Sixty Years' War for the Great Lakes, 1754-1814

The French Connection: The Interior French and Their Role in French-British Relations in the Western Great Lakes Region, 1760-1775

— 125 — TheFrenchConnection:TheInteriorFrench andTheirRoleinFrench–BritishRelations intheWesternGreatLakesRegion,1760–1775 K e i t h R . W i d d e r French-speaking people played a vital role in the dynamic and often turbulent world of the western Great Lakes following the BritishconquestofCanadain1760.Historians,however,havenotalwaysadequately analyzed the diversity of the French, who were anything but a homogeneous group. A full understanding of the complicated relationships between French and British requires an answer to the question—who were the “French”?1 Only after determining who made up this group can we begin to comprehend how French-speaking and English-speaking people related to each other in the complicated society that revolved around the fur trade. This article focuses on the Interior French, who lived with their mixed Indian or French families away from the European settlements at Detroit and Michilimackinac, in a region that encompassed much of what became the Northwest Territory and parts of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. They made their living in the fur trade.2 The following discussion argues that the Interior French, who appeared to the British military as their implacable enemy, were indeed indispensable to the efforts of British traders to enter and profit from the fur trade of the western Great Lakes. (Although it is beyond the scope of this essay, the Interior French also played a vital role in the successful efforts of the British military to keep the western Great Lakes K e i t h R . W i d d e r — 126 — British during the American Revolution.3) Violence perpetrated by Frenchmen and Native people against English traders and intense rivalry between French and British traders often marred evolving relationships among members of all three groups, particularly in the late 1760s. But the new reality that the British brought to the western Great Lakes after their conquest of Canada forced the French and the British to get beyond their centuries-old rivalry and work together in the western Great Lakes. British relationships with the Interior French were tense, fluid, and, at times, intensely disagreeable. Whether they liked it or not, the British had to do business with the Interior French, and they did. The Interior French, after all, held the keys to the trade—their kin and trading alliances with the Native people.4 A brief comment on the identity of the British is needed for it is their words and deeds that illuminate the presence and behavior of the Interior French, almost all of whom were illiterate. In November 1760, the British military and British merchants arrived in Detroit and, by late 1761, they had established their presence at Michilimackinac , Green Bay, Fort St. Joseph, Fort Miamis, and Ouiatenon.5 The military extended British “sovereignty” to the western Great Lakes as they took possession of French settlements and required French inhabitants to take an oath of allegiance to the British king. During the first two years officers and representatives of the Indian Department,6 hoping to enlist the support of Indians, held councils with the Native people at Detroit and throughout the region.7 Merchants and traders coming from Albany and Montreal appeared on the scene seeking access to the riches of the fur trade controlled by Native and French inhabitants of the region.8 By 1763, English, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Irish, and Jewish people had settled in the western Great Lakes. Delineating the identity of the French is more complicated than portraying that of the less numerous British.9 English documentary accounts about the “French” frequently refer to the behavior of French-speaking people without making distinctions between different French-speaking groups. In many instances, however, the context of a letter, journal entry, or business ledger leaves little doubt that the French being discussed can be identified. They may be French-Canadian or French civil authorities living in Canada, the military, or Quebec or metropolitan based merchants. When the identity of the French can be determined with clarity, useful analyses of their dealings with British counterparts can be made. Determining the identity of the French in the western Great Lakes, where many French men and some French women had lived and worked among the Indians The Interior French a n d F re n ch -B ri ti sh Re l a ti on s i n the Western Great Lakes Region — 127 — for decades by 1760, often requires a very critical reading of...