Digitized Content of the Vincennes Oath | Illinois History and Lincoln Collections

The digitized content of the Vincennes Oath consists of the oath, dated July 20, 1778, and signed by 181 inhabitants of the French outpost at Vincennes.

In 1778, the Commonwealth of Virginia authorized George Rogers Clark to lead an expedition to protect American settlers in Kentucky and to take Kaskaskia, an outpost on the Mississippi. After arriving in Kaskaskia and being welcomed by its inhabitants, Clark continued his expedition by crossing what is now southern Illinois to the French outpost at Vincennes, just across the Wabash River in what is now Indiana. By taking Vincennes without resistance, Clark curtailed British plans to use the native population of the area to resist American expansion. The inhabitants of the Vincennes outpost signed the oath and renounced “all fidelity to George the Third, King of Britain, and to his successors,” and promised “to be faithful and true subjects of the Republic of Virginia as a free and independent state.”

The digitized content of this collection includes the Vincennes Oath, signed by 181 inhabitants of Vincennes on July 20, 1778.

The Vincennes Oath was completely digitized in 2025. Items are available online at the University of Illinois Digital Library. A preservation copy of the items is available to IHLC and digital preservation staff at the Library Digital Repository: [medusa link].