Women of the Mississippi: Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom

By Haddy Bayo, National Park Ranger, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area

This edition of Women of the Mississippi is dedicated to Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom, whose significance is often relegated to simply being the wife to a more historically significant figure. However, she was much more.

Wives of fur traders, like Marguerite, would travel with their husbands, assisting with portaging and other grueling tasks associated with frontier travel in the 1800s.

Marguerite Bonga and Jacob Fahlstrom. Image courtesy of the Historic Fort Snelling.

Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom, née Margeret Bonga was the granddaughter of Jean and Marie Jeanne Bonga, who were among 13 Black slaves captured by the British after a failed U.S. attack of St. Louis during the American Revolution in 1780. Thereafter, they became the slaves of Captain Daniel Robertson, a Scotsman who married into a Canadian family of New France. In 1782, the Bongas accompanied the Officer to Mackinac, Michigan, and following his death in 1787, became free (There are conflicting sources on the topic of their freedom, with some claiming that they were freed by Captain Daniel Robertson during his life). Jean and Jeanna Marie soon joined the fur trade, as Mackinac Island was an important hub of the fur trade among the Ojibwe and Ottawa people, the French, and British and American traders.

Their son, Pierre Bonga, having grown up in Mackinac became a successful fur trader himself. Bonga mostly worked within the Red River region, alongside the Ojibwe, and he soon married an Ojibwe woman, Ogibwayquay. They gave birth to several children, one of whom was Marguerite Bonga.

Marguerite Bonga and her lineage represent a remarke circumstance, in that she came from a prominent Black trading family, at a time when the slave trade was thriving not only within the south but also the so-called “free” states of the north. Additionally, she stood as a symbol of an incredible union between a Black trader and Ojibwe woman. At this time, mixed marriages between traders and Native women were a common way to establish kin relations and secure trading partners, however, these mixed marriages primarily involved White traders.

Yet, perhaps, what Marguerite Bonga is most known for is being the wife of Jacob Fahlstrom, who is widely celebrated as “the first Swede in Minnesota,” as it is a state where many are of Swedish Ancestry. Bonga and Fahlstrom married in 1823 when his work in the fur trade brought him to Minnesota, and while he has been memorialized, Bonga’s role in history has been largely marginalized. As such, not much is known about the story of Marguerite Bonga. However, due to the historical fact that Ojibwe women were central to the functioning of the fur trade, it’s unlikely that Fahlstrom would have risen to the social position, which has so captured historians and the public, without Bonga’s contribution.

Firstly, successful fur traders relied on marriage to Native women because their prosperity was directly correlated to the influence and skills of these women who joined communities through marriage. In addition, the Native wives of traders served as travel partners as opposed to staying home. They took on several laborious tasks, including providing assistance during the grueling process of portaging boats. Furthermore, at some trading posts, including those of the North West Company, Native women performed the duties of producing moccasins, stringing snowshoes, and making leather garments for their husbands, starting from the process of treating the skins, among several other duties.

This is all to say that Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom was almost certainly much more impactful that she has been given credit for and likely played a large role in the success of her husband, Fahlstrom. She was married to Fahlstrom for 35 years and had 10 children: John, Nancy, James, Sarah, Jane, George, James, Cecelia, George, and John (yes, they had two children named George and two children named John), all of whom were of a unique African, Ojibwe, and Swedish ancestry. Today, many of Bonga’s descendants still live in Minnesota and are Ojibwe.

So as we remember Marguerite Bonga Fahlstrom, we must recognize her beyond her role as the wife of Jacob Fahlstrom. We must recognize that while history has largely relegated her to the sidelines, she has her own rich history. Marguerite died in 1880 and is buried in Afton, Minnesota.

Read more stories in the Women of the Mississippi River Series!