Posted on 06/11/2021 8:00:27 PM PDT by CheshireTheCat
On this date in 1782, Col. William Crawford was burned to death by Delaware Indians after being captured leading a punitive expedition to Ohio’s Sandusky River.
Originally an Atlantic coast peoples — “Manhattan” is a Delaware word, although “Delaware” itself isn’t — the Delawares or Lenape had with other native peoples removed to an Ohio territory supposed to be reserved against white settlement. It was the fruit of a deal that kept them on the British side (or at least, off the French side) in the Seven Years’ War.
But staying out of it would be a nonstarter during the American Revolution, because said territory was situated right between the British in Detroit and the westward American settlements in the Ohio Valley. Our man William Crawford was on hand to sign the colonists’ 1778 Treaty of Fort Pitt making nice with the Delawares: it’s the first written treaty between the United States and any Native Americans, and like most of that genre it didn’t last long.
The Delawares were okay with letting colonists march through their territory to attack Detroit, but when the U.S. pushed for them to get into the fight themselves — and when frontiersman murdered the pro-neutrality chief — it pushed many Delawares over to the British side. Opinion among their neighbors, the Shawnee, Wyandot and Mingo, likewise tended to range from “hoping to stay out of it” to “allying with the British,” and the latter sentiment was further encouraged by a kindling sentiment among peoples all along the frontier that uniting their efforts was their only hope of holding back imminent Anglo expansion.....
(Excerpt) Read more at executedtoday.com ...
Pretty harrowing account. I wonder how Dr. John Knight managed to escape to tell the tale?
but these were civilized savages! the Algonquin round table, 7 nations...
at the time this was the Connecticut western reserve
Such a timely post. I’ve just started reading The Awakening Land by Conrad Richter. I used to be a voracious reader in my youth but since I had kids back in the 80s I stopped because I didn’t really have time to read, other than parenting books. Now I mainly read political books & articles, but I love history so I’m gonna try tackling historical novels now, especially since they remind me how lucky we are to be Americans.
Try pretty much anything by Kenneth Roberts. Robert Lewis Taylor wrote some amusing stuff, and Jeff Shaara writes good historical fiction, too.
also read about the Gnadenhutten massacre that precipitated this.
May God have mercy!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.