WEBVTT - Pompey and the Prince 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:05.080 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:13.640 and Mild from Aaron Manky listener discretion advised. Duke Friedrich 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:18.040 Paul Wilhelm of Wurttemberg was a collector. He was a 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.920 man who would eventually fill his palace, located one hundred 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:27.080 kilometers outside Stuttgart, with countless artifacts from around the world, 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:32.720 skins from animals killed in Africa, knives from Native American tribes, 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:37.519 art and natural wonders from Australia. His palace would be 0:00:37.560 --> 0:00:41.240 the largest private collection at the time of natural history 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:46.640 in Germany, possibly even in Europe. But as a younger man, 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:51.680 Duke Paul was also a collector of experiences. He was 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:55.800 bored with the military and bored with royal court. He 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:59.200 was a prince in the most powerful family in the region, 0:00:59.600 --> 0:01:02.680 nephew to the King of Wurttemberg, but he was the 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:06.640 fifth son, and so he had the flexibility and freedom 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:10.440 to take some time to do what he wanted. And 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:15.280 what Paul wanted to do was explore. Early in the 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:19.240 eighteen twenties, when Paul Wilhelm was in his early twenties, 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.680 he wrote a letter to the American government requesting permission 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:27.080 to travel throughout the country. He wanted to learn as 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.280 much as he could about the natural world, and though 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:33.399 of course he didn't actually want to do it anonymously, 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:37.200 he was going to request permission, after all, he did 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:43.120 want to do it incognito. President Monroe scoffed at that part, 0:01:43.480 --> 0:01:48.320 and without Paul Wilhelm's knowledge, Monroe went ahead and ensured 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:52.760 that the Secretary of State informed all local authorities that 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.960 a German prince was to be protected by whatever means necessary, 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:01.520 even military guards if need be. But Paul Wilhelm didn't 0:02:01.560 --> 0:02:05.560 know that an entire government had mobilized to ensure his safety, 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.680 and in eighteen twenty two he sailed to New Orleans 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:13.280 from Hamburg in a three masted ship to begin his 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:18.160 grand adventure, probably imagining he was in more physical peril 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.800 than the American government would have ever let befall such 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:25.120 an important visitor, the Duke brought with him what was 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:30.600 considered an incredibly paltry entourage, only one servant, one hunter, 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.720 and one master woodworker, who I imagine is the type 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:37.200 of person you want to bring along when you're doing 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:42.480 so much travel by boat. Duke Paul was amazed at 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:46.400 the natural beauty of the so called New World, the 0:02:46.520 --> 0:02:51.800 flora and fauna, the vast mountains and sweeping vistas. He 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.120 eventually even joined an expedition to track one of the 0:02:55.160 --> 0:02:59.640 sources of the Missouri River. After three years spent exploring 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:04.200 North America, Duke Paul returned to Germany. But he wouldn't 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.080 do so empty handed. Like I said, Paul was a 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.280 collector and it wasn't just animals and objects that he 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.240 liked to fill his palace with. Paul had met a 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:19.080 young man only a few years younger than he was, 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:24.200 named Jean Baptiste Charboneaux in Kansas. Charboneau was the son 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:27.840 of a Native American woman and a French fur trapper, 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:32.959 and when Paul returned to Germany, Jean Baptiste Charboneau would 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:38.040 accompany him, living abroad with the Prince for six years 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:41.440 in something that was framed as sort of a cultural 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:47.600 exchange program. If the name Jean Baptiste Charboneau doesn't ring 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.880 any bells, would you believe me if I told you 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.800 you've almost certainly seen a picture of him, or at 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:59.440 least if you're American, you've almost certainly seen a picture 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.600 of him as a baby On his mother's back. It's 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.320 an image so iconic it was printed on the gold 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:11.000 one dollar coin that was minted in the United States 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:14.800 in the year two thousand to honor Jean Baptiste's mother, 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:20.400 saka Jeweya. The story of Sakajawea, the young Native woman 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:24.279 with an infant child who accompanied Lewis and Clark on 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:28.880 their quest to the Pacific, has become almost an American myth, 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:34.719 a story that's been flattened to its broadest, most inspiring strokes. 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:40.080 The story of Sakajawea, as myth, ends with Lewis and 0:04:40.160 --> 0:04:45.880 Clark's successful journey, her son forever an infant, But Jean 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:50.600 Baptiste Charboneau grew up and he became a man, and 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:56.480 his strange life is perhaps the most American story imaginable. 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:03.359 A life caught between a shifting West and calcified European aristocracy. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.640 A life caught between his native ancestry that made him 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:13.120 quote exotic and his white connections that allowed him certain privileges, 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:18.039 A life of celebrity, of politics of the gold Rush. 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.000 There's a theme that's recurred on this podcast over and 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.760 over again. If you allow yourself to become a symbol 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:29.919 you get certain privileges, but you sacrifice the right to 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:34.120 be an actual human being. We all know the powerful 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:38.320 image of Jean Baptiste Charboneau and what he represented as 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:42.800 an infant, But who was he as a man. I'm 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:51.800 Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood. Jean Baptiste Charboneau's 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.560 life as a symbol began immediately when he was born. 0:05:56.240 --> 0:06:00.320 In eighteen oh four, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:03.320 out with a group known as the Core of Discovery 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.480 with the goal of exploring and mapping the recently purchased 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:12.680 Louisiana territory. The trip began at the border of southern Illinois, 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:15.159 what up until then had been the end of the 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:19.520 United States, and the group traveled north and west until 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:24.080 they reached Oregon and the Pacific Ocean. The entire expedition 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:29.039 is mythologized in American culture, particularly when it's taught to 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:34.000 younger children, for embodying a spirit of adventure, a piece 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.000 of Romantic Americana that we can cling to in our 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:44.000 comparatively short national history, But the details of that exploratory 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:49.400 trip are less frequently explored in any significant detail. It 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.560 was about five months into the journey, when the corps 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.200 reached what is currently North Dakota, where they set up 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.680 a fort near the native Manden people called Fort Manden. 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.400 It was there that they hired a French fur trader 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.679 who had been living among the native people to act 0:07:06.800 --> 0:07:10.520 as a guide and translator on the arduous journey up 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:14.200 the Missouri River and through the mountains. His name was 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:18.320 to Saint Charboneaux, and as luck would have it, his wife, 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.880 or rather one of his wives, was a Native Shoshone woman, 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.320 and it was decided that she would come along on 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:30.440 the journey to help communicate with the Shoshone people. Her 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:35.160 name was Sakajuweya. Now this is the detail that they 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:39.280 don't teach in the most romantic versions of the Adventures 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:43.920 of Lewis and Clark and Sakagaweya. She was sixteen years old, 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.920 and she was Charboneau's wife only in the sense that 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:52.240 he had purchased her or won her while gambling when 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:56.280 she was thirteen years old, along with another Shoshone girl 0:07:56.560 --> 0:08:01.280 named Otter Woman. When Sakageweya was twelve twelve, her tribe 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.560 had been raided by a group of Hidatza people and 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:09.600 she was held captive. Charboneaux purchased Sakajaueya and otter woman 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:14.360 from the Hidatza, And so while texts refer to Sakajawea 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:18.160 as Charboneau's wife, I want to make very clear that, 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.320 even though that's the language a lot of texts use, 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.840 this was in no way a consensual marriage. And just 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.480 as long as we're being clear eyed about the history, 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:32.520 I think it's also important to note that Clark had 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.360 with him on the journey an enslaved man named York, 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.760 a man that he had inherited from his father. Anyway, 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.199 the corps remained at Fort Manden for the winter, and 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.920 in February of eighteen oh five, Sakajuweya gave birth to 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:54.160 John Baptiste. Less than two months later, the expedition set 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.080 off again, with Sakajawea and her infant son in tow. 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:03.640 Little Jean Baptiste was adored by Clark, who delightedly nicknamed 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:07.959 him Pompey. But more than that, the entire expedition quickly 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:11.760 realized what a coup it was to have an infant 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:15.880 with them. In his journals, Clark writes about an incident 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:19.679 along the riverside of the Columbia Plateau, where a group 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:24.400 of Native Americans fled into their homes visibly threatened by Clark. 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.800 Apparently he had fired a gun nearby, and they, for 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:33.040 good reason, assumed he was most likely a threat. No 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:36.000 matter how Clark tried to explain that he was part 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.280 of an exploratory mission, the Native Americans would not engage 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:43.559 with him. There was fear that the tension might bubble 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:49.120 into violence. And then Sakajeweya and baby John Baptiste arrived 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:55.000 with Lewis by canoe. Clark wrote, they immediately all came 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:58.480 out and appeared to assume new life. The sight of 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.360 this Indian woman, wife to one of our interpreters, confirmed 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:06.240 those people of our friendly intentions, as no woman ever 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:11.480 accompanies a war party of Indians in this quarter. Sakujueya 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.760 would also prove to be a boon to the Core 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.400 in more than just her physical presence. When a storm 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:21.360 caused a boat to capsize, it was Sakajuweya who dove 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.800 into the river and recovered many of the lost items, 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:29.199 including all of the corp's journals, which had been lost 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.960 when the Corps reached western Montana. Sakjuea was able to 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:38.400 point out Beaverhead Rock, a formation she recognized from her 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:42.600 childhood from where her nation would spend their summers, and 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.640 she pointed out where they would approach the pass through 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:50.400 the mountains. The group finally rendezvous with the Shoshone people, 0:10:50.840 --> 0:10:55.400 and Sacjuwea had what must have been an incredibly surreal 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:59.439 and beautiful moment. She had been kidnapped from her home 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.920 when she was twelve, held captive, sold and married to 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:08.080 a stranger, and then years later, as part of the 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:12.400 Corps of Discovery, she reunited with her tribe, only to 0:11:12.520 --> 0:11:17.000 realize that their chief was now her brother. As thanks 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:21.360 for reuniting him with his long lost sister, the chief, Camelwaite, 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.320 provided the group with the horses they would need to 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:28.440 cross the Rocky Mountains. This is also much less of 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:31.080 a big deal, but it is a detail I find touching. 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.880 Zaka Jueya gave up her beaded belt so that Lewis 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.600 and Clark could use it to trade for a sea 0:11:37.679 --> 0:11:41.280 otter fur coat that they wanted to give to Thomas Jefferson. 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:45.440 To quote Clark on the incident directly, one of the 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.840 Indians had on a robe made of two seotter skins. 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:51.520 The fur of them were more beautiful than any fur 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.720 I had ever seen. Both Captain Lewis and myself endeavored 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:59.160 to purchase the robe with different articles. At length we 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.760 procured it for a belt of blue beads, which the 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.400 wife of our interpreter, Charboneau, wore around her waist. I 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:09.760 feel like he could have at least given her named 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.440 credit on that one. But alas and so that was 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:18.560 little Pompey's life for his first year, traveling across the 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:23.720 brand new nation, serving as silent ambassador, a mascot with 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:29.000 his mother for the expedition's peaceful intentions. When the expedition 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:33.600 was finally over, Lewis and Clark dropped Sakaguweya to Saint 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.439 Charbono and Pompey, now a year and a half old, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.880 back near the Mandon people where they had started. Clark 0:12:41.960 --> 0:12:45.960 had grown attached to Little Pompey and told his parents 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:48.400 that he would take him off their hands for them, 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:52.160 raising him as his own and seeing to his education. 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.400 A little while after the expedition, Clark wrote to tous 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:00.520 Saint Charbono, entreating him and Sakageweya to common move to 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.959 Illinois to be closer to him. At the letter's end, 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:08.360 Clark added, as to your little son, my boy Pomp, 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.800 you well know my fondness for him and my anxiety 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.200 to take and raise him as my own child. I 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:18.040 once more tell you, if you will bring your son 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.480 Baptiste to me, I will educate him and treat him 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:26.040 as my own child. Wish you and your family great success, 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:30.679 and with anxious expectations of seeing my little dancing boy Baptiste, 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:34.800 I shall remain your friend. William Clark three years later 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:38.559 to Saint Charboneau and sack Juwea did move to Saint Louis, 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:42.200 where they allowed Clark to take command of little Jean 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:47.360 Baptiste's education. Clark quickly enrolled the boy in Saint Louis 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:52.120 Academy boarding school. I do think that Clark genuinely liked 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.679 Jean Baptiste and was attached to him, after all, he 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:57.920 was there for the first year and a half of 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:01.440 his life, and he was his boy Pomp. But I 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.160 do think it would be a mistake to imagine that 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:09.960 his offer of paying for Jean Baptiste's education was entirely altruistic, 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:16.760 or rather altruistic without some slightly uncomfortable colonial implications. Because 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:21.440 Jean Baptiste was half Native American, his education could serve 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:28.400 as a model for assimilation for one of the most 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:32.280 famous women in American history, at least in terms of 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:37.400 name recognition. It's a little astonishing how little recorded history 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:42.520 there is about what happened to Secduea next. Most likely, 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:47.520 she died in eighteen twelve, presumably while living with Toussaint 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.600 at the Fort. Lisa trading Port, a clerk at the fort, 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:56.120 recorded in his journal on December twentieth, eighteen twelve, that 0:14:56.280 --> 0:15:01.040 the wife of Charboneau died of putrid fever. The fur 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:05.280 trader and later Congressman Henry Breckinridge had also written that 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:10.080 zakajuwea Quote had become sickly and longed to revisit her 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:15.240 native country. As for Toucsant's other quote wife, otter woman, 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:18.840 after the Corps journals note that they were taking one 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.280 of Toucsant's wives along but not the other Otter woman 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.120 fully disappears from the record, and I haven't found any 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:30.200 reputable information at all about what happened to her. And so, 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:34.320 though while some claim that Zaca Joweya left Fort Lisa 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.400 and did return to her home people. She most likely 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:42.480 died when she was twenty five years old, having recently 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:47.760 given birth to an infant girl. Almost immediately, Toussains Charboneau 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:52.920 signed over custody of both Jean Baptiste and the little girl, Lizette, 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:57.720 over to Clark. Adoption papers in the Saint Louis records 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.920 make clear quote on August eleven, in eighteen thirteen, William 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.000 Clark became the guardian of tous Saint Charbono, a boy 0:16:05.120 --> 0:16:09.560 of about ten years and Lizette Charboneau, a girl about 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:14.480 one year old. As for Lizette, it's assumed she also 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:18.480 died young because, and perhaps you notice a pattern here, 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:23.320 there is nothing more written about her. She simply disappears 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:28.040 from the record. Toussaint Charboneau would live for another thirty years, 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:33.400 going on to mary at least three more teenage Native 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:37.120 American girls, including a fourteen year old when he was 0:16:37.360 --> 0:16:43.200 seventy years old. We have to imagine Jean Baptiste Charboneau's childhood, 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.360 his guardian, the famous William Clark, his mother dead, his 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:52.680 father gone, possibly raised alongside a young sister, possibly alone, 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.680 sent to boarding school until he was sixteen, when he 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.520 would meet the man who would change the course of 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:08.480 his life. Life. Duke Paul Wilhelm, thrilled by the promise 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:12.240 of natural discovery in the New World, had sailed across 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:16.720 the ocean to America. He was a fairly accomplished naturalist 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:22.080 and amateur painter dedicated to documenting the natural world. On 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.800 June twenty first, eighteen twenty three, he arrived at a 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:29.440 small chateau settlement near the mouth of the Kansas River. 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.840 That was where he first met Jean Baptiste Charboneau, and 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:37.640 from their first meeting, Paul Wilhelm was aware of the 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:42.000 celebrity of his mother. He wrote, quote here I also 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.200 found a youth whose mother, a member of the tribe 0:17:45.240 --> 0:17:49.639 of Shoshones or Snake Indians, had accompanied the Messrs Lewis 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:54.240 and Clark as an interpreter to the Pacific Ocean. The 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:57.959 European continued up the Missouri River to its source, and 0:17:58.080 --> 0:18:01.760 actually at one point hired to Saint Charbonneau as a 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:06.440 guide and translator. His mission was successful, and when the 0:18:06.560 --> 0:18:10.720 Duke came back through America's interior that fall, when he 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.680 reached the Kansas River again. This time he would take 0:18:15.080 --> 0:18:18.760 Jean Baptiste along with him, with the plan that the 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.040 two of them would both go back to Germany together. 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:26.240 The trip turned out to be a challenging one. The 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:28.840 steamboat that the men were on to get to New 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:32.879 Orleans sank, but they did make it eventually, though The 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:35.960 trip across the Atlantic would prove to be its own 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:40.840 arduous journey. Duke Paul wrote, the sea fought us with 0:18:41.080 --> 0:18:44.840 huge waves, and the ship was tossed about so violently 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:49.919 that the rolling action became unbearable. The waves struck with 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.920 such force overboard that part of the railing was shattered, 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:59.240 but the pair did eventually make it safely back to Germany. 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:03.680 So it wasn't just John Baptiste that Duke Paul brought back. 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:08.000 He also brought back a live alligator that he had 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:12.720 captured in New Orleans. Jean Baptiste was only a few 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:16.360 years younger than Duke Paul, but it's difficult to discern 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.840 whether the relationship between the two men was one of 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:24.480 friendship or whether it was something more paternalistic or colonial. 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.360 The first major English translation of the original German texts 0:19:29.800 --> 0:19:33.280 was done in the nineteen thirties, by Professor Lewis C. 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.960 Butcher at the University of Wyoming, and historians today are 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:43.400 fairly dismissive of his translations for being let's say, overly 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:48.240 romantic at best and more than a little embellished. Professor 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:51.720 Butcher's version of the story is the two men becoming 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:56.639 instant and close friends, both young men from illustrious families, 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.399 one a German prince, the other the scion one of 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:05.359 the most romanticized fables of Americana, and Professor Butcher is 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:09.159 correct in the facts that for the next six years, 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:14.360 Jean Baptiste Scharpeneau would live alongside Duke Paul in Germany 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.959 in a palace with him, and travel across the world 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:23.720 at his side, including travels to Africa and Australia. Imagining 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:26.600 that the two were just best friends who shared a 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:30.919 taste for adventure is appealing, and in fact, if you 0:20:30.960 --> 0:20:34.600 are listening and looking for the subject of a historical 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.359 rom com that you want to write, I would be 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:41.520 delighted to read a fictional account of the two explorers 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:47.199 sharing an intimate and loving friendship. But unfortunately, as you 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.720 are probably predicting, the reality was a little more uncomfortable. 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:56.360 I actually don't think it's as nefarious as it could 0:20:56.400 --> 0:21:00.199 have been. I've seen some suggestions that Jean Baptiste was 0:21:00.200 --> 0:21:03.560 brought over to Germany to be a servant, but there 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:08.560 actually isn't really evidence of that either. Like Clark, Duke 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.560 Paul Wilhelm was likely excited by the chance to quote 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:17.280 enlighten a quote primitive Native American, and he would get 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:21.320 a personal encyclopedia on hand to answer any questions he 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:25.640 might have about America or Native American culture. In return, 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.000 Jean Baptiste would get to travel the world, live in 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:32.960 a palace, and get new experiences, all while having an 0:21:33.080 --> 0:21:39.000 education funded. Jean Baptiste already spoke several languages at this point, 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.280 and over the course of his time in Germany he 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.399 would add a few more to the roster. According to 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:49.960 most twentieth century sources, the arrangement was something partly between 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:54.639 studying abroad and being a member of someone's entourage, with 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:58.639 John Baptiste receiving an education and enjoying the freedom to 0:21:58.760 --> 0:22:02.720 meet new people, explore the Black forest, and practice his 0:22:02.880 --> 0:22:07.639 hunting and horseback riding. The Duke had also previously brought 0:22:07.680 --> 0:22:11.840 a young man, Juan Alverdo from Mexico, who, in theory, 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:17.879 received a similar education math, history, geography, and languages. The 0:22:18.000 --> 0:22:21.400 Duke also brought back two men from Africa and one 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:25.120 from India. So all of these men were, depending on 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:31.320 your interpretation, either nineteenth century study abroad students quote unquote, 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:38.360 exotic servants, personal cultural encyclopedias, or some combination of all 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:41.600 of the above. We might have gotten a more detailed 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:44.840 account of the men's time spent together, but many of 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:47.960 the Duke's personal journals were destroyed in the damage of 0:22:48.000 --> 0:22:56.480 World War II. Given that lack of evidence, Professor Albert 0:22:56.520 --> 0:23:01.480 Furtwegler favors the more pessimistic framing. In two thousand one, 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.760 he wrote, quote, there is no evidence that the Prince 0:23:04.920 --> 0:23:08.880 educated Charboneau, saw him as an equal, took interest enough 0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:12.200 in him to learn about him directly after eighteen twenty nine, 0:23:12.600 --> 0:23:16.639 or treated him as anything better than an exotic specimen 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.400 brought back to Europe along with other Indian items for 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:25.439 his collections. Indeed, we have almost nothing that the Prince 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:29.359 wrote about Charboneau. We know that John Baptiste remained in 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:33.560 Europe for six years until eighteen twenty nine, but it 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:36.800 wouldn't be until more than twenty five years later that 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:41.800 Charboneau emerges again in Paul Wilhelm's writings. The Duke was 0:23:41.840 --> 0:23:44.720 back in California on a trip where he encountered a 0:23:44.720 --> 0:23:48.480 group of Shoshone Native Americans. One of these, he wrote, 0:23:48.720 --> 0:23:51.879 was a fine young lad, quite intelligent, who reminded me 0:23:52.000 --> 0:23:56.560 strangely and with a certain sadness, of b Charboneau, who 0:23:56.560 --> 0:24:00.840 had followed me to in eighteen twenty three Europe, and 0:24:00.880 --> 0:24:04.679 whose mother was of the tribe of the Shoshones. Why 0:24:04.880 --> 0:24:08.880 or when they lost touch, Whether Paul Wilhelm viewed Jean 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:13.320 Baptiste as a friend or just another specimen lost or 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:18.439 misplaced in his travels is something lost to us. We 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:21.560 do know one fact about the time that Jean Baptiste 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:26.000 was in Germany. A parish birth announcement for a child 0:24:26.160 --> 0:24:32.520 named Anton Fryes born on February twentieth, eighteen twenty nine, 0:24:32.560 --> 0:24:37.200 the child of quote Johann Baptiste Charbonneau of Saint Louis, 0:24:37.320 --> 0:24:41.000 called the American in service of Duke Paul of this place, 0:24:41.480 --> 0:24:47.600 and Anastasia Katerina Fries, unmarried daughter of the late George Fries, 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:53.199 a soldier. Here. The infant unfortunately died that spring, and 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.280 a few months later, when he was twenty five years old, 0:24:56.680 --> 0:25:00.359 Jean Baptiste would leave Europe forever and returned turned to 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:05.360 the place he was born. Jean Baptiste joins a fur company. 0:25:05.520 --> 0:25:08.800 He sets out west and joins several other parties of 0:25:08.880 --> 0:25:14.320 men who hunted buffalo and traded furs. He traveled almost constantly. 0:25:15.000 --> 0:25:18.280 When his father died in eighteen forty three, he sold 0:25:18.320 --> 0:25:22.480 some land he had inherited for three hundred and twenty dollars. 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:25.680 He appears in the record as a guide on several 0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:31.440 hunting expeditions, including one for another European nobleman, a Scottish 0:25:31.520 --> 0:25:37.080 baronet named Sir William Drummond Stuart. Jean Baptiste would spend 0:25:37.200 --> 0:25:40.199 the rest of his years living a rustic life on 0:25:40.280 --> 0:25:45.520 the western frontier, seemingly a complete reversal of the years 0:25:45.560 --> 0:25:53.080 he spent among the sophisticated finery of German court. The 0:25:53.240 --> 0:25:57.560 historian Grace Hebberd, writing in nineteen thirty three, can barely 0:25:57.760 --> 0:26:02.080 mask her condescension and frankly racism in her dismissal of 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:07.440 Jean Baptiste Charboneau, who quote seems to have deteriorated despite 0:26:07.480 --> 0:26:12.760 his education, his contact with civilization, and his efficient services 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:17.840 in earlier years. Baptiste thus apparently forgot his classical education 0:26:18.119 --> 0:26:22.879 and superior attainments. She continues that Charboneau is not a 0:26:23.080 --> 0:26:27.359 unique case. Quote examples without number have occurred of the 0:26:27.480 --> 0:26:31.480 same sort of reversion, both among Indians and Whites who 0:26:31.480 --> 0:26:36.160 have lived under similar conditions among savages or in the wild. 0:26:37.200 --> 0:26:41.000 She finally concludes that quote culture that is only a 0:26:41.119 --> 0:26:46.760 veneering is easily rubbed off by constant association with uneducated 0:26:46.800 --> 0:26:52.280 Indians and illiterate Whites. Anne Haefen, writing in the sixties, 0:26:52.440 --> 0:26:58.360 presents a similarly condescending but more romanticized explanation of Jean 0:26:58.440 --> 0:27:03.000 Baptiste Charboneau's life out west, quoting an anecdote of a 0:27:03.040 --> 0:27:06.119 man from eighteen thirty nine who had met a Native 0:27:06.119 --> 0:27:09.520 American trapper near Bent's Fort who may or may not 0:27:09.680 --> 0:27:13.560 have actually been Jean Baptiste. In the anecdote that may 0:27:13.760 --> 0:27:17.439 or may not have actually happened, as she reports, the 0:27:17.520 --> 0:27:21.600 man apparently asked the Native American, why did you leave 0:27:21.720 --> 0:27:26.199 civilized life for a precarious livelihood in the wilderness, to 0:27:26.280 --> 0:27:30.560 which the Native American trapper replies quote for reasons found 0:27:30.640 --> 0:27:34.439 in the nature of my race, explaining that Indians aren't 0:27:34.480 --> 0:27:38.320 satisfied with quote the description of things, and that they 0:27:38.359 --> 0:27:42.440 have to experience quote treasures and realities as they live 0:27:42.560 --> 0:27:48.560 in their own native magnificence on the eternal mountains. Eventually, 0:27:48.720 --> 0:27:52.760 Charbonneau was hired as a scout in the Mexican American War, 0:27:53.320 --> 0:27:56.880 and in eighteen forty seven he was appointed the alcad 0:27:57.080 --> 0:28:01.159 Or Mayor of Mission San Luis Rey de Frentancia. The 0:28:01.240 --> 0:28:04.600 next year he would join in on the California Gold Rush, 0:28:04.960 --> 0:28:08.679 mining the Big Crevice in California, an operation that was 0:28:08.720 --> 0:28:11.240 successful enough for him that he did it for at 0:28:11.359 --> 0:28:16.239 least sixteen years, living in whereas now Auburn, California, and 0:28:16.320 --> 0:28:21.800 working as a hotel manager. He eventually left California when 0:28:21.840 --> 0:28:25.840 he was sixty one years old, whether driven by wanderlust 0:28:26.040 --> 0:28:30.240 or by the slowing local economy. While crossing the rugged 0:28:30.320 --> 0:28:34.440 Oye River, Charboneaux slipped off his horse and fell into 0:28:34.440 --> 0:28:38.640 the icy water. He became ill, either from the fall 0:28:39.040 --> 0:28:42.880 or maybe he had been ill before from a lifetime 0:28:43.120 --> 0:28:48.080 lived rough, breathing in alkali dust and living in Rugged surroundings. 0:28:48.600 --> 0:28:52.560 He was brought to Danner, Oregon, where he died. The 0:28:52.600 --> 0:28:55.320