The first history of Indian slavery in the Mississippi Valley during the colonial era

Based almost entirely on original source documents from the United States, France, and Spain, Carl J. Ekberg's Stealing Indian Women is the first history of Indian slavery in the Mississippi Valley during the colonial era. A premier authority on the Illinois Country during the French and Spanish colonial period, Ekberg draws on extensive knowledge of European explorers and settlers in the region. Weaving together accounts of Native slavery, grand larceny, métissage, kidnapping, and possible murder, Stealing Indian Women is an essential volume for those interested in the history of American Indians, the American West, slavery, race relations, and frontier women.

Ekberg provides a novel overview of Indian slavery in the Mississippi Valley and explains how the Missouri River slave trade developed and how French and Spanish civil and religious authorities reacted to it. In focusing on towns in the Illinois Country such as Kaskaskia, St. Louis, and Ste. Genevieve, Ekberg describes the day-to-day lives of Indian slaves and their masters. His detailed study of a fascinating and convoluted criminal case involving various slave women and a métis (mixed-blood) woodsman named Céladon illuminates race and gender relations, Creole culture, French and Spanish colonial law, and the lives of Indian slaves--particularly women--in ways never before possible.

"Stealing Indian Women is a fascinating examination. . . . A demonstration of Ekberg's absolutely tenacious research and mastery of sources on Illinois Country. . . . Ekberg's contribution will be definitive for some time."--H-France Reviews

"Stealing Indian Women rounds out an emerging picture of the native slave trade in colonial America, and Ekberg's portrayal of the colonists' Illinois country is colorful and informative."--Journal of American History

“Stealing Indian Women possesses all the qualities that have become synonymous with Ekberg’s work: groundbreaking and meticulous research, engaging prose, and a unique ability to capture a sense of place and time. His richly textured account reveals practices at odds with long-held suppositions about Indian slavery in the Illinois country and, most important of all, he succeeds in attaching human faces to an institution that has been little noticed and even less understood.”--William E. Foley, author of Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark

"Stealing Indian Women provides valuable insights into Native American slavery, which has been generally ignored in the history of the upper Mississippi Valley. An intriguing case study of the particular circumstances surrounding the theft of a Native American slave woman from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, in 1773-74 helps to 'humanize' the role of slaves in this region and provides a concrete example of how slavery impacted the lives of the people it embraced."--R. David Edmunds, coauthor of The People: A History of Native America

"What is most compelling about Stealing Indian Women is its thick description, behind which lays a mastery of archival sources on the Illinois Country unmatched by any other scholar. Stealing Indian Women is the culmination of Ekberg's immersion of several decades in these sources; anyone wishing to learn about the French in North America will read this book, and Ekberg's earlier works on the Illinois Country, for years to come."--Susan E. Gray, coeditor of Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies

Carl J. Ekberg is professor emeritus of history at Illinois State University. He is the author of many books, including the award-winning Colonial Ste. Genevieve and French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times.

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Subjects:
History, Am.: Colonial / Native American Studies / American Cultural History / Cultural Studies / Eighteenth-Century Studies / Western Americana / Illinois / Women's Studies

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