Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc

Who was Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc?

Marie-Angélique Memmie Le Blanc was a famous feral child of the 18th century in France who was known as The Wild Girl of Champagne, The Maid of Châlons, or The Wild Child of Songy.

Her case is more controversial than that of some other feral children because a few prominent modern-day scholars have regarded it as either wholly or partly fictional. However, in 2004, the French surgeon-scholar Serge Aroles concluded it was authentic after spending ten years carrying out archival research into Marie-Angélique's life.

Aroles found evidence that Marie-Angélique had survived for ten years living wild in the forests of France, between the ages of nine and 19, before she was captured by villagers in Songy in Champagne in September 1731. He discovered that she had been born in 1712 as a Native American of the Meskwaki people in what today is the Midwestern U.S. state of Wisconsin and that she died in Paris in 1775, aged 63. Aroles demonstrated also that she learned to read and write as an adult, thus making her unique among feral children.