Jim Remsen's Blog: The Slave as "Crushed Vegetable'', page 2
August 16, 2015
How Choctaws aided starving Irish
A major antagonist in my book Visions of Teaoga isn’t a person but a stone monument. Its plaque commemorates a Revolutionary War assault into the Iroquois Indian heartland--a march it says “destroyed savagery” and opened the region to “civilization.” Dedicated in 1902 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, the monument perfectly captures our country’s then-imbedded mindset that native peoples were mere savages with no redeeming values.
So I loved learning the other day about one tribe’s beautiful and little-known good works on behalf of white people a half-century earlier. What a redeeming story it is.
The Choctaw Indians were one of the first tribes to be uprooted and forced west on the horrific Trails of Tears in the early 1830s. Untold numbers died from hunger and exposure on the long, cold march from their Mississippi homeland to faraway Oklahoma, where they faced new hardships. Sixteen years later, the Choctaws learned of the Irish potato famine and of how the British overlords would not provide any other food than the blighted potato to the thousands of starving Irish. “Only sixteen years had passed since the Choctaws themselves had faced hunger and death on the first Trail of Tears, and a great empathy was felt when they heard such a similar story coming from across the ocean,” Read More
How Choctaws aided starving Irish
A major antagonist in my book Visions of Teaoga isn�t a person but a stone monument. Its plaque commemorates a Revolutionary War assault into the Iroquois Indian heartland--a march it says �destroyed savagery� and opened the region to �civilization.� Dedicated in 1902 by the Daughters of the American Revolution, the monument perfectly captures our country�s then-imbedded mindset that native peoples were mere savages with no redeeming values.
So I loved learning the other day about one tribe�s beautiful and little-known good works on behalf of white people a half-century earlier. What a redeeming story it is.
The Choctaw Indians were one of the first tribes to be uprooted and forced west on the horrific Trails of Tears in the early 1830s. Untold numbers died from hunger and exposure on the long, cold march from their Mississippi homeland to faraway Oklahoma, where they faced new hardships. Sixteen years later, the Choctaws learned of the Irish potato famine and of how the British overlords would not provide any other food than the blighted potato to the thousands of starving Irish. �Only sixteen years had passed since the Choctaws themselves had faced hunger and death on the first Trail of Tears, and a great empathy was felt when they heard such a similar story coming from across the ocean,� states the Choctaw Nation website. �Individuals made donations totaling $170 in 1847 to send to assist the Irish people. These noble Choctaw people, who had such meager resources, gave all they could on behalf of others in greater need.�
This story of generosity may be unknown here, but the Irish never forgot. A friendship monument has been erected in County Cork. Irish and Choctaw delegations have made exchange visits. The Lord Mayor�s mansion in Dublin installed a plaque reading: �Their humanity calls us to remember the millions of human beings throughout our world today who die of hunger and hunger-related illness in a world of plenty.�
The Choctaw article was sent by a friend who�d been with me on a tour of Ireland in July. We visited lovely southwestern Ireland, which is still under-populated due to the famine deaths and the resulting mass emigration to the U.S. We visited a cemetery with a potter�s field bearing ten thousand famine victims. It was explained to us why, because food was available but just not provided under British policy, the Irish call the famine The Great Hunger. The Choctaws, having been persecuted by �civilized� rulers themselves, wouldn�t have needed any explanation.
You can learn about the tribe�s continuing good works here: http://www.choctawnation.com/history/...
You can also join the "Choctaw Irish Famine" Facebook page.
So I loved learning the other day about one tribe�s beautiful and little-known good works on behalf of white people a half-century earlier. What a redeeming story it is.
The Choctaw Indians were one of the first tribes to be uprooted and forced west on the horrific Trails of Tears in the early 1830s. Untold numbers died from hunger and exposure on the long, cold march from their Mississippi homeland to faraway Oklahoma, where they faced new hardships. Sixteen years later, the Choctaws learned of the Irish potato famine and of how the British overlords would not provide any other food than the blighted potato to the thousands of starving Irish. �Only sixteen years had passed since the Choctaws themselves had faced hunger and death on the first Trail of Tears, and a great empathy was felt when they heard such a similar story coming from across the ocean,� states the Choctaw Nation website. �Individuals made donations totaling $170 in 1847 to send to assist the Irish people. These noble Choctaw people, who had such meager resources, gave all they could on behalf of others in greater need.�
This story of generosity may be unknown here, but the Irish never forgot. A friendship monument has been erected in County Cork. Irish and Choctaw delegations have made exchange visits. The Lord Mayor�s mansion in Dublin installed a plaque reading: �Their humanity calls us to remember the millions of human beings throughout our world today who die of hunger and hunger-related illness in a world of plenty.�
The Choctaw article was sent by a friend who�d been with me on a tour of Ireland in July. We visited lovely southwestern Ireland, which is still under-populated due to the famine deaths and the resulting mass emigration to the U.S. We visited a cemetery with a potter�s field bearing ten thousand famine victims. It was explained to us why, because food was available but just not provided under British policy, the Irish call the famine The Great Hunger. The Choctaws, having been persecuted by �civilized� rulers themselves, wouldn�t have needed any explanation.
You can learn about the tribe�s continuing good works here: http://www.choctawnation.com/history/...
You can also join the "Choctaw Irish Famine" Facebook page.
August 1, 2015
Hard historical truths
“MORE THAN SIX THOUSAND PRESENT! THE GREATEST ENTHUSIASMS PREVAILED.”
I just came upon that breathless headline while doing research for my next book, which will delve into 19th century black life in the section of northeastern Pennsylvania where I was raised. My hometown, the lovely hamlet of Waverly, north of Scranton, takes pride in the fact that it once harbored a settlement of fugitive slaves. I’ve been drilling down into that history, with a focus on the dozen remarkable black men from the settlement who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
My goal in this latest round of road research was to find verification for a report I recently ran across online (thank you, newspapers.com!) about a rally in Waverly in October 1861, in the early stages of the war. According to the Adams Sentinel of Gettysburg, the rally was held in support of Lincoln’s policies, and it featured speeches by two gutsy officials of the opposition Democrats, representing the faction of “pro-war Democrats.” The article said ten thousand people attended and cheered loudly. Who else spoke, I wondered. Waverly’s black residents must have attended. Did one of their leaders perhaps get a spot on the platform as well? And where could such a massive event even be held in little Waverly?
I hoped the answer might pop up in one of the old Scranton newspapers, which would presumably have covered such a major event in its area. Unfortunately, the archived newspapers at the Scranton public library only go back to 1863, so that part of my search is thwarted for now.
Meanwhile, I dove into newly added microfilm for another Scranton newspaper, The Lackawanna Register, beginning in early 1863. The Register was a hard-core, Lincoln-hating Democratic house organ—and wow, the invective and racism! Its pages were filled with accounts of large antiwar demonstrations throughout the region in the summer of 1863. There was one in Greenfield, and in Scott, in Lenox, in Harford, in Dundaff, in Fleetville.
Wait a second. This picture runs directly counter to the impression I’d gotten before-- that the area was in Lincoln’s camp and that its Southern-sympathizing, abolition-loathing “Copperheads” were fringe crackpots who were few in number.
Even if you figure The Register was inflating the size of the turnouts and the level of enthusiasm, the events still must have been galvanizing. For instance, the June 6 “gathering of the yeomanry” in Greenfield drew many “in their four-horse teams, heavily freighted with the Democracy of their immediate neighborhoods. Others with two-horse teams; some in buggies, some on horseback, and hundreds came on foot…Flags and national music enlivened the occasion at intervals.” Resolutions were adopted that denounced both Lincoln’s war powers and abolitionist “fanaticism” (saying the abolitionists “may be hopelessly insane; still, they shall not be permitted to rule or ruin this great nation.”).
Similarly, several thousand in Harford cheered as the speaker blasted away. According to the Register, “the ‘Negro Equality’ doctrine, in connection with the Abolition policy of the Administration, received the largest share of his satire—the tremendous volleys of which frequently call out the most enthusiastic demonstration.”
Then came the one in Fleetville, just five miles north of Waverly, on July 4 (“More Than 6,000 Present!”). A hickory pole, symbol of Jacksonian Democracy, was erected, more fiery speeches were cheered, and “a committee of two hundred ladies presented the gentlemen who addressed them with a most beautiful bouquet.”
Also that day, the crowd affirmed an angry resolution written by Waverly lawyer Thomas Smith. This long manifesto denounced the federal government’s “negro fanaticism” and called for “a speedy deliverance from Abraham Lincoln’s bloody Abolition rule.” It declared the president guilty of treason—and said that “for his numerous wanton violations of the Constitution of the United States he ought to be impeached.”
Contrary to other accounts I’ve read, the so-called “Crackerbarrel Congress” manifesto was not merely the product of a handful of cranky men who met in the backroom of a Fleetville store. They were speaking for thousands of people in that region, dissidents who repudiated “King Abraham”--and also couldn’t stand black people and their white allies in places like Waverly.
Stay tuned for more updates.
I just came upon that breathless headline while doing research for my next book, which will delve into 19th century black life in the section of northeastern Pennsylvania where I was raised. My hometown, the lovely hamlet of Waverly, north of Scranton, takes pride in the fact that it once harbored a settlement of fugitive slaves. I’ve been drilling down into that history, with a focus on the dozen remarkable black men from the settlement who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
My goal in this latest round of road research was to find verification for a report I recently ran across online (thank you, newspapers.com!) about a rally in Waverly in October 1861, in the early stages of the war. According to the Adams Sentinel of Gettysburg, the rally was held in support of Lincoln’s policies, and it featured speeches by two gutsy officials of the opposition Democrats, representing the faction of “pro-war Democrats.” The article said ten thousand people attended and cheered loudly. Who else spoke, I wondered. Waverly’s black residents must have attended. Did one of their leaders perhaps get a spot on the platform as well? And where could such a massive event even be held in little Waverly?
I hoped the answer might pop up in one of the old Scranton newspapers, which would presumably have covered such a major event in its area. Unfortunately, the archived newspapers at the Scranton public library only go back to 1863, so that part of my search is thwarted for now.
Meanwhile, I dove into newly added microfilm for another Scranton newspaper, The Lackawanna Register, beginning in early 1863. The Register was a hard-core, Lincoln-hating Democratic house organ—and wow, the invective and racism! Its pages were filled with accounts of large antiwar demonstrations throughout the region in the summer of 1863. There was one in Greenfield, and in Scott, in Lenox, in Harford, in Dundaff, in Fleetville.
Wait a second. This picture runs directly counter to the impression I’d gotten before-- that the area was in Lincoln’s camp and that its Southern-sympathizing, abolition-loathing “Copperheads” were fringe crackpots who were few in number.
Even if you figure The Register was inflating the size of the turnouts and the level of enthusiasm, the events still must have been galvanizing. For instance, the June 6 “gathering of the yeomanry” in Greenfield drew many “in their four-horse teams, heavily freighted with the Democracy of their immediate neighborhoods. Others with two-horse teams; some in buggies, some on horseback, and hundreds came on foot…Flags and national music enlivened the occasion at intervals.” Resolutions were adopted that denounced both Lincoln’s war powers and abolitionist “fanaticism” (saying the abolitionists “may be hopelessly insane; still, they shall not be permitted to rule or ruin this great nation.”).
Similarly, several thousand in Harford cheered as the speaker blasted away. According to the Register, “the ‘Negro Equality’ doctrine, in connection with the Abolition policy of the Administration, received the largest share of his satire—the tremendous volleys of which frequently call out the most enthusiastic demonstration.”
Then came the one in Fleetville, just five miles north of Waverly, on July 4 (“More Than 6,000 Present!”). A hickory pole, symbol of Jacksonian Democracy, was erected, more fiery speeches were cheered, and “a committee of two hundred ladies presented the gentlemen who addressed them with a most beautiful bouquet.”
Also that day, the crowd affirmed an angry resolution written by Waverly lawyer Thomas Smith. This long manifesto denounced the federal government’s “negro fanaticism” and called for “a speedy deliverance from Abraham Lincoln’s bloody Abolition rule.” It declared the president guilty of treason—and said that “for his numerous wanton violations of the Constitution of the United States he ought to be impeached.”
Contrary to other accounts I’ve read, the so-called “Crackerbarrel Congress” manifesto was not merely the product of a handful of cranky men who met in the backroom of a Fleetville store. They were speaking for thousands of people in that region, dissidents who repudiated “King Abraham”--and also couldn’t stand black people and their white allies in places like Waverly.
Stay tuned for more updates.
July 31, 2015
A hard historical truth
“MORE THAN SIX THOUSAND PRESENT! THE GREATEST ENTHUSIASMS PREVAILED.”
I just came upon that breathless headline while doing research for my next book, which will delve into 19th century black life in the section of northeastern Pennsylvania where I was raised. My hometown, the lovely hamlet of Waverly, north of Scranton, takes pride that it once harbored a settlement of fugitive slaves. I’ve been drilling down into that history, with a focus on the dozen remarkable black men from the settlement who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
My goal in this latest round of road research was to find verification for a report I recently ran across online (thank you, newspapers.com!) about a rally in Waverly in October 1861, in the early stages of the war. According to the Adams Sentinel of Gettysburg, the rally was held in support of Lincoln’s policies, and it featured speeches by two gutsy officials of the opposition Democrats, representing the faction of “pro-war Democrats.” The article said ten thousand people attended and cheered loudly. Who else spoke, I wondered. Waverly’s black residents must have attended. Did one of their leaders perhaps get a spot on the platform as well? And where could such a massive event even be held in little Waverly?
I hoped the answer might pop up in one of the old Scranton newspapers, which would presumably have covered such a major event in its area. Unfortunately, the archived newspapers at the Scranton public library only go back to 1863, so that part of my search is thwarted for now.
Meanwhile, I dove into newly added microfilm for another Scranton newspaper, The Lackawanna Register, beginning in early 1863. The Register was a hard-core, Lincoln-hating Democratic house organ—and wow, the invective and racism! Its pages were filled with accounts of large antiwar demonstrations throughout the region in the summer of 1863. There was one in Greenfield, and in Scott, in Lenox, in Harford, in Dundaff, in Fleetville.
Wait a second. This picture runs directly counter to the impression I’d gotten before-- that the area was in Lincoln’s camp and that its Southern-sympathizing, abolition-loathing “Copperheads” were fringe crackpots who were few in number.
Even if you figure The Register was inflating the size of the turnouts Read More
A hard historical truth
�MORE THAN SIX THOUSAND PRESENT! THE GREATEST ENTHUSIASMS PREVAILED.�
I just came upon that breathless headline while doing research for my next book, which will delve into 19th century black life in the section of northeastern Pennsylvania where I was raised. My hometown, the lovely hamlet of Waverly, north of Scranton, takes pride that it once harbored a settlement of fugitive slaves. I�ve been drilling down into that history, with a focus on the dozen remarkable black men from the settlement who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
My goal in this latest round of road research was to find verification for a report I recently ran across online (thank you, newspapers.com!) about a rally in Waverly in October 1861, in the early stages of the war. According to the Adams Sentinel of Gettysburg, the rally was held in support of Lincoln�s policies, and it featured speeches by two gutsy officials of the opposition Democrats, representing the faction of �pro-war Democrats.� The article said ten thousand people attended and cheered loudly. Who else spoke, I wondered. Waverly�s black residents must have attended. Did one of their leaders perhaps get a spot on the platform as well? And where could such a massive event even be held in little Waverly?
I hoped the answer might pop up in one of the old Scranton newspapers, which would presumably have covered such a major event in its area. Unfortunately, the archived newspapers at the Scranton public library only go back to 1863, so that part of my search is thwarted for now.
Meanwhile, I dove into newly added microfilm for another Scranton newspaper, The Lackawanna Register, beginning in early 1863. The Register was a hard-core, Lincoln-hating Democratic house organ�and wow, the invective and racism! Its pages were filled with accounts of large antiwar demonstrations throughout the region in the summer of 1863. There was one in Greenfield, and in Scott, in Lenox, in Harford, in Dundaff, in Fleetville.
Wait a second. This picture runs directly counter to the impression I�d gotten before-- that the area was in Lincoln�s camp and that its Southern-sympathizing, abolition-loathing �Copperheads� were fringe crackpots who were few in number.
Even if you figure The Register was inflating the size of the turnouts and the level of enthusiasm, the events still must have been galvanizing. For instance, the June 6 �gathering of the yeomanry� in Greenfield drew many �in their four-horse teams, heavily freighted with the Democracy of their immediate neighborhoods. Others with two-horse teams; some in buggies, some on horseback, and hundreds came on foot�Flags and national music enlivened the occasion at intervals.� Resolutions were adopted that denounced both Lincoln�s war powers and abolitionist �fanaticism� (saying the abolitionists �may be hopelessly insane; still, they shall not be permitted to rule or ruin this great nation.�).
Similarly, several thousand in Harford cheered as the speaker blasted away. According to the Register, �the �Negro Equality� doctrine, in connection with the Abolition policy of the Administration, received the largest share of his satire�the tremendous volleys of which frequently call out the most enthusiastic demonstration.�
Then came the one in Fleetville, just five miles north of Waverly, on July 4 (�More Than 6,000 Present!�). A hickory pole, symbol of Jacksonian Democracy, was erected, more fiery speeches were cheered, and �a committee of two hundred ladies presented the gentlemen who addressed them with a most beautiful bouquet.�
Also that day, the crowd affirmed an angry resolution written by Waverly lawyer Thomas Smith. This long manifesto denounced the federal government�s �negro fanaticism� and called for �a speedy deliverance from Abraham Lincoln�s bloody Abolition rule.� It declared the president guilty of treason�and said that �for his numerous wanton violations of the Constitution of the United States he ought to be impeached.�
Contrary to other accounts I�ve read, the so-called �Crackerbarrel Congress� manifesto was not merely the product of a handful of cranky men who met in the backroom of a Fleetville store. They were speaking for thousands of people in that region, dissidents who repudiated �King Abraham�--and also couldn�t stand black people and their white allies in places like Waverly.
Stay tuned for more updates.
I just came upon that breathless headline while doing research for my next book, which will delve into 19th century black life in the section of northeastern Pennsylvania where I was raised. My hometown, the lovely hamlet of Waverly, north of Scranton, takes pride that it once harbored a settlement of fugitive slaves. I�ve been drilling down into that history, with a focus on the dozen remarkable black men from the settlement who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.
My goal in this latest round of road research was to find verification for a report I recently ran across online (thank you, newspapers.com!) about a rally in Waverly in October 1861, in the early stages of the war. According to the Adams Sentinel of Gettysburg, the rally was held in support of Lincoln�s policies, and it featured speeches by two gutsy officials of the opposition Democrats, representing the faction of �pro-war Democrats.� The article said ten thousand people attended and cheered loudly. Who else spoke, I wondered. Waverly�s black residents must have attended. Did one of their leaders perhaps get a spot on the platform as well? And where could such a massive event even be held in little Waverly?
I hoped the answer might pop up in one of the old Scranton newspapers, which would presumably have covered such a major event in its area. Unfortunately, the archived newspapers at the Scranton public library only go back to 1863, so that part of my search is thwarted for now.
Meanwhile, I dove into newly added microfilm for another Scranton newspaper, The Lackawanna Register, beginning in early 1863. The Register was a hard-core, Lincoln-hating Democratic house organ�and wow, the invective and racism! Its pages were filled with accounts of large antiwar demonstrations throughout the region in the summer of 1863. There was one in Greenfield, and in Scott, in Lenox, in Harford, in Dundaff, in Fleetville.
Wait a second. This picture runs directly counter to the impression I�d gotten before-- that the area was in Lincoln�s camp and that its Southern-sympathizing, abolition-loathing �Copperheads� were fringe crackpots who were few in number.
Even if you figure The Register was inflating the size of the turnouts and the level of enthusiasm, the events still must have been galvanizing. For instance, the June 6 �gathering of the yeomanry� in Greenfield drew many �in their four-horse teams, heavily freighted with the Democracy of their immediate neighborhoods. Others with two-horse teams; some in buggies, some on horseback, and hundreds came on foot�Flags and national music enlivened the occasion at intervals.� Resolutions were adopted that denounced both Lincoln�s war powers and abolitionist �fanaticism� (saying the abolitionists �may be hopelessly insane; still, they shall not be permitted to rule or ruin this great nation.�).
Similarly, several thousand in Harford cheered as the speaker blasted away. According to the Register, �the �Negro Equality� doctrine, in connection with the Abolition policy of the Administration, received the largest share of his satire�the tremendous volleys of which frequently call out the most enthusiastic demonstration.�
Then came the one in Fleetville, just five miles north of Waverly, on July 4 (�More Than 6,000 Present!�). A hickory pole, symbol of Jacksonian Democracy, was erected, more fiery speeches were cheered, and �a committee of two hundred ladies presented the gentlemen who addressed them with a most beautiful bouquet.�
Also that day, the crowd affirmed an angry resolution written by Waverly lawyer Thomas Smith. This long manifesto denounced the federal government�s �negro fanaticism� and called for �a speedy deliverance from Abraham Lincoln�s bloody Abolition rule.� It declared the president guilty of treason�and said that �for his numerous wanton violations of the Constitution of the United States he ought to be impeached.�
Contrary to other accounts I�ve read, the so-called �Crackerbarrel Congress� manifesto was not merely the product of a handful of cranky men who met in the backroom of a Fleetville store. They were speaking for thousands of people in that region, dissidents who repudiated �King Abraham�--and also couldn�t stand black people and their white allies in places like Waverly.
Stay tuned for more updates.
July 16, 2015
Indian-settler shuttle diplomacy
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia has been adding some fine entries lately, particularly regarding the region’s Native American history. The latest installment takes a fascinating look at one of the most ragtag yet important sets of characters roaming the early borderlands – the intermediaries.
These were ad-hoc diplomats and interpreters pressed into duty to facilitate talks between the Indian tribes and the Colonial authorities.
As the article’s author, Calvin College history professor Stephen T. Staggs, writes, “They ranged from a French-Shawnee fur trader to a German pioneer, from an acculturated Delaware to a Polish-Prussian missionary, and from an Oneida living in a Shawnee village to a Delaware captive.”
I was pleased to see the online encyclopedia focus on these go-betweens because they’re a factor in my historical novel about the Eastern woodlands, Visions of Teaoga. An interpreter is a constant presence at the 1790 Seneca-U.S. peace council that is the center of my action. With peace on the frontier at stake, President Washington’s envoy needed his words--his pledges--to be relayed carefully at the tense gathering. The historical record indicates that they were.
Further, the Shawnee protagonist of Visions of Teaoga, the matriarch known as Queen Esther, might herself have belonged to a family of intermediaries. These were the renowned Montours, namesake of Montoursville, Pa., and Montour County. For several generations during the 18th century, Madame Montour, French Margaret Montour, Catherine Montour and Andrew Montour shuttled through the province as go-betweens. Was Esther truly a Montour? Some have insisted she was, but I find the evidence thin and favor the alternate view that she was a full-blooded Shawnee.
In any event, history shows that the frontier intermediaries were not always honest brokers. “For many years,” Staggs writes, “they helped maintain a tenuous peace, but, with questionable methods such as fake maps and vague treaty statements, some intermediaries collaborated with the government of Pennsylvania and land speculators, thus triggering the Indians’ frustrations that played a role in the outbreak of violence and the Seven Years’ War.”
Esther and her people were victims of the notorious 1737 land fraud known as the Walking Purchase. As recounted in Visions of Teaoga, they were forced out of the Poconos to the intertribal “refugee town” of Shamokin (present-day Sunbury, Pa.). Shamokin’s Iroquois overlord, Shikellamy, and the colonial intermediary Conrad Weiser “helped orchestrate a series of major treaties between the leaders of Iroquoia and Pennsylvania in 1732, 1736, and 1742, which promoted trade and asserted control over the peoples living between Onondaga and Philadelphia,” Staggs explains. “The population increased steadily between the two capitals, however, leading to more frequent disputes between native and colonial neighbors.”
It was an era of connivance, conflict and reprisals that played out all the way through the Revolutionary War and led to the final dispossession of Native Americans from the new state of Pennsylvania.
Professor Staggs’ entry can be read in full at http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/a....
These were ad-hoc diplomats and interpreters pressed into duty to facilitate talks between the Indian tribes and the Colonial authorities.
As the article’s author, Calvin College history professor Stephen T. Staggs, writes, “They ranged from a French-Shawnee fur trader to a German pioneer, from an acculturated Delaware to a Polish-Prussian missionary, and from an Oneida living in a Shawnee village to a Delaware captive.”
I was pleased to see the online encyclopedia focus on these go-betweens because they’re a factor in my historical novel about the Eastern woodlands, Visions of Teaoga. An interpreter is a constant presence at the 1790 Seneca-U.S. peace council that is the center of my action. With peace on the frontier at stake, President Washington’s envoy needed his words--his pledges--to be relayed carefully at the tense gathering. The historical record indicates that they were.
Further, the Shawnee protagonist of Visions of Teaoga, the matriarch known as Queen Esther, might herself have belonged to a family of intermediaries. These were the renowned Montours, namesake of Montoursville, Pa., and Montour County. For several generations during the 18th century, Madame Montour, French Margaret Montour, Catherine Montour and Andrew Montour shuttled through the province as go-betweens. Was Esther truly a Montour? Some have insisted she was, but I find the evidence thin and favor the alternate view that she was a full-blooded Shawnee.
In any event, history shows that the frontier intermediaries were not always honest brokers. “For many years,” Staggs writes, “they helped maintain a tenuous peace, but, with questionable methods such as fake maps and vague treaty statements, some intermediaries collaborated with the government of Pennsylvania and land speculators, thus triggering the Indians’ frustrations that played a role in the outbreak of violence and the Seven Years’ War.”
Esther and her people were victims of the notorious 1737 land fraud known as the Walking Purchase. As recounted in Visions of Teaoga, they were forced out of the Poconos to the intertribal “refugee town” of Shamokin (present-day Sunbury, Pa.). Shamokin’s Iroquois overlord, Shikellamy, and the colonial intermediary Conrad Weiser “helped orchestrate a series of major treaties between the leaders of Iroquoia and Pennsylvania in 1732, 1736, and 1742, which promoted trade and asserted control over the peoples living between Onondaga and Philadelphia,” Staggs explains. “The population increased steadily between the two capitals, however, leading to more frequent disputes between native and colonial neighbors.”
It was an era of connivance, conflict and reprisals that played out all the way through the Revolutionary War and led to the final dispossession of Native Americans from the new state of Pennsylvania.
Professor Staggs’ entry can be read in full at http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/a....
July 15, 2015
Indian-settler shuttle diplomacy
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia has been adding some fine entries lately, particularly regarding the region’s Native American history. The latest installment takes a fascinating look at one of the most ragtag yet important sets of characters roaming the early borderlands – the intermediaries. These were ad-hoc diplomats and interpreters pressed into duty to facilitate talks between the Indian tribes and the Colonial authorities.
As the article’s author, Calvin College history professor Stephen T. Staggs, writes, “They ranged from a French-Shawnee fur trader to a German pioneer, from an acculturated Delaware to a Polish-Prussian missionary, and from an Oneida living in a Shawnee village to a Delaware captive.”
I was pleased to see the online encyclopedia focus on these go-betweens because they’re a factor in my historical novel about the Eastern woodlands, Visions of Teaoga. An interpreter is a constant presence at the 1790 Seneca-U.S. peace council Read More
Indian-settler shuttle diplomacy
The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia has been adding some fine entries lately, particularly regarding the region�s Native American history. The latest installment takes a fascinating look at one of the most ragtag yet important sets of characters roaming the early borderlands � the intermediaries. These were ad-hoc diplomats and interpreters pressed into duty to facilitate talks between the Indian tribes and the Colonial authorities.
As the article�s author, Calvin College history professor Stephen T. Staggs, writes, �They ranged from a French-Shawnee fur trader to a German pioneer, from an acculturated Delaware to a Polish-Prussian missionary, and from an Oneida living in a Shawnee village to a Delaware captive.�
I was pleased to see the online encyclopedia focus on these go-betweens because they�re a factor in my historical novel about the Eastern woodlands, Visions of Teaoga. An interpreter is a constant presence at the 1790 Seneca-U.S. peace council that is the center of my action. With peace on the frontier at stake, President Washington�s envoy needed his words--his pledges--to be relayed carefully at the tense gathering. The historical record indicates that they were.
Further, the Shawnee protagonist of Visions of Teaoga, the matriarch known as Queen Esther, might herself have belonged to a family of intermediaries. These were the renowned Montours, namesake of Montoursville, Pa., and Montour County. For several generations during the 18th century, Madame Montour, French Margaret Montour, Catherine Montour and Andrew Montour shuttled through the province as go-betweens. Was Esther truly a Montour? Some have insisted she was, but I find the evidence thin and favor the alternate view that she was a full-blooded Shawnee.
In any event, history shows that the frontier intermediaries were not always honest brokers. �For many years,� Staggs writes, �they helped maintain a tenuous peace, but, with questionable methods such as fake maps and vague treaty statements, some intermediaries collaborated with the government of Pennsylvania and land speculators, thus triggering the Indians� frustrations that played a role in the outbreak of violence and the Seven Years� War.�
Esther and her people were victims of the notorious 1737 land fraud known as the Walking Purchase. As recounted in Visions of Teaoga, they were forced out of the Poconos to the intertribal �refugee town� of Shamokin (present-day Sunbury, Pa.). Shamokin�s Iroquois overlord, Shikellamy, and the colonial intermediary Conrad Weiser �helped orchestrate a series of major treaties between the leaders of Iroquoia and Pennsylvania in 1732, 1736, and 1742, which promoted trade and asserted control over the peoples living between Onondaga and Philadelphia,� Staggs explains. �The population increased steadily between the two capitals, however, leading to more frequent disputes between native and colonial neighbors.�
It was an era of connivance, conflict and reprisals that played out all the way through the Revolutionary War and led to the final dispossession of Native Americans from the new state of Pennsylvania.
Professor Staggs� entry can be read in full at http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/a....
As the article�s author, Calvin College history professor Stephen T. Staggs, writes, �They ranged from a French-Shawnee fur trader to a German pioneer, from an acculturated Delaware to a Polish-Prussian missionary, and from an Oneida living in a Shawnee village to a Delaware captive.�
I was pleased to see the online encyclopedia focus on these go-betweens because they�re a factor in my historical novel about the Eastern woodlands, Visions of Teaoga. An interpreter is a constant presence at the 1790 Seneca-U.S. peace council that is the center of my action. With peace on the frontier at stake, President Washington�s envoy needed his words--his pledges--to be relayed carefully at the tense gathering. The historical record indicates that they were.
Further, the Shawnee protagonist of Visions of Teaoga, the matriarch known as Queen Esther, might herself have belonged to a family of intermediaries. These were the renowned Montours, namesake of Montoursville, Pa., and Montour County. For several generations during the 18th century, Madame Montour, French Margaret Montour, Catherine Montour and Andrew Montour shuttled through the province as go-betweens. Was Esther truly a Montour? Some have insisted she was, but I find the evidence thin and favor the alternate view that she was a full-blooded Shawnee.
In any event, history shows that the frontier intermediaries were not always honest brokers. �For many years,� Staggs writes, �they helped maintain a tenuous peace, but, with questionable methods such as fake maps and vague treaty statements, some intermediaries collaborated with the government of Pennsylvania and land speculators, thus triggering the Indians� frustrations that played a role in the outbreak of violence and the Seven Years� War.�
Esther and her people were victims of the notorious 1737 land fraud known as the Walking Purchase. As recounted in Visions of Teaoga, they were forced out of the Poconos to the intertribal �refugee town� of Shamokin (present-day Sunbury, Pa.). Shamokin�s Iroquois overlord, Shikellamy, and the colonial intermediary Conrad Weiser �helped orchestrate a series of major treaties between the leaders of Iroquoia and Pennsylvania in 1732, 1736, and 1742, which promoted trade and asserted control over the peoples living between Onondaga and Philadelphia,� Staggs explains. �The population increased steadily between the two capitals, however, leading to more frequent disputes between native and colonial neighbors.�
It was an era of connivance, conflict and reprisals that played out all the way through the Revolutionary War and led to the final dispossession of Native Americans from the new state of Pennsylvania.
Professor Staggs� entry can be read in full at http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/a....
June 20, 2015
Legend of the Bloody Rock
You’ve heard of the Bloody Rock? Sometimes called Queen Esther’s Rock? No?
I’m accustomed to getting blank looks when I ask. It’s such a shame, and one more example of how we’ve forgotten so much of our amazing local history. As the anniversary of that gory event nears, allow me to explain what’s still there—on the roadside in northern Pennsylvania--for you to see.
The incident occurred 237 years ago, immediately after a Revolutionary War fight on the banks of the Susquehanna River near present-day Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Because that area is known as the Wyoming Valley, the fight is officially called the Battle of Wyoming. The Patriot side, however, termed it the Wyoming Valley Massacre because of how their militia was overrun and slaughtered by a joint British-Indian force that afternoon of July 3, 1778.
I recounted the gruesome event during an author talk last week at the Rydal Park senior residence outside Philadelphia. Accounts of the battlefield mayhem had already sobered my 45 listeners, and they really began cringing when I started describing the Bloody Rock. On the evening of the battle, I told them, a dozen or so of the Patriot militiamen who’d fled the slaughter were hunted down, tied up, and led to a stone slab near the river. As night fell, the men were placed around the rock, prone on the ground, with their heads on the rock. And there they were summarily killed.
It’s said this was the work of the Indian warriors. A white witness hiding nearby swore that the executioner was a native woman. He said he saw her lift a war club and, dancing and screaming, methodically bash the skulls of the captives one by one. And he said she was Indian royalty: the matriarch already known to the whites as Queen Esther.
I’ve gotten to know the Bloody Rock story quite well because Queen Esther is the protagonist of Visions of Teaoga, my historical novel about Indian-settler conflict in the Eastern woodlands. As a boy growing up near Wilkes-Barre, I had heard of the Wyoming Valley Massacre but didn’t really know what it was about. I’d never of Queen Esther, either, so I knew nothing about her supposed role. None of this awesome history was taught to us in school, and it’s still skipped over. Visions of Teaoga is my attempt to fill that gap.
Queen Esther was an extraordinary, complicated person, and a natural to serve as my storyteller. I see her as a tragic figure on a Shakespearean scale. People still argue about her role in the Bloody Rock episode, and even about who she really was. I found six different versions of her origins and lineage and went with the one I found most credible, that she was full-blooded Shawnee.
But was she a killer? There are documented accounts of Esther being a peace woman who had good relations with white neighbors for much of her life. Some say it wouldn’t be like her to perpetrate a massacre of helpless captives, and that in any event she was too far away from the battlefield that day. But others who knew her swore she was the one who lifted the bloody maul. Indeed, it is possible that she did it. Perhaps she psychologically snapped from a lifetime of setbacks to her people. Maybe she was enacting the revenge required because of the death of one her sons earlier in the battle. (As my readers know, I work it out in a plausible way in the book’s climax.)
What we do know is that to the enraged Patriot public, Esther was seen as evil incarnate. They called her a demon, the “Butcher of Wyoming.” General Washington ordered a foray that burned down Queen’s Esther Village, the town she led on the upper Susquehanna, and followed that with the Sullivan Campaign that invaded the Iroquois heartland to destroy crops and villages. It’s said Esther went into seclusion and remained a wanted woman for the rest of her life.
Nationalist propaganda focused on the slaughter of the Patriot fighters but overlooked the fact that the outnumbered militiamen foolishly left their fort and marched into a trap after spurning an offer to surrender and be spared. It was blind to the fact that the warriors killed men who took up arms against them--but let all the women and children flee the bloodbath. And it said nothing about why the “savages” were so wrathful; many were carrying out a delayed vengeance for a controversial land grab that had dispossessed their families of the Wyoming Valley a generation earlier.
In the early years of our nation, the bloody episode grew legendary, its victims heroicized. The events inspired the name of the then-new Wyoming territory out west. In 1843, a hulking obelisk was built near the battle site to memorialize the dead militiamen.
Every July 4, a public ceremony is held at the obelisk to commemorate the battle. You can attend the one scheduled for this July 4 at 10 a.m.
And you can drive north a mile, to the little town of Wyoming, Pa., and visit the actual Bloody Rock. It’s covered by a metal grate to protect it from souvenir hunters. You’ll see a plaque that the DAR installed in 1895 that pins the deed squarely on Esther.
Fortunately, it’s surmounted now by a state historical marker that corrects the record by noting that the killer was “traditionally but not certainly identified as ‘Queen Esther.’”
Check it out. This is the stuff of legend, and a history too rich to forget.
I’m accustomed to getting blank looks when I ask. It’s such a shame, and one more example of how we’ve forgotten so much of our amazing local history. As the anniversary of that gory event nears, allow me to explain what’s still there—on the roadside in northern Pennsylvania--for you to see.
The incident occurred 237 years ago, immediately after a Revolutionary War fight on the banks of the Susquehanna River near present-day Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Because that area is known as the Wyoming Valley, the fight is officially called the Battle of Wyoming. The Patriot side, however, termed it the Wyoming Valley Massacre because of how their militia was overrun and slaughtered by a joint British-Indian force that afternoon of July 3, 1778.
I recounted the gruesome event during an author talk last week at the Rydal Park senior residence outside Philadelphia. Accounts of the battlefield mayhem had already sobered my 45 listeners, and they really began cringing when I started describing the Bloody Rock. On the evening of the battle, I told them, a dozen or so of the Patriot militiamen who’d fled the slaughter were hunted down, tied up, and led to a stone slab near the river. As night fell, the men were placed around the rock, prone on the ground, with their heads on the rock. And there they were summarily killed.
It’s said this was the work of the Indian warriors. A white witness hiding nearby swore that the executioner was a native woman. He said he saw her lift a war club and, dancing and screaming, methodically bash the skulls of the captives one by one. And he said she was Indian royalty: the matriarch already known to the whites as Queen Esther.
I’ve gotten to know the Bloody Rock story quite well because Queen Esther is the protagonist of Visions of Teaoga, my historical novel about Indian-settler conflict in the Eastern woodlands. As a boy growing up near Wilkes-Barre, I had heard of the Wyoming Valley Massacre but didn’t really know what it was about. I’d never of Queen Esther, either, so I knew nothing about her supposed role. None of this awesome history was taught to us in school, and it’s still skipped over. Visions of Teaoga is my attempt to fill that gap.
Queen Esther was an extraordinary, complicated person, and a natural to serve as my storyteller. I see her as a tragic figure on a Shakespearean scale. People still argue about her role in the Bloody Rock episode, and even about who she really was. I found six different versions of her origins and lineage and went with the one I found most credible, that she was full-blooded Shawnee.
But was she a killer? There are documented accounts of Esther being a peace woman who had good relations with white neighbors for much of her life. Some say it wouldn’t be like her to perpetrate a massacre of helpless captives, and that in any event she was too far away from the battlefield that day. But others who knew her swore she was the one who lifted the bloody maul. Indeed, it is possible that she did it. Perhaps she psychologically snapped from a lifetime of setbacks to her people. Maybe she was enacting the revenge required because of the death of one her sons earlier in the battle. (As my readers know, I work it out in a plausible way in the book’s climax.)
What we do know is that to the enraged Patriot public, Esther was seen as evil incarnate. They called her a demon, the “Butcher of Wyoming.” General Washington ordered a foray that burned down Queen’s Esther Village, the town she led on the upper Susquehanna, and followed that with the Sullivan Campaign that invaded the Iroquois heartland to destroy crops and villages. It’s said Esther went into seclusion and remained a wanted woman for the rest of her life.
Nationalist propaganda focused on the slaughter of the Patriot fighters but overlooked the fact that the outnumbered militiamen foolishly left their fort and marched into a trap after spurning an offer to surrender and be spared. It was blind to the fact that the warriors killed men who took up arms against them--but let all the women and children flee the bloodbath. And it said nothing about why the “savages” were so wrathful; many were carrying out a delayed vengeance for a controversial land grab that had dispossessed their families of the Wyoming Valley a generation earlier.
In the early years of our nation, the bloody episode grew legendary, its victims heroicized. The events inspired the name of the then-new Wyoming territory out west. In 1843, a hulking obelisk was built near the battle site to memorialize the dead militiamen.
Every July 4, a public ceremony is held at the obelisk to commemorate the battle. You can attend the one scheduled for this July 4 at 10 a.m.
And you can drive north a mile, to the little town of Wyoming, Pa., and visit the actual Bloody Rock. It’s covered by a metal grate to protect it from souvenir hunters. You’ll see a plaque that the DAR installed in 1895 that pins the deed squarely on Esther.
Fortunately, it’s surmounted now by a state historical marker that corrects the record by noting that the killer was “traditionally but not certainly identified as ‘Queen Esther.’”
Check it out. This is the stuff of legend, and a history too rich to forget.
June 19, 2015
Legend of The Bloody Rock
You’ve heard of the Bloody Rock? Sometimes called Queen Esther’s Rock? No?
I’m accustomed to getting blank looks when I ask. It’s such a shame, and one more example of how we’ve forgotten so much of our amazing local history. As the anniversary of that gory event nears, allow me to explain what’s still there—on the roadside in northern Pennsylvania--for you to see.
The incident occurred 237 years ago, immediately after a Revolutionary War fight on the banks of the Susquehanna River near present-day Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Because that area is known as the Wyoming Valley, the fight is officially called the Battle of Wyoming. The Patriot side, however, termed it the Wyoming Valley Massacre because of how their militia was overrun and slaughtered by a joint British-Indian force that afternoon of July 3, 1778.
I recounted the gruesome event during an author talk last week at the Rydal Park senior residence outside Philadelphia. Accounts of the battlefield mayhem had already sobered my 45 listeners, and they really began cringing when I started describing the Bloody Rock. On the evening of the battle, I told them, Read More
The Slave as "Crushed Vegetable''
In researching the Underground Railroad past of my hometown, Waverly, Pa., I came across a fascinating explication of the abolition mission, at least as it was understood by white participants in the
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