as living at the mouth of the Chicago River in a trader's journal of early 1790. By then he had established an extensive and prosperous trading settlement in what later became the City of Chicago. He sold his Chicago River property in 1800 and moved to the river port of [[St. Charles, Missouri|St. Charles]], where he was licensed to run a ferry across the [[Missouri River]]. Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's successful role in developing the Chicago River settlement was little recognized until the mid-20th century.

In Chicago, a [[DuSable High School|school]], [[DuSable Museum of African American History|museum]], [[Chicago Harbor|harbor]], [[DuSable Park (Chicago)|park]], [[Michigan Avenue Bridge|bridge]], and [[Lake Shore Drive (Chicago)|road]] have been named in du Sable's honor.

==Biography==
[[File:British colonies 1763-76 shepherd1923.PNG|thumb|Map of eastern North America in the late 18th{{nbsp}}century, just prior to the [[American Revolutionary War]]. Point du{{nbsp}}Sable lived near [[Lake Michigan]] and the [[Illinois Country]] (center left).|alt=This map shows the British Province of Quebec in the north around the Great Lakes.  To the west, across the Mississippi River, is Spanish Louisiana.  The former French Illinois Country spans the Mississippi in the center-west.  The thirteen American colonies are to the east.]]

===Early life===
There are no records of Point du Sable's life prior to the 1770s. Though it is known from sources during his life that he was of African descent,<ref name="Baumann59">{{Harvnb|Baumann|2005|p=59}}</ref> his birth date, place of birth, and parents are unknown.<ref name="Meehan447">{{Harvnb|Meehan|1963|p=447}}</ref> [[Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie|Juliette Kinzie]], another early pioneer of [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]], never met Point du{{nbsp}}Sable but said in her 1856 memoir that he was "a native of St.{{nbsp}}Domingo" (the island of [[Hispaniola]]).<ref>{{Harvnb|Kinzie|1856|p=190}}</ref> This became generally accepted as his place of birth.<ref>{{Harvnb|Meehan|1963|p=445}}</ref> Historian [[Milo Milton Quaife]] regarded Kinzie's account of Point du{{nbsp}}Sable as "largely fictitious and wholly unauthenticated",<ref name="Quaife1913p139">{{Harvnb|Quaife|1913|p=139}}</ref> later putting forward a theory that he was of African and French-Canadian origin.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|pp=31–36}}</ref>   A [[historical 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]]).<ref name="Cohn2009">{{cite book|last=Cohn|first=Scotti|title=It Happened in Chicago|year=2009|publisher=Globe Pequot|isbn=978-0762750566|pages=2–4}}</ref> If he was born outside continental North America, there are competing accounts as to whether he entered as a trader or from the north through [[Canada (New France)|French Canada]], or from the south through [[Louisiana (New France)|French Louisiana]].<ref name=Oxford/>

===Illinois Country===
Point du Sable married a [[Potawatomi]] woman named [[Kitihawa Point du Sable|Kitihawa]] (Christianized to Catherine) on 27{{nbsp}}October 1788, in a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] ceremony in [[Cahokia, Illinois|Cahokia]] in the [[Illinois Country]], a longtime French colonial settlement on the east side of the [[Mississippi River]].<ref name=Intellegencer>{{cite news|title=Chicago's "First" Citizen|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/26513847/|newspaper=[[Edwardsville Intelligencer]]|date=17 October 1961|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=15 August 2014}}{{subscription required}}</ref> It is likely that this couple was married earlier in the 1770s in a [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] tradition. They had a son named Jean and a daughter named Susanne.<ref>{{Harvnb|Meehan|1963|p=452}}</ref>  Point du{{nbsp}}Sable supported his family as a frontier trader (''[[voyageur]]'' or ''[[coureur des bois]]'') and settler during a period of great upheaval for the former southern dependencies of French Canada and in the Illinois Country, where the regions changed hands several times over the course of half a century.<ref name=Oxford>{{Cite encyclopedia | last = Haefeli |first = Evan| title = Du Sable, Jean Baptiste Pointe | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass |publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0195167771 | volume = 1 | pages = 431–432 | year = 2006 }}</ref>

In a footnote to a poem titled ''Speech to the Western Indians'', [[Arent DePeyster]], British commandant from 1774 to 1779 at [[Fort Michilimackinac]] (a former French fort in what was then the [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|British province of Quebec]]), noted that "Baptist Point de{{nbsp}}Saible" was "a handsome negro", "well educated", and "settled in Eschecagou".<ref>{{Harvnb|DePeyster|1813|p=10}}</ref> 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 4{{nbsp}}July 1779.<ref>{{Harvnb|DePeyster|1813|p=4}}</ref> This footnote has led many scholars to assume that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable had settled in Chicago by 1779.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Case Study: Jean Baptiste Point DuSable|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/410078.html|encyclopedia=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago|publisher=Chicago Historical Society|access-date=25 August 2010}}</ref> But letters written by other traders in the late 1770s suggest that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable was at this time settled at the mouth of [[Trail Creek (Lake Michigan)|Trail Creek]] (''Rivière du{{nbsp}}Chemin'') at what is now [[Michigan City, Indiana]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Schoon|first=Kenneth J.|title=Calumet beginnings: ancient shorelines and settlements at the south end of Lake Michigan|year=2003|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253342188|page=59}}</ref>

In August 1779, during the [[American Revolutionary War]], Point du{{nbsp}}Sable was arrested as a suspected American [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] at Trail Creek by British troops and imprisoned briefly at Fort Michilimackinac.  An officer's report following his arrest noted that Point du Sable had many friends who vouched for his good character.<ref>Letter of Lieut. Bennett to Major De Peyster, 9th Augt. 1779; published in {{Harvnb|Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan|1886|pp=392–393}}</ref><ref>Report of Lieut. Bennett to Major De Peyster, 1 September 1779; published in {{Harvnb|Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan|1886|pp=395–397}}</ref> The following year, Point du Sable was ordered transported to the Pinery on the St. Clair River north of [[Detroit]]. From the summer of 1780<ref>Letter of Sinclair to Guthrie, 31 July 1780; published in {{Harvnb|Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan|1886|p=605}}</ref> until May 1784, Point du{{nbsp}}Sable managed the Pinery, a tract of woodlands owned by British officer Lt.{{nbsp}}[[Patrick Sinclair]], on the [[St. Clair River]] in eastern Michigan. This may have been a choice given by him from the British, offering him release from his imprisonment to manage the Pinery.<ref name="Pacyga12" /> Point du{{nbsp}}Sable with his family lived in a cabin at the mouth of the Pine River in what is now the city of [[St. Clair, Michigan|St. Clair]].<ref name="Mitts">{{cite book|last=Mitts|first=Dorothy Marie|title=That Noble Country: the Romance of the St. Clair River Region|year=1968|publisher=Dorrance|pages=44–46}} (Mitts cites her source as "the old Day Book and Ledger" of the Pinery.)</ref>
[[File:Kinzie House.png|thumb|right|Drawing of the former home of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable in Chicago as it appeared in the early 1800s|alt=Black and white sketch of a well-kept log house, with multiple windows, a front porch, fence and landscape.  Two people are on the porch.]]

At some time in the 1780s, after the U.S. achieved independence, Point du Sable settled on the north bank of the [[Chicago River]] close to its mouth.<ref name="Pacyga12">{{Harvnb|Pacyga|2009|p=12}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|According to an 1892 description of the location of the house, it "stood as nearly as may be at the foot of Pine Street <nowiki>[</nowiki>now Michigan Avenue<nowiki>]</nowiki>, partly upon the ground now occupied by Kirk's factory, and partly in what is now known as North Water Street, properly an extension of Kinzie Street." This location was confirmed by the recollections of John Noble, the last occupant of the house, who died in 1888.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Mason|first=Edward G.|title=Early Visitors to Chicago|journal=The New England Magazine|date=April 1892|volume=6|issue=2|pages=188–206}}</ref>|group=n}} The earliest known record of Point du{{nbsp}}Sable living in Chicago is an entry that Hugh Heward made in his journal on 10{{nbsp}}May 1790, during a journey from Detroit across Michigan and through Illinois.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|p=39}}</ref> Heward's party stopped at Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's house en{{nbsp}}route to the [[Chicago portage]]; they swapped their canoe for a [[pirogue]] that belonged to Point du{{nbsp}}Sable, and they bought bread, flour, and pork from him.<ref>{{cite book|last=Heward|first=Hugh|title=The John Askin Papers. Volume 1: 1747–1795|year=1928|publisher=Detroit Library Commission|pages=339–362|editor=Quaife, Milo M|chapter=Hugh Heward's Journal from Detroit to the Illinois, 1790}}</ref> Perrish Grignon, who visited Chicago in about 1794, described Point du{{nbsp}}Sable as a large man and wealthy trader.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Grignon|first=Augustin|title=Augustin Grignon's Recollections|journal=Wisconsin Historical Collections|year=1857|volume=3|pages=195–295, at 292}}</ref> Point du Sable's granddaughter, Eulalie Pelletier, was born at his Chicago River settlement in 1796.<ref name="NRHPI">{{cite web|title=Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Homesite Nomination|url={{NHLS url|id=76000690}}|work=National Register of Historic Places Inventory|page=Description|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=1 December 2018}}</ref>

In 1800 Point du{{nbsp}}Sable sold his farm to [[John Kinzie]]'s frontman, [[Jean La Lime]], for 6,000 livres. The bill of sale, which was rediscovered in 1913 in an archive in Detroit, detailed all of the property Point du{{nbsp}}Sable owned, as well as many of his personal effects.<ref name="Quaife1928">{{cite journal|last=Quaife|first=Milo Milton|title=Property of Jean Baptiste Point Sable|journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review|date=June 1928|volume=15|issue=1|pages=89–96|jstor=1891669}}</ref> This included a house, two barns, a horse-drawn mill, a bakehouse, a poultry house, a dairy, and a [[smoking (food)|smokehouse]]. The house was a {{convert|22|x|40|ft|m|adj=on}} log cabin filled with fine furniture and paintings.<ref name="Quaife1928" />

===Missouri River and burial===
After Point du Sable sold his property in Chicago, he moved to [[St. Charles, Missouri|St. Charles]], west of St. Louis, which at that time was still part of [[Louisiana (New Spain)|Spanish Louisiana]].<ref name="Cohn2009" /><ref name="Pacyga13">{{Harvnb|Pacyga|2009|p=13}}</ref> He was commissioned by the [[List of colonial governors of Louisiana|colonial governor]] to operate a [[ferry]] across the [[Missouri River]].<ref name=Intellegencer/> In St.{{nbsp}}Charles, he may have lived for a time with his son, and later with his granddaughter's family. Late in life, he may have sought public or charitable assistance.<ref name=Oxford/> He died on 28 August 1818<ref>{{Harvnb|Baumann|2005|p=62}}</ref> and was buried in an unmarked grave in St.{{nbsp}}Charles Borromeo Cemetery. His entry in the parish burial register does not mention his origins, parents, or relatives; it simply describes him as ''nègre'' (French for ''negro'').<ref>{{Harvnb|Baumann|2005|p=64}}</ref>

The St.{{nbsp}}Charles Borromeo Cemetery was moved twice in the 19th{{nbsp}}century. Oral tradition and records of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis|Archdiocese of St. Louis]] suggested that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's remains were also moved. On 12{{nbsp}}October 1968, the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission erected a granite marker at the site believed to be Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's grave in the third St.{{nbsp}}Charles Borromeo Cemetery.<ref>{{cite news|last=Leonard|first=William|title=Grave of Chicago Pioneer Dedicated|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=27 October 1968|page=A14}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Baumann|2005|p=65}}</ref>

In 2002 an archaeological investigation of the grave site was initiated by the African Scientific Research Institute at the [[University of Illinois at Chicago]].<ref name="Baumann59" /> Researchers using a combination of ground-penetrating radar, surveys, and excavation of a {{convert|9|x|9|ft|m|adj=on}} area did not find any evidence of any burials at the supposed grave site, leading the archaeologists to conclude that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's remains may not have been reinterred from one of the two previous cemeteries.<ref>{{Harvnb|Baumann|2005|pp=72–75}}</ref>

==Theories and legends==

===Origins===
Though there is little historical evidence regarding Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's life before the 1770s, there are several theories and legends that give accounts of his early life. Writing in 1933, Quaife identified a French immigrant to Canada, Pierre Dandonneau,<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/dandonneau_pierre_2E.html| title = Raymond Douville, "DANDONNEAU, Lajeunesse, PIERRE," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–}}</ref> who acquired the title "Sieur de{{nbsp}}Sable" and whose descendants were known by both the names ''Dandonneau'' and ''Du{{nbsp}}Sable''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|pp=32–33}}</ref> Quaife was unable to find a direct link to Point du{{nbsp}}Sable, but he identified descendants of Pierre Dandonneau as living around the [[Great Lakes region]] in Detroit, Mackinac, and St.{{nbsp}}Joseph. He speculated that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's father may have been a member of this family, while his mother was likely an enslaved woman.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|pp=35–36}}</ref>

In 1951, Joseph Jeremie, a native of Haiti, published a pamphlet in which he said he was the great-grandson of Point du{{nbsp}}Sable.<ref>{{Harvnb|Graham|1953|p=172}}</ref> Based on family recollections and tombstone inscriptions, he claimed that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable was born in Saint-Marc in what was then [[Saint Domingue]], studied in France, and returned to the island to deal in coffee before traveling to French Louisiana. Historian and Point du{{nbsp}}Sable biographer<ref>{{Harvnb|Baumann|2005|p=61}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Pacyga|2009|pp=413–414}}</ref> John F. Swenson has called these claims "elaborate, undocumented assertions{{nbsp}}... in a fanciful biography".<ref name="Swenson">{{cite web|last=Swenson|first=John F|title=Jean Baptiste Point de Sable{{snd}}The Founder of Modern Chicago|url=http://www.earlychicago.com/essays.php?essay=7|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613234433/http://www.earlychicago.com/essays.php?essay=7|work=Early Chicago|publisher=Early Chicago, Inc|access-date=8 August 2010|year=1999|archive-date=13 June 2018}}</ref>

====Fiction====
In 1953, Shirley Graham drew from the work of Quaife and Jeremie in a historical novel about Point du{{nbsp}}Sable. She described it as "not accurate history nor pure fiction", but rather "an imaginative interpretation of all the known facts".<ref>{{Harvnb|Graham|1953|p=175}}</ref> This book presented Point du{{nbsp}}Sable as the son of the [[Chief Mate|mate]] on a pirate ship, the ''Black Sea Gull'', and a freedwoman called Suzanne.<ref>{{Harvnb|Graham|1953|pp=3–11}}</ref> Despite lack of evidence and the continued debate about Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's early life, parentage, and birthplace, this popular story has been repeated and widely presented as being definitive.<ref name="Alejandra">{{cite news|last=Cancino|first=Alejandra|title=Michigan Avenue bridge officially renamed DuSable Bridge|url=http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/10/michigan-avenue-bridge-officially-renamed-dusable-bridge.html|access-date=16 October 2010|newspaper=Chicago Breaking News|date=15 October 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101019044214/http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/10/michigan-avenue-bridge-officially-renamed-dusable-bridge.html <!--Added by H3llBot-->|archive-date=19 October 2010}}</ref><ref name="WLS-TV">{{cite news|title=Michigan Avenue Bridge becomes DuSable Bridge|url=https://abc7chicago.com/archive/7726430/|access-date=17 October 2010|newspaper=WLS-TV|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101018072553/http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=7726430|archive-date=18 October 2010|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Peoria===
In 1815, a land claim that had been submitted by Nicholas Jarrot to the land commissioners at [[Kaskaskia, Illinois|Kaskaskia]], [[Illinois Territory]], was approved. 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".<ref>{{cite journal|title=Kaskaskia Land Claims|journal=American State Papers, Public Lands|date=December 1815|volume=3|issue=233|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=030/llsp030.db&recNum=15|access-date=6 September 2010|page=4}}</ref> This document has been taken by Quaife and other historians as evidence that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable lived at [[Peoria, Illinois|Peoria]] on the [[Illinois River]] prior to going north to settle in Chicago.<ref name="Quaife1933p43">{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|p=43}}</ref> However, other records demonstrate that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable was living and working under the British at the Pinery in Michigan in the early 1780s.<ref name="Mitts" /> The Kaskaskia land commissioners identified many fraudulent land claims,<ref>{{cite book|last=Alvord|first=Clarence Walworth|title=The Illinois country, 1673–1818|year=1920|publisher=Illinois Centennial Commission|pages=[https://archive.org/details/illinoiscountry100alvo/page/417 417]–427|url=https://archive.org/details/illinoiscountry100alvo|access-date=6 September 2010}}</ref> including two previously submitted in the name of Point du{{nbsp}}Sable.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Land Claims in the District of Kaskaskia|journal=American State Papers, Public Lands|date=January 1811|volume=2|issue=180|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=029/llsp029.db&Page=122|access-date=6 September 2010|page=122}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Land Claims in the District of Kaskaskia|journal=American State Papers, Public Lands|date=January 1811|volume=2|issue=180|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsp&fileName=029/llsp029.db&Page=130|access-date=6 September 2010|page=130}}</ref> Nicholas Jarrot, the claimant, was involved in many false claims,<ref>{{cite web|last=Swenson|first=John F|title=Peoria, Its Early History Re-examined|url=http://www.earlychicago.com/essays.php?essay=8|work=Early Chicago|publisher=Early Chicago Inc|access-date=6 September 2010|archive-date=10 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710164150/http://www.earlychicago.com/essays.php?essay=8|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Swenson suggests that this one was also fraudulent, made without Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's knowledge.<ref name="Swenson" /> Although perhaps in conflict with some of the above information, other historical records suggest that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable bought land in Peoria from J.{{nbsp}}B. Maillet on 13{{nbsp}}March 1773 and sold it to Isaac Darneille in 1783, before he became the first "permanent" resident of Chicago.<ref>Franke, Judith A., ''French Peoria and the Illinois Country 1673–1846'', Illinois State Museum Society, Springfield, IL 1995 p.{{nbsp}}37 and ''The Inhabitants of Three French Villages at Peoria, Illinois'', compiled by Ernest East, 1933, and included in Judith Franke's book p.{{nbsp}}99, {{isbn|978-0897921404}}</ref>

===Departure from Chicago===
Point du Sable left Chicago in 1800. He sold his property to [[Jean La Lime]], a trader from [[Quebec]], and moved to the Missouri River valley, at that time part of Spanish Louisiana. The reason for his departure is unknown.<ref name="Quaife1933p43" /> By 1804, John Kinzie, another early Chicago settler, had bought the former du Sable house. Kinzie's daughter-in-law, Juliette Magill Kinzie, suggested in her 1852 memoir that "perhaps he [du Sable] was disgusted at not being elected to a similar dignity [great chief] by the Pottowattamies".<ref>{{Harvnb|Kinzie|1856|p=191}}</ref>

In 1874, Nehemiah Matson elaborated on this story, claiming that Point du{{nbsp}}Sable was a slave from Virginia who had moved with his master to [[Lexington, Kentucky]], in 1790. According to Matson, Point du{{nbsp}}Sable became a zealous Catholic in order to convince a Jesuit missionary to declare him chief of the local Native Americans, but after they refused to accept him as their chief, he left Chicago.<ref>{{cite book|last=Matson|first=Nehemiah|title=French and Indians of Illinois River|year=1874|publisher=Republican Job Printing Establishment|pages=[https://archive.org/details/frenchindiansofi00mats/page/187 187]–191|url=https://archive.org/details/frenchindiansofi00mats|access-date=7 September 2010}}</ref> Quaife dismisses both of these stories as being fictional.<ref name="Quaife1913p139" />

In her 1953 novel, Graham suggests that Point du Sable left Chicago because he was angered that the [[Federal government of the United States|US government]] wanted him to buy the land on which he had lived and called his own for the previous two decades.<ref>{{Harvnb|Graham|1953|pp=161–167}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Pacyga13" />{{#tag:ref|The Treaty of Greenville ceded Native-American rights to a substantial amount of territory in what is now the Midwest, including "[o]ne piece of land six miles square, at the mouth of Chikago river".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/greenvil.asp |title=The Treaty of Greenville 1795 |website=Yale University – Avalon Project |access-date=25 January 2018}}</ref>|group=n}}

==Legacy and honors==

===Founder of Chicago===
The French came to the North American mid-continent region in the 17th{{nbsp}}century. Though probably not the first Europeans to visit the area, [[Louis Jolliet]] and [[Jacques Marquette]] were the first noted in the written record to have crossed the [[Chicago Portage]] and traveled along the Chicago River, as part of their 1673 Mississippi Valley expedition.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1913|pp=18, 22–24}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|Jolliet and Marquette did not report any Native Americans living near the Chicago River area at this time,<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|p=18}}</ref> though archaeologists have since discovered numerous village sites elsewhere in the Chicago area.<ref>{{cite web|last=Swenson|first=John F|title=Chicago: Meaning of the Name and Location of Pre-1800 European Settlements|url=http://www.earlychicago.com/essays.php?essay=1|work=Early Chicago|publisher=Early Chicago Inc|access-date=13 September 2010|archive-date=14 May 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110514232223/http://www.earlychicago.com/essays.php?essay=1|url-status=dead}}</ref>|group=n}} Over the following years, visits by the French continued and occasional intermittent posts were established, including those by [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle|René LaSalle]], [[Henri de Tonti]], Pierre Liette<ref name="earlychicago.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.earlychicago.com/encyclopedia.php?letter=l&sel=Liette#e1899|title=Liette, Pierre-Charles, Sieur de|website=Early Chicago Encyclopedia|access-date=19 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005051108/http://www.earlychicago.com/encyclopedia.php?letter=l&sel=Liette#e1899|archive-date=5 October 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/liette_pierre_charles_de_2E.html|title=Biography – Liette, Pierre-Charles De |website=Volume II (1701–1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography|access-date=19 January 2018}}</ref> and the four-year [[Mission of the Guardian Angel]].<ref name="Briggs">{{cite encyclopedia|last=Briggs|first=Winstanley|title=Mission of the Guardian Angel|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1729.html|encyclopedia=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago|publisher=Chicago Historical Society|access-date=6 August 2010|year=2005}}</ref> Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's residence in the 1780s is recognized as the establishment of the first continuous settlement, which ultimately grew to become the city of Chicago.<ref>{{Harvnb|Quaife|1933|pp=28–31}}</ref> He is therefore widely regarded as the first permanent resident of Chicago<ref name="Pacyga12" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Chicago History|url=http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/about/history.html|work=The City of Chicago Official Website|publisher=City of Chicago|access-date=6 September 2010}}</ref> and has been given the appellation "Founder of Chicago".<ref name="Baumann59" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Graham|1953}}</ref>

===Memorials===
{{Quote box
 | quote =<nowiki>[</nowiki>Point du Sable<nowiki>]</nowiki> is not yet honored in his own house (which Chicagoans call the "Kinzie House") or on his own land. No street bears his name and, save for the high school, he has no monument. Cadillac is honored in Detroit, Pitt in Pittsburgh, Cleveland in Cleveland{{snd}}but the father of Chicago has no street or statue of stone to call his own.
 | source = ''[[Ebony (magazine)|Ebony]]'', December 1963.<ref name="Ebony1963">{{cite journal|last=Bennett|first=Lerone Jr. |title=Negro Who Founded Chicago|journal=Ebony|date=December 1963|volume=19|issue=2|pages=170–178|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tf7QCEexk4wC&pg=PA172|access-date=September 6, 2010}}</ref>
 | width =28%
 | align =right
}}
By the 1850s, historians of Chicago recognized Point du{{nbsp}}Sable as the city's earliest non-Native permanent resident,<ref>{{Harvnb|Kinzie|1856|pp=190–191}}</ref> but for a long time the city did not honor him in the same manner as other pioneers.<ref name="Ebony1963" /> Point du Sable was generally forgotten during the 19th{{nbsp}}century; instead, the Scots-Irish trader [[John Kinzie]] from Quebec, who had bought his property, was often credited for the settlement.<ref name=Oxford/> A plaque was erected by the city in 1913 at the corner of Kinzie and Pine Streets to commemorate the Kinzie homestead.<ref>{{cite news|title=Will Unveil Tablet to Kinzie|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=July 11, 1913|page=9}}</ref> In the planning stages of the 1933–1934 [[Century of Progress International Exposition]], several African-American groups campaigned for Point du{{nbsp}}Sable to be honored at the fair.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reed|1991|pp=398–399}}</ref> At the time, few Chicagoans had even heard of Point du{{nbsp}}Sable,<ref>{{Harvnb|Reed|1991|p=412}}</ref> and the World's Fair organizers presented the 1803 construction of [[Fort Dearborn]] as the city's historical beginning.<ref name="Reed406">{{Harvnb|Reed|1991|p=406}}</ref> The campaign was partially successful, however, with a replica of Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's cabin being presented as part of the "background of the history of Chicago".<ref name="Reed406" />

In 1965, a plaza called [[Pioneer Court]] was built on the site of Point du{{nbsp}}Sable's homestead as part of the construction of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of America building.<ref>{{cite news|last=Maiken|first=Peter|title=Pioneer Court Honors 25 City Leaders|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=21 June 1965|page=D11}}</ref> The [[Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Homesite]] was designated as a [[National Historic Landmark]] on 11 May 1976<ref>{{cite web|title=Du Sable, Jean Baptiste Point, Homesite|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1614&ResourceType=Site|work=National Historic Landmarks|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=8 August 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071123084531/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1614&ResourceType=Site|archive-date=23 November 2007}}</ref> as a site deemed to have "exceptional value to the nation".<ref>{{citation|title=Code of Federal Regulations: Parks, Forests, and Public Property|url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-1998-title36-vol1/pdf/CFR-1998-title36-vol1-part65.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-1998-title36-vol1/pdf/CFR-1998-title36-vol1-part65.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|page=301|publisher=[[United States Government Printing Office]]|access-date=15 August 2014}}</ref> Pioneer Court is located at what is now 401{{nbsp}}N.{{nbsp}}[[Michigan Avenue (Chicago)|Michigan Avenue]] in the [[Michigan–Wacker Historic District]]. At this site in 2009, the City of Chicago and a private donor, Haitian-born Lesly Benodin, erected a large [[Bust of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable|bronze bust]] of Point du{{nbsp}}Sable by Chicago-born sculptor Erik Blome.<ref>{{cite news|title=DuSable bust dedicated in Chicago|url=https://abc7chicago.com/archive/7070344/|access-date=25 November 2010|newspaper=ABC7 news|date=17 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629045519/http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=7070344|archive-date=29 June 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>

In October 2010, the [[Michigan Avenue Bridge]] was renamed DuSable Bridge.<ref name="Alejandra" /> Previously, a small street with the alternative spelling De{{nbsp}}Saible Street had been named after him.<ref name="WLS-TV" /> In 2021, [[Lake Shore Drive]] in Chicago was renamed in honor of Point du Sable.<ref>{{cite news|title=Lake Shore Drive renamed to honor Jean Baptiste Point DuSable|url=https://abc7chicago.com/lake-shore-drive-dusable-rename-chicago-jean-baptiste-point-du-sable/10831970/|access-date= 25 June 2021}}</ref>
[[File:The DuSable Museum.jpg|thumb|right|The DuSable Museum in [[Washington Park (Chicago park)|Washington Park]]|alt=Photograph of the front of a classical-style, gray one-story building, with large front landing and steps]]
Several institutions have been named in his honor.<ref name="Cohn2009" /> [[DuSable High School]] opened in [[Douglas, Chicago#Bronzeville|Bronzeville]], Chicago, in 1934. The DuSable campus today houses the Daniel Hale Williams Prep School of Medicine and the Bronzeville Scholastic Institute.
[[Margaret Taylor-Burroughs]], a prominent African-American artist and writer, taught at the school for twenty-three years. She and her husband co-founded the [[DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center]], located on [[Chicago's South Side]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Du Sable Honored by Museum|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=8 December 1968|page=SC A6}}</ref> DuSable Hall, built in 1968, on the campus of [[Northern Illinois University]] is also named for him.<ref>NIU Campus Building Timeline created by NIU Geography/GIS department 2020 https://niugeog.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=2953100fe6944a44af36058faf92c999</ref>

DuSable Harbor is located in the heart of downtown Chicago at the foot of [[Randolph Street (Chicago)|Randolph Street]]. Directly across the [[Chicago River]] from the harbor, [[DuSable Park]] is a {{convert|3.24|acre|ha|adj=on}} urban park in Chicago currently awaiting redevelopment. The project was originally announced in 1987 by Mayor [[Harold Washington]]; following years of remediation of the site<ref name=CBSReport>[http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/08/23/report-dusable-park-site-near-navy-pier-nearly-clear-of-radioactive-soil/ Report: DuSable Park Site Near Navy Pier Nearly Clear of Radioactive Soil] CBS, 8 August 2012.</ref> initial development began in early 2024.<ref>{{Cite news |date=17 January 2024 |title=On failed Chicago Spire site, work begins to build massive 400 Lake Shore development |url=https://www.audacy.com/wbbm780/news/local/on-failed-chicago-spire-site-new-construction-work-begins |access-date=6 June 2024 |work=WBBM Newsradio |language=en}}</ref> A park is also named after Point du Sable in [[St. Charles, Missouri|St. Charles]], his other notable place of residence.<ref>{{Cite web|title=DuSable Park|url=http://www.stcharlesparks.com/park/dusable-park/|access-date=2021-04-22|website=St. Charles Parks and Recreation|date=2 October 2015 |language=en-US}}</ref> The [[US Postal Service]] honored Point du{{nbsp}}Sable with the issue of a Black Heritage Series 22-cent postage stamp on 20 February 1987.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/freedom/p15.html |title=Black Heritage Stamp Series: Portraiture |website=Smithsonian National Postal Museum |language=en |access-date=27 January 2018 |archive-date=23 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023115938/https://postalmuseum.si.edu/freedom/p15.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/01/arts/stamps-new-commemorative-for-black-heritage-series.html |title=Stamps; New Commemorative for Black Heritage Series |last=Dunn |first=John F. |date=1 March 1987 |work=The New York Times |access-date=27 January 2018 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[History of Chicago]]
* [[List of African-American firsts]]
* [[Antoine Ouilmette]]

==Notes and references==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}

===References===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===References cited===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite journal|last=Baumann |first=Timothy E. |title=The Du Sable Grave Project in St. Charles, Missouri |journal=The Missouri Archaeologist |date=December 2005 |volume=66 |pages=59–76 |url=http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/baumann/Baumann%202005%20-%20Du%20Sable.pdf |access-date=27 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021081619/http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/baumann/Baumann%202005%20-%20Du%20Sable.pdf |archive-date=21 October 2013 }}
* {{cite book|last=DePeyster|first=Arent Schuyler|title=Miscellanies|year=1813|publisher=Dumfries and Galloway Courier Office|url=https://archive.org/details/miscellanies00depeuoft|access-date=25 August 2010}}
* {{cite book|last=Graham|first=Shirley|title=Jean Baptiste Pointe De Sable Founder Of Chicago|year=1953|publisher=Julian Messner|url=https://archive.org/details/jeanbaptistepoin009076mbp|access-date=26 August 2010}}
* {{cite book|last=Kinzie|first=Juliette|title=Wau-Bun, the "Early Day" in the North-West|year=1856|publisher=Derby and Jackson|author-link=Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie|url=https://archive.org/details/waubunearlydayin00kinz|access-date=25 August 2010}}
* {{cite journal|last=Meehan|first=Thomas A.|title=Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the First Chicagoan|journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society|year=1963|volume=56|issue=3|pages=439–453|jstor=40190620}}
* {{cite book|last=Pacyga|first=Dominic A.|title=Chicago: A Biography|year=2009|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226644318}}
* {{cite book|last=Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan|title=Report of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan|volume=9|year=1886|publisher=Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Company|url=https://archive.org/details/michiganhistoric91886mich|access-date=25 August 2010}}
* {{cite book|last=Quaife|first=Milo Milton|title=Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673–1835|year=1913|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|url=https://archive.org/details/chicagooldnorthw00quai|access-date=25 August 2010}}
* {{cite book|last=Quaife|first=Milo Milton|title=Checagou From Indian Wigwam To Modern City 1673–1835|year=1933|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|url=https://archive.org/stream/checagoufromindi001651mbp|access-date=26 August 2010}}
* {{cite journal|last=Reed|first=Christopher R.|title='In the Shadow of Fort Dearborn': Honoring De Saible at the Chicago World's Fair of 1933–1934|journal=Journal of Black Studies|date=June 1991|volume=21|issue=4|pages=398–413|jstor=2784685|doi=10.1177/002193479102100402|s2cid=145599165}}

{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Jean Baptiste Point du Sable}}
* [http://www.dusableheritage.com DuSable Heritage Association]
* {{Find a Grave|21035}}
* The story of his life is retold in the 1949 radio drama "[https://archive.org/details/DestinationFreedom/DF_49-11-06_ep069-The_Man_Who_Owned_Chicago.mp3 The Man Who Owned Chicago]", a presentation from ''[[Destination Freedom]]'', written by [[Richard Durham]]
{{Authority control}}
{{Chicago}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Point Du Sable, Jean Baptiste}}
[[Category:1818 deaths]]
[[Category:People of New France]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:People from Chicago]]
[[Category:American people of Haitian descent]]
[[Category:Haitian-American history]]
[[Category:American city founders]]
[[Category:1740s births]]
[[Category:African-American Catholics]]
[[Category:African-American history in Chicago]]
[[Category:19th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:19th-century African-American businesspeople]]