Ep. 1.09: War and Peaceful Prosperity

Episode 9 examines the French struggles and shifting fortunes in the Mississippi Valley during the early 1700s. Monsignor Witt and Teresa Holman recount the Natchez uprising, the disastrous French campaigns against the Chickasaw, and the martyrdom of Jesuit Father Senat. They explore how financial schemes like Antoine Crozat’s failed mining ventures and John Law’s Mississippi Company led to economic collapse in France, even as settlements like New Orleans grew. The discussion closes by highlighting how the true wealth of the French “croissant” lay not in silver or gold, but in fertile land, salt, lead, and agriculture that would later fuel prosperity.

*Saint Louis: The Story of Catholic Evangelization of America's Heartland originally aired on Covenant Network Catholic Radio. These podcast episodes are being released in anticipation of the Bicentennial Celebrations of the founding of the Archdiocese of St. Louis as the Diocese of St. Louis on July 18, 1826.