Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable, the Founder of Chicago

Sometime in the mid-1780s, Jean-Baptiste Pointe DuSable, a Black man from Saint-Domingue, and his Potawatomi wife, Kitihawa, settled with their family on a swampy site near Lake Michigan called Eschecagou, “land of the wild onions.” The homestead and trading post they built on the mouth of the Chicago River, with a comfortably appointed cabin, workshop, bake house, stable, smokehouse, and more, was the first settlement on what would become the city of Chicago. Their importance was long forgotten, but in 2006, the Chicago City Council belatedly voted to amend the Municipal Code of Chicago to add DuSable as the city’s official founder. 

Joining me in this episode is Dr. Courtney P. Joseph, Associate Professor of History and African American Studies at Lake Forest College who is writing a book titled DuSable’s Diaspora: Haiti, Blackness, and Belonging in Chicago.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode audio is: “Chicago (that Toddling Town),” written by Fred Fisher and performed by Jazz-Bo’s Carolina Serenaders in 1922; the audio is in the public domain and is available via the Internet Archive.

The episode image is a photograph of the bust of DuSable just north of DuSable Bridge in Chicago; the bust was created by Erik Blome in 2009; the photograph was taken by Matthew Weflen on June 17, 2023, and is used with permission.

 

Organizations:

• DuSable Heritage Association
• Friends of the Park
• DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center

 

Sources:

• “Chicago's Authentic Founder: Jean Baptiste Point Dusable Or Haitian Secret Agent In The Old Northwest Outpost 1745-1818,” by Marc Rosier, Trafford Publishing, 2015.
• “Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, the First Chicagoan,” by Thomas A. Meehan, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Vol. 56, No. 3, Emancipation Centennial Issue (Autumn, 1963), pp. 439-453.
• “The Father of Chicago: Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable,” by John R. Schmidt, WBEZ Chicago, August 8, 2011.
• “'The First White Man in Chicago Was a Negro'?” by Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Root, September 30, 2013.
• “Do Chicagoans know DuSable had a Native American wife? We should celebrate her, too,” by Laura Washington, Chicago Sun-Times, June 13, 2021.
• “The Black Founder of Chicago: Point du Sable | Black History Explainer [video],” Unique Coloring, 3,027 views Oct 1, 2022.
• “The Story of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable [video],” Field Museum, 
• “Who Is Jean Baptiste Point du Sable? [video],” 77