Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable

Founder of Chicago

• Born: c. 1745
• Birthplace: St. Marc, Saint-Dominque (now Haiti)
• Died: August 28, 1818
• Place of death: St. Charles, Missouri

A native Haitian living on the contested American frontier, Pointe du Sable built the first enduring settlement in Chicago. He successfully worked with many cultural and ethnic groups, establishing himself as a well-respected businessman and natural leader.

Early Life

Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable (zhahn ba-TEEST pwahnt doo SAH-bluh) was born around 1745 in St. Marc, Haiti, when the Caribbean island nation was the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Never a slave, Pointe du Sable was able to pass freely through both Haiti and the United States territories, which allowed him to pursue his inclination to travel. As a young man, he traveled to multicultural New Orleans, which had been established in 1718, and continued moving north on the Mississippi River, eventually concentrating his efforts on the wilderness of Illinois and Indiana.

Although records of his life are incomplete, Pointe du Sable was involved in business ventures that sometimes required official government documents. These documents chronicle changes in his career and suggest that he built relationships with some of the locally posted military authorities from the British and American governments. Pointe du Sable’s first recorded job was as a licensed fur trader beginning about 1768. During the American Revolutionary period, records indicate that Pointe du Sable moved to Indiana, where he operated a trading post as a tenant on Native American lands.

During the American Revolution, Pointe du Sable apparently supported the fledgling United States, which resulted in his arrest and incarceration by British authorities even though he worked with British traders at the time of the accusations. Once freed, Pointe du Sable pursued his interest in accumulating property and building a business in earnest.

Life’s Work

Like many nomadic trappers and traders, Pointe du Sable moved to different areas in what later became Illinois and Indiana throughout the 1770’s and 1780’s. He married a member of the Potawatomi tribe named Catherine during the 1770’s, and the couple had two children: a boy named Jean Baptiste, Jr., and a girl named Suzanne. Pointe du Sable gradually began putting down roots with a thirty-acre farm in Peoria, Illinois, in 1780, although he continued to move throughout his life. Some of the moves might have been motivated by military tensions between the English soldiers and Americans in the area. He listed the previously established Peoria farm on his 1783 petition for a land grant, which allowed him to start his own farm with official permission from the new United States while also indicating that he considered himself to be an American.

In 1788, Pointe du Sable and his family moved to northwest Illinois and cleared the land to create a produce farm. The farm’s success led Pointe du Sable to open a popular trading post, and he routinely dealt with the British, French, Americans, and American Indians. Both the fresh produce and the trading post attracted pioneers, traders, and trappers, leading to Pointe du Sable’s success in starting the first permanent non-Native American settlement in Chicago.

Pointe du Sable, known for fairness, became financially comfortable and maintained his land in Peoria in addition to his farm in Chicago. In 1800, he sold his farm and personal goods for six thousand pounds to a French-Canadian trapper named Jean LaLime in order to move back south to Peoria and then to St. Charles, Missouri. Pointe du Sable had difficulty making a living in St. Charles and was impoverished when he died on August 28, 1818, the same year Illinois became a state.

Significance

Known as the Father of Chicago, Pointe Du Sable transformed himself from a poor youth into a successful businessman who settled Chicago with his family during the difficult Revolutionary period. His achievements are even more remarkable because he managed to sidestep racial discrimination that both he and his American Indian wife faced in an era of heightened territorial tensions and the inherent dangers of the American frontier.

Bibliography

DuBois, Shirley Graham. Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, Founder of Chicago. New York: Julian Messner, 1953. DuBois highlights Pointe du Sable’s role in the establishment of Chicago.

Hudson, Wade. “Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable.” In Five Brave Explorers. New York: Scholastic Books, 1995. In this illustrated book designed for elementary and middle school students, Hudson explains how Pointe du Sable’s resolve led to the creation of a major American city from its beginnings as a frontier trading post.

Lemann, Nicholas. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. New York: Vintage Books, 1992. Lemann focuses on how African Americans moved north to seek new opportunities, including Pointe du Sable’s own initiative to create a productive life.

Lindberg, Richard C. “Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable.” In The Devil May Care: Fifty Intrepid Americans and Their Quest for the Unknown, edited by Tony Horowitz. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Highlights Pointe du Sable’s bravery and exploration of the American frontier.

Marsh, Carole. Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable: Father of Chicago. Peachtree, Ga.: Gallopade International, 1998. This short book details Pointe du Sable’s life for elementary and middle school readers interested in how he founded Chicago.