Bienvenu! Welcome! The Straits of Detroit, c'est une Grande Aventure. The Straits of Detroit is a Great Adventure! It is the story of how Detroit, le Détroit, came to be.
Follow the adventures of brash Gascon Antoine Cadillac, and loyal soldier Jean St. Aubin, as they adapt to life in Nouvelle France, New France, in the 1680's and 90's. They fight for survival against the dreaded Iroquois Confederacy and their allies, the hated and despised English.
Meet Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the loyal Gascon who serves His Majesty Louis XIV as a soldier, cartographer, officer, commandant of Fort Michilimackinac and Fort Pontchartrain, and governor of the Louisianne Territory. Meet Cadillac the entrepreneur, visionary, developer, and builder. Meet his powerful enemies, and the enemies of Détroit, the Society of Jesus, the Governor-General of New France, Phillipe de Rigaud Vaudreuil, and the Intendants. Learn why he hates the English, the loathsome dogs who seized his property and took his wife Marie Thérèse Guyon and children hostage.
Join Jean Cassé St. Aubin as he follows his recruiting officer, Sgt Cadillac, into His Majesty's army all the way to Nouvelle France and Kanata. Follow Jean as he fights for survival in this new country. Soldier, navigator, scout, fermier, farmer, trader and the head of one of Detroit's founding families, the St. Aubin's.
Antoine Cadillac is a man who would fit in with today's visionary entrepreneurs, promoters and developers. He crafted an image of himself and promoted it tirelessly. He knew and served King Louis XIV and his successor, Louis XV. He earned the right to select the site for his fort, his trading post, his multicultural community, his Détroit. He came to the river bend on the straits of Detroit to build his post and his future and he succeeded.
When Cadillac built Detroit he laid an enduring foundation. There is no other American city like Detroit. It is the only city created for the specific purpose of making French citizens out of Native Americans. His plan was to form a multi-cultural Grande Village, literally a Great Village composed of as many separate Indian villages surrounding his fort and trading post. Other cities share Detroit's French heritage but they lacked the specific intent of acculturating the Indians. Cadillac invited many tribes to come together to live in peace and harmony, with each other, as well as the French. He planned to make soldiers, French soldiers, out of the civilized Indians. The Great Peace of Montreal set the stage for Cadillac to embrace the diverse tribes to come to his Détroit where the French would ensure their peace and tranquility. That peace would last from its foundation in 1701 as part of Nouvelle France until the War of 1812. It endured through the transition to being part of the English empire in 1760, survived the Pontiac Uprising of 1763, continued through the Revolutionary War, and its transition into an American city in 1796. It endured major conflagrations that destroyed the city more than once. It survived plagues of locusts and of la picote, smallpox. It survived despite the best attempts of its government to destroy it. Le Détroit endures and thrives.
Like most of the history of Nouvelle France, New France, the history of le Détroit has faded into obscurity but it is woven into the foundation of the city.
The story of French Detroit has it all, action, adventure, romance, sex, plagues, epidemics, violence, treachery, honor and heroics, kings and commoners! Enjoy the story of Detroit set in the forgotten history of New France.
