1729: The True Story Of Pierre & Marie Mayeux, The Natchez Massacre, And The Settlement Of French Louisiana

by Kenneth N. Myers

Put yourself in their shoes. In 1720 France was just coming out of a long war that had left the nation on the edge of bankruptcy. People were starving to death and plagues were sweeping the country. The rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. Pierre & Marie Mayeux were newlyweds who left behind everything in order to build a new life in French Louisiana. Little did they know the difficult and terrifying path that lay before them. 1729 is their story, and the story of hundreds like them who came to a new world with new hope, only to have it dashed and broken time after time. This is the tale of their journey across the Atlantic, enduring a year in plague-ridden Biloxi, making their way 600 miles up the Mississippi River, surviving one of the worst massacres in American history, living in the newly founded swamp village of New Orleans, and finally raising a family in South Louisiana. Today there are a million living descendants of Pierre and Marie Mayeux. But there almost were none.

338 pages, Paperback

Published March 28, 2017

Reviews

[Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of the history of French and Native American's in the Southern part of the United States up and down the Mississippi river. My Daughter just did a trip too New Orleans and it got me interested in it's history, which I realized I was very ignorant of. So I found this book on Amazon unlimited and checked it out, a very good family biography of early french settlers and the hardships they underwent the attitudes they brought to America especially the economics of plantation slavery which as the book points out was also part of a system that the native tribes at the time used. Although this book had a few problems as well, I mentioned slavery but the book didn't go very deeply into that subject, it talked a great deal about the Natchez Massacre of 1729 then did not go much beyond that. Since the title is 1729 I guess the scope of the book wasn't to project out from that incident but just to illuminate it in greater detail which it did. Since I read a lot of books about native culture and history I really enjoyed this and the inclusion of original first person accounts especially Letter from the Jesuit Priest report on the massacre to his church superiors. (Although it did repeat much of what was described in the prior chapters.) So it went from kind of a family story to a kind of history textbook story either way it's a good story. 1670's to the 1730's seems like the last opportunity the Native Americans really had for stopping European encroachment, only in the Southwest against the Spanish with the Pueblo revolt of 1670 were they successful, The Natchez won the battle but lost the war due to poor follow-up and lack of coordination with other tribes. A tribal society has built in problems with organizations especially with cooperation with other nearby tribes. If the Choctaw would have joined the Natchez the french would have been defeated, same situation in King's Philip war in New England it wasn't the European that won these wars it was the native tribes that lost them.

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Pierre and Marie Mayeux are my 8th great-grandparents. I found their story fascinating and inspiring.

[Bob Ayres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book! I hope someone in Hollywood picks it up and produces the series. Very well written.

[Dave Cottrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

For lovers of history, especially, this is a very interesting book. Very little is known about the events in this book. It is especially interesting to read the letter written by a French officer at the time, that lays out the events as he witnessed them. Gripping and exciting!

[Joey K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because of my ancestry. I was surprised about how good this book was. It’s a story of European settlers coming to America and the American Indians. True story of interesting history.