Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast

by Joan DeJean

Overview

The secret history of the rebellious Frenchwomen who were exiled to colonial Louisiana and found power in the Mississippi Valley

In 1719, a ship named La Mutine (the mutinous woman), sailed from the French port of Le Havre, bound for the Mississippi. It was loaded with urgently needed goods for the fledgling French colony, but its principal commodity was a new kind of export: women.

Falsely accused of sex crimes, these women were prisoners, shackled in the ship’s hold. Of the 132 women who were sent this way, only 62 survived. But these women carved out a place for themselves in the colonies that would have been impossible in France, making advantageous marriages and accumulating property. Many were instrumental in the building of New Orleans and in settling Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, and Mississippi.

Drawing on an impressive range of sources to restore the voices of these women to the historical record, Mutinous Women introduces us to the Gulf South’s Founding Mothers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541600584
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	04/19/2022
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	177,518
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.70(h) x 1.70(d)

About the Author

Joan DeJean is trustee professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of twelve books on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France, including How Paris Became Paris and The Essence of Style. She was born in southwest Louisiana, and now lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Paris, France.

Table of Contents

Part I France

1 False Arrests and Trumped-Up Charges 9

2 John Law's Louisiana Gold Rush 35

3 "Merchandise" for Louisiana 53

4 The Roundup 87

5 Chains and Shackles 125

Part II The Second Coast

6 "The Islands" of Louisiana 159

7 The Desert Islands of Alabama and Mississippi 181

8 Biloxi's Deadly Sands 201

9 Putting Down Roots in Mobile 215

10 Building a Capital in New Orleans 243

11 Women on the Verge in Natchitoches, Illinois, and Arkansas 285

12 Louisiana's Garden on the German Coast 299

13 Natchez, John Law's Folly 317

14 Pointe Coupee in the Shadow of Natchez 341

15 The End of the Women's Era 357

Coda 367

Acknowledgments 371

List of Abbreviations 377

Notes 379

Bibliography 405

Illustration Credits 417

Index 419

Editorial Reviews

02/14/2022

University of Pennsylvania historian DeJean (How Paris Became Paris) paints an intriguing portrait of the early 18th-century French women who overcame “false arrests and trumped-up charges,” forced deportation, hurricanes, and other hardships to help shape life in the fledgling colony of Louisiana. According to DeJean, corrupt police and prison officials working with the Indies Company conspired to deport more than 130 female inmates as part of a scheme to help populate the colony. Many of the deportees had been arrested on dubious charges of prostitution and begging; in one unfortunate case, a woman was detained “by accident, when a murder took place just outside the cabaret where she had stopped for a beer at the end of a hot day.” DeJean skillfully reads between the lines of the existing police and prison documentation to bring context and nuance to these women’s stories. She also draws on soldier and historian Jean Dumont’s contemporaneous accounts of life in Louisiana, where he met his wife, deportee Marie Baron. Though the deportees arrived in America destitute, some went on to build the first houses on Royal Street in Mobile, Ala., and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, and became matriarchs of prominent regional families. This scrupulous account restores a group of remarkable women to their rightful place in French and American history. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Gripping from its opening scene of a corpse discovered on a Paris side street, Joan DeJean’s Mutinous Women tells the stories of these French women, deported as unwanted criminals to what would become, less than a century later, part of the United States… Through astounding research in French and Louisiana archives… Ms. DeJean uses her knowledge as a scholar of early modern France to great effect. … a fascinating history and a reminder that all kinds of people helped to build what became the United States.”—Wall Street Journal

“Working with a chaotic and often confusing historical record, DeJean traces the constellation of forces—including avarice, corruption and misogyny—that permitted the rapid roundup of another 96 or so female prisoners to be transported in the dank hold of La Mutine. The horrific conditions of the women’s journey and the will to survive that must have sustained them when they were set down, largely without resources, in a barren, swampy, inhospitable land, are evoked in vivid detail.”
 
 —New York Times Book Review

“Their lives became early examples of the American dream, and of its violence… In their previously little-known stories is a concise picture of all that makes U.S. history remarkable and troubling.”—The Atlantic

“An array of impressive primary sources… guide the overarching theme of this groundbreaking study, revealing the importance of these women in the early years of French colonization of the Third Coast.” —CHOICE

"What transpired after they landed ashore, however, is a clear demonstration of the beauty and power of the feminine spirit, and DeJean chronicles their experiences in well-written, often gripping prose....Readers will come away fascinated and inspired by this relatively unknown tale of strength and the human spirit."—Kirkus (starred review)

“DeJean skillfully reads between the lines of the existing police and prison documentation to bring context and nuance to these women’s stories…. This scrupulous account restores a group of remarkable women to their rightful place in French and American history.”—Publishers Weekly

“Exploitation and dishonesty fueled the settling of the Gulf Coast, and so doing rendered these women voiceless for generations. With rich writing, author and University of Pennsylvania professor DeJean gives the women who settled Louisiana, and their lost stories, a long-overdue historical reckoning.”—Booklist

“DeJean… does a wonderful job of tracing the lives of these women through government and parish records, plotting their marriages, deaths, births and financial fortunes through succeeding decades. … A fascinating book for history lovers, not just academics.”
 
 —Library Journal

“Joan DeJean has written a gripping narrative of female courage and resilience that gives the women of La Mutine a justice long denied. Their astonishing and all-but-forgotten story will now take its rightful place in our rapidly changing understanding of the nature and meaning of European settlement of the New World.”—Drew Faust, Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor and president emerita, Harvard

“This is a wonderful book, richly detailed, meticulously researched, and beautifully written. Telling the hitherto unknown story of a group of working-class, young women unjustly seized by authorities from the streets of early eighteenth-century Paris, Mutinous Women takes us on a fascinating journey from the poorer quarters of the vast city to the emerging towns and expansive landscapes of French Louisiana. Against all odds, after enduring terrible privations in their homeland and a long Atlantic crossing chained together in the hold of the frigate La Mutine, most of the women who survived succeeded in establishing their own families and eventually achieved a level of material comfort their native country denied them. Joan DeJean's account offers eloquent testimony to the courage and fortitude of these brave young women who played a significant role in the founding of French Louisiana.”—James Horn, author of A Brave and Cunning Prince

“Mutinous Women brings to life a remarkable story, that of some two hundred women arbitrarily deported from France to the fledgling colony of Louisiana in 1719.  Many died crossing the ocean, but others survived to play crucial roles in the settlement of a region that still treasures its French heritage. Joan DeJean’s vivid narrative is both an engrossing addition to the history of American colonization and a testimony to the resilience of the human spirit.”—Jeremy Popkin, author of A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution

“In a work of archival virtuosity and daring reconstruction, Joan DeJean takes us from the villages of France to the alleys of Paris to the bayous of Louisiana, recovering the lives of a group of women heretofore lost to history. Exquisitely vulnerable to the capricious forces of ambition, finance, and venality, these indomitable women wrested control of their lives to chart new paths for themselves and their descendants.” —François Furstenberg, professor of history, Johns Hopkins University

From the Publisher

03/01/2022

In 1720, 132 French women convicts were loaded onto a ship named La Mutine and sent off to the American colony of Louisiana where investor/con artist John Law's expanding mainland empire was missing one desired commodity: women. Arrested and imprisoned in Paris on trumped-up charges of prostitution, smuggling, or theft, the women left France poor and unmourned. But in decades to come, many of them would rise to positions of lasting influence and wealth in colonial Louisiana. DeJean (Romance languages, Univ. of Pennsylvania; How Paris Became Paris) does a wonderful job of tracing the lives of these women through government and parish records, plotting their marriages, deaths, births and financial fortunes through succeeding decades. The collapse of Law's shady empire in 1720 caused initial chaos in the colonies but also freed its residents to pursue their own destinies. VERDICT The level of detail in this scrupulously researched tale makes for slow reading at times but it brings to light the contribution of these formidable women to the early history of Gulf Coast France, a contribution till now has largely swept under the carpet. A fascinating book for history lovers, not just academics.—David Keymer

Library Journal

★ 2022-02-26
A welcome retelling of a forgotten segment of American history.

In her latest work, DeJean, author of How Paris Became Paris and many other works of history, unearths the story of the unlikely women who became the Gulf Coast’s founding mothers. In 1719, a ship called La Mutine set sail from France and docked in New France, what is now Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Inside were more than 130 sickly women, ravaged human cargo destined for the Colonies as punishment for alleged crimes. Records show that many of the women were charged with prostitution, but in reality, many could not defend themselves or even understand the accusations against them. Oppressed by a system that detested the impoverished, they became victims of slave ship owner John Law, who saw them as an opportunity to fill a need for 6,000 French settlers to work in the Colonies. Together with a craven warden from the women’s prison, Law sealed the fate of these young, often illiterate women without their input. “French authorities,” writes the author, “set no ground rules; no one considered the exact terms on which female detainees were to be shipped off ‘to the colonies’ or even what the authorities should call the process they were establishing.” Only 62 survived the voyage. What transpired after they landed ashore, however, is a clear demonstration of the beauty and power of the feminine spirit, and DeJean chronicles their experiences in well-written, often gripping prose. During their passage, which included forced dwelling in dangerous cargo holds, some women became lifelong friends. Upon their arrival, many were married off to local soldiers who had returned from war, and they set about making lives for themselves and their new husbands. Over time, many fought to clear their names, and some became wealthy property owners or ran successful businesses. Regardless of the directions of their new lives, together they ensured that their children “enjoyed experiences and opportunities that they themselves had never known.”

Readers will come away fascinated and inspired by this relatively unknown tale of strength and the human spirit.

Kirkus Reviews