Colonialism, Consumption, and Control: The Illinois Country Liquor Trade, 1750-1803

View/ Open
Date
2017-08-18Author
Derksen, Samuel D 1992-
Type
ThesisDegree Level
MastersMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The liquor trade has been a popular topic of study for many historians examining colonial North America. Due to the detrimental impact alcohol had on Indigenous societies, this historiography has focused on the relationship between Indigenous drinking, cultural degradation, and demographic destitution, which contributed to the establishment of European hegemony in North America. Breaking away from this Euro-centric narrative, this thesis uses liquor as an analytical lens to re-evaluate how colonial society functioned on the ground over the Illinois Country’s successive French, Spanish, British, and American regimes between 1750 and 1803. This examination of the liquor trade reveals that despite colonial discourses of superiority, colonial authority was restricted in the Illinois Country. Colonized Indigenous and French Creole inhabitants retained the power to shape the Illinois Country’s organization and development over the region’s four colonial regimes.
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)Department
HistoryProgram
HistorySupervisor
Englebert, RobertCommittee
Westman, Clinton; Smith-Norris, Martha; Labelle, Maurice Jr. M.; Neufeld, MatthewCopyright Date
October 2017Subject
liquor
liquor trade
Illinois Country
Native-Newcomer Relations