The Straits of Detroit

There is no other American city like Detroit. It is the only city created for the specific purpose of forming a multi-cultural destination with the intent of making French citizens out of Native Americans. It was designed to be a trading post-fort community where Indians would be assimilated into French culture. Other cities share its French heritage but they sprung up from the trading post forts established by the French explorers and military and lacked the specific intent of acculturating the Indians where they were. Cadillac invited many tribes to come together to live in peace and harmony with each other as well as the French. Not all Indian nations lived in "peace and harmony" with each other and they weren't all "one people". The Great Peace of Montreal set the stage for Cadillac to embrace the diverse tribes to come to le d彋roit where the French would ensure their peace and tranquility. That peace lasted from its foundation in 1701 as part of Nouvelle France, until the War of 1812. It endured through the transition to being part of the English empire in 1760, survived the Pontiac Uprising of 1763, continued through the Revolutionary War, and its transition into an American city in 1796.

This novel introduces the reader to the circumstances and key people who determined where Detroit was to be founded and why. Like most of the history of Nouvelle France, New France, this history has faded into obscurity but it is woven into the foundation of the city.

Meet Antoine Cadillac a man who would fit in with today's visionary promoters and developers. A man who crafted an image of himself and promoted it tirelessly. He knew and served King Louis XIV and his succesor, Louis XV. He made enemies but his friends at court helped him and he eventually earned the governorship he craved.

The story of French Detroit has it all, action, adventure, romance, sex and violence, treachery, honor and heroics, kings and commoners!