Upon their arrival, many were married off to local soldiers who had returned from war, and they set about making lives for themselves and their new husbands. During their passage, which included forced dwelling in dangerous cargo holds, some women became lifelong friends. What transpired after they landed ashore, however, is a clear demonstration of the beauty and power of the feminine spirit, and DeJean chronicles their experiences in well-written, often gripping prose. “French authorities,” writes the author, “set no ground rules no one considered the exact terms on which female detainees were to be shipped off ‘to the colonies’ or even what the authorities should call the process they were establishing.” Only 62 survived the voyage.
Together with a craven warden from the women’s prison, Law sealed the fate of these young, often illiterate women without their input.
Oppressed by a system that detested the impoverished, they became victims of slave ship owner John Law, who saw them as an opportunity to fill a need for 6,000 French settlers to work in the Colonies. Records show that many of the women were charged with prostitution, but in reality, many could not defend themselves or even understand the accusations against them. Inside were more than 130 sickly women, ravaged human cargo destined for the Colonies as punishment for alleged crimes. In 1719, a ship called La Mutine set sail from France and docked in New France, what is now Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In her latest work, DeJean, author of How Paris Became Paris and many other works of history, unearths the story of the unlikely women who became the Gulf Coast’s founding mothers. A welcome retelling of a forgotten segment of American history.
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