Chiefs and Commandants: Fort Tombecbé and "the Glory of France" in the Mid-Eighteenth-Century Gulf South

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 1736, the colonial governor la Louisiane ordered construction of an outpost on the central Tombigbee River in present-day Alabama, U.S.A. Fort Tombecbé was part of the larger French effort to secure claims to the lower Mississippi Valley and the northern Gulf of Mexico against British and Spanish encroachment. Over the course of the eighteenth century, all three European powers eventually occupied the fort, but the French presence lasted nearly thirty years and included several historically significant assemblies of Choctaw, Creek, and European leaders. Belying its importance as a diplomatic post, archaeology at Tombecbé reveals that the French marines stationed there endured stark frontier conditions of hunger, isolation, and political insecurity. Fort life centered on maintaining positive relationships with the Choctaws, in whose eastern homeland the fort was established. Artifacts recovered from the fort’s palisade wall, barracks, and bake house expose strong French dependency on Choctaw goods, food, and friendship.   

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow