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Article: du Sable, Jean Baptiste Pointe
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of World Biography
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Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable
The African-American explorer Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable (c. 1745-1818), despite a long period during which his contributions were minimized, is now recognized as the founder of the city of Chicago.
In the 1770s, du Sable and his wife established a farm and trading operation on the north shore of the Chicago River, near Lake Michigan. The swampy site was previously uninhabited; it was known to local Native Americans as Eschecagou, or the land of wild onions. An 1856 account of Chicago's pioneer days (quoted in
The Devil May Care: Fifty Intrepid Americans and Their Quest for the Unknown
) noted that
“
the first white man who settled here [in ...
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:
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Article: No `Du Sable Drive,' Council Panel Says
Chicago Sun-Times;
November 3, 1993 ;
700+ words
...Jean Baptiste Point du Sable was a great guy, but Lake Shore Drive ... proposal to rename Lake Shore Drive for Du Sable, a black fur trader who was the first ... street or build a prominent statue in Du Sable's honor. "This issue is going to ...
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