The British parliament passes the Quebec Act, which establishes a border between lands held by the English colonists in Canada and British territory reserved for Indians. It extends the boundaries of the province of Quebec south to the Ohio River and west to the Mississippi. This provision outrages colonists in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Virginia, who claim much of the land assigned to Quebec. This challenge to colonial land claims will become one of the primary causes of the American Revolution.
The First Continental Congress allocates funds to Indian affairs.
Representatives to the First Continental Congress vote to put aside 40,000 pounds to finance its dealings with Indian groups. It also establishes the post of commissioner of Indian affairs to negotiate with Indians. As the colonies move closer toward war with England, the commissioner’s most important responsibility is to try to persuade tribes to declare neutrality in the coming conflict.
An attack on Mingo Indians incites Lord Dunmore’s War.
In 1773 Lord Dunmore, the governor of Virginia, declares that lands in what is now western Pennsylvania are part of his own colony, even though
“Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, ‘Logan is the friend of white men.' I had even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cresap, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have glutted my vengeance.”
—Mingo rebel John Logan in a 1774 letter to Lord Dunmore
Growing tensions between the Indians and the squatters erupts into violence when a group of settlers kill five Mingo warriors and the sister of Mingo leader John Logan. Logan, who had been an advocate for maintaining peace with whites, vows revenge. He tells of his change of heart in an impassioned speech he submits in writing to a peace council he refuses to attend. The speech, later included in McGuffy’s Reader, will be taught to millions of non-Indian school children in the 19 th century.
A total of 13 of Logan’s relatives have been murdered by the English; he sets about killing an equal number of whites. John Connelly, the commander of Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh), sends out a warning to area whites suggesting that a large-scale Indian war is in the offing. Responding to Connelly’s alarm, Lord Dunmore sends two columns of troops out of Virginia to battle Indians in the contested region, inciting what will become known as Lord Dunmore’s War. (See also entries for OCTOBER 9, 1774, and for SEPTEMBER 12 TO OC TOBER 12, 1775.)
The Shawnee fight Virginia troops in the Battle of Point Pleasant.
A force of about 1,000 Shawnee led by Cornstalk meet 300 soldiers from Virginia at Point Pleasant on the Ohio River’s southern bank. In the daylong battle, the Indians are close to defeating the Virginians when, mistakenly believing English reinforcements have arrived, the Shawnee decide to retreat. The casualties are heavy on both sides. Among those killed is the Shawnee war chief Puck-sinwah, who is the father of the future rebellion leader Tecumseh (see entry for 1808).
The Battle of Point Pleasant is the largest engagement of Lord Dunmore’s War (see entry for APRIL 30, 1774). Soon after, a force of more than
1,000 troops led by Lord Dunmore approaches the Shawnee’s villages at the site of present-day Chilli-cothe, Ohio. Fearing for the lives of their wives and children, Shawnee leaders agree to a truce on October 26, although another year will pass before the peace is formally concluded (see entry for SEPTEM BER 12 TO OCTOBER 12, 1775).
World History
