The history of Vincennes is an integral part of the history of the Northwest Territory. This old town is strategically situated on the Wabash River on the boundary between Indiana and Illinois. In the early eighteenth century the Wabash was one of the main routes used by the French in their trade between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The French established a post there about 1710, and held the area until 1763 when they ceded it, along with all of Canada, to the British as part of their peace treaty of that year. It remained under British control until the American Revolution when it was captured for Virginia by George Rogers Clark, and subsequently became part of the Northwest Territory under the administration of the United States. This history consists of two main parts: the first third of the volume is an historical address delivered by Judge Law before the Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society on February 22, 1839, while the remainder of the book is a series of later additions. The book includes: an account of Father Gibault, the Parish Priest of Vincennes who assisted George Rogers Clark in capturing the town; material on the imprisonment and later career of the British General Henry Hamilton who surrendered to Clark, and whose troops were held prisoner near Charlottesville, Virginia; a biographical sketch of Shawnee Chief Tecumseh; an essay on the disposition, settlement and allotment of public lands in "Old Vincennes Land District" by the French, English, and American governments, and more. The addition of a full-name index adds to the value of this work.
Judge John Law
(1858, 1989), 2015, 5.5" x 8.5", paper, index, 170 pp.
ISBN: 9781556131998
101-L3199
