The Memoir of Lieutenant Dumont, 1715–1747: A Sojourner in the French Atlantic (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807837229 ISBN 13: 9780807837221

Publisher: Omohundro Institute and UNC Press, 2012

Synopsis

In 1719, Jean-Francois-Benjamin Dumont de Montigny, son of a Paris lawyer, set sail for Louisiana with a commission as a lieutenant after a year in Quebec. During his peregrinations over the next eighteen years, Dumont came to challenge corrupt officials, found himself in jail, eked out a living as a colonial subsistence farmer, survived life-threatening storms and epidemics, encountered pirates, witnessed the 1719 battle for Pensacola, described the 1729 Natchez Uprising, and gave account of the 1739-1740 French expedition against the Chickasaws.
Dumont's adventures, as recorded in his 1747 memoir conserved at the Newberry Library, underscore the complexity of the expanding French Atlantic world, offering a singular perspective on early colonialism in Louisiana. His life story also provides detailed descriptions and illustrations of the peoples and environment of the lower Mississippi valley. This English translation of the unabridged memoir features a new introduction, maps, and a biographical dictionary to enhance the text. Dumont emerges here as an important colonial voice and brings to vivid life the French Atlantic.

About this title

Book Description:

"Dodging death and success from La Rochelle to Biloxi and back, with some gardening in between, Dumont de Montigny survived to put quill to paper. His restless memoir, now briskly translated, offers a stereotype-shattering window onto eighteenth-century transatlantic life and writing."--Catherine Desbarats, McGill University

About the Author:

Gordon M. Sayre is professor of English and folklore at the University of Oregon and author of The Indian Chief as Tragic Hero: Native Resistance and the Literatures of America, from Moctezuma to Tecumseh.
Carla Zecher is director of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library and author of Sounding Objects: Musical Instruments, Poetry, and Art in Renaissance France.

About this edition

• Publisher: Omohundro Institute and UNC Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0807837229
• ISBN 13: 9780807837221
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 480
• Editor: Sayre Gordon M., Zecher Carla