Colonial Ste. Genevieve: An Adventure on the Mississippi Frontier

Dr. Ekberg's masterwork on the old French town south of St. Louis brings into sharp focus life in colonial America. "Ekberg has rendered a rich portrait of community life on the most fascinating of American frontiers, the composite world of French Creoles and American Indians in the Mississippi Valley. This is an important book and a good read to boot." That's how Yale University's John Mack Faragher praised this book.

Customer Reviews:

A Peak into French Colonial Life

By James Gallen - August 27, 2000

Colonial Ste. Genevieve provides an excellent view of Eighteenth Century life in Ste. Genevieve, in particular and in French North-America in general. Founded in the early 1750s, not 1735 as popular history records, the story of Ste. Genevieve provides a view into the changing life in the Mississippi Valley as French gave way to Spanish colonialism and American ways took over, first at the governmental level and, gradually socially as the population changed from being primarily French to Anglo-American. The story of Ste. Genevieve mirrors the story of other French settlements in the area, such as Cahokia, Kaskaskia and St. Louis.From his role as a European history professor, Carl Eckberg relates events in Ste. Genevieve to developments in Europe which affected the town.His book is divided into various topics, such as relationships between settlers and Indians, the role of slavery in the community, the economy based in agriculture and lead mining, health care, town... read more

Ekberg captures flavor of Colonial Ste. Genevieve

By Mark Evans - July 25, 2000

Many have written about Ste. Genevieve, MO, the oldest permanent European settlement in what once was the Upper Louisiana Territory. No one has created a more insightful or more scholarly look at 18th century life in the small Mississippi River town, however, than Carl J. Ekberg has done in his Colonial Ste. Genevieve.Ekberg uses his expertise in 17th and 18th century European politics to connect the villagers of Ste. Genevieve with the larger world around them. He examines the daily lives of the hardy French Creole (that is, those born in North America, of French ancestry) settlers, probing family, business, religious and slave/master relationships, as well as the settlers' means of making a living and defending themselves from Indian or Anglo attack or from the dangerous Mississippi. The mighty river forced the inhabitants to relocate two miles uphill from the original townsite, late in the 18th century.Ekberg is best known in Missouri for debunking a number of old... read more