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Carl J. Ekberg

Born: 1938 in St Paul, Minnesota
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: Ekberg is a professor emeritus at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois.

Biography: Carl J. Ekberg is a professor emeritus at Illinois State University and an expert onthe French in colonial Illinois. He is the author of many books, including the award-winning ''Colonial Ste. Genevieve and French Roots in the Illinois Country: The Mississippi Frontier in Colonial Times''. He has also edited [http://www.amazon.com/Account-Upper-Louisiana-Nicolas-Fineils/dp/0826207022/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420566348&sr=1-12 ''An Account of Upper Louisiana''] and [http://www.amazon.com/Early-modern-Europe-source-readings/dp/B000HDCC88/ref=sr_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420566728&sr=1-14 ''Early Modern Europe: A Book of Source Readings''].


Awards:
  • Francois Vallé and His World: Upper Louisiana before Lewis and Clark Winner of the Kemper & Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History for excellence in historical scholarship for the year 2002, awarded by The Historic New Orleans Collection, The Louisiana Historical Association.

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

E-Mail: cekberg@IllinoisState.edu


Selected Titles

A French aristocrat in the American West :
ISBN: 9780826272270 OCLC: 778695441

University of Missouri Press, Columbia ; ©2010.

Biography of Frenchman who escaped the French Revolution, came to America, and founded the town of New Bourbon, leaving behind extensive commentaries on the Missouri frontier at the close of the colonial era.

Colonial Ste. Genevieve :
ISBN: 1880397145 OCLC: 34117543

Patrice Press, Tucson, Ariz. : ©1996.

Dr. Ekberg’s masterwork on the old French town south of St. Louis brings into sharp focus life in colonial America.

Dawn's Light Woman & Nicolas Franchomme: Marriage and Law in the Illinois Country (Shawnee Books)
ISBN: 0809338866 OCLC:

Southern Illinois University Press 2022

Native women’s marital rights and roles in colonial Illinois societyKaskaskia, Illinois, once the state’s capital, torn from the state by flood waters, and now largely forgotten, was once the home to a couple who helped transform the region in the 1720s from a frontier village to a civil society. In the heart of France’s North American empire, the village was a community of French-Canadian fur traders and Kaskaskia Indians who not only lived together but often intermarried. These Indigenous and French intermarriages were central to colonial Illinois society, and the coupling of Marguerite 8assecam8c8e (Dawn’s Light Woman) and Nicolas Franchomme, in particular, was critical to expanding the jurisdiction of French law. While the story of Marguerite and Nicolas is unknown today, it is the story of how French customary law (Coutume de Paris) governed colonial marriage, how mixed Indian-French marriages stood at the very core of early colonial Illinois society, and how Illinois Indian women benefited, socially and legally, from being married to French men. All of this came about due to a lawsuit in which Nicolas successfully argued that his wife had legal claim to her first husband’s estate—a legal decision that created a precedent for society in the Illinois Country. Within this narrative of a married couple and their legal fight—based on original French manuscripts and supported by the comprehensively annotated 1726 Illinois census—is also the story of the village of Kaskaskia during the 1720s, of the war between Fox Indians and French settlers, with their Indian allies, in Illinois, and of how the spread of plow agriculture dramatically transformed the Illinois Country’s economy from largely fur trade–based to expansively agricultural.

Failure of louis xiv's dutch war.
ISBN: 0807896578 OCLC: 796931689

The University Of North C, [Place of publication not identified] : 2011.

Begun as a royal adventure to enhance the glory of the king, the Dutch War sparked serious debate within the French government over the relationship of the ruler to the state. Ekberg focuses on one significant year of the war and explains how, despite opposition by several counselors, the king escalated the original conflict into a full European war and wrought a dramatic shift in French policy. The study is arranged thematically to bring clarity to a period of complex issues.Originally published in 1979.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

François Vallé and his world :
ISBN: 0826214185 OCLC: 56424875

University of Missouri Press, Columbia, MO : ©2002.

In François Vallé and His World, Carl Ekberg provides a fascinating biography of François Vallé (1716–1783), placing him within the context of his place and time. Vallé, who was born in Beauport, Canada, immigrated to Upper Louisiana (the Illinois Country) as a penniless common laborer sometime during the early 1740s. Engaged in agriculture, lead mining, and the Indian trade, he ultimately became the wealthiest and most powerful individual in Upper Louisiana, although he never learned to read or write. Ekberg focuses on Upper Louisiana in colonial times, long before Lewis and Clark arrived in the Mississippi River valley and before American sovereignty had reached the eastern bank of the Mississippi. He vividly captures the ambience of life in the eighteenth-century frontier agricultural society that Vallé inhabited, shedding new light on the French and Spanish colonial regimes in Louisiana and on the Mississippi River frontier before the Americans arrived. Based entirely on primary source documents—wills and testaments, parish registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials, and Spanish administrative correspondence—found in archives ranging from St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve to New Orleans and Seville, François Vallé and His World traces not only the life of François Vallé and the lives of his immediate family members, but also the lives of his slaves. In doing so, it provides a portrait of Missouri’s very first black families, something that has never before been attempted. Ekberg also analyzes how the illiterate Vallé became the richest person in all of Upper Louisiana, and how he rose in the sociopolitical hierarchy to become an important servant of the Spanish monarchy. François Vallé and His World provides a useful corrective to the fallacious notion that Missouri’s history began with the arrival of Lewis and Clark at the turn of the nineteenth century. Anyone with an interest in colonial history or the history of the Mississippi River valley will find this book of great value.

French roots in the Illinois country :
ISBN: 0252069242 OCLC: 47038509

University of Illinois Press, Urbana : ©2000.

French Roots in the Illinois Country creates an entirely new picture of teh Illinois country as a single ethnic, economic, and cultural entity. Focusing on the French Creole communities along the Mississippi River, Carl J. Ekberg shows how land use practices such as medieval-style open-field agriculture intersected with economic and social issues ranging from the flour trade between Illinois and New Orleans to the significance of the different mentalities of French Creoles and Anglo-Americans.

Louis Bolduc :
ISBN: 1880397463 OCLC: 49564885

Patrice Press, Tucson, Ariz. : 2002.

Louis Bolduc was born in about 1648 in Paris. His parents were Pierre Bolduc and Gillette Pijart. He arrived in Québec in 1665. He married Elizabeth Hubert 20 August 1668. They had seven children. Their great-grandson, Louis, son of Zacharie and grandson of René, was born in about 1739 in Canada. He married Agathe Govreau 28 January 1765 in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. They had four children. He married Marie Courtois in 1775 and they had two sons. Louis died 4 March 1814.

St. Louis rising :
ISBN: 9780252096938 OCLC: 903245911

A myth-busting history focusing on Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, the forgotten figure who guided a great American city through its infancy.

Stealing Indian women :
ISBN: 025203208X OCLC: 141851847

University of Illinois Press, Urbana : ©2007.

The first history of Indian slavery in the Mississippi Valley during the colonial era. Based almost entirely on original source documents from the United States, France, and Spain, Carl J. Ekberg's

  The legacy :
ISBN: 0962558508 OCLC: 28120532

[Town of Normal], [Normal, IL] : [©1990]

 

 

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