DE SABLE, JEAN

DE SABLE, JEAN Considered by some as being the "founder" of Chicago, Illinois, Jean Baptiste Pointe De Sable (1745-1818) established a trading post near Lake Michigan on the Des Plaines River in the period immediately preceding the American Rev­olution. A native of Haiti, De Sable's trading-post became the nucleus around which a small settlement of Indians and white traders began to grow and prosper. He ultimately sold his hold­ings to Jean Lalime in 1800 and moved to Missouri. His role in "founding" Chicago, rarely mentioned by historians, is clearly evidenced by the Indian saying that "the first white man who settled here [Chicago] was a Negro."