Who was Marie Rouensa?
Marie Rouensa, daughter of Rouensa, chief of
the Kaskaskia, was an important, even famous woman in the
village of Kaskaskia. She was converted to Christianity as a
young woman. Her faith nearly prevented her first marriage to
Michel Accault. As Father Jacques Gravier related in his
mission journal of February 15, 1694:
"Many struggles were needed before she could be induced to
consent to the marriage, for she had resolved never to marry,
in order that she might belong wholly to Jesus Christ. She
answered her father and mother, when they brought her to me
in company with the Frenchman whom they wished to have for a
son-in-law, that she did not wish to marry; that she had
already given all her heart to God, and did not wish to share
it. Such were her very words, which had never yet been heard
in this barbarism."
- As quoted by Natalia Belting, Kaskaskia Under the
French Regime, New Orleans: Polyanthos, 1975:14.
Chief Rouensa threw Marie out of his home
in a terrible rage for he had offered his daughter to Accault
to forge an alliance between his tribe and the French. Marie
agreed to marry Accault as a sign of her love for God. Michel
Accault and Marie had two sons, Pierre and Michel. The fate
of Accault is unknown; but in 1703, Marie married Michel
Philippe with whom she had six more children. In 1725,
Marie's eight children ranged in age from 4 years old to 28
years old.
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© Illinois State
Museum 31-Dec-96