The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauff Page A
Book: The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 by Robert Middlekauff
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Authors: Robert Middlekauff
Tags: United States, History, Military, Colonial Period (1600-1775), Americas (North; Central; South; West Indies)
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French and their Indian allies also interfered with the Virginians' designs by sending in traders and poisoning the minds of the Indians against the English. War, of course, restricted the activities of men on all sides. 8
When the French were finally eliminated, the squatters edged back in -- and beyond -- the old limits. Colonel Henry Bouquet, who shared the hatred of most westerners for Indians, nevertheless tried to restrain white expansion. Bouquet acted not out of altruism but out of a sense
____________________
7
Valuable for understanding the West and British policy are John R. Alden, John Stuart and the Southern Colonial Frontier ( Ann Arbor, Mich., 1944), and Jack M. Sosin , Whitehall and the Wilderness: The Middle West in British Colonial Policy, 1766-1775 ( Lincoln, Neb., 1961).
8
Jensen, Founding , 55-57.
that there would be trouble as the American whites moved into the lands Indians regarded as their own. Bouquet got the support of the Indian superintendents, William Johnson in the North and John Stuart in the South, both of whom reported to the Board of Trade on white encroachments upon Indian lands. 9
The Board of Trade was not unmoved by such information. It had in fact acted over a year earlier in a fruitless effort to stop illegal appropriation of Indian lands. In December 1761 it had taken control of land out of the hands of colonial governors, forbidding them the right to grant lands even within the colonies should these grants interfere with Indian rights. All applications for lands were to be sent to the Board by the governors; the Board, three thousand miles away, would make the decisions about who got land and who did not. 10
These measures were not successful in staying the settlement of the West, especially after the French had been removed. By the early spring of 1763 the Board and the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, who had formal control of colonial affairs, agreed that action, probably in the form of a royal proclamation, should be taken to reserve the newly acquired West for the Indians. 11
The Indians, ignorant of the existence of such grand contrivances as the Board of Trade and secretaries of state, knew nothing of these benign intentions. They did know, however, that General Jeffrey Amherst, who was recalled in 1763, had stopped catering to them -- had stopped trying to bribe them would put it more accurately -- by the old practice of giving presents, blankets, cloth, trinkets, and tools. They knew too that, despite the army's efforts, white settlers were seeping over their lands and that white traders continued to defraud them in the primitive commerce of the West. By May 1763 the Indians had had enough and, under Chief Pontiac, the brilliant leader of the Ottawa, rose in a bloody rebellion. By July they had cut to pieces frontier settlements in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and captured all British military posts west of Fort Pitt except Detroit. Fort Pitt itself endured desperate days and was relieved by Colonel Bouquet only after a hard fight at Bushy Run. Bouquet did not depend solely on his regulars and their muskets but seems to have resorted to trying to spread smallpox
____________________
10
Ibid., 56 .
11
Clarence W. Alvord, The Mississippi Valley in British Politics ( 2 vols., Cleveland, Ohio, 1917) is still the place to begin study of the West and British policy. See also note 13 (below).
9
Ibid., 56-58 .
among the Indians. The Indian superintendents, Johnson and Stuart, used more conventional -- and more successful -- techniques: bribes to detach most of the Iroquois from Pontiac and to persuade the southern tribes to remain neutral. 12
News of this upheaval, named Pontiac's Rebellion after its great leader, strengthened official resolve in Britain to clamp down on the American westward movement. For years warnings had issued from American and knowledgeable English officials that the colonies were going to blunder into
When the French were finally eliminated, the squatters edged back in -- and beyond -- the old limits. Colonel Henry Bouquet, who shared the hatred of most westerners for Indians, nevertheless tried to restrain white expansion. Bouquet acted not out of altruism but out of a sense
____________________
7
Valuable for understanding the West and British policy are John R. Alden, John Stuart and the Southern Colonial Frontier ( Ann Arbor, Mich., 1944), and Jack M. Sosin , Whitehall and the Wilderness: The Middle West in British Colonial Policy, 1766-1775 ( Lincoln, Neb., 1961).
8
Jensen, Founding , 55-57.
that there would be trouble as the American whites moved into the lands Indians regarded as their own. Bouquet got the support of the Indian superintendents, William Johnson in the North and John Stuart in the South, both of whom reported to the Board of Trade on white encroachments upon Indian lands. 9
The Board of Trade was not unmoved by such information. It had in fact acted over a year earlier in a fruitless effort to stop illegal appropriation of Indian lands. In December 1761 it had taken control of land out of the hands of colonial governors, forbidding them the right to grant lands even within the colonies should these grants interfere with Indian rights. All applications for lands were to be sent to the Board by the governors; the Board, three thousand miles away, would make the decisions about who got land and who did not. 10
These measures were not successful in staying the settlement of the West, especially after the French had been removed. By the early spring of 1763 the Board and the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, who had formal control of colonial affairs, agreed that action, probably in the form of a royal proclamation, should be taken to reserve the newly acquired West for the Indians. 11
The Indians, ignorant of the existence of such grand contrivances as the Board of Trade and secretaries of state, knew nothing of these benign intentions. They did know, however, that General Jeffrey Amherst, who was recalled in 1763, had stopped catering to them -- had stopped trying to bribe them would put it more accurately -- by the old practice of giving presents, blankets, cloth, trinkets, and tools. They knew too that, despite the army's efforts, white settlers were seeping over their lands and that white traders continued to defraud them in the primitive commerce of the West. By May 1763 the Indians had had enough and, under Chief Pontiac, the brilliant leader of the Ottawa, rose in a bloody rebellion. By July they had cut to pieces frontier settlements in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and captured all British military posts west of Fort Pitt except Detroit. Fort Pitt itself endured desperate days and was relieved by Colonel Bouquet only after a hard fight at Bushy Run. Bouquet did not depend solely on his regulars and their muskets but seems to have resorted to trying to spread smallpox
____________________
10
Ibid., 56 .
11
Clarence W. Alvord, The Mississippi Valley in British Politics ( 2 vols., Cleveland, Ohio, 1917) is still the place to begin study of the West and British policy. See also note 13 (below).
9
Ibid., 56-58 .
among the Indians. The Indian superintendents, Johnson and Stuart, used more conventional -- and more successful -- techniques: bribes to detach most of the Iroquois from Pontiac and to persuade the southern tribes to remain neutral. 12
News of this upheaval, named Pontiac's Rebellion after its great leader, strengthened official resolve in Britain to clamp down on the American westward movement. For years warnings had issued from American and knowledgeable English officials that the colonies were going to blunder into
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