THE INTERCOLONIAL WARS AND THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
King William's War--Queen Anne's War--King George's War--The French and
Indian War--England and France Rivals in the Old World and the New--The
Early French Settlements--The Disputed Territory--France's Fatal
Weakness--Washington's Journey Through the Wilderness--The First Fight
of the War--The War Wholly American for Two Years--The Braddock
Massacre--The Great Change Wrought by William Pitt--Fall of
Quebec--Momentous Consequences of the Great English Victory--The Growth
and Progress of the Colonies and Their Home Life.
KING WILLIAM'S WAR.
If anything were needed to prove the utter uselessness and horrible
barbarity of war, it is found in a history of the strife in which the
American colonies were involved through the quarrels of their rulers,
thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic. Men lived for
years in America as neighbors, meeting and exchanging visits on the most
friendly terms, and with no thought of enmity, until the arrival of some
ship with news that their respective governments in Europe had gone to
war. Straightway, the neighbors became enemies, and, catching up their
guns, did their best to kill one another. Untold misery and hundreds of
lives were lost, merely because two ambitious men had gotten into a
wrangle. The result of such a dispute possessed no earthly interest to
the people in the depths of the American wilderness, but loyalty to
their sovereigns demanded that they should plunge into strife.
As time passed, Spain and Holland declined in power, and England and
France became formidable rivals in the New World as well as in the Old.
In 1689, when William III. was on the throne of England, war broke out
between that country and France and lasted until 1697. The French,
having settled in Canada, were wise enough to cultivate the friendship
of the Indians, who helped them in their savage manner in desolating the
English settlements. Dover, New Hampshire, was attacked by the French
and Indians, who killed more than a score of persons and carried away a
number of captives. In other places, settlers were surprised in the
fields and shot down. Early in 1690, another party came down from
Canada, and, when the snow lay deep on the ground and the people were
sleeping in their beds, made a furious attack upon Schenectady. The town
was burned and sixty persons tomahawked, while the survivors, half-clad,
struggled through the snow to Albany, sixteen miles distant.
The Americans in retaliation attempted to invade Canada, but the result
was a disastrous failure. The war continued in a desultory way, with
great cruelties on both sides, until 1697, when a treaty signed at
Ryswick, Holland, settled the quarrel between King William and James
II., by deciding that the former was the rightful king of England. The
suffering and deaths that had been inflicted on this side of the
Atlantic produced not the slightest effect upon the quarrel between the
two claimants to the throne.
QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
In 1702, England got into a wrangle with France and Spain. This time the
Iroquois Indians took no part, because of their treaty with France,
although in the previous war they fought on the side of the English. In
the depth of winter in 1703-4, Deerfield, Massachusetts, was attacked
and destroyed. Forty-seven of the people were tomahawked and more than a
hundred carried into captivity. Their sufferings were so dreadful on the
long tramp through the snow to Canada that nearly all sank down and
died. Maine and New Hampshire were devastated by the hordes, who showed
no mercy to women and children. Another English invasion of Canada was
attempted, but failed like its predecessor. The aimless, cruel war
continued until 1713, when a treaty of peace was signed at Utrecht in
Holland, by which England secured control of the fisheries of
Newfoundland, while Labrador, Hudson Bay, and Acadia or Nova Scotia were
ceded to Great Britain. The result in both instances would have been the
same had the English and French settlers and the Indians continued on
amicable terms.
KING GEORGE'S WAR.
In 1740, the War for the Austrian Succession broke out in Europe and
soon involved most of the European nations. Because George II. was on
the throne of England, the struggle is known in this country as King
George's War.
A notable event in America was the capture of the fortress of Louisburg,
one of the strongest fortifications in the world, mainly by New England
troops. It was a grand achievement which thrilled this country and
England, and caused consternation in France. A treaty of peace was
signed in 1744 at Aix-la-Chapelle, a town in western Germany. New
England was enraged to find that by the terms of this treaty Louisburg
was given back to France, and all her valor, sacrifice, and suffering
went for naught.
THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.
[Illustration: THE ATTACK ON RIOTERS AT SPRINGFIELD, MASS., IN 1786.]
It has already been shown that England and France, who had long been
rivals in the Old World, had become equally bitter rivals on this side
of the Atlantic. On the west, the thirteen English colonies were walled
in by the Allegheny Mountains, beyond which none of the settlers had
advanced. All the country lying between these mountains and the
Mississippi was claimed by France, who was pushing southward through it,
and had given it the name of New France or Louisiana. The first French
settlement within the northwestern part of our country was the mission
of St. Mary, near Sault Ste. Marie, now in the State of Michigan, it
having been established in 1668. Several others of minor importance were
planted at different points.
England did not oppose the acquirement of Canada by the French early in
the seventeenth century, but no serious attempt was made by that people
to colonize the territory within the United States until 1699, when
D'Iberville crossed the Gulf of Mexico in quest of the mouth of the
Mississippi. When he found it, he planted a settlement at Biloxi, now in
Mississippi, but removed it in 1702 to Mobile. The Mississippi Company,
a French organization, obtained in 1716 a grant of Louisiana, and in
1718 sent out a colony that began the settlement of New Orleans.
It will thus be seen that by 1750 the French had acquired large
possessions in North America. They were, determined to hold them, and,
to do so, established a chain of sixty forts reaching from Montreal to
the Gulf of Mexico. These forts were the foundations of many important
cities of to-day, such as New Orleans, Natchez, Detroit, Vincennes,
Toledo, Fort Wayne, Ogdensburg, and Montreal. To the rear of the main
chain of forts were others like Mackinaw, Peoria, and Kaskaskia.
Extensive as was the territory thus taken possession of by the French,
they were fatally weak because of their scant population, amounting to
less than 150,000 souls, while the English colonies had grown to
1,500,000. The French traders were just about strong enough to hold the
Indians in check, but no more.
Thus with the French on the west and the English on the east of the
Alleghanies, the two rival forces were slowly creeping toward each
other, and were bound soon to meet, when the supreme struggle for
possession of the North American continent would open. By-and-by, the
French hunters and traders, as they climbed the western slope of the
mountains, met the English trappers moving in their direction. Being the
advance skirmishers of their respective armies, they often exchanged
shots, and then fell back to report what they had seen and done to their
countrymen.
The fertile lands of the Great West had long attracted attention, and
many efforts had been made to buy them at a cheap price to sell again to
settlers. In 1749, the Ohio Company was formed by a number of London
merchants and several prominent Virginians. The lands they bought lay in
western Pennsylvania, which Virginia claimed as part of her territory.
This company proved its earnestness by sending out surveyors, opening
roads, and offering tempting inducements to settlers.
The French were equally prompt and took possession of the country
between the Alleghanies and their main chain of forts. They built a fort
at Presq' Isle, on the site of the present city of Erie, and began
erecting a new chain of forts southward toward the Ohio. Governor
Dinwiddie of Virginia saw the danger of permitting this encroachment,
and he wrote a letter of remonstrance to the French commander, which was
placed in the hands of GEORGE WASHINGTON, to be carried five hundred
miles through wilderness, across mountains and dangerous rivers, to the
point in western Pennsylvania where the French officer was building his
forts upon disputed ground.
[Illustration: YOUNG WASHINGTON RIDING A COLT.
One summer morning, young George, with three or four boys, was in the
field looking at a colt, given him by his mother, and when the boys said
that it could never be tamed, George said: "You help me get on its back,
and I'll tame it."]
The journey was a long and perilous one, but Washington, who was a
magnificent specimen of vigorous young manhood, performed it in safety,
and brought back the reply of the French commander, which notified
Governor Dinwiddie that he not only refused to vacate the territory, but
would drive out every Englishman he found within it.
This meant war, and Virginia made her preparations. She raised about 400
men and placed them under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Washington,
who was more familiar with the country than anyone else. The Ohio
Company at that time were putting up a fort on the present site of
Pittsburg, and Washington hurried forward to protect it. The Frenchmen
understood the value of a post at the junction of the Alleghany and
Monongahela Rivers, and also started on a race for it. They arrived
first, captured the fort, strengthened it, and gave it the name of Fort
Duquesne. That done, they set out to meet Washington, who was descending
the Monongahela.
OPENING OF THE WAR.
The meeting between these forces brought on the first fight of the
French and Indian War. It was the advance party of each which met, and
it is said that the first musket was fired by Washington himself. The
French had enlisted a number of Indians, but Washington killed or
captured nearly all of them as well as the whites. The main body of the
French, however, was so much more powerful than his own, that Washington
moved back a few miles and built a fortification which he named Fort
Necessity. There, after a brisk fight, he was compelled to surrender,
July 4, 1754, on the promise that he and his men should be allowed to
return to Virginia. That province was so well pleased with his work that
he acted as its leading officer throughout the remainder of the war.
A peculiarity of the French and Indian War must be noted. For two years
it was entirely an American war, not extending to Europe until 1756. For
the first time the English colonies acted together. They saw the value
of the territory in dispute and were ready to make common cause for its
possession. England was inclined to let them do the best they could
without help from her. She advised that they form some plan for united
action. In accordance with this suggestion, a meeting was held at Albany
in 1754, composed of delegates from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York,
and the New England colonies. Benjamin Franklin, the great philosopher,
proposed the "Albany plan of Union," which was agreed upon.
When this was submitted to the king, he saw too much of American
independence in it, and promptly rejected it, while the colonies did the
same on the ground that it gave the king too much power. There was much
significance in this action.
EXPULSION OF THE CANADIANS.
It was now so evident that war must soon come that England and France
began sending troops to America. At the same time, the respective
governments continued to profess--diplomatically--their strong
friendship for each other. In June, 1755, a force consisting of British
regulars and colonial troops sailed from Boston and captured the few
remaining French forts in Nova Scotia. The inhabitants were gathered
together in their churches, placed on ships, and then distributed
southward among the English colonies. This act has been often denounced
as one unworthy of the British people.
[Illustration: WASHINGTON'S FIRST VICTORY
"Washington was at the head of his men with a musket in his grasp. The
instant he saw the Frenchmen he discharged his gun at them, and gave the
order to his men to fire. Hence it came about that the first hostile
shot in the French and Indian War was fired by George Washington."]
BRADDOCK'S MASSACRE.
Among the English officers who arrived in 1755 was General Edward
Braddock. He was brave and skillful, but conceited and stubborn. When
Washington, who was one of his aides, explained to him the character of
the treacherous foes whom he would have to fight and advised him to
adopt similar tactics, the English officer insultingly answered that
when he felt the need of advice from a young Virginian, he would ask for
it. He marched toward Fort Duquesne and was within a few miles of the
post, when he ran into an ambush and was assailed so vehemently by a
force of French and Indians that half his men were killed, the rest put
to flight, and himself mortally wounded. Washington and his Virginians,
by adopting the Indian style of fighting, checked the pursuit and saved
the remainder of the men.
[Illustration: BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT.]
In the spring of 1756, England and France declared war against each
other and the struggle now involved those two countries. For two years
the English, despite their preponderance of forces in America, lost
rather than gained ground. Their officers sent across the ocean were a
sorry lot, while the French were commanded by Montcalm, a brilliant
leader. He concentrated his forces and delivered many effective blows,
capturing the forts on the northern border of New York and winning all
the Indians to his support. The English fought in detached bodies and
were continually defeated.
ENGLISH SUCCESSES.
But a change came in 1758, when William Pitt, one of the greatest
Englishmen in history, was called to the head of the government. He
weeded out inefficient officers, replaced them with skillful ones, who,
concentrating their troops, assailed the French at three important
points. Louisburg, on Cape Breton Island, which had been captured more
than a hundred years before, during King George's War, was again taken
by a naval expedition in the summer of 1758. In the autumn, Fort
Duquesne was captured without resistance and named Fort Pitt, in honor
of the illustrious prime minister. The single defeat administered to the
English was at Ticonderoga, where Montcalm commanded in person. This was
a severe repulse, in which the English lost in the neighborhood of 1,600
men. It was offset by the expulsion of the French from northwestern New
York and the capture of Fort Frontenac, on the present site of Kingston
in Canada.
[Illustration: MARTELLO TOWER ON THE HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM, WHERE WOLFE WAS
KILLED.]
One wise step of Pitt was in winning the cordial support of the
provincials, as the colonists were called, to the British regulars. Our
ancestors thus gained a most valuable military training which served
them well in the great struggle for independence a few years later.
WOLFE'S GREAT VICTORY.
The year 1759 brought decisive success to the English. Knowing that they
intended to attack Quebec, Montcalm drew in his troops to defend that
city. It therefore was an easy matter for the English to capture
Ticonderoga, Crown Point, and Fort Niagara, General Wolfe, one of the
very ablest of English leaders, left Louisburg with a fleet and sailed
up the St. Lawrence. He found the fortifications of Quebec at so great
an elevation that he could make no impression upon them. Three months
passed in idle waiting and the besiegers were almost disheartened. Wolfe
himself was so distressed by anxiety that he fell ill. The sagacious
Montcalm could not be induced to come out and give battle, and there
seemed no way of reaching him.
[Illustration: A DUTCH HOUSEHOLD.
As seen in the early days in New York.]
But the lion-hearted Wolfe would not be denied. He found a path leading
up to the Heights of Abraham, as the plain above was called, and,
selecting a mild night in September, his troops floated down the river
in their boats and landed at the foot of the cliff. All night long the
English soldiers were clambering up the steep path, dragging a few guns
with them, and, when the morning sun rose, it shone on the flashing
bayonets of the whole army drawn up in battle array before the walls of
Quebec.
The astonished Montcalm, instead of remaining within the city, marched
his army out and gave battle. In the fight both Wolfe and Montcalm were
fatally wounded. Wolfe lived long enough to learn that the French were
fleeing before his victorious troops. "Now, I can die happy," he said,
and shortly after expired. When Montcalm was told he must die, he
mournfully replied: "So much the better; I shall not live to see the
surrender of Quebec."
MOMENTOUS RESULTS OF THE WAR.
This battle was one of the decisive ones of the world, for, as will be
seen, its results were of momentous importance to mankind. The conquest
of Canada followed in 1760, and the other French forts fairly tumbled
into the possession of the English. Pontiac, Chief of the Ottawas, was
so angered at the turn of events that he refused to be bound by the
terms of the surrender. He brought a number of tribes into an alliance,
captured several British posts in the West, and laid siege to Detroit
for more than a year, but in the end he was defeated, his confederacy
scattered, and Pontiac himself, like Philip, was killed by one of his
own race.
The war was over, so far as America was concerned, but England and
France kept it up for nearly three years, fighting on the ocean and
elsewhere. In 1762, Spain joined France, but received a telling blow in
the same year, when an English expedition captured the city of Havana.
In this important event, the provincials gave valuable aid to the
British regulars. The colonies also sent out a number of privateers
which captured many rich prizes from the Spaniards.
By 1763, Great Britain had completely conquered France and Spain, and a
treaty of peace was signed at Paris. France and Spain agreed to give up
all of North America east of the Mississippi, and England ceded _Cuba to
Spain in exchange for Florida, exchanging Florida in 1783 for the Bahama
Islands. The former_ was a victory for Spanish diplomacy, since Florida
was practically worthless to _Spain_, while Havana, _the capital of
Cuba_, was an enormously wealthy city, and the island possessed
marvelous fertility and almost boundless resources.
France, after her wholesale yielding to England, paid Spain her ally by
ceding to her all her possessions west of the Mississippi, including the
city of New Orleans. This enormous territory, then known as Louisiana,
comprehended everything between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi
River, from British America to the Gulf of Mexico. In extent it was an
empire from which many of the most important States of the Union have
been carved. When it is remembered that these changes were the result of
a war in which the capture of Quebec was the decisive conflict, it will
be admitted that there was ample warrant for pronouncing it one of the
great battles of the world.
The thirteen original colonies were now "full grown." Their population
had increased to 2,000,000 and was fast growing. Their men had proven
their bravery and generalship in the French and Indian War. Many of them
had developed into fine officers, and all compared favorably with the
British regulars. Their loyalty to England was proven by the 30,000
lives that had been given that she might conquer her traditional rival
and enemy.
The adventurous spirit of the colonists was shown by the fact that many
began crossing the Alleghanies into the fertile district beyond, where
they were in continual danger from the fierce Indians. James Robertson
led a party of emigrants who made the first settlement in Tennessee in
1768, and the famous Daniel Boone and a company of immigrants were the
pioneers in Kentucky in 1769. No effort was made to settle the country
north of the Ohio until after the Revolution.
[Illustration: MEMORIAL HALL, HARVARD COLLEGE.]
The intellectual progress of the colonies was remarkable. The first
printing press was set up at Cambridge in 1639, and newspapers and books
were in general circulation. Harvard College was founded in
Massachusetts in 1638; William and Mary, in Virginia, in 1692; Yale, in
Connecticut, in 1700; the College of New Jersey (now Princeton
University), in 1746; the University of Pennsylvania, in 1749; and
King's College (now Columbia), in New York, in 1754. Much attention was
given to education, commerce was greatly extended, the oppressive
Navigation Act being generally disregarded, and thousands of citizens
were in prosperous circumstances.
More significant than all else was the growth of the sentiment of unity
among the different colonies. Although properly known as provincials, to
distinguish them from the British, they now, instead of speaking of
themselves as New Englanders or Virginians or Englishmen, often
substituted the name "Americans." The different colonies were looked
upon as members of the same great family, ready to make common cause
against a danger threatening any one of them. Some of the bolder ones
began to express the thought that it would be a fine thing if they were
all independent of the mother country, though for years the sentiment
assumed no importance.
Now was the time for England to display wisdom, justice, and
statesmanship toward her subjects in America. Had she treated them as
she now treats Canada and Australia and her other colonies, there never
would have been a Revolution. No doubt in time we should have separated
from her, but the separation would have been peaceable.
[Illustration: BIBLE BROUGHT OVER IN THE "MAYFLOWER" IN PILGRIM HALL,
NEW PLYMOUTH.]
But while Great Britain has always been immeasurably above Spain in her
treatment of her American subjects, she was almost as foolish, because
she chilled the loyalty that had been proven in too many instances to be
doubted. The mother country was laboring under the weight of burdensome
taxes, and, since the colonies had always been prompt in voting money
and supplies as well as men to assist England, Parliament thought she
saw a way of shouldering a large part of this burden upon the Americans.
Her attempts to do so and the results therefrom properly belong to the
succeeding chapter.
HOME LIFE OF THE COLONISTS.
A few facts will assist in understanding the events that follow.
Slavery, as has been stated, was legal and existed in all the colonies,
but climatic conditions caused it to flourish in the South and decline
in the North. All the colonies were Protestant, though religious liberty
was permitted everywhere.
The laws were amazingly strict and would never be submitted to in these
times. To illustrate: a watchman in Hartford rang a bell every morning
as notice to all adults to rise from their beds. Massachusetts had
fourteen and Virginia seventeen offenses that were punishable with
death. Some of the minor punishments were unique. If a woman became a
common scold, she was placed near her own door, with a gag fastened in
her mouth, that all might see and beware of her example. For other
offenses, a man was ducked in water or put in the stocks. A stock was a
strong framework, through which the feet or both feet and hands were
thrust and held fast, while the pillory was a framework through which
the head and hands of a criminal were imprisoned. Besides the disgrace
attending such punishment, it was very trying. The whipping-post was
quite common long after the Revolution, and it is still occasionally
used in Delaware.
[Illustration: AMERICAN STAGE-COACH OF 1795, FROM "WELD'S TRAVELS."
(Probably similar in form to those of the later colonial period.)]
Men and boys dressed much alike, and the fashions for women and girls
were similar. The breeches of the men suggested the present style of
knickerbockers, the rich making quite a display of silver buckles and
buttons. The breeches of the poorer people were made of coarse cloth,
deerskin, or leather, the object being to obtain all the wear possible.
The wealthy used velvet, and the men and women were as fond of display
as their descendants.
In the earliest days, all the houses were made of logs, and oiled paper
took the place of glass for windows. Carpets were an unknown luxury.
Often the floor was the smooth, hard ground. The cooking was done in the
big fireplace, where an iron arm called a crane was swung over the fire
and sustained the pots and kettles. Coal and matches were unknown, a
fire being started by means of a piece of steel and flint or with the
help of a sun glass.
Coffee and tea were great luxuries, but nearly every family made its own
beer. Rum and hard cider were drunk by church people as well as others,
the only fault being when one drank too much. The important cities and
towns were connected by stages, but most of the traveling was done on
foot or horseback. Since most of the settlements were near the sea or on
large rivers, long journeys were made by means of coasting sloops. When
a line of stages in 1766 made the trip between New York and Philadelphia
in two days, it was considered so wonderful that the vehicles were
called "flying machines."
Regarding the state of religion in the colonies, Prof. George F. Holmes
says:
"The state of religion among the people differed greatly in the
different provinces. The Church of England was the established religion
in New York, Virginia, and the Carolinas. In Maryland, the population
remained largely Roman Catholic. In New England the original Puritanism
was dominant, but its rigor had become much softened. A solemn and
somewhat gloomy piety, however, still prevailed. The Presbyterians were
numerous, influential, and earnest in New Jersey. There, but especially
in Pennsylvania, were the quiet and gentle Quakers. In Carolina and
Georgia, Moravians and other German Protestants were settled, and
Huguenot families were frequent in Virginia and South Carolina.
"Everywhere, however, was found an intermixture of creeds, and
consequently the need of toleration had been experienced. Laxity of
morals and of conduct was alleged against the communities of the
Anglican Church. In the middle of the eighteenth century a low tone of
religious sentiment was general. The revival of fervor, which was
incited then by the Wesleys, was widely spread by Whitefield in America,
and Methodism was making itself felt throughout the country. The
Baptists were spreading in different colonies and were acquiring
influence by their earnest simplicity. They favored liberty in all forms
and became warm partisans of the revolutionary movement."
[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL
When the third attack was made, and the Americans' ammunition was
exhausted with the first volley, a desperate hand-to-hand struggle
followed. General Warren was fighting heroically when a British officer
recognized him, seized a musket from a private and shot him dead.]