Title: François Vallé and his world
First published: 2002
Description: "In Francois Valle and His World, Carl Ekberg provides a fascinating biography of Francois Valle (1716-1783), placing him within the context of his place and time. Valle, who was born in Beauport, Canada, immigrated to Upper Louisiana (the Illinois Country) as a penniless common laborer sometime during the early 1740s.

Engaged in agriculture, lead mining, and the Indian trade, he ultimately became the wealthiest and most powerful individual in Upper Louisiana, although he never learned to read or write.".

"Ekberg focuses on Upper Louisiana in colonial times, long before Lewis and Clark arrived in the Mississippi River valley and before American sovereignty had reached the eastern bank of the Mississippi. He vividly captures the ambience of life in the eighteenth-century frontier agricultural society that Valle inhabited, shedding new light on the French and Spanish colonial regimes in Louisiana and on the Mississippi River frontier before the Americans arrived.".

"Based entirely on primary source documents - wills and testaments, parish registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials, and Spanish administrative correspondence - found in archives ranging from St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve to New Orleans and Seville, Francois Valle and His World traces not only the life of Francois Valle and the lives of his immediate family members, but also the lives of his slaves.

In doing so, it provides a portrait of Missouri's very first black families, something that has never before been attempted. Ekberg also analyzes how the illiterate Valle became the richest person in all of Upper Louisiana, and how he rose in the sociopolitical hierarchy to become an important servant of the Spanish monarchy."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects: Biography, History, Social life and customs, Frontier and pioneer life, French Americans, Family, Pioneers
Places: Missouri, Sainte Genevieve, Sainte Genevieve (Mo.), Mississippi River Valley, Illinois
People: François Vallé (b. 1716)
Time periods: 18th century, To 1803, To 1778
LC classification: F474.S135 E38 2002