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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01518 7575
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Gc 977.2 D92ind Dunn, Jacob Piatt, 1855- Indiana, a redemption from slavery
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American Commonwealths. EDITED BY
HORACE E. SCUDDER.
•
244
American Commonwealths
INDIANA
A REDEMPTION FROM SLAVERY
BY
J. P. DUNN, JR. SECRETARY INDIANA HISTORICAL SOCIETY ; AUTHOR OF "MASSACRES OF THE MOUNTAINS "
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1890
Alon County Public Library Ft. Wayne, Indiana
977.2 D.
Copyright, 1888, BY J. P. DUNN, JR.
All rights reserved.
3
The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.
PREFACE.
IT will be matter of information to the general reader that slavery ever existed in Indiana. Those whose at- tention has been directed more particularly to American history are aware of its former existence, and, to some extent, of its origin and termination. No one, I think, since it has passed into history, has had any conception of its true significance. Historians, who have alluded to its continuation under the Ordinance of 1787, appear to have regarded it merely as one of the incongruities of frontier life, - an unlawful condition which nothing but the imperfection of government permitted to exist. A like haziness has enveloped the petitions of Indiana for the further admission of slavery. Their existence has often been mentioned, and sage reflections have been builded on them, but the physical and political condi- tions that produced them have been totally ignored. The historical fact that the local slavery question was the paramount political influence in Indiana, up to the time of the organization of the state government, has never been hinted at.
The assertion may be ventured that it is time these matters were explained. This task has been essayed in
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PREFACE.
the following pages. An endeavor has been made to bring to light the causes which produced the pro-slavery feeling, and the difficulties which anti-slavery sentiment was obliged to overcome. In this endeavor an investi- gation of the ancient French civilization, which existed within our borders, became a necessity ; and there ap- peared no stopping-point for this investigation short of the original exploration of the country. While it is be- sides the central purpose of the work, it is hoped that enough light has been thrown on this obscure subject to reconcile the reader to the devotement of so much space to its consideration.
I cannot offer my work to the public without acknowl- edging the assistance and counsel which have made its completion possible. My thanks are due to George Stewart, Jr., of Quebec ; to Douglas Brymner, Archivist of Canada ; to Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library ; to C : A. Cutter, of the Boston Athenaeum; to Rev. Joseph Anderson, of Waterbury, Conn. ; to John Gilmary Shea, of Elizabeth, N. J. ; to A. R. Spofford, of the Congressional Library ; to James Mooney, of the Bureau of Ethnology ; to C. C. Baldwin, of Cleveland, O. ; to W. F. Poole, E. G. Mason, and A. D. Hager, of Chicago, Ill. ; to Peter G. Thompson, of Cincinnati, O .; to Charles B. Lasselle, of Logansport ; to John Levering, B. Wilson Smith, and Albert Henderson, of Lafayette ; to H. S. Cauthorn, of Vincennes ; to W. P. Huckleberry, of Charlestown ; to W. W. Borden, of New Albany ; to Timothy Nicholson, of Richmond ; to W. H. English, J. R. Wilson, D. W. Howe, W. W. Woollen, Samuel
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PREFACE.
Morrison, and A. J. Hay, of Indianapolis. Special acknowledgments of numerous courtesies are due to Mrs. Lizzie Callis Scott, State Librarian of Indiana, and W. De M. Hooper, of the Public Library of In- dianapolis.
In the existing written history of Indiana there has been so little citation of authorities that it has become almost impossible to distinguish those statements which are founded on authority from those whose basis is mere conjecture. On this account, and as there is no bibli- ography of Indiana history, and as many statements are made herein which might otherwise be disputed, it has been deemed proper to cite authorities fully. In doing this, however, reference is made to the actual source of the author's information, authentic copies being ranked as originals, - this particularly as to documents from the Canadian archives.
INDIANAPOLIS, March 14, 1888.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
THE FIRST WHITE MAN
1
CHAPTER II.
THE FRENCH POSTS
41
CHAPTER III.
THE OLDEST INHABITANT
. 85
CHAPTER IV.
THE HANNIBAL OF THE WEST
. 131
CHAPTER V.
THE ORDINANCE OF 1787 .
. 177
CHAPTER VI.
THE SLAVERY PROVISO .
. 219
CHAPTER VII.
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY
. 261
CHAPTER VIII.
THE GOVERNOR AND JUDGES
. 294
viii
CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX.
THE SECOND GRADE .
. 325
CHAPTER X.
THE HARMONY OF DISCORD
. 355
CHAPTER XI.
THE ARISTOCRATS AND THE PEOPLE
. 38.1
CHAPTER XII.
THE EMANCIPATION
. 417
INDIANA.
A REDEMPTION FROM SLAVERY.
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CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST WHITE MAN.
IT is difficult to realize fully that Indiana was ever subject to the dominion of kings. It seems more like a dream than the sober truth of history that the approval of Louis the Great was a prerequisite to the explora- tion of her lands, and commercial intercourse with her naked denizens ; that the sensual monster Louis XV. held in his hands the supreme power over the welfare of her first settlers ; that George III. controlled her course in the tottering advances of her infancy. ) These men delayed for some years the fulfillment of her des- tiny, but they left few marks on her laws and customs, and what they did leave have been so nearly effaced for many years that they have attracted but little atten- tion even from the historian. In considering the his- tory of the older states, several of which were not in- habited until after Indiana, the mind more readily grasps the status of the early period ; for society crys- tallized in them much sooner than in our remote wilds, and they had within their boundaries their capitals where records of dealings between crown and subjects
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INDIANA.
always remained, preserving to them indelibly the im- press of foreign rule. Indiana had no capital within her boundaries for one hundred and thirty years after white men had been upon her soil. She was but a part of a province of a province. For ninety years her pro- vincial seat of government vacillated between Quebec, New Orleans, and Montreal, with intermediate author- ity at Ft. Chartres and Detroit, and the ultimate power at Paris. Then her capital was whisked away to Lon- don, without the slightest regard to the wishes of her scattered inhabitants, by the treaty of Paris. Sixteen years later it came over the Atlantic to Richmond, on the James, by conquest ; and after a tarry of five years at that point it shifted to New York city, then the national seat of government, by cession. In 1788 it reached Marietta, Ohio, on its progress towards its final location. In 1800 it came within the limits of the state.
With the seat of government so frequently changed, and the papers referring to public affairs scattered through the archives of various sovereignties, it is not surprising that the history of the early settlements has been in a confused condition; and this confusion was heightened through the destruction by fire of a part of the few records existing at Vincennes, her earliest per- manent town, on January 21, 1814.1 Almost every- thing that has been written concerning them is conjec- ture, with a slight foundation of tradition. Volney visited Vincennes in 1796, and had conversations with old settlers from which he concluded that the place had been founded in 1735.2 Monette adopted this as the
1 Cauthorn's Vincennes, p. 8; Western Sun, January 29, 1814; Thomas's Travels, p. 189.
2 View of the U. S., Phila. ed. p. 373.
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THE FIRST WHITE MAN.
date of our first settlement,1 and so did Flint ; 2 but Bancroft, more cautiously, says this date "is not too early : " he considered it probable that the route from the lakes to the Mississippi by way of the Maumee and Wabash came into general use in 1716, and, "in con- formity to instructions from France, was secured by a military post." 8 Bishop Bruté, the first incumbent of the see of Vincennes, from what information he had obtained, made the following statement : "The first establishment of Vincennes, as the mission of St. Francis Xavier or Wabash, dates about 1700. The friendly tribes and traders called to Canada for protection, and then M. de Vincennes came with a detachment, I think, of Carignan, and was killed in 1735."4 He also con- jectured that during the later years of the 17th century traders and missionaries may have passed " down from the St. Joseph, left the Kankakee to the west, and visited the Tippecanoe, the Eel River, and the upper parts of the Wabash." In his first edition, Mr. Dillon, the historian par excellence of Indiana, adopted this conjecture as probable.5 In his edition of 1859 Dillon affirms his belief that the Indian villages on the Wabash were visited by the French as early as 1702, and quotes from a memoir of the Marquis de Denonville, dated March 8, 1688, as to posts having then been established on the Ohio and Wabash, but ventures no further sup- position.6
All of the writers who have examined the subject
1 Hist. Miss. Valley, vol. i. p. 165.
2 Condensed Hist. and Geog. vol. ii. p. 153.
8 Hist. U. S. vol. iii. p. 346.
4 Butler's Hist. Ky. Introduction, p. xviii.
5 Hist. Notes, etc., 1843, p. 31.
6 Hist. Indiana, p. 400.
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INDIANA.
recognize the certainty of an exploration of our territory previous to the formation of permanent settlements, but with singular unanimity they have overlooked the an- cient traditions concerning this exploration, which were recorded before they could have become much corrupted by historical research. Two of these records are worthy of notice here. In 1816, David Thomas, a Quaker gentleman of New York, visited. Vincennes, and in a careful search for information concerning its early his- tory obtained two statements, both from traditional sources, as follows : -
1. " About the year 1690 the French traders first visited Vincennes, at that time a town of the Pianke- shaw Indians, called Cippecaughke. Of these the for- mer obtained wives and raised families. In the year 1734 several French families emigrated from Canada and settled at this place. The first governor, or com- mandant, was M. St. Vincent, after whom the town is now called."
2. " About the year 1702, a party of French from Canada descended the Wabash River, and established posts in several places on its banks. The party was commanded by Captain St. Vincennes, who made this his principal place of deposit, which went for a long time by no other name than the Post." 1
A Gazetteer of Indiana, published in 1833, makes this statement : "In the year 1680, this country was first explored by some adventurers, with a view of deriving advantages from the Indian trade, chiefly in the article of furs. The ground on which the town of Vincennes now stands was then chosen as a place of trade, and
1 Travels through the Western Country, Auburn, N. Y., 1819, p. 189.
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THE FIRST WHITE MAN.
from that time continued to be occupied by a few traders, who lived in a manner but little different from the na- tives. In 1735 a company of French made an addition to the Wabash settlements." 1 The writer cites no au- thority, but, as up to this time no history of Indiana had been attempted, it seems reasonably certain that his statement was founded on tradition. We have therefore a space of fifty-five years, 1680-1735, within which tradition has fixed the exploration and settlement of the Wabash country, and conjecture has varied even more widely, for it has been maintained that the settlement was not made before 1750.2
( Let us now abandon the old attempt to go backwards over a course lined out by such uncertain landmarks, and, having begun at the beginning, build up the early history of this commonwealth from reliable historical sources, trusting that the question of permanent settle- We
ment will be simplified when thus approached.
shall at least be able to brush away some of the rubbish that has accumulated in the course over which we must make our way. The year 1669 may safely be set as a limit before which 110 Frenchman explored to the south of the great lakes. There is no account known of any such exploration, and the maps up to that date represent the lower country as unknown.8 The Iroquois Indians had shown such strength and such hostility that the French had not even attempted to go west by Niagara
1 At p. 23. This is a revised and enlarged edition of John Scott's Gazetteer of 1826, of which I have been unable to find a copy. Hon. James Scott, one of the judges of the supreme court of Indiana, aided in the revision.
2 N. Am. Rev., vol. xlix. p. 69.
3 Winsor's Narrative and Critical Hist. U. S., vol. iv. pp. 202- 205.
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INDIANA.
and Lake Erie. The trading posts which they had established on the upper lakes were reached by the Ottawa, or Grand River, and Lake Huron.1 In 1665, the celebrated regiment of Carignan-Salieres was sent into the Iroquois country, and from this and other mili- tary operations peace had been fairly established by 1669, though affairs were somewhat unsettled for sev- eral years.2 The Senecas, the most westerly of the Five Nations, had made a treaty in 1666, and Father Fermin had established a mission among them in 1668. It has been claimed that missionaries visited Indiana and Illi- nois prior to this date, but there is no foundation for the statement. The probable sources of the error are the records of certain missions to the Miamis in this earlier period ; but the Miamis referred to were a detached band who lived in Wisconsin, with the Kickapoos and Mascoutins, as appears by the same records.
With these facts in view we can accept the statement concerning Robert Cavalier,8 Sieur de la Salle, which is made in the sketch prefaced to the original edition of the journal of Henri Joutel, as follows : "Many Dis- coveries had been made to the Northward, before Mon- sieur de la Sale's Time ; because there being Plenty of very good Furs, the traders of Quebeck and Montreal, by Means of the Adventurers call'd Wood-Men [cou- reurs de bois ], from their traveling thro' the Woods, had penetrated very far up the Country that Way ; but none
1 Parkman's Disc. of Gr. West, p. 17, n.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. pp. 63, 71, 85 ; Garneau's Hist. of Canada, vol. i. p. 220.
8 The name René, which is sometimes added, was not given him at baptism. Vide Chevalier de la Salle de Rouen, par Gabriel Gravier, Paris, 1871, p. xi.
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THE FIRST WHITE MAN.
had advanced far towards the South or South-West, beyond Fort Frontenac, which is on the Lake Ontario, the nearest this Way of the five great Lakes. However, upon the Report of the Natives, it was supposed, that great and advantageous Discoveries might be made. There had been much talk of the rich Mines of St. Bar- bara, in the Kingdom of Mexico, and some were tempted to give them a Visit. Something was known of the famous River Mississippi, which it was supposed might . fall into the South Sea, and open a Way to it. These Conjectures working upon Monsieur de la Sale, who being zealous for the Honour of his Nation, design'd to signalize the French Name, on Account of extraordinary Discoveries, beyond all that went before him ; he form'd the Design and resolv'd to put it in Execution. He was certainly very fit for it, and succeeded at the Expence of his Life ; for no Man has done so much in that Way as he did for the Space of twenty Years he spent in that Employment. He was a Man of a regular Behaviour, , of a large Soul, well enough learned, and understanding in the Mathematicks, designing, bold, undaunted, dex- terous, insinuating, not to be discourag'd at any Thing, ready at extricating himself out of any Difficulties, no Way apprehensive of the greatest Fatigues, wonderful steady in Adversity, and what was of extraordinary Use, well enough versed in several Savage Languages." 1
The "space of twenty years " would indicate a be- ginning of these explorations in 1667, for La Salle was assassinated in 1687, but it is perhaps not intended to be precise. The earliest mention of his departure is in a letter of Sieur Patoulet, dated November 11, 1669, stating " that Messrs. de la Salle and Dolier, accom- 1 Joutel's Journal, London ed. of 1714, pp. xvi, xvii.
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INDIANA.
panied by twelve men, had set out with a design to go and explore a passage they expected to discover com- municating with Japan and China." 1 On October 10, 1670, M. Talon, Intendant General of Canada, writes to the king : "Since my arrival I have dispatched per- sons of resolution, who promise to penetrate further than has ever been done ; the one to the West and Northwest of Canada, and the others to the Southwest and South." 2 In February, 1671, the minister Colbert replied : "The resolution you have taken to send Sieur de la Salle towards the South, and Sieur de St. Luisson to the North, to discover the South Sea passage, is very good." 8 Concerning this voyage there remain two accounts, one by the Abbé Gallinee, who accompanied the explorers, and the other by a friend of his who claimed to have his information from La Salle. It is unquestioned that they left La Chine in July, 1669, and journeyed together to the western extremity of Lake Ontario. Here they were presented a Shawnee slave, who assured them that he could lead them to the Ohio in six weeks ; but here also they met Louis Joliet, who was returning from an un- successful search for the copper mines of Lake Superior. On his report, in spite of the protestations of La Salle, Dolier and Gallinée, who were Sulpitian priests, decided to go to the upper lakes to instruct the Pottawattamies. They separated on the last day of September ; the priests passed on through Lake Erie, making the first
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 787; Margry's Découvertes et Etablissements des Français dans L' Amerique Septentrionale, vol. i. p. 81. For convenience this work will be cited hereafter simply as Margry.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 64.
3 1bid., vol. ix. p. 789.
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THE FIRST WHITE MAN.
recorded traverse of that lake, though Joliet had prob- ably just come over it on his return; they returned in 1670, having accomplished nothing further.
Gallinée's account follows La Salle only to this point, and the other relation, which is very obscure, has been savagely attacked on account of a claim founded upon it that La Salle discovered the Mississippi before Joliet. Margry, Shea, Parkman, Harrisse, Whittlesey, Faillon, Gravier, and others have so wrestled backwards and forwards over this ground that hardly any authority has escaped unscathed, and this one has suffered most of all. It proceeds : " Meanwhile M. de la Salle continued on his way by a river which runs from East to West ; and passed to Onondaga, afterwards to six or seven leagues below Lake Erie ; and having reached as far as the 280th or 283d degree of longitude, and to the 41st de- gree of latitude, he found a rapid which falls to the West into a low land, marshy, covered with dead trees, of which there were some that were yet standing. He was obliged to take to the land, and, following a ridge which led him a long distance, he found certain savages who told him that afar off from there the same stream, which lost itself in this vast and low country, reunited in a channel. He then continued his journey, but as the fatigue became great, twenty-three or twenty-four men who had followed him thus far quitted him in one night, regained the river, and made their way some to New Holland and some to New England. He then found himself alone, four hundred leagues from home, whither he hastened to return, reascending the river, and living by the chase, by herbs, and by what the Indians that he met on the road gave to him." 1
1 Margry, vol. i. pp. 377, 378.
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INDIANA.
This account is so absurd from a geographical view that it can be regarded of value only as confirmatory of other evidence and in a general way. Fortunately La Salle went over the same ground in his memorial to the king in 1677, and his account is clear and reason- able. Speaking of himself in the third person, he says : " In the year 1667, and those following, he made divers voyages with much expense, in which he for the first time explored many countries to the south of the great lakes, and among others the great river of Ohio; he followed it to a place where it empties, after a long course, into vast marshes, at the latitude of 37 degrees, after having been increased by another river, very large, which comes from the north; and all these waters dis- charge themselves, according to all appearances, into the Gulf of Mexico." 1 If La Salle's statement as to lati-
1 " L'année 1667, et les suivantes, il fit divers voyages avec beau- coup de dépenses, dans lesquels il découvrit le premier beaucoup de pays au sud des grands lacs, et entre autres la grande rivière d'Ohio ; il la suivit jusqu'a un endroit ou elle tombe de fort haut dans de vastes marais, a la hauteur de 37 degrés, après avoir été grossie par une autre rivière fort large qui vient du nord ; et toutes ces · eaux se déchargent selon toutes les apparances dans le Golfe du Mexique." (Margry, vol. i. p. 330.) The italicized words which I have translated " where it empties, after a long course, into vast marshes," have heretofore been rendered "where it falls from very high into vast marshes." The latter is the more natural rendering for modern French, but these words are of two cen- turies ago, and in the latter rendering they are incomprehensible. There are no high falls on the Ohio or any other stream that could be referred to. If we suppose the reference to be to the rapids at Louisville, which have a fall of only twenty-seveu feet in two and one half miles, there can still be found nothing in their vicinity that will serve for " vast marshes." I find no place in La Salle's writings where the verb tomber is used in describing a cascade or rapid ; but he did use it to signify the debouchure
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THE FIRST WHITE MAN.
tude be correct, - and this is not improbable, inasmuch as he was "understanding in the Mathematicks," and as the early French calculations of latitude were much more accurate than those of longitude, - he must have come nearly to the mouth of the Ohio. He may have arrived there at a time when the Mississippi was overflowing, in which case the back-water in the Ohio, the overflowed bottom-lands, and the extensive cane-brakes that then existed on both its banks below the mouth of the Tennessee, might very naturally have caused him to believe that it emptied into vast marshes.
The relation first quoted states that he made another attempt to descend the Ohio some months later, but left it and crossed to Lake Erie, whence he passed through the lakes to the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. Below thiis he found a stream running from east to west, and followed it to a point where it was joined by an- other stream flowing from northwest to southeast; he continued beyond this point to the 36th degree of lati- tude. The streams referred to are probably the Kan- kakee and Des Plaines, but the latitude is unquestion- ably as incorrect as that given in connection with the former voyage.1 He could have reached parallel 36 of streams, as, for example, in reference to the discharge of the Des Plaines into the Illinois, and again of the latter into the Mis- sissippi. Margry, vol. ii. pp. 128, 80. On the latter page he also uses fort haut in referring to the length of a stream. The preceding account is consistent with this reading, for, though it says he reached a rapid (sault), it also says "he continued his journey " beyond that point ; and while the longitude and latitude of the sault would place it somewhere near Pittsburg, Pennsyl- vania, La Salle is left, at the end of his expedition, "four hun- dred leagues from home."
1 La Salle erred widely in latitude estimated on the Illinois in his earliest voyages. In 1680 he put Pimetoui at 33º 45', though
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INDIANA.
only by the Mississippi, and if he had thus reached it before Joliet he would have left some mention of it. He never made that claim, and Frontenac and other friends, who certainly knew the extent of his travels, expressly concede the discovery of the Mississippi to Joliet.1
The maps of the period confirm the view as to the extent of these voyages which is given above. On what is called "Joliet's Larger Map," dated 1674, the Ohio is laid down, but with uncertain juncture with the Mis- sissippi, and marked " Route du Sieur de la Salle pour aller dans le Mexique." "Joliet's Smaller Map " has the Ohio also, with the inscription, " Rivière par où de- scendit le Sieur de la Salle au sortir du lac Erié pour aller dans le Mexique." A third map, which may claim date as early as 1673, since the Mississippi does not ap- pear upon it, shows the Ohio breaking off abruptly at a point well down towards its mouth, and marked, Rivière Ohio, ainsy appellée par les Iroquois à cause de sa beauté, par où le Sieur de la Salle est descendu.2 The latter map is ascribed by Parkman, with much reason, to La Salle himself.3 The upper part of the Illinois River is traced upon it, and in the lower part of Lake Michigan is written : " The largest vessels can come to this place from the outlet of Lake Erie, where it dis- charges into Lake Frontenac [Ontario]; and from this marsh, to which they can enter, there is only a distance
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