Étienne Perier (governor)
Etienne de Perier | |
|---|---|
 Portrait by unknown artist | |
| 5th French Governor of Louisiana | |
| Monarch | Louis XV |
| Preceded by | Pierre Dugué de Boisbriand |
| Succeeded by | Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Étienne Perier 1687 Dunkerque, France |
| Died | April 1, 1766 (aged 78–79) |
| Spouse | Catherine Le Chibelier |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  Kingdom of France |
| Branch/service | French Navy |
| Years of service | 1702–1765 |
| Rank | Lieutenant general of the French Navy army |
| Battles/wars | War of the Spanish Succession Natchez Revolt Seven Years' War |
| Awards | Order of Saint Louis Grand Croix |
Étienne de Perier (1687-1766) was a French Navy officer. From 1726 to 1733 he was governor of the French Louisiana where he tried to control the Indians with fear: Among the horrors recorded, he burned alive at the stake Natchez men and women.[1][2][3] Perier decided the complete destruction of the Natchez people and sold his prisoners as slaves, even 450 women and children[4] Most of the Indians became hostile to the French due to Perier’s cruelty to the Indians[5] Because of Perier's failure to secure the safety of the French colony, he was recalled to France and in March 1733 former governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville was sent back to remplace him.[1]
From 1738 to 1765 Perier pursued his career as navy officer. He was appointed lieutenant-general of the French Navy Army in 1757.
Family
Born in 1687 in Dunkirk (France) under the name "Perier" he was a son of Etienne Perier and Marie de Launay.[6] His father was a commoner shipowner and merchant.[7] and captain of the Port of Dunkirk[8]
He was ennobled with his father and his brother in October 1726[9]
Military service
He joined the royal French Navy in 1702.
At the service of the Company of the Indies
In 1720, Perier entered service in the Company of the Indies.
Governor of the French Louisiana (1726-1733)
In August, 1726, Perier was appointed commandant general (governor) of the French Louisiana[10]
The Compagny to secure Perier’s co-operation in its interests, granted him above his regular salary a concession of ten acres of land and a donation of eight Black slaves a year.[11]
Perier did not dealt with the Indians and treat them as equals as did the former governor Bienville and he refused to recognize the Indians' rights on their tribal lands.[12]
His arrival as new governor, soon caused new tension in the colony. Perier entered into a partnership with Chepart, the tyrannical commandant of Fort Rosalie. Together they planned to acquire and operate a large plantation carved from the rich lands still held by the Natchez[13] The company wrote him : "The plantation you were bent on developing as soon as you arrived in Louisiana, has taken so much of your time that it has prevented you from watching more closely over things infinitely more important"[13]
In his news police to improve the city of New Orleans, he decided corporal punishment on "girls who lead a bad life, and expulsion of "those who lead a scandalous life. People were hanged and broken on the wheel for the slightest theft without appeal[1]
Perier tried to control the Indians with fear. He armed a group of Black slaves and sent them against a small group of peaceful Chouacas Indians who lived near New Orleans.[1]
As a result of Perier's cruel logic using blacks slaves to murder Indians in order to make bad blood between the races, the Indians retaliated by using blacks to murder white men.[14]
Among the recorded horror acts committed by Governor Perier, he burned at the stake four men and two women of the Natchez captured by the French soldiers.[1]
Perier said: "Since their flight, I have had fifty of them killed or taken prisoners. I buried here six of them, four men and two women"[2]
It wasn’t the last time Perier burned Natchez prisoners alive. Soon after, a poor Natchez woman was captured and governor Perier had her burned to death on a high platform erected especially for the ceremony, and to witness which all New Orleans again turned out in state[3]
After Chepart probably in collusion with Perier[13] announced the Natchez the complete removal of the tribe from their land in the near future, on November 28, 1729 the Natchez led by Indian chief the Great Sun, attacked and destroyed the entire French settlement of Fort Rosalie killing between 229 and 285 colonists and taking about 450 women and children captive.[13]
As news of the massacre, Perier received much of the blame.[15]
Afer the Natchez revolt, Perier decided that the complete destruction of the Natchez people was indispensable to the prosperity and safety of the colony. He secured the neutrality with the Choctaws and engaged in the prosecution of the war of extermination against the Natchez.[16]
on January 21, 1731, Perier with the troops of the Colony and two battalions of marines commanded by his brother Salverte, attacked the stronghold of the Natchez.
On the 24th, the Natchez made propositions of peace and sone chiefs met Perier who proposed them to enter into a cabin which seemed to be deserted, but as soon as they crossed its threshold, they were made prisoners. On January 25, 45 men, and 450 women and children surrendered and were taken as prisoners but the rest of the Natchez and their chiefs escaped in the night. The next morning, only two sick men and one woman were found in the fort. Perier burned the fort and on On the 28th, the French began their retrograde march.[4]
Perier in his in his account of the facts skiped over the manner in which he made the Indian chiefs prisoners. He, no doubt, felt that it was a shameful breach of faith, the mention of which would make him blush, and provoke indignation. However, he was a man of no half-way measures, and at least not over-scrupulous in his dealings with the Indians. As soon as he reached New Orleans, he sent the chiefs Great Sun, the Little Sun, the forty-five other male prisoners and the 450 women and children to Santo Domingo, where they were sold as slaves.[4]
For some, it would seem that Périer might have played a better game with the Natchez, and have induced them to emigrate far beyond the French settlements, as a condition of his restoring to them their sovereign, their women and children. It is likely that these would have been considerations sufficiently powerful, to make them subscribe to all the conditions which would have been deemed necessary to secure the future tranquillity of the colony.[17]
Beauchamp, who commanded at Mobile wrote to the minister complaining that Perier was only burning the Indians and sending them to be sold as slaves. He pointed out Perier’s political errors with the Indians and indicated that there were three times as many Indian chiefs as when Bienville left.[18] Giving the disgusting facts of the condition of the colony, the insurrection of the negroe, Perier's barbarous punishment of them, and his cruel reprisals against the savages he concluded: "The evil is now beyond remedy, unless M. de Bienville could return."[19] Therefore, Perier was in disfavor at Versailles for his handling of the Natchez War and already Maurepas had selected his friend and former Louisiana governor , Bienville, to replace Perier[20]
Most of the Indians became hostile to the French due to Perier’s cruelty to the Indians.[5] Perier’s failure to secure the safety of the Colony was so severely criticized that he was recalled to France and in March 1733 former governor Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville was sent back to the colony again.[1][21]
In 1737, Perier moved to Brest with his family.
From 1738 to 1765 Perier pursued a career as naval officer and was appointed lieutenant-general of the French Navy Army in 1757.
He died on April, 1 1766.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Lyle Saxon Fabulous New Orleans, Pelican Publishing Company, 31 janv. 1989.
- ^ a b Horatio Bardwell Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, Headlight printing house, 1899, p. 547.
- ^ a b Horatio Bardwell Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, Headlight printing house, 1899, p. 548.
- ^ a b c Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana: The French Domination, Volume 1, Redfield, 1854, pp. 447-448.
- ^ a b Manie Culbertson, Louisiana: The Land and Its People, Pelican Publishing, p. 98.
- ^ Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux, 1994.
- ^ Les flottes des Compagnies des Indes, 1996, p. 89.
- ^ Khalil Saadani, La Louisiane française dans l'impasse, Harmattan, 2008, p.32.
- ^ Intermédiaire des chercheurs et curieux,1994.
- ^ Patricia Dillon Woods, French-Indian Relations on the Southern Frontier, 1699-1762, UMI Research Press, 1980, p. 87.
- ^ Charles Gayarré, Grace Elizabeth King, History of Louisiana: The French domination, F. F. Hansell & Bro., Limited, 1903, p. 372.
- ^ Walter Greaves Cowan, Jack B. Mcguire, Louisiana Governors: Rulers, Rascals, and Reformers, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2010, p. 26.
- ^ a b c d D. Clayton James, Antebellum Natchez, LSU Press, 1993, p. 10.
- ^ Carter Godwin Woodson, Rayford Whittingham Logan, The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, 1916, p. 370.
- ^ James F. Barnett Jr., The Natchez Indians, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1 nov. 2007, p. 126.
- ^ Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana: The French Domination, Volume 1, Redfield, 1854, p. 442.
- ^ Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana: The French Domination, Volume 1, Redfield, 1854, p. 448.
- ^ Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana: The French Domination, Volume 1, Redfield, 1854, p. 450.
- ^ Grace Elizabeth King, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Dodd, Mead, 1892, p. 287.
- ^ Louisiana History, Louisiana Historical Association, 1995, p. 40.
- ^ Joseph G. Dawson III, The Louisiana Governors, LSU Press, 1990, p. 26.
Sources
- Gayarré, Charles (1854). History of Louisiana: The French Domination. Redfield.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
Further reading
- Joseph G. Dawson III, The Louisiana Governors, LSU Press, 1990.;
- Walter Greaves Cowan, Jack B. Mcguire, Louisiana Governors: Rulers, Rascals, and Reformers, Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2010.;
- D. Clayton James, Antebellum Natchez, LSU Press, 1993.;
- Lyle Saxon Fabulous New Orleans, Pelican Publishing Company, 31 janv. 1989.;
- Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana: The French Domination, Volume 1, Redfield, 1854.;
- Horatio Bardwell Cushman, History of the Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, Headlight printing house, 1899.;
- Davis, Edwin Adams. Louisiana the Pelican State. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1961. LCCN 59:9088.
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