Empire by Collaboration: Indians, Colonists, and Governments in Colonial Illinois Country

Abstract

Empire by Collaboration reveals “a new side of the early modern French empire and a different side of early modern colonialism more generally” (7). It marks a departure from existing scholarship that measures the relative success or failure of empires to implement their policies in the Americas. Rather than attempt to discern if the imperial center could tame the colonial periphery, Morrissey asks, “What was the nature of colonialism?” (6). Spanning roughly the 1670s to the 1770s, Morrissey’s book argues that the French Empire in Illinois rested on a series of collaborations among settlers, Indians, and slaves. One “major contention” of this book is that inhabitants in Illinois did not simply accommodate one another out of ignorance but “truly saw eye to eye” and forged an “informed, purposeful collaboration” (9–10). Over eight chapters Morrissey shows that the local community in Illinois forged a distinctive economy, politics, and culture of incorporation that was no less imperial despite its local origins.The book proceeds chronologically, and the opening chapters foreground indigenous history. Working with archaeological remains and linguistic evidence, Morrissey re-creates the changing social and political worlds of Illinois Indians. He next reads French colonial accounts with a skilled eye to show how Illinois Indians collaborated with the French who came into their society. The opening chapters stand out as a sophisticated ethnohistory of natives and newcomers. Morrissey’s work with dictionaries and use of linguistic evidence offer a far richer portrait of the Illinois Indians than we had before. The middle chapters shift their attention to missionary efforts and the early attempts to settle farming communities. Morrissey details Jesuit successes in converting Illinois Indians and traces the rise of a stable farming economy. He effectively connects those developments to the early collaborations he had previously documented. The final chapters explain the creation of a diverse and growing colonial society where settlers, Indians, and slaves commingled. A final chapter on British governance after 1763 and the end of colonial collaboration completes Morrissey’s long view of empire. In this clear and well-argued narrative, he shows how local collaborations fostered social arrangements that at once frustrated and fulfilled imperial designs for Illinois.Empire for Collaboration has a bold argument, but the book’s methods stand out as its greatest strength. Morrissey elucidates the extended kin ties that spanned a dizzying group of natives and newcomers, slaves, and former slaves. Chapter 4 in particular uses a social network analysis of baptismal registries and data visualization to identify the most connected figures in the colony. This painstaking work provides convincing evidence of the collaborations that Morrissey argues defined this imperial outpost. This social network analysis is especially exciting in light of the strength of his writing about the environment. Chapters 1 and 2 make the rivers, soils, grasses, and trees key parts of the social environment at the core of his inquiry. An evocative use of material culture analysis also shows how the remnants of French forts can reveal the social relations that marked the landscape. This sophisticated archival work will interest a wide range of scholars in many fields.At first glance readers might look at this regional study and conclude that Illinois was extraordinary. Morrissey repeatedly calls the region “idiosyncratic” (8, 10, 63, 64, 65, 154, 161), “unique” (14, 40), “distinctive” (3, 4, 84, 112, 231), and “exceptional” (7). Yet on closer reading this book mystifies the division between regional and imperial. Empire by Collaboration shows that collaborations generated imperial power because they strategically departed from imperial designs. It is a provocative framework that will doubtlessly enrich the study of empires in other regions across the Americas.