Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable Establishes Chicago Settlement

Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, a Haitian-born man of African descent, built a prosperous trading settlement at the mouth of the Chicago River on Lake Michigan — the first permanent non-Indigenous settlement at the site of present-day Chicago. His substantial homestead included a house, bakehouse, poultry house, stable, mill, and dairy, making him a significant figure in early American frontier commerce.