Forging a Contextual Britishness: An Archaeologically Informed Social History of the Garrison of Fort de Chartres, 1765-1772

This thesis is an archaeologically informed social history of Fort de Chartres, 1765-1772. It analyzes documentary and archaeological sources to examine the nature of identity and seeks further to understand British impact and interactions with European and Indigenous communities. It represents an assessment of material culture, space, structure, and practice in the formation of communities of identity, but moves beyond artifactual analysis to incorporate the historical record and forces which impacted this garrison’s ability to perform identity. Evidence suggests that identity formation was less about Britishness and more about demonstrating status, class, or rank. It seeks to offer an understanding of the garrison as a community, with its martial nature impacted by space, structures, and available material goods.

This project integrates the archaeological collection with a rich, but ignored, documentary record. Fort de Chartres and colonial Illinois have been interpreted over the centuries as a French fort and French colony, with their assemblages as evidence of Frenchness. The British tenancy at the fort was temporally like the French garrison, with a similarly sized population, yet underemphasized historically.

Attempting to capture the stories of these British communities of identity allows for a necessary counterweight to the traditional Francocentric narrative of this area. This is necessary not merely to provide a more inclusive or holistic account, as interpretations are relative to modern discussions about identity and communities, where over-simplified origin stories, material culture, or cultural values need critical assessment and challenged with more pluralistic perspectives. It will examine the context of this ephemeral period which encompasses an important phase in American history, as Illinois transitions between French and British colony, to its rapid positioning as ‘American’ by 1776.