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Jean Baptist Point DuSable1745 - 1818
Jean Baptist Point DuSable was a black American pioneer, and he was the first non-Indian resident known to build a house and start a trading post on the land that became Chicago.
DuSable's father was a merchant, and his mother was Haitian. DuSable left Haiti in the 1770's to go to North America, specifically the Great Lakes. In 1773, he had a farm near Peoria. He was so loyal to the Americans that once he moved there, he was arrested by the British in 1779, and spent the next few years as a prisoner in Fort Mackinac.
Very little is known about the Chicagoland area from 1770 to 1779. Somehow, during that time, DuSable managed to keep a British trading post call the Pinery on St. Clair River, now called Michigan. That was the first permanant building in that area. He became rich.
After that, DuSable went to what is now Chicago, at the mouth of the Chicago River, on the shores of Lake Michigan, called Fort Dearborn. He was the first non-Native American resident of that area. He married a Potowatomie Native American named Kittahawa, also called Catherine. DuSable had the first marriage, and also held the very first election. He traded fur and grain, and called the place he was living in the essential trading place.
Later, he moved to Missouri. On August 28, 1818, DuSable died in St. Charles, Missouri. The name of Fort Dearborn was changed to Chicago in 1830.
Some people say that Jean Baptist Point DuSable started African-American history in Chicago.