Médard Chouart des Groseilliers (born 1618) was a French explorer and fur trader in Canada.

 Médard Chouart des Groseilliers (born 1618) was a French explorer and fur trader in Canada. He is often paired with his brother-in-law Pierre-Esprit Radisson, who was about 20 years younger. The pair worked together in fur trading and exploration.



 Their decision to enter British service led to the foundation of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. This company established trading posts and extensive relations with the First Nations in western Canada. It was highly influential in making the region amenable to British colonization. Radisson, with Groseiliers, also mapped many of the Great Lakes and trading routes used by settlers.


𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞


Médard Chouart was born in Charly-sur-Marne, Champagne province, France, to Médard Chouart, his father and Marie Poirier. He also had a cousin named Médard Chouart. He later called himself Sieur des Groseilliers after a farm his parents managed in Bassevelle. He was reported to have immigrated to New France in 1641 at age 23, but according to Historian Grace Lee Nute, this has never been proven. He became a donné or lay helper at the Jesuit missions in the Huron region near present-day Simcoe County, Ontario. Here he learned the skills of a coureur des bois. In 1646, Groseilliers fought with the Huron against the Iroquois.


On 3 September 1647 Groseilliers married the widowed Helène Martin, the daughter of Abraham Martin, whose land surrounding Quebec City later became famous as the Plains of Abraham. Their first child died in 1648. Their second child, also named Médard, was born in 1651, the same year Helène died. After the Iroquois destroyed the Huron missions and forced the people to move further west in the late 1640s, Groseilliers worked to re-establish trade, especially in the Lake Superior region.


In 1653, Groseilliers travelled to Acadia to meet with Claude de la Tour and returned to New France in July and established himself at Trois-Rivières. There he married his second wife, Marguérite Hayet, (sometimes spelt Hayot) the widowed step-sister of Pierre-Esprit Radisson and from whom he inherited his lands in Trois-Rivières. Two sons from her first marriage became troublesome. In 1654, Groseilliers petitioned the governor of New France to find the boys another guardian, which was accepted. His first child by Marguérite, Jean Baptiste, was baptized on 5 July 1654. His second child Marguérite, also named Marguérite, was baptized on 15 April 1659 and his third child, Marie-Antoinette, was baptized on 8 June 1661.


𝐀𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫


In August 1654, Groseilliers was sent west along with an unknown partner, to journey west to the new Huron lands. The voyage took two years to complete and upon returning in August 1656, they carried in their canoes reports of contact with several First Nations, among them the Sioux, Potawatomi, Winnebago and Fox peoples and furs worth 14 to 15 thousand livres. Leaving in August 1659, Groseilliers and Radisson travelled west to the far end of Lake Superior and wintered at Lac Courte Oreilles in what is now known as Wisconsin. According to Radisson's account of the voyage, they helped repel an Iroquois attack along the Ottawa River and the idea for trading furs from Hudson Bay came to them at this time. They returned in the summer of 1660 and upon return to New France, they were fined most of their profits by the colonial government because they had left New France without a license.


This journey demonstrated that the French could find riches in the interior of the continent and this led more Frenchmen to go west, with seven heading to Lake Superior within the year. From Cree traders, the French men came to understand that the main source of furs lay northwest of the lake. In 1661, Groseilliers travelled to France to appeal the fine without success and returned to New France the same year. Groseilliers and Radisson proposed creating a trading company for the furs to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the French minister of finance under King Louis XIV. Colbert thought it a waste of resources and refused to support the project. In Spring 1662, Groseilliers and Radisson intended to journey to the west via the Hudson Bay region. To get to Hudson Bay from Isle Percée, Groseilliers intended to charter a vessel. However, the plans fell through and Groseilliers and Radisson instead searched further south in New England in the hope of finding a suitable vessel.


𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞


In 1674, a French Jesuit priest, Charles Albanel, was sent north into Hudson Bay. Captured by representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company, Albanel was sent to England as a prisoner. In England, he convinced Groseilliers and Radisson to return to French service. Groseilliers travelled to France and spent the year before returning to New France in 1676.


On 20 May 1682, the French created their own fur-trading company, called La Compagnie de la Baie d’Hudson or Compagnie du Nord, given a charter by the French government. The company was created to compete with the Hudson's Bay Company. Groseilliers joined the company and with Radisson, sailed north to the Hayes and Nelson Rivers to create a French trading post. Similar expeditions from the Hudson's Bay Company and a group from Boston under the leadership of Benjamin Gillam arrived at the same time. The three groups fought with the experienced leadership of Radisson and Groseilliers coming out victorious. They took the majority of the Bostonians and Hudson's Bay Company personnel captive, including the new governor of Hudson Bay, John Bridger and seized furs from their former employer.


Upon their return to New France, the two Frenchmen found that their actions had angered the British and alarmed French officials. To cover the British losses the Compagnie du Nord was forced to pay taxes on their furs. Radisson and Groseilliers sailed to France in 1683 for adjudication on the tax matter. The French government found in favour of the British, whose leader the Duke of York was France's best chance to re-convert the English back to Catholicism. While in France, Groseilliers refused an offer to rejoin the Hudson's Bay Company and returned to his farm at Trois-Rivières. His final fate is unknown.


𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞: 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐧 - 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐫, 𝐀𝐬𝐡𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐖𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐧


Comments

Post a Comment

Pop

Popular posts from this blog

THE BREEDING FARMS OF HELL: AMERICA'S MOST DEPRAVED SLAVERY SECRETS THAT STILL HAUNT HUMANITY

Image
THE BREEDING FARMS OF HELL: AMERICA'S MOST DEPRAVED SLAVERY SECRETS THAT STILL HAUNT HUMANITY Most people learn about slavery in two short textbook pages: cotton fields, plantations, Abraham Lincoln, and freedom. But the real history was far darker and more horrifying than any classroom ever dared to reveal. Behind the elegant white columns of Southern plantations lay a calculated system of cruelty, profit, and the systematic destruction of human souls. Enslaved people were not merely workers—they were livestock. Across Virginia and other states, entire farms existed for one purpose only: breeding human beings like cattle. Men were forced to impregnate dozens of women, their bodies treated as breeding tools. Children born from these forced unions were recorded in ledgers as property, valued like horses or pigs, and sold off for maximum profit. Families were deliberately torn apart. Mothers watched in agony as their babies were ripped from their arms and auctioned to strangers. Newb...
Read more

😢 SLAVE BREEDING 😢

Image
😢 SLAVE  BREEDING 😢 Slave breeding was one of the most brutal and dehumanizing practices during the era of slavery, yet it remains one of the least talked about. After the trans-Atlantic slave trade was banned in 1808, enslavers in America began relying heavily on forced reproduction to increase their labor force. Enslaved men and women were paired against their will, treated like property, and valued only for their physical strength and ability to produce more enslaved children. Strong and healthy men were often targeted and forced into roles where their bodies were used purely for breeding. They had no choice, no freedom, and no control over their personal lives. Enslaved women suffered deeply as well, enduring repeated pregnancies, emotional trauma, and the constant fear of losing their children. Many mothers watched helplessly as their babies—and even older children—were taken away to be sold for profit, with no consideration for the bonds of family or humanity. This cruel sy...
Read more

1890S WOMAN CARRYING CHARCOAL

Image
 1890S WOMAN CARRYING CHARCOAL A very cheerful Japanese working woman, with one of her breasts exposed, is carrying three huge packs of charcoal on what appears to be a country road. During the summer, women in the countryside often had much of their body exposed when they worked. Many men wore only a loincloth. Even in the city. This was especially the case for laborers and poor farmers. Prudish Western visitors, used to Victorian morality, generally were greatly shocked by all this nudity and frequently wrote about it in their diaries and letters. Nineteenth-century English travel-writer Isabella Lucy Bird (1831-1904), who in 1887 (Meiji 20) travelled deep into Japan’s heartland, described in her book Unbeaten Tracks her surprise upon seeing the scarce clothing of the people: I write the truth as I see it, and if my accounts conflict with those of tourists who write of the Tokaido and Nakasendo, of Lake Biwa and Hakone, it does not follow that either is inaccurate. But truly this...
Read more