Waterways, Portages, and Commerce
For more than a century, Michigan’s economic life centered on the fur trade. French visitors including Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac marveled at the expanse and waterborne potential that the Great Lakes watershed had to offer. Observations of the Tribal communities and the environmental suitability for travel led to the expansion of the fur trade, an industry that became vital to both Indigenous dwellers and European newcomers. The basin watershed was interconnected by rivers and portages that connected the St. Lawrence Seaway to the Mississippi River. The main fur trade route ventured west from Montreal, beginning at a portage around the Lachine Rapids of the St. Lawrence River, and then up the Ottawa, to the Mattawa, across Lake Nipissing, and down the French River to Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay and across to the Mackinac Straits.
From the 17th to the 19th century, Michigan’s commerce relied on these maritime routes, which reached their peak with the American Fur Company. Europeans necessarily relied on Indigenous knowledge of the maritime geography to navigate the complicated waterways. Newcomers also adopted Indigenous birchbark canoes, which were described by fur trader Alexander Henry as “riding on the water with the ease of a sea-bird” (Henry, Travels, 33). A wide array of explorers, missionaries, fur traders, and imperial officials took careful note of travel in the Great Lakes. Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix wrote of his trip through the lakes in 1720: “if one always travelled, as I did then, with a clear Sky, and a charming climate, on a water as clear as the finest fountain...one would be tempted to travel all one’s life” (Charlevoix, 2: 2). From 1600-1763, traders in the Great Lakes were mostly French trading with the Ottawa, Huron, and Algonquian tribes; the trade itself centered around French-Canadian settlements near the St. Lawrence River. The introduction of the Hudson Bay Company further changed the dynamics of the trade. Because the rivers to the bay were efficient waterways, the English built forts along the coastline, bringing the focus away from French-Canada. The Great Lakes fur trade dominated the economy in the northwest for two centuries, even trickling into the 19th century.
The American Fur Company was founded in 1808 by John Jacob Astor (1763-1848). It eventually held a monopoly on fur trade throughout the Great Lakes, with the Company headquarters in Mackinac and a branch in Detroit, Michigan. Michilimackinac’s location was very advantageous for trade, positioned between three great lakes, “all three navigable for the largest boats” (Charlevoix, Letter 19). In constrast, the fort of Detroit was the focus of the 18th century fur trade. The dynamics of the fur trade changed as the British colonial enterprises crept into French territory and were split again in the War of 1812.
Michilimackinac, Mackinac Island, Detroit, and Sault Ste. Marie were important points of trade for the fur trade. The Soo acted as a crucial hub for trading posts that extended from the St. Lawrence Seaway throughout the Great Lakes and up into Canada where the Hudson Bay Co. traded. Michilimackinac and Mackinac Island were key stoppage points for exchange, and the port of Detroit controlled access to the upper Great Lakes from Ontario.
Here at the Clarke, as part of the Tom C. and Fred R. Trelfa Collection, we have a significant collection of manifests, bills of lading, clearance papers guaranteeing protection for vessels bound to and from Canada, documents certifying duties paid on entering goods, and other papers relating to commodities entering or departing from Michilimackinac. Many of the commodities listed in these documents, prior to 1812, were entered or shipped out on behalf of the American Fur Company through their various agents. Dating from 1838 to 1847, the American Fur Company papers provide detailed information on commerce, domestic and foreign markets, domestic manufacturers, transportation, and the problems encountered by American Fur Company agents in the field.
The fur trade under the American Fur Company (AFC) was persistent until the 1840s. The AFC Voyageur Contracts Database contains 32,414 contracts signed between 1700 and approx. 1822. John Jacob Astor hired hundreds of fur traders from 1817 to the 1830s. Contracts were usually for a three year period and often meant long journeys from one coast to the other. By this point, the AFC mostly operated out of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Michilimackinac served as headquarters with the fort of Detroit as another large stopping point. From 1829-1831, the American Fur Company harvested approximately 708,000 furs from the Far West and Great Lakes region; a decade later, the company harvested 589,000 furs from the Great Lakes region alone. The trade finally started to decline with the introduction of American agriculture, which, unlike native agriculture, did not work in tandem with the fur trade. As the fur trade gave way to settler colonial expansion in the 19th century, changing transportation technologies, new national borders, and new visions for the landscape of the Old Northwest and Upper Canada altered the reliance these newcomers had on older ecologies of movement.
The canoe manifests provide a window into the past, and examining them allows us to see what the average canoe carried from one trading post to another. In his Autobiography, Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard described the travels: "Our boats were heavily laden, and our progress...necessarily slow." By the 18th century, a typical day for fur traders consisted of 14 hours of paddling and carrying. Therefore, traders had to be conscious of their food intake and have enough foodstuff to make it through the journey. For example, Joseph LaPerche’s canoe, bound for Drummond Island, lists all goods being transported as well as “Articles of Entry and the necessary Baggage Provisions and Sea Stores for the voyage,” where Antoine Guilliroy’s canoe lists “Provisions.” Here you can see David Mitchell's canoe manifest and the entry of the merchandise into the fort at Michilimackinac from St. Joseph.
Michilimackinac, entry of goods
Edited collections of fur trader letters and autobiographies of fur traders dominated early 20th-century narratives of the fur trade. Early 20th-century accounts of the fur trade focused on the frontier and American westward expansion at the expense of their Indigenous partners in the trade. William Burnett's letter book centers on the period following the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 when the dynamic of the fur trade changed from British dominance to American dominance. Five Fur Traders of the Northwest includes documents from Alexander Henry, Peter Pond, and three other fur traders. These documents contain first-hand experiences of the practices, canoeing, and daily lives of those involved.
Fred Hamil's Sally Ainse, Fur Trader recounts the story of a trader who gained a large tract of land from the Chippewas. Hamil recounts her remarkable career as a Native woman and trader. Several accounts of Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, including his Autobiography and Incidents and Events, recount Hubbard's travels and companions. Hubbard was a fur trader for the AFC and often travelled and boarded with Native companions. Fur trader John Lowe's 1780 -1846 letters came to life at the Native American Studies Conference at Lake Superior State University, October 27-28, 1989 and were later published by Beverly Hayward Johnson. George Nelson's journals were brought to light by Laura Peers and Theresa Schenck in 2002 and contain observations on the Anishinaabe peoples of the Great Lakes.
In the last few decades, historians have sought to reevaluate the fur trade and its context within greater North American economic history. A cadre of scholars, including Susan Sleeper-Smith, have sought to place the fur trade within a transnational context and, more importantly, emphasize the central role that the Indigenous Tribal communities played in bridging the gap between newcomers and Natives for the fur trade to thrive. Sleeper-Smith has focused on Native and female agency in the fur trade. "Furs and Female Kin Networks: The World of Marie Madeleine Reaume L'archeveque Chevalier" illustrates Marie Madeline's life as the wife of two fur traders at Fort Joseph. Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounters in the Western Great Lakes provides a new perspective on the fur trade world that places more emphasis on kinship, the primary focus being the role that Native women played in the sociocultural changes in the fur trade.
For more information and resources on the fur trade, please visit the Clarke bibliography here.
