The daring trader : Jacob Smith in the Michigan Territory, 1802-1825 / Kim Crawford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crawford, Kim, 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Smith, Jacob, 1773-1825.

Smith, Jacob.

Pioneers--Michigan--Biography.

Pioneers.

Fur traders--Michigan--Biography.

Fur traders.

Indian agents--Michigan--Biography.

Indian agents.

Frontier and pioneer life--Michigan.

Frontier and pioneer life.

Indians of North America.

History.

Michigan.

Indians of North America--Michigan--History--19th century.

Flint Region (Mich.)--History--19th century.

Flint Region (Mich.).

Michigan Territory--History.

Michigan Territory.

United States--Michigan Territory.

Michigan--History--War of 1812.

Michigan--Biography.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 305 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, [2012]

Summary:

A fur trader in the Michigan Territory and confidant of both the U.S. government and local Indian tribes, Jacob Smith could have stepped out of a James Fennimore Cooper novel. Controversial, mysterious, and bold during his lifetime, in death Smith has not, until now, received the attention he deserves as a pivotal figure in Michigan's American period and the War of 1812. This is the exciting and unlikely story of a man at the frontier's edge, whose missions during both war and peace laid the groundwork for Michigan to accommodate settlers and farmers moving west. The book investigates Smith's many pursuits, including his role as an advisor to the Indians, from whom the federal government would gradually gain millions of acres of land, due in large part to Smith's work as an agent of influence. Crawford paints a colorful portrait of a complicated man during a dynamic period of change in Michigan's history. Book jacket.

Contents:

Witness to Murder : Saginaw, 1802

The Saginaw Trail

Trouble in Detroit

War Clouds

War in the Michigan Territory

The Arrest of Jacob Smith

I Pray You Inform Me ... : The Character of Jacob Smith

Abduction to Saginaw

The Return of the Boyer Children

Jacob Smith versus Louis Campau, 1815

Peace

Conclude a Treaty for the Country upon the Saginac Bay

The Treaty Councils Begin

He Was Smart as Steel

Mounting Trouble, Mounting Debt

U.S. vs. Jacob Smith

He Was Dissipated and Bad in His Habits

It Is the Last Stir of the Dying Wind

No One Was More Anxious to Secure Advantage Than Smith

The White Man Takes Away What He Bought of the Indians.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781611860269

1611860261

OCLC:

751922117