Britain’s victory in the Seven Years War allowed it to strip
France of its colonial claims. The huge swath of North America known as New
France was broken up with Canada going to Britain while Spain received control
of Louisiana in exchange for losing Florida. The local theater of conflict had
been dubbed the “French and Indian War” by the British colonists who eagerly
moved west from the Eastern seaboard. While the French colonization had largely
been economic with trading posts and working alongside natives, British colonists
were more interested in building permanent settlements that exploited the land,
already pushing tribes like the Delaware across the Appalachians. Many Native
Americans preferred an alliance with France but now found themselves under British
authority as French troops left fortifications at Detroit and Niagara to their
former enemies.
Relations between the British and the Native Americans
quickly soured. The French had followed Native American customs by bearing
gifts of firearms, tools, and tobacco in goodwill. Commander-in-Chief in North
America General Jeffrey Amherst opposed the custom as a form of bribery. Beyond
his ethical sense, Amherst was in a budget crunch following a very expensive
war. Discontinuing gifts saved a few pounds, and he determined that he could
prevent a Native American uprising by suppressing the trade of gunpowder and
putting quotas that checked the amount of ammunition traders could disperse.
Native Americans took his actions as an insult and a display of distrust.
Already scathed by British encroachment, tribes began to consider war. Even the
mighty Iroquois Confederacy was beginning to break down with the Senecas in the
west calling for uprising while the other tribes respected the Covenant Chain
treaties with Britain. Amherst remained confident and, out of the 8,000 men
under his command, sent only 500 to the western forts.
Chief Obwandiyag of the Ottawa, known to the British as
Pontiac, was the first to act. Pontiac had held numerous councils through the
years to form a federation of tribes that would counter any colonial
aspirations. At the beginning of May, Pontiac and fifty warriors called on the
nearby Fort Detroit, appearing friendly but in fact testing the defenses. Major
Henry Gladwin, who had about 120 men under his command, welcomed them. Upon
seeing the fort undermanned, Pontiac held a council of tribes including the
Potawatomi and Ojibwas, telling them, “My brothers, we must all swear their
destruction and wait no longer. Nothing prevents us; they are few in numbers,
and we can accomplish it.”
As the warriors assembled, a young woman who had fallen in
love with Gladwin stole away to warn him. She arrived at the fort as Gladwin
was having dinner, reading aloud a letter from his wife, Frances Beridge
Gladwin, whom he had married the year before. Seeing a love unrequited and
impossible, the young woman told him that she wished he would be happy the rest
of his life, knowing how short it would be.
Pontiac led a force of three hundred men to Fort Detroit,
hiding their weapons under blankets. Gladwin again welcomed the visitors, who
erupted at Pontiac’s call and massacred the unprepared soldiers. The arsenal
was captured nearly intact, giving Pontiac’s army ample weapons. A few British
escaped, warning settlers to flee. Those that stayed were massacred, except for
children, who were adopted into native tribes. Following local ritual, one the
fallen soldiers was cannibalized.
Word spread of the uprising in the Great Lakes more quickly
to the tribes than the British military. Through May and into June, other
tribes seized Fort St. Joseph, Fort Sandusky, and more through the Ohio. By the
end of June, Delawares attacked Fort Pitt in western Pennsylvania. While they
did not have the numbers to take the fort, which had been packed with more than
five hundred people fleeing the onslaught, the Delawares laid a siege that
opened up the whole countryside to extensive raids by the Shawnee and
themselves. In early July, Pontiac arrived with an army of over 1,000 warriors
and assisted the Delaware in destroying the fort. Taking upon a mantle as chief
of chiefs, Pontiac continued to march eastward on Fort Ligonier and Fort
Bedford.
Amherst panicked, hoping to use biological warfare through
smallpox-infected blankets, but he was recalled that August. Major General
Thomas Gage, Governor of Montreal, replaced him that October. By then the
tribes were beginning to retreat and consolidate in the west for winter.
Settlers had all retreated east, well past the line set forth by the unrelated
Royal Proclamation of 1763, which determined to restrict settlement to the
Appalachians to prevent encroachment that London feared would cause such
altercations with the Native Americans. It seemed to be a suitable line now as
all settlers had been chased out of the area, but Gage refused to leave Pontiac
and his confederation as victors.
That winter, Gage had no problem raising up volunteers from
local militias. Groups of men formed up gangs, such as the Paxton Boys that
were ready to fight any Indian, including those who had been Christianized and
lived as British citizens. The Paxtonians had marched on Philadelphia in
pursuit of eastern Native Americans who fled there seeking asylum from their
scourge. Benjamin Franklin, leader of one of the local militias, was able to
stop them from completing their raid. Gage absorbed the Paxtonians into his own
forces and promoted Franklin to a general of militia.
In the spring, Gage launched two expeditions: one in the north
to quell the Seneca besieging Fort Niagara and one in the south marching from
Pennsylvania to alleviate the assaults there and in Virginia. Western New York
was soon settled with the Treaty of Fort Niagara, which turned the rest of the
Iroquois against the warring Seneca and made them fast allies with the British.
The Ohio Campaign dragged on for another five years. By the end, Pontiac had
grown despotic, leading increasingly desperate raids from Illinois where he
scrounged munitions from French settlers. Gage and Franklin were able to use
Pontiac’s extremism against the federation, breaking off tribes willing to sign
independent treaties. After Pontiac’s assassination in 1769, the broken
warriors fled across the Mississippi rather than accede to British authority.
The war had been a costly one, but North American colonials
seemed willing to accept taxes on stamps and tea to pay for their safety. With
the Ohio Valley seized by military action and largely depopulated except for
narrow reserves for defeated tribes, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 was
overturned. Instead, colonists were encouraged to head west, and land sales
helped pay much of the massive war debt. Speculation led to the Panic of 1776
and an uprising of disenfranchised, which was settled by Gage's harsh
crackdown. Upon his recall and extensions of dominion status for peaceful
colonies like Virginia, North Americans quietly returned to the Empire.
--
In reality, although the story of the Indian woman may be
legend, Major Gladwin did receive word of Pontiac’s sneak attack and had his
men prepped and armed. Pontiac retreated and soon returned to besiege the fort.
Other forts fell to Native Americans, but their progress was stopped at the
Battle of Bushy Run. After the war, Gage turned his unsympathetic policies on
the colonists, who were outraged by the Proclamation of 1769 and increased taxes,
leading to the Declaration of Independence.
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