The savage as allied fighter: The sung diptych of Father Baron at Fort Duquesne, July 13th 1755
Doutrelepont, Charles
The savage as allied fighter: The sung diptych of Father Baron at Fort Duquesne, July 13th 1755 - 2020.
68
On July 13th 1755, at Fort Duquesne, the traces of which remain at Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), two pieces of verse saw the light of day: a canticle addressed to the Virgin Mary and a ferocious “turlute”. Written up by the local chaplain to celebrate the imposing defeat the British had just suffered in the area, these poetics were sung in situ prior to their larger diffusion throughout Nouvelle-France. In so doing, a rare figure was circulated, that of the indigenous person as a fighting ally, represented on the one hand as the auxiliary of the mother of Christ and, on the other, as the scalper of heretics. This article presents this diptych in both its pastoral and its propagandist features; at the crossroads of historical incident and song, this double portrait weaves together the study of artistic forms and cultural history, including that of the violence of warfare.
The savage as allied fighter: The sung diptych of Father Baron at Fort Duquesne, July 13th 1755 - 2020.
68
On July 13th 1755, at Fort Duquesne, the traces of which remain at Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), two pieces of verse saw the light of day: a canticle addressed to the Virgin Mary and a ferocious “turlute”. Written up by the local chaplain to celebrate the imposing defeat the British had just suffered in the area, these poetics were sung in situ prior to their larger diffusion throughout Nouvelle-France. In so doing, a rare figure was circulated, that of the indigenous person as a fighting ally, represented on the one hand as the auxiliary of the mother of Christ and, on the other, as the scalper of heretics. This article presents this diptych in both its pastoral and its propagandist features; at the crossroads of historical incident and song, this double portrait weaves together the study of artistic forms and cultural history, including that of the violence of warfare.
Réseaux sociaux