Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of North and South Americans >> Sebastien Rasle





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial 1718-2018

For more information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday

 

Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson, John Fiske and Stanley L. Klos. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889 and 1999. Virtualology.com warns that these 19th Century biographies contain errors and bias. We rely on volunteers to edit the historic biographies on a continual basis. If you would like to edit this biography please submit a rewritten biography in text form . If acceptable, the new biography will be published above the 19th Century Appleton's Cyclopedia Biography citing the volunteer editor




Virtual American Biographies

Over 30,000 personalities with thousands of 19th Century illustrations, signatures, and exceptional life stories. Virtualology.com welcomes editing and additions to the biographies. To become this site's editor or a contributor Click Here or e-mail Virtualology here.



A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 



Sebastien Rasle

RASLE, Sebastien, French missionary, born in Dole, France, in 1658; died in Norridgewock, Maine. 12 August, 1724. His name is often improperly spelled Raale, Rale, and Retle. His family was distinguished in the province of Franche-Comte. and, after completing his studies in Dijon, he became a Jesuit, much against the wish of his parents, and taught Greek for a time in the college of the society at Nimes. At his request he was attached in 1689 to the missions of Canada, and, sailing from La Rochelle, 23 July, he landed at Quebec on 18 October After having charge of various missions he was placed in charge of the station of Norridgewock, on Kennebec river, about 1695. Here he made a thorough study of the Abenaki language, and, by sharing the dangers and hardships of the Indians, he acquired such an influence among them that the French authorities at Quebec thought advisable to utilize it in the struggle against England. A correspondence was carried on between Rasle and Gov. Vaudreuil, and the latter induced him to promote a hostile sentiment among the Indians against the English settlers. Rasle readily accepted the suggestion, as it not only agreed with his patriotic feelings, but was also a means of checking Protestantism, which the English represented. But it has been incorrectly stated that Rasle instigated also the attacks of the Indians on the English settlements along the coast, as he only endeavored to prevent the Abenakis from having dealings with the English. Public opinion in New England became aroused against him, especially after the failure of the conference between Governor Dudley, of Boston, and the Abenaki chiefs in 1702, at which Rasle was present, and in which the Indians declined the English alliance and affirmed their resolution to stand by the French. Several settlements had meanwhile been burned, indignation increased, and the common council of Boston passed a resolution inviting the governor to put a price on Rasle's head, which was done. In the winter of 1705 Captain Hilton, with a party of 270 men, including forty-five New Englanders, surprised Norridgewock and burned the church, but Rasle escaped to the woods with his papers. When peace was restored in 1713 he set about building a new church at Norridgewock. and, aided by the French governor, erected one which, in his own words, " would excite admiration in Europe." It was supplied with all the apparatus of Roman Catholic worship, and the set-vices were conducted with great pomp, forty Indian boys, trained by himself, acting as acolytes. Shute, of Massachusetts, engaged afterward in a correspondence with Rasle; but failing in the attempt to decoy him to Boston, sent parties to seize him. In January, 1723, a band of 300 men under Colonel Thomas Westbrook succeeded in reaching the mission, burned the church, and pillaged Rasle's cabin. There they found an iron box which contained, besides his correspondence with the authorities of Quebec, a valuable dictionary of the Abenaki language in three volumes. This is now preserved in the library of Harvard college, and has been printed in the " Memoirs of tile Academy of Arts and Sciences," with an introduction axed notes by John Pickering (Cambridge, 18335. In 1724 a party of 208 men from Fort Richmond surprised Norridgewock in the night, killed several Indians, and shot Rasle, who was in the act of escaping, at the foot of the mission cross, seven chiefs, who endeavored to protect him, sharing his fate. His body was afterward mutilated by the incensed soldiery and left without burial ; but when the Abenakis returned a few days later, they buried his remains. The French authorities vainly asked reparation for the outrage, but in 1833 the citizens of Norridgewock raised a subscription, bought an acre of land on the spot where Rasle fell, and erected there a monument to his memory, which Bishop Fenwick, of Boston, dedicated on 29 August Vols. xxiii, to xxvii, of the "Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, ecrites des missions etrangdres " (Paris, 1728) contain several interesting letters of gasle describing his labors among the Indians. His life has been written by Reverend Convers Francis, D. D., in Sparks's "American Biography."

Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM

Start your search on Sebastien Rasle.


 

 


 


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

Search:

About Us

 

 

Image Use

Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

 

Historic Documents

Articles of Association

Articles of Confederation 1775

Articles of Confederation

Article the First

Coin Act

Declaration of Independence

Declaration of Independence

Emancipation Proclamation

Gettysburg Address

Monroe Doctrine

Northwest Ordinance

No Taxation Without Representation

Thanksgiving Proclamations

Mayflower Compact

Treaty of Paris 1763

Treaty of Paris 1783

Treaty of Versailles

United Nations Charter

United States In Congress Assembled

US Bill of Rights

United States Constitution

US Continental Congress

US Constitution of 1777

US Constitution of 1787

Virginia Declaration of Rights

 

Historic Events

Battle of New Orleans

Battle of Yorktown

Cabinet Room

Civil Rights Movement

Federalist Papers

Fort Duquesne

Fort Necessity

Fort Pitt

French and Indian War

Jumonville Glen

Manhattan Project

Stamp Act Congress

Underground Railroad

US Hospitality

US Presidency

Vietnam War

War of 1812

West Virginia Statehood

Woman Suffrage

World War I

World War II

 

Is it Real?



Declaration of
Independence

Digital Authentication
Click Here

 

America’s Four Republics
The More or Less United States

 
Continental Congress
U.C. Presidents

Peyton Randolph

Henry Middleton

Peyton Randolph

John Hancock

  

Continental Congress
U.S. Presidents

John Hancock

Henry Laurens

John Jay

Samuel Huntington

  

Constitution of 1777
U.S. Presidents

Samuel Huntington

Samuel Johnston
Elected but declined the office

Thomas McKean

John Hanson

Elias Boudinot

Thomas Mifflin

Richard Henry Lee

John Hancock
[
Chairman David Ramsay]

Nathaniel Gorham

Arthur St. Clair

Cyrus Griffin

  

Constitution of 1787
U.S. Presidents

George Washington 

John Adams
Federalist Party


Thomas Jefferson
Republican* Party

James Madison 
Republican* Party

James Monroe
Republican* Party

John Quincy Adams
Republican* Party
Whig Party

Andrew Jackson
Republican* Party
Democratic Party


Martin Van Buren
Democratic Party

William H. Harrison
Whig Party

John Tyler
Whig Party

James K. Polk
Democratic Party

David Atchison**
Democratic Party

Zachary Taylor
Whig Party

Millard Fillmore
Whig Party

Franklin Pierce
Democratic Party

James Buchanan
Democratic Party


Abraham Lincoln 
Republican Party

Jefferson Davis***
Democratic Party

Andrew Johnson
Republican Party

Ulysses S. Grant 
Republican Party

Rutherford B. Hayes
Republican Party

James A. Garfield
Republican Party

Chester Arthur 
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland
Democratic Party

Benjamin Harrison
Republican Party

Grover Cleveland 
Democratic Party

William McKinley
Republican Party

Theodore Roosevelt
Republican Party

William H. Taft 
Republican Party

Woodrow Wilson
Democratic Party

Warren G. Harding 
Republican Party

Calvin Coolidge
Republican Party

Herbert C. Hoover
Republican Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Democratic Party

Harry S. Truman
Democratic Party

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Republican Party

John F. Kennedy
Democratic Party

Lyndon B. Johnson 
Democratic Party 

Richard M. Nixon 
Republican Party

Gerald R. Ford 
Republican Party

James Earl Carter, Jr. 
Democratic Party

Ronald Wilson Reagan 
Republican Party

George H. W. Bush
Republican Party 

William Jefferson Clinton
Democratic Party

George W. Bush 
Republican Party

Barack H. Obama
Democratic Party

Please Visit

Forgotten Founders
Norwich, CT

Annapolis Continental
Congress Society


U.S. Presidency
& Hospitality

© Stan Klos

 

 

 

 


Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum