During the 17th century the kingdom of France decided that it wanted to expand its territory into the new world (North America) in order to keep up with the expansion of its western European neighbors such as England and Spain. France entered the fray in the north and settled its strongest North American communities which remain today in the Canadian Province of Québec. The French kingdom named this new territory, unsurprisingly, “La Nouvelle France” or, “New France”. Once settlers had made the north their home they began to venture southwest, down by the great lakes and through the heartland of modern day USA all the way down to the Mississippi delta. They would go on to claim these territories as “Haute Louisiane” and “Basse Louisiane” named after the King of France, Louis XIV. France would hold a less than firm grip on these territories in the following years and did everything they could to maintain a population that could control the newly acquired lands.
My presentation is a creative writing piece that documents the fictional journey of an indentured servant from Paris to the Mississippi delta where he is forced to live, work, and populate settlements for the King of France. My story explores many of the harsh conditions that many of these settlers were exposed to, as well as the main characters desperate bids to reunite with his lost sister. Through my story I hope to demonstrate the less than trivial beginnings that became the roots of more than one distinct culture in our country today.