Actually, a dominant theme of the 1756 war, which makes it a virtual dress rehearsal for the 1776 conflict, was the repeated accusation that settlers were double-dealing, collaborating with the French, as redcoats fought them. “I have undoubted proofs,” said the leading redcoat, Lord Jeffrey Amherst, in 1762, “of the Enemy being supplied with Provisions from almost every port on the Continent of North America,” though at that precise moment there was “the greatest demand for provisions to supply the King’s Troops.
