French & Indian Wars Quotes

In the midst of the French & Indian Wars, the Board of Trade drafted the royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, forbidding the granting of lands in the vast interior, which was specifically reserved to the Indians. Most whites, themselves interested in land, saw this as a temporary expediency only. This quotation must be viewed in juxtaposition with his of 1767 on the subject: {624055}

The Indian allies of the French scalped some American colonists which for some whites was akin to the modern reaction to terrorist atrocities. The British and Americans then justified the scalping of their Indian allies as simple retaliation. While Indians had scalped before the whites ever came, the whites accelerated the practice. There was an economic element to scalping. The French “paid” their Indian allies in arms, blankets, trinkets and alcohol by the scalp as it was a crude way of “performance measurement.” Not to be outdone, the English adopted the same custom with the French allied Indians as targets. In North Carolina, for example, the “volunteer” rangers were paid the enormous rate of 10 pounds a scalp.

The Catawabas fought in the South with the English against the French and Spanish. In this case they asked for “military assistance” which was provided in terms of the fort which was built and provision of powder and ammunition. Later the Catawabas sided with the Americans in the Revolution.

This observation was made when Commander-in-Chief for the 13 American Colonies, General Edward Braddock had organized a military expedition to destroy some of the forts that the French had constructed. (See {37008}.) Braddock and the other military officers thought that the force Braddock had organized what he thought would be overwhelming force that could easily accomplish the objective. But unfortunately for Braddock, Franklin was prescient, See {583428}.

He and George Washington were both young officers in this battle.

Clinton was a founder of the society and considered an excellent historian. When giving this presentation he had documentation and academic references for each of the statements.

In the midst of the French & Indian Wars, the Board of Trade drafted the royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, forbidding the granting of lands in the vast interior, which was specifically reserved to the Indians. Washington had earlier reservations about the attempt to protect Indian lands for the Indians. See {612772} Washington after the American Revolution did grant and protect Indian lands to the minority of the Indians who had allied with the Americans against the British and the majority of the other Indian tribes.

In the French & Indian War, Braddock had organized a military expedition to destroy some of the forts that the French had constructed. (See {37008}.) Braddock and the other military officers thought that the force Braddock had organized would be overwhelming and easily accomplish the objective. Benjamin Franklin was one of the only Colonial leaders who expressed concern about the expedition–{583427}. This was one of the first battles for a promising young officer named George Washington who had two horses shot out from under him.

Roger’s Rangers of the French & Indian War were the first using unconventional warfare and invented the “deep raid” when they went in stealth all the way to Quebec and defeated the Abnaki Indians in their home village rather than defend against the Indians’ French coordinated attacks on upper York State. Rogers was portrayed by Spencer Tracy in the film Northwest Passage depicting the raid. All the men were killed but the women and children were captured and released with the exception of 5 teenagers who the Rangers took with them. This was one of the first formal “Rules of War” in what was otherwise a viciously uncivilized war.

The Abenaki Indians from Canada had come South and raided many of the settlements of upstate New York. In the process, they committed many atrocities killing civilian men, women and children. Amhurst ordered Robert Rogers and his rangers to attack the Abenaki home villiage in Canada on a famous punitive raid. The Rangers, did indeed, raid the Abenaki and wiped out all the males of the tribe that were in the camp at the time. Amhurst hated Indians, but still had his standards regarding the killing of women and children, but was perfectly willing to kill all the mature males. There were no Geneva Conventions at the time. The same general introduced biological warfare by giving Indians smallpox infected blankets. See {619646}

This was the group that decided who was to be executed in the Reign of Terror

While this is a classic quotation demonstrating the intentional use of germ warfare in early America, biochemical warfare had existed long before ranging from the poisoning of wells in Biblical times to the hurling of diseased animal and human body parts in and out of besieged cities with catapults.

The French had launched a sneak attack on the English settlement at Schenectady, NY. The English had not provided enough security to Schenectady and now considered withdrawing from the upstate area. Contrary to the popular conception of all the Indians being invaded by the Whites and fighting it, here these Indians were urging the English to hang on and stay in the area. The Mohawk were one of the tribes of the Iroquois confederation which were very sophisticated, somewhat democratice, and very powerful economically and militarily. To them, the English were good trading partners and unlike the French tended to conform with Iroquis norms, rules and mores. It also illustrated the closeness of the alliance of these Indians with the English against the French in the French & Indian Wars.

Christian Neophytes were Indians who claimed that they had converted to Christianity. The French initially banned giving or selling firearms to the Indians of North America. However in 1640, they made an exception to provide arms to the Huron Indians who they thought had converted to Christianity. Four years later the Jesuits were using guns as the major motivation for conversion of Indians. The hypocrisy of using weapons of war to attract converts to a religion of peace gave way to the incredible success that the trading of guns for souls had achieved. The French military also thought that the armed Indians could be used as allies in the coming battle with England for control of North America. The English then armed their Indian allies, and the French and Indian Wars saw armed Indians on both sides.

Some of the Indian tribes who were allied with the French, raided the farms and settlements of upper New York State, committing many atrocities. Amhurst allowed Rogers Rangers to carry the war to the enemy; the Rangers traveled to St. Francis in Canada and attacked the Indian tribe in their home village, killing all the men, and despite Amhurst’s orders, some of the women. The other women and children were released. This was the first successful American commando raid. Rogers had almost no casualties in the raid, but lost many men to starvation and disease on the long trek home.

For a man of God, Davies was a military hawk of his day. See {599233} .