American Minute with Bill Federer
Indian Massacres, British Quartering, & the Boston Massacre
|
|
The
French and Indian War
ended in 1763 with the
French
forced to cede to the
British
all of
Canada
and the land from the
Appalachian Mountains west to the Mississippi River.
|
|
The
French
had cultivated friendly relations with the
Indians
by giving them
gifts,
but the new
British Commander-in-Chief in North America, Jeffery Amherst,
treated the
Indians
as
conquered peoples.
|
|
Disgruntled
tribes united
against the
British:
- Ottawas,
- Ojibwas,
- Potawatomis,
- Hurons,
- Miamis,
- Weas,
- Kickapoos,
- Mascoutens,
- Piankashaws,
- Delawares,
- Shawnees,
- Wyandots,
- Mingos, and
- some Iroquois.
|
|
As the most prominent leader was Ottawa chief
Pontiac,
it was called
Pontiac's War.
For three years, from
1763 to 1766, surprise attacks occurred from
Virginia
and
Pennsylvania
to
Ohio
and the
Great Lakes.
|
|
Indians
successfully captured, tortured and killed hundreds, in ambushes such as
- Devil's Hole Massacre,
- Enoch Brown School Massacre,
- Fort Sandusky Massacre,
- Hochstetler Massacre,
- Fort William Henry Massacre, and
- Clendenin Massacre.
|
|
Eight British forts
were overrun and
2,500 soldiers
and
colonists
were
killed
or
captured
, with
4,000
more forced to
flee
for their lives.
|
|
Tragically,
peaceful Christian Indians
were caught in the middle.
In Western Pennsylvania, near Lancaster, a vigilante group of Paxton Boys indiscriminately retaliated, killing
Christian Susquehannock
Indians in the
Conestoga Massacre.
|
|
Benjamin Franklin
published a tract condemning the lawless acts of
Paxton Boys
in 1764.
|
|
British General Jeffrey Amherst
was replaced with
General Thomas Gage,
who finally negotiated an end to
Pontiac's War.
|
|
The cry for
protection against Indian attacks,
rumored to have been instigated by French sympathizers, convinced
King George III
to leave
large numbers of British troops
in the
American colonies.
|
|
British troops were to be paid with taxes collected from the colonies:
- Sugar Tax of 1764,
- Currency Act of 1764,
- Stamp Tax of 1765,
- Quartering Act of 1765,
- Declaratory Act of 1766,
- Townshend Revenue Acts of 1767, taxing glass, paint and paper.
|
|
As the Colonies had no representative in Parliament, the cry arose,
"No taxation without representation."
|
|
The King imposed
Writs of Assistance
in 1765 allowing British authorities to:
- open and read citizen's personal correspondence,
- arrest anybody, anytime, anywhere on any suspicion, and
- detain them indefinitely.
|
|
Citizens could have their houses, property and farms taken without a warrant or due process - seize first, then ask questions later.
|
|
As there were no barracks, the British Parliament imposed the
Quartering Act of 1765,
which allowed British troops to forcibly enter colonists' homes and farms to lodge or "quarter," leaving families to live in barns, basements or attics.
|
|
As colonists became resistant,
General Thomas Gage,
Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in America,
was ordered to
bring them into submission.
British Statesman Edmund Burke described Gage's orders:
"An Englishman is the unfittest person on Earth to argue another Englishman into slavery."
|
|
He blamed ring leader
Samuel Adams,
who he first attempted to buy off, but was rebuffed.
He then blamed the numerous
town hall meetings
and worked to abolish them, writing
"democracy is too prevalent in America."
|
|
General Gage
identified
Boston
as the source of political tension and relocated
more British troops there.
|
|
On March 5, 1770, a mob formed in
Boston t
o protest.
In the confusion,
British troops fired into the crowd,
killing five, one of which was the African American patriot,
Crispus Attucks.
|
|
This became known as the
Boston Massacre.
Paul Revere's
popular engraving of the
Boston Massacre
fanned flames of anti-British sentiment.
|
|
On the
2nd anniversary
of the
Boston Massacre, 1772,
the President of Massachusetts' Colonial Congress was
Dr. Joseph Warren,
who would later send
Paul Revere on his midnight ride
and who would be killed at the
Battle of Bunker Hill.
|
|
Dr. Joseph Warren
stated:
"If you perform your part, you must have the strongest confidence that the same
Almighty Being
who protected your pious and venerable forefathers ... will still be mindful of you ...
May our land be a land of liberty
... until the last shock of time shall bury the empires of the world in one common undistinguishable ruin!"
|
|
In 1773, British imposed
the Tea Act,
resulting in the
Boston Tea Party,
and in 1774, the
Intolerable Coercive Acts.
|
|
Colonial America
was like
ancient Israel
in that
every man was in the militia,
ready at a moment's notice to defend his family and his community.
When they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, "the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side."
And the commoners who joined David in exile were armed, "archers using both the right and left to sling stones and to shoot arrows," and
|
|
On the 4th anniversary of the
Boston Massacre,
1774,
John Hancock,
who would be the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, stated:
"Will not
a well-disciplined militia
afford you ample security against foreign foes?
We want (lack) not courage; it is discipline alone in which we are exceeded by the most formidable troops that ever trod the earth ...
A well-disciplined militia
is a safe, an honorable guard to a community like this, whose inhabitants are by nature brave, and are laudably tenacious of that freedom in which they were born.
From
a well-regulated militia
we have nothing to fear; their interest is the same with that of the State.
When a country is invaded,
the militia
are ready to appear in its defense; they march into the field with that fortitude which a consciousness of the justice of their cause inspires ..."
|
|
Hancock
continued, contrasting the American colonist with the British soldier:
"They do not jeopard their lives for a master who considers them only as the instruments of his ambition, and whom they regard only as the daily dispenser of the scanty pittance of bread and water.
No;
they fight for their houses, their lands, for their wives, their children;
for all who claim the tenderest names, and are held dearest in their hearts; they fight pro aris et focis (Latin: "for our altars and our hearths" or "for God and country"), for their liberty, and for themselves, and
for their God ...
We have all one common cause ... the security of the liberties of America.
And may the same kind
Providence
which has watched over this country from her infant state still enable us to defeat our enemies!"
|
|
Some were enticed by
bribes
from
British General Thomas Gage
to betray the American cause, such as
Dr. Benjamin Church.
|
|
John Hancock
added:
"I cannot here forbear noticing the signal manner in which the designs of those who wish not well to us have been discovered.
The
dark deeds
of
a treacherous cabal
have been brought to public view.
You now know the
serpents
who, whilst cherished in your bosoms, were darting the envenomed stings into the vitals of the constitution ..."
|
|
Hancock
continued, using Biblical references:
"But the representatives of the people have fixed a mark on these
ungrateful monsters,
which, though it may not make them so secure as
Cain of old,
yet renders them, at least, as
infamous ...
Surely you never will tamely suffer this country to be a
den of thieves.
Remember, my friends, from whom you sprang ...
Not only that ye pray, but that ye act; that, if necessary,
ye fight, and even die, for the prosperity of our Jerusalem.
Break in sunder, with noble disdain, the bonds with which the Philistines have bound you.
|
|
... Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed, by the soft arts of luxury and effeminacy, into the pit digged for your destruction ...
I thank God that America abounds in men who are superior to all temptation, whom nothing can divert from a steady pursuit of the interest of their country, who are at once its ornament and safeguard ...
Let us catch the divine enthusiasm; and feel, each for himself, the godlike pleasure ... of delivering the oppressed from the iron grasp of tyranny; of changing the hoarse complaints and bitter moans of wretched slaves into those cheerful songs, which freedom and contentment must inspire.
There is a heartfelt satisfaction in reflecting on our exertions for the public weal (good), which all the sufferings an enraged tyrant can inflict will never take away; which the ingratitude and reproaches of those whom we have saved from ruin cannot rob us of.
The virtuous asserter of the rights of mankind merits a reward ... I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America ..."
|
|
John Hancock
concluded:
"And let us play the man for our God, and for the cities of our God;
while we are using the means in our power, let us humbly commit our righteous cause to the great Lord of the Universe, who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity.
And having secured the approbation of our hearts, by a faithful and unwearied discharge of our duty to our country, let us joyfully leave our concerns in the hands of Him who raiseth up and pulleth down the empires and kingdoms of the world as He pleases; and with cheerful submission to his sovereign will, devoutly say:
'Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the field shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; yet we will rejoice in the Lord, we will joy in the God of our salvation.'"
|
|
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
|
|
Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
[email protected]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|