At the turn of the eighteenth century, Indigenous nations designated Detroit as a “common bowl” and a crucial nexus where they shared resources, made compromises, and coexisted. As the century unfolded, Detroit continued as a polyglot community in the face of expanding Euro-American settlement. The region became a highly charged space where the rituals of political negotiation grew in importance alongside a constant threat of violence. British political and economic systems continued to operate long after the end of the American Revolution, creating a shared cultural border at the end of the eighteenth century that would endure even as the American Empire reestablished rule on the north side of the river. Both Anishinaabe and Wyandot people set aside land for future occupation of their people, re-creating another transnational space in the region. A hundred years later, issues of race, economic development, political partisanship, and overlapping national claims continued to resonate as the city commemorated and mythologized its origins. This book considers how larger watershed occasions impacted the Detroit region and how, in turn, the unique particularities of local custom impacted regional and national trade and politics and the very nature of how the city continues to view its past.
ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart One. The History of DetroitThe Detroit Palimpsest: Colonizing Detroit | Andrew K. SturtevantThe Politics of Persuasion: Cadillac’s Description of Detroit in 1701 | Sara E. ChapmanPublic Powers on the Margins of Empire: How Feudalism and Absolutism Clashed in French Detroit, 1701–1734 | Guillaume TeasdaleShe Has Lived in Fashion: A Native Woman Trader’s Household in the Detroit River Region | Emily J. Macgillivray and Tiya MilesPart Two. Memorializing Historical DetroitThe Legend Explains Itself: Analyzing the Myths of Detroit’s Early History | Karen L. Marrero and Brandon DeanIn Defense of Borderlands: A Microhistory of Settler Colonialism in the Detroit River Valley, 1796–1815 | Lawrence B. A. HatterApocalypse Then? Histories of Detroit’s First Tragedy, the Fox Indian Massacre of 1712 | Richard WeyhingA Most Interesting Ride: Francis Parkman, the War Called Pontiac’s, and the Power of Collective Memory | Catherine CanganyBeware the Nain Rouge | Katherine GrandjeanContributorsIndex
