Episode 21: The Vengeance

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Jim Ambuske: This episode of
Worlds Turned Upside Down is

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made possible with support from
a 2024 grant from the National

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Endowment for the Humanities.

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Soyechtowa and three other
Indigenous warriors watched in

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silence from near the banks of
Sinking Creek in western

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Virginia as Balthazar Lybrook
walked to his grist mill. The

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mill sat where the creek entered
the New River. The sounds of

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laughter and the swift footsteps
of children drowned out the

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sound of Lybrook’s own boots as
they headed for the creek to

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play in the shallow water and
enjoy the pleasant day. It was

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Sunday, August 7, 1774.

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For several days now, Lybrook,
his wife, Catherine, their

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children, and the Snidow and
McGriff families had been taking

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refuge inside Lybrook’s
blockhouse, a

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hastily-constructed fort built
to protect themselves from

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Indigenous war parties then
raiding throughout the

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backcountry. In recent days,
provincial militia had seen

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signs of Soyechtowa and his men
in the area: tracks through the

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woods, scattered sittings, a
burned home.

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Twenty years earlier, such raids
had devastated settler

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communities in the Virginia and
Pennsylvania backcountries

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during the Seven Years’ War, a
violence renewed in its wake

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during Pontiac’s Uprising, a
violence that had returned in

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recent years as new treaties
redrew the border between

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British and Indigenous America,
intensifying a rivalry between

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Pennsylvanian and Virginia that
propelled settlers west toward

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the Ohio Country, into Native
homelands.

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Early that spring, Virginians –
known to Indigenous people in

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the region as the “Long Knives”
– had lured several Mingo men

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and women into a trap. The
Mingos, a community of mostly

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Seneca and Cayuga peoples from
the Six Nations Iroquois, had

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migrated west into the Ohio
Country in the mid-eighteenth

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century.

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One Mingo village sat near the
mouth of Yellow Creek, where it

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empties into the Ohio River,
over 300 miles north of the

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Lybrook farm. On April 30, 1774,
several unsuspecting Mingo

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canoed down the Yellow Creek and
crossed the Ohio River to visit

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a tavern built along the
riverbank, where the Long Knives

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massacred eight of them. From
across the river, the attackers

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heard the wails of Mingo women,
who knew what the Virginians had

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done.

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Soyechtowa’s mother, brother,
and sister were among the dead.

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Four months later, and 300 miles
to the south, their deaths still

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haunted him as he watched
Balthazar Lybrook head for his

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grist mill and the children
splash in Sinking Creek.

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White settlers knew Soyechtowa
as James Logan, his English

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name, or simply, Logan. He was
born in the 1720s to Neanoma,

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his Cayuga mother, and
Shickellamy, his Onieda father.

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Few native leaders did more to
shape the relationship between

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British provinces like
Pennsylvania and Indigenous

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nations in the early eighteenth
century than Shickellamy. The

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Six Nations Iroquois tasked
Shickellamy to speak for the

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Shawnee and the Delaware over
whom the Six Nations claimed

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dominion. He negotiated land
sales and treaties with the

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Pennsylvania government that
protected the Six Nations’

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homelands, often at the expense
of other native nations. He grew

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close to James Logan, the
colony’s chief diplomat to

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Indigenous communities, and
honored their friendship by

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giving two of his sons –
including Soyechtowa – the

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English name Logan.

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Shickellamy had raised his sons
in that world of diplomacy, but

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by the early 1770s,
“Shickellamy’s Way” had given

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over to renewed – and violent –
rivalries between Virginians and

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Pennsylvanians for Native lands,
and between Indigenous nations

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and white settlers for the Ohio
country. That violence would

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claim the lives of his wife and
two of his children along the

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banks of the Ohio River in the
Yellow Creek Massacre.

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Indigenous customs permitted the
aggrieved to assuage their

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mourning by covering the graves
of the dead, and afforded them

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the right of revenge. That right
brought Soyechtowa, the man most

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colonists knew as James Logan,
deep into the Virginia

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backcountry on August 7, 1774,
to the junction of Sinking Creek

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and the New River, to the
Lybrook farm.

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Despite the danger, the Lybrook,
Snidow, and McGriff families

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thought it was safe enough to
let their children out of the

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blockhouse to get some air and
stretch their legs after days of

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confinement.

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Balthazar Lybrook was inside his
grist mill when Logan and the

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three other warriors, who had
been watching silently nearby,

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sprang from their hiding place
with war cries that the

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survivors never forgot. They
descended on the eleven children

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playing and canoeing in the
creek. The oldest child was

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fourteen, the youngest, mere
months old. Some of them tried

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to run, some tried to paddle
away, some were so petrified at

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the sight of the armed men
running toward them, they could

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not move.

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Lybrook couldn’t hear the
screams of the children over the

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noise of his grist mill. He had
no idea anything was wrong until

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one of Logan’s warriors burst
into the mill and shot him in

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the arm. He managed to evade the
warrior, finding refuge in a

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nearby cave, and escape with his
life. But only just barely.

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Most of the children did not.

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Logan and his men took seven
scalps from the Lybrook farm.

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They departed with three other
children as captives.

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But Logan did leave something
behind.

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Hours after the attack,
Lieutenant John Draper and a

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detachment of twenty militia men
arrived near the scene. They had

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been searching for Logan and his
war party since that morning. To

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motivate his men, the commander
of the local fort had offered a

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£5 bounty to the first man who
captured and delivered a Native

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person to the fort.

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They had found the war party’s
tracks in the woods, but Logan

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and his men had cleverly
concealed their movements,

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leaving the militiamen
befuddled, and the warriors

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unseen.

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But in their searching they
found what Logan wanted them to

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find.

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Near the site of the attack, one
of Draper’s men found a war club

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lying on the ground. It was
nearly two-feet long, carved out

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of hardwood, with a dense ball
at its top. A metal spike

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protruded out of it, a weapon to
make short work of those who

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fell beneath its blow.

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On the handle, the militiaman
found letters carved into the

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tip: “L. G.”:

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Logan.

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The war club was a message, a
statement that Logan had done

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what he believed he must do to
avenge the deaths of his family.

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And it served as a warning to
frighten others who might make

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war on them.

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For at that very moment, as
delegates to prepared to meet in

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Philadelphia for a Continental
Congress to debate the course of

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human events in the east, the
Royal Governor of the Long

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Knives was recruiting an army to
come west, to capture the Forks

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of the Ohio River for Virginia,
and conquer the Ohio Country for

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his colony once and for all.

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I’m Jim Ambuske, and this is
Worlds Turned Upside Down. A

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podcast about the history of the
American Revolution.

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Episode 21: The Vengeance

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In the summer of 1773, John
Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore,

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arrived at Fort Pitt at the
Forks of the Ohio River. The

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Scottish nobleman had once
lamented his appointment as

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Virginia's royal governor, but
the prospect of claiming the

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west for Virginia had given him
a renewed sense of purpose.

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In recent years, new treaties
with the Susquehannock nations,

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the Cherokee, and the
Haudenosaunee, who colonists

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knew as the Six Nations
Iroquois, had remade the map of

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British America. These
agreements opened up millions of

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acres of land in the west to
white settlement, all at the

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expense of the Ohio nations.

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But those treaties also drove a
deeper wedge between Virginians

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and Pennsylvanians, who vied for
possession of the backcountry.

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They triggered a renewed
competition between the

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provinces in a decades-old
rivalry for command and control

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of the rivers, the mountains,
and the woods of the Ohio

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Country.

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Virginians like the planter and
Continental Congressman George

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Washington, and Pennsylvanians
like the Scottish immigrant and

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British officer Arthur St.
Clair, believed that their

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colonies had valid claims to the
region, claims bolstered by

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charter rights, commerce, and
war.

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Robert Parkinson: The Ohio
company builds a road from

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Cumberland, Maryland to
Pittsburgh, at their own expense

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as a way of conducting trade,
from Virginia to the forks of

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the Ohio but in the middle of
the Seven Years' War, general

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Forbes cuts another road that's
basically the Pennsylvania

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Turnpike that. Will funnel
Philadelphia and Pennsylvanians

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to the fort and Washington when
it's built in 1758 says, Uh oh,

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this is a big problem. My name
is Robert Parkinson, and I am a

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professor of history at
Binghamton University. Both

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Pennsylvania and Virginia have
not only their eyes set on this

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as the key to a whole lot of
things because of the way the

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river traffic works, but they
both think it's theirs for

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different reasons. Virginia says
it was ours. It was Virginians

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that had it, but the
Pennsylvanians say no, it's

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ours. And as long as there are
red coats in Fort Pitt, that's

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fine, and there's just
unofficial trading going on.

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Jim Ambuske: When Lord Dunmore
entered the star-shaped walls of

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Fort Pitt in 1773, however, the
Redcoats were gone. With costs

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mounting and unrest rising in
the east, the British had

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withdrawn the army garrison in
the west, leaving the Forks of

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the Ohio open for the taking.
Dunmore wanted it for Virginia,

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to at last settle the argument
with Pennsylvania, and extend

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the Old Dominion into new lands.

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So, why did Virginians and
Pennsylvanians all but wage a

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civil war for control of the
West? How did Indigenous

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calculations reshape the
imperial landscape? And how did

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choices made in distant capitals
and in diplomatic conferences

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transform the lives of settlers
and Native peoples on the

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ground?

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To begin answering these
questions, we’ll first head back

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to 1768, back to Fort Stanwix in
northern New York, to redraw

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part of the border between
British and Indigenous America.

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We’ll then travel southwest into
the disputed Ohio Country, to

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contend with the British
withdrawal from Fort Pitt,

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before paddling along the rivers
and lakes throughout the region,

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to witness the consequences of
choices made in an intimate war

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that for some seemed to have no
end.

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In the fall of 1768, Sir William
Johnson traveled from his home

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along the Mohawk River to Fort
Stanwix in northern New York,

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consumed with planning the final
details of upcoming treaty

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negotiations that would have far
reaching personal and imperial

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implications.

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Johnson was the crown-appointed
Superintendent for Indian

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Affairs for the Northern
District. He was charged with

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managing George III’s
relationship with Indigenous

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peoples in the northern colonies
and the Ohio Country.

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The Haudenosaunee were the key
to the Irish-born

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superintendent's power and
influence in British America as

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well as London. He had convinced
the Six Nations to break their

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neutrality during the Seven
Years’ War and side with the

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British, and his diplomatic
successes in the years since

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were due in no small measure to
the power and influence of his

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wife, Konwa'tsitsianni or Molly
Brandt, a prominent member of

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the Mohawk Nation.

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Johnson’s treaty negotiations at
Fort Stanwix were meant to

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address vexing issues that had
remained unresolved since the

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end of the war.

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Christopher Pearl: Part of the
problem comes from the

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proclamation of 1763 that cuts
off parts of North America from

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white settlement and
development. My name is

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Christopher pearl. I'm an
associate professor of history

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and co director of American
Studies at Lycoming College.

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Typically, it's shown down the
Appalachian Mountains. The

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proclamation line also bars
purchase even east of those

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lines, so territories that have
not been purchased from native

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peoples previous to the 1763
Proclamation was very difficult

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at that point for people to
figure out how to figure out how

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to extend the line if it was so
necessary, and there are a lot

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of people angling to extend the
line.

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Jim Ambuske: In the months and
years after George III’s Royal

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Proclamation of October 1763,
British and Native diplomats

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began negotiating and surveying
segments of a boundary line past

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which white settlement would be
forbidden. Two years later, in

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1765, when Johnson began
treating with the Haudenosaunee

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to lay out the northern
boundary, the Susquehanna River

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00:14:11,525 --> 00:14:15,665
in central Pennsylvania loomed
large on the map, a river and a

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00:14:15,665 --> 00:14:19,145
region of intense interest to
the governments of Pennsylvania,

228
00:14:19,265 --> 00:14:22,985
and Connecticut, private land
companies, powerful Indigenous

229
00:14:22,985 --> 00:14:27,905
nations, and displaced Native
peoples. At the conference, the

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00:14:27,905 --> 00:14:31,730
Haudenosaunee traced a line
beginning in Owego, New York,

231
00:14:31,730 --> 00:14:33,770
and then followed the
Susquehanna River:

232
00:14:33,770 --> 00:14:35,990
Christopher Pearl: down the
North Branch, to the east of the

233
00:14:35,990 --> 00:14:40,610
North Branch, and then to the
south east of the East Branch

234
00:14:41,150 --> 00:14:44,330
and then to the south of the
West Branch, going over to Ohio,

235
00:14:44,810 --> 00:14:48,650
carving out that entire
territory from white settlement

236
00:14:48,650 --> 00:14:49,490
and development.

237
00:14:49,490 --> 00:14:50,750
Jim Ambuske: However

238
00:14:50,810 --> 00:14:53,675
Christopher Pearl: They also
refused to bargain north of

239
00:14:53,795 --> 00:14:57,035
Owego, which is near modern day
Binghamton, for a line that

240
00:14:57,035 --> 00:15:01,595
would extend north of Owego to
Canada. The creek up near the

241
00:15:01,595 --> 00:15:05,315
top of New York, near Canada.
William Johnson realizes this is

242
00:15:05,315 --> 00:15:09,935
not a deal that any of the other
interests will want. The

243
00:15:09,935 --> 00:15:12,465
Pennsylvanians won't want it.
The Connecticut government, nor

244
00:15:12,465 --> 00:15:12,500
the Susquehanna company will
want it. He doesn't want it

245
00:15:12,500 --> 00:15:18,260
because he wants to deal north
of a Wego. Nevertheless, he

246
00:15:18,260 --> 00:15:21,320
makes it seem finalized. To the
Haudenosaunee, to the refugee

247
00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:24,260
peoples, he makes it seem
finalized, even some government

248
00:15:24,260 --> 00:15:27,740
officials like Thomas Gage and
this matters, because Johnson

249
00:15:27,740 --> 00:15:31,520
figured that he was going to be
the one to finalize that deal in

250
00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:32,360
another treaty.

251
00:15:32,960 --> 00:15:35,360
Jim Ambuske: Johnson's
subterfuge did not buy him as

252
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:37,025
much time as he had hoped.

253
00:15:37,625 --> 00:15:40,385
Christopher Pearl: In the in
between, King George the Third

254
00:15:40,445 --> 00:15:45,365
has appointed a new Secretary of
the colonies, Wills Hills Lord

255
00:15:45,365 --> 00:15:48,965
Hillsborough, who sees much of
what the colonists are doing and

256
00:15:48,965 --> 00:15:52,865
even what Sir William Johnson is
doing as colonial truculence.

257
00:15:53,165 --> 00:15:55,985
Benjamin Franklin believes that
He's fearful of these land

258
00:15:55,985 --> 00:15:59,630
agreements that extends American
jurisdiction because much of

259
00:15:59,630 --> 00:16:03,590
Lord hillsboroughs income comes
from rents on his Irish estates.

260
00:16:04,070 --> 00:16:05,330
Jim Ambuske: Here's Robert
Parkinson.

261
00:16:05,930 --> 00:16:09,050
Robert Parkinson: Lord
Hillsborough has 100,000 acres

262
00:16:09,050 --> 00:16:13,190
of land in County Down Ireland.
His number one job is to make

263
00:16:13,190 --> 00:16:17,210
sure his Irish tenants don't get
on boats and go to America. He

264
00:16:17,210 --> 00:16:20,390
is petrified of losing all of
his tenants. Immigration from

265
00:16:20,390 --> 00:16:23,315
the British Isles is exploding
to America after the Seven Years

266
00:16:23,315 --> 00:16:26,735
War. As Franklin says,
Hillsborough is terribly afraid

267
00:16:26,735 --> 00:16:28,055
of dispeopling Ireland.

268
00:16:28,655 --> 00:16:31,715
Christopher Pearl: Hillsborough
sends Johnson instructions once

269
00:16:31,715 --> 00:16:39,335
he takes office, that he is to
finalize the 1765 agreement and

270
00:16:39,335 --> 00:16:44,362
that it must follow what was
agreed upon in 1765 he calls it

271
00:16:44,362 --> 00:16:44,756
his precise instructions on the
authority of the crown. Not only

272
00:16:44,756 --> 00:16:48,200
does he tell him it needs to be
the same, he sends him a map

273
00:16:48,620 --> 00:16:53,540
that designates the exact line
that the Haudenosaunee agreed to

274
00:16:53,540 --> 00:16:54,980
in 1765,

275
00:16:57,020 --> 00:16:58,880
Jim Ambuske: Despite
Hillsborough’s rigid

276
00:16:58,880 --> 00:17:02,480
instructions and his own
self-interest, numerous

277
00:17:02,480 --> 00:17:05,960
Indigenous nations, several
colonial governments, private

278
00:17:05,960 --> 00:17:09,425
individuals, and corporate
interests were all keen to

279
00:17:09,425 --> 00:17:13,805
extend and redraw the line.
Millions of acres in the

280
00:17:13,805 --> 00:17:16,925
Susquehanna and Ohio River
Valleys, as well as the

281
00:17:16,925 --> 00:17:20,525
sovereignty rights of Native
nations, were all at stake.

282
00:17:20,525 --> 00:17:23,345
Christopher Pearl: William
Johnson wants to extend the

283
00:17:23,345 --> 00:17:27,185
line. He sees this as necessary
because there are already

284
00:17:27,185 --> 00:17:32,285
encroachments on Native American
land past the 1763 proclamation.

285
00:17:32,285 --> 00:17:35,690
He's also hearing rumors that
he's going to lose his position

286
00:17:35,690 --> 00:17:39,650
and his status, and that's
partly because the British

287
00:17:39,650 --> 00:17:42,470
government are trying to cut
what they consider costly

288
00:17:42,470 --> 00:17:46,010
indigenous alliances. And those
costly indigenous alliances has

289
00:17:46,010 --> 00:17:49,310
often elevated the status of the
Haudenosaunee in British

290
00:17:49,310 --> 00:17:54,530
diplomacy, Johnson made his
career on that elevation of the

291
00:17:54,530 --> 00:17:59,015
Haudenosaunee, and so Johnson
wants to use a new deal to

292
00:17:59,015 --> 00:18:03,755
extend the line, to not only
gain that new territory, but to

293
00:18:03,755 --> 00:18:09,095
also reaffirm the relationship
between the Haudenosaunee and

294
00:18:09,155 --> 00:18:12,455
the British government and the
Haudenosaunee over the

295
00:18:12,455 --> 00:18:16,295
tributaries who had been
claiming independence during the

296
00:18:16,295 --> 00:18:18,440
Seven Years War in Pontiac war

297
00:18:18,980 --> 00:18:21,620
Jim Ambuske: Johnson had other
reasons for wanting to alter the

298
00:18:21,620 --> 00:18:22,940
line as well.

299
00:18:23,410 --> 00:18:27,310
Christopher Pearl: He's also
personally vested. He has been

300
00:18:27,310 --> 00:18:31,270
given a grant of about 25,000
acres from the Mohawk that is

301
00:18:31,270 --> 00:18:35,620
effectively outlawed by the
proclamation of 1763 because

302
00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:38,650
it's a purchase that would have
happened after that

303
00:18:38,650 --> 00:18:42,220
proclamation. He's also has a
purchase for over 100,000 acres

304
00:18:42,220 --> 00:18:46,420
from the Oneida that is again in
dispute. Johnson has a personal

305
00:18:46,420 --> 00:18:48,790
interest to extend the line,
because that would

306
00:18:48,820 --> 00:18:53,110
hypothetically bring those
purchases in, or those grants in

307
00:18:53,110 --> 00:18:53,740
as legal.

308
00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:57,280
Jim Ambuske: Connecticut was
also intensely interested in the

309
00:18:57,280 --> 00:18:59,470
outcome of future negotiations.

310
00:18:59,860 --> 00:19:03,280
Christopher Pearl: Connecticut
is claiming vast sections of the

311
00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:05,740
Northern Susquehanna River
Valley, if not the whole of the

312
00:19:05,740 --> 00:19:08,620
Northern Susquehanna River
Valley, as part of their Charter

313
00:19:08,620 --> 00:19:11,890
rights. There's the Susquehanna
company, which is speculator

314
00:19:11,890 --> 00:19:14,950
company, that claims that they
purchased much of this land from

315
00:19:14,950 --> 00:19:19,510
the Haudenosaunee at the Albany
Congress in 1754 but they're

316
00:19:19,510 --> 00:19:22,780
basing their claims back on
those Charter rights, the

317
00:19:22,780 --> 00:19:25,570
Connecticut government or the
Susquehanna company, more

318
00:19:25,570 --> 00:19:29,800
particularly, wants to see an
extension of the line so that

319
00:19:29,800 --> 00:19:34,720
they can start shifting their
focus west from their base of

320
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:38,290
operations in Wyoming in the
northern Susquehanna River

321
00:19:38,290 --> 00:19:41,200
Valley. They're eyeing the West
Branch, but that's effectively

322
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,890
off limits right now because of
the proclamation line and what's

323
00:19:44,890 --> 00:19:48,310
been purchased even at Albany by
the Susquehanna company.

324
00:19:48,730 --> 00:19:51,640
Jim Ambuske: Connecticut's
claims did not go unchallenged.

325
00:19:52,150 --> 00:19:54,250
Christopher Pearl: You also have
the Pennsylvania government that

326
00:19:54,250 --> 00:19:57,640
claims by their Charter rights
that the northern Susquehanna

327
00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:00,940
River Valley is within the
territory that. Penn's claim

328
00:20:01,120 --> 00:20:03,580
within Pennsylvania, but not
purchased of the Native

329
00:20:03,580 --> 00:20:04,210
Americans.

330
00:20:04,750 --> 00:20:07,960
Jim Ambuske: The question of who
had the right or authority to

331
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:11,470
negotiate an agreement for the
Susquehanna River Valley only

332
00:20:11,470 --> 00:20:14,890
compounded the challenges
diplomats faced at the upcoming

333
00:20:14,890 --> 00:20:16,570
conference at Fort Stanwix.

334
00:20:17,020 --> 00:20:20,200
Christopher Pearl: By 1768 you
have two settler governments

335
00:20:20,230 --> 00:20:23,110
that are claiming it. You have
the Haudenosaunee who are

336
00:20:23,110 --> 00:20:27,580
claiming it. You have refugee
native peoples that are claiming

337
00:20:27,580 --> 00:20:31,360
it. But you also have the Ohio
nations that see clan and

338
00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:34,210
kinship connections with many of
the Susquehanna nations that are

339
00:20:34,210 --> 00:20:36,700
living in the northern
Susquehanna River Valley. They

340
00:20:36,700 --> 00:20:39,490
also claim jurisdiction over
much of that northern

341
00:20:39,490 --> 00:20:43,900
Susquehanna River Valley on the
West Branch. Do you negotiate

342
00:20:43,900 --> 00:20:47,890
with the people who live there,
Lenape, Shawnee, antico, conoy,

343
00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,910
tutelo, etc, or is it the
Haudenosaunee who claims them as

344
00:20:51,910 --> 00:20:55,810
tributary people that becomes a
source of contention in the

345
00:20:55,810 --> 00:20:57,340
northern Susquehanna River
Valley?

346
00:20:57,730 --> 00:21:00,940
Jim Ambuske: The governor of
Pennsylvania also had to contend

347
00:21:01,090 --> 00:21:03,460
with a persistent threat from
the south.

348
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,390
Christopher Pearl: The Penns are
also dealing with Virginians who

349
00:21:07,390 --> 00:21:10,840
are taking the area around
Pittsburgh and claiming it for

350
00:21:10,840 --> 00:21:14,800
themselves. And so if he can
strike a deal independently,

351
00:21:14,890 --> 00:21:18,460
then he can have a legal
argument for why Pennsylvania

352
00:21:18,460 --> 00:21:24,010
has jurisdiction in this region,
you also have speculators, a

353
00:21:24,010 --> 00:21:29,140
host of companies, really
multinational companies, that

354
00:21:29,140 --> 00:21:33,160
are looking to use a new
purchase to make good on their

355
00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:37,360
speculative investments in some
of these western lands. So

356
00:21:37,360 --> 00:21:39,790
there's a lot of interest at
play.

357
00:21:40,150 --> 00:21:42,910
Jim Ambuske: These competing
provincial, Indigenous, and

358
00:21:42,910 --> 00:21:46,420
personal interests backed
William Johnson into a corner.

359
00:21:46,810 --> 00:21:48,190
Christopher Pearl: Johnson's in
a pickle.

360
00:21:48,700 --> 00:21:51,580
Jim Ambuske: Thomas Penn, the
proprietor of Pennsylvania,

361
00:21:51,610 --> 00:21:54,160
offered to help...for a price.

362
00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:57,370
Christopher Pearl: Thomas Penn
sent a letter to Johnson,

363
00:21:57,370 --> 00:22:01,270
telling him that he knows that
Johnson has these private grants

364
00:22:01,300 --> 00:22:05,230
that he wants to get approved,
and that Penn will help him get

365
00:22:05,230 --> 00:22:09,940
it approved in London, if
Johnson, for him, extends the

366
00:22:09,940 --> 00:22:15,280
line west of Wyoming to take in
almost all of the Northern

367
00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:19,150
Susquehanna River Valley, and
does it independently of

368
00:22:19,150 --> 00:22:22,330
Connecticut and Virginia.
Johnson responds, and it was

369
00:22:22,360 --> 00:22:24,580
always his intention to do this.

370
00:22:25,030 --> 00:22:27,220
Jim Ambuske: But helping Penn
risked incurring Lord

371
00:22:27,250 --> 00:22:31,150
Hillsborough’s wrath, if Johnson
violated his orders not to go

372
00:22:31,150 --> 00:22:33,970
beyond the 1765 agreement.

373
00:22:34,390 --> 00:22:36,250
Christopher Pearl: Johnson
therefore starts planning. He

374
00:22:36,250 --> 00:22:40,630
starts making comments about how
Hillsborough made, a quote, a

375
00:22:40,630 --> 00:22:44,590
mistake on his map, and
therefore he needed to correct

376
00:22:44,590 --> 00:22:48,550
that mistake. The mistake that
Johnson points out is that the

377
00:22:48,550 --> 00:22:53,470
map does not include a line
north of a Wego, and that the

378
00:22:53,470 --> 00:22:57,640
Haudenosaunee really wanted to
make a deal for a line north of

379
00:22:57,640 --> 00:23:01,780
a Wego to save their territory
from incoming settlers and some

380
00:23:01,780 --> 00:23:05,800
problematic speculators who were
conjuring up old deeds and

381
00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:09,640
agreements to get what they
wanted. And he's saying, we need

382
00:23:09,640 --> 00:23:14,260
this line north, or else
everything will fall apart. But

383
00:23:14,260 --> 00:23:17,590
he's going to use the rationale
to correct that mistake, to

384
00:23:17,590 --> 00:23:21,610
extend the line everywhere, and
thus meet the agreements that he

385
00:23:21,610 --> 00:23:25,540
has made with Penn and with
other speculators.

386
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:29,800
Jim Ambuske: Johnson sent
messages to native communities

387
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,800
and provincial governments,
inviting them to convene at Fort

388
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:38,470
Stanwix, near what is now Rome,
New York, in September 1768. But

389
00:23:38,470 --> 00:23:42,100
violence nearly derailed the
conference before it could even

390
00:23:42,100 --> 00:23:42,760
begin.

391
00:23:43,030 --> 00:23:47,590
On a frigid January day, four
Seneca and two Mohicans visited

392
00:23:47,590 --> 00:23:50,950
the home of a German settler
named Frederick Stump along

393
00:23:50,950 --> 00:23:54,910
Middle Creek in central
Pennsylvania. Later, when he was

394
00:23:54,910 --> 00:23:59,620
found hiding in a nearby grist
mill, Stump claimed that the six

395
00:23:59,620 --> 00:24:02,350
Native people were drunk and
that they had threatened him.

396
00:24:02,710 --> 00:24:07,510
Whether this was true we cannot
know, for Stump killed them all.

397
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,100
He dragged their lifeless bodies
to the creek, smashed open a

398
00:24:12,100 --> 00:24:14,710
hole in the ice, and pushed them
under.

399
00:24:15,460 --> 00:24:20,080
The next day, Stump and John
Ironcutter, his German-born

400
00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:24,280
indentured servant, walked 14
miles up the creek to a Native

401
00:24:24,280 --> 00:24:28,330
community. There they found a
woman, two young girls, and a

402
00:24:28,330 --> 00:24:32,950
baby. Stump would later claim he
feared the woman would raise an

403
00:24:32,950 --> 00:24:36,850
alarm about the missing Seneca
and Mohicans, which is why he

404
00:24:36,850 --> 00:24:40,780
and Ironcutter murdered them
all. They dragged their bodies

405
00:24:40,810 --> 00:24:43,030
into a cabin, and burned it.

406
00:24:43,660 --> 00:24:47,650
Like the Paxton Boys, who
slaughtered Conestoga Indians in

407
00:24:47,650 --> 00:24:53,950
1763, Stump never faced justice
for his crimes. He was briefly

408
00:24:53,950 --> 00:24:57,340
imprisoned before being rescued
by an armed mob.

409
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:00,340
Christopher Pearl: Tensions were
so high that John Penn who's the

410
00:25:00,340 --> 00:25:03,280
governor of Pennsylvania, told
William Johnson, you've got to

411
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,910
hold off on having this treaty
at Fort Stanwix, until our

412
00:25:06,910 --> 00:25:10,510
arrangements and until there's a
better relationship with many of

413
00:25:10,510 --> 00:25:12,610
these northern and western
nations.

414
00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:15,520
Jim Ambuske: The unrelated
passing of a Seneca leader

415
00:25:15,520 --> 00:25:17,140
threatened further delays.

416
00:25:17,650 --> 00:25:20,410
Christopher Pearl: A Seneca
leader has died, and many of the

417
00:25:20,410 --> 00:25:24,400
Susquehanna nations and Ohio
nations make their way up

418
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:28,300
through Seneca country to make
their way over to Fort Stanwix

419
00:25:28,390 --> 00:25:32,440
stop for a condolence ceremony
for that recently deceased

420
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,670
Seneca leader, and make their
way then to Fort Stanwix and

421
00:25:36,670 --> 00:25:39,760
Johnson thinks they're gonna
arrive in September. They don't.

422
00:25:40,360 --> 00:25:44,020
Instead, it's weeks of them in
Seneca country and Johnson's

423
00:25:44,020 --> 00:25:47,920
getting no news on their temper,
because there's all these rumors

424
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,300
that French and Spanish agents
have gone to the Susquehanna and

425
00:25:52,300 --> 00:25:57,370
Ohio nations and told them that
Fort Stanwix was a ruse to get

426
00:25:57,370 --> 00:26:01,990
them all together and murder
them all, which can't be far

427
00:26:01,990 --> 00:26:06,700
from their imagination, because
they just experienced the murder

428
00:26:06,730 --> 00:26:07,810
by Frederick Stump.

429
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:12,490
Jim Ambuske: Johnson understood
these concerns, but he also felt

430
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,420
the moment to conclude a new
agreement was slipping away. And

431
00:26:16,420 --> 00:26:20,710
there was another problem.
Johnson expected 3,000 Native

432
00:26:20,710 --> 00:26:25,150
people to attend the conference,
and that was terribly expensive.

433
00:26:25,810 --> 00:26:29,620
Christopher Pearl: It would
require 150 barrels of pork and

434
00:26:29,620 --> 00:26:34,810
flour, not to mention several
casks of alcohol and a whole

435
00:26:34,810 --> 00:26:39,460
host of gifts just for a week of
negotiation. And from Johnson's

436
00:26:39,460 --> 00:26:43,150
perspective, he says he has to
have all of these goods at this

437
00:26:43,150 --> 00:26:46,720
time. And he says otherwise, it
must overstep the design of this

438
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:50,050
Congress. As it cannot be
supposed that hungry Indians can

439
00:26:50,050 --> 00:26:53,740
be kept here or in any temper
without a belly full that starts

440
00:26:53,740 --> 00:26:57,850
rolling in in September, he
cannot hold off negotiations.

441
00:26:58,540 --> 00:27:01,420
There's supposed to be over 3000
indigenous people attending this

442
00:27:01,450 --> 00:27:06,220
Fort Stanwix treaty. 1000 of
them arrive, and the other two

443
00:27:06,250 --> 00:27:09,100
are still in Seneca country
waiting for a couple weeks. So

444
00:27:09,100 --> 00:27:11,740
now all the supplies that
Johnson has maneuvered to get

445
00:27:11,740 --> 00:27:16,000
there are consumed, and he's
panicking. He actually says, I'm

446
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:20,200
distressed because he's going to
have to justify added expenses

447
00:27:20,380 --> 00:27:24,010
to Hillsborough to gage to a
host of other people that he

448
00:27:24,010 --> 00:27:27,130
needs to keep happy because he's
going to go against the precise

449
00:27:27,130 --> 00:27:30,250
instructions that Hillsborough
has just given him. Johnson

450
00:27:30,250 --> 00:27:33,880
pleads with messengers to the
Seneca nations to get them to

451
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:37,420
get everybody there. He promises
a full condolence ceremony once

452
00:27:37,420 --> 00:27:39,040
they arrive, which will take
days.

453
00:27:41,710 --> 00:27:43,810
Jim Ambuske: As Johnson
promised, the condolence

454
00:27:43,810 --> 00:27:46,960
ceremony took place once the
remaining delegates arrived in

455
00:27:46,960 --> 00:27:53,050
early October. Then, the
negotiations began. As they had

456
00:27:53,050 --> 00:27:56,410
now for decades, the
Haudenosaunee claimed the right

457
00:27:56,410 --> 00:28:00,490
to speak on behalf of the Ohio
and Susquehanna nations. They

458
00:28:00,490 --> 00:28:05,020
dealt directly with Johnson, who
spoke on behalf of the king and

459
00:28:05,020 --> 00:28:06,610
many other interests.

460
00:28:07,060 --> 00:28:09,430
Christopher Pearl: And it takes
until the third day, when

461
00:28:09,430 --> 00:28:13,570
Johnson starts actually talking
about the line. But much to his

462
00:28:13,570 --> 00:28:17,080
chagrin, they don't want to talk
about the Northern line first.

463
00:28:17,140 --> 00:28:19,900
They want to talk about the
southern line, and particularly

464
00:28:19,900 --> 00:28:23,530
want to talk about their
conquering of the Cherokee and

465
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:27,430
therefore selling what they have
conquered in Cherokee country

466
00:28:27,430 --> 00:28:30,400
around the Tennessee River. And
they said, If you don't give us

467
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:35,590
this, it will irritate or offend
our warriors who have conquered

468
00:28:35,590 --> 00:28:40,090
that country. What they want
Johnson do is recognize that

469
00:28:40,090 --> 00:28:44,650
fight, but also their sovereign
authority over a vast territory

470
00:28:44,680 --> 00:28:48,640
in North America, which puts
them in a significant position,

471
00:28:49,180 --> 00:28:52,180
and it also takes away threats
to their own land closer to

472
00:28:52,180 --> 00:28:52,480
home.

473
00:28:53,530 --> 00:28:55,630
Jim Ambuske: With the
Haudenosaunee satisfied with the

474
00:28:55,630 --> 00:28:59,650
southern boundary, the diplomats
turned their gaze north to the

475
00:28:59,650 --> 00:29:04,180
more vexatious northern border.
These negotiations followed a

476
00:29:04,180 --> 00:29:05,320
different course.

477
00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:08,350
Christopher Pearl: Once Johnson
gets to the northern portion, he

478
00:29:08,350 --> 00:29:12,370
doesn't do it in these public
meetings. Instead, he takes a

479
00:29:12,370 --> 00:29:15,880
map into his private quarters
and brings the Oneida in,

480
00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:18,160
because much of that Northern
line is going to go through

481
00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:22,060
their territory, and starts
negotiating with them. He even

482
00:29:22,060 --> 00:29:26,230
sweetens the pot. He offers $500
in gifts to each chief that

483
00:29:26,230 --> 00:29:29,710
gives him a quote, unquote,
favorable answer. The Oneida are

484
00:29:29,710 --> 00:29:33,070
like, we can't agree to this.
This is too close to our doors.

485
00:29:33,070 --> 00:29:35,020
We barely have hunting country
left.

486
00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:39,010
Jim Ambuske: It was a stratagem.
Johnson wanted the Oneida to see

487
00:29:39,010 --> 00:29:43,510
one possible future on the map,
one of white settlers vying for

488
00:29:43,510 --> 00:29:44,350
their lands.

489
00:29:44,620 --> 00:29:47,200
Christopher Pearl: They need to
take it back, they said, to

490
00:29:47,290 --> 00:29:50,800
negotiate it in private with
many of the Haudenosaunee and

491
00:29:50,860 --> 00:29:54,610
particularly their warriors.
Johnson's banking on deference

492
00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:58,750
that they will defer to their
elders. That's going to be

493
00:29:58,750 --> 00:30:01,270
really difficult, because many.
Any of the Seneca and Cayuga

494
00:30:01,270 --> 00:30:04,540
Warriors don't want to give up
anything, because Johnson

495
00:30:04,540 --> 00:30:07,300
proposed a line that would have
started at the Appalachian

496
00:30:07,300 --> 00:30:10,300
Mountains and moved through to
the north, which would have

497
00:30:10,300 --> 00:30:12,820
taken all of the Northern
Susquehanna River Valley. And

498
00:30:12,820 --> 00:30:15,850
the Seneca warriors respond like
we will give nothing away

499
00:30:15,970 --> 00:30:18,940
between and they say, this
specifically great Island and

500
00:30:18,940 --> 00:30:21,760
Wyoming, which means all of the
Northern Susquehanna River

501
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:25,180
Valley, and that means to me
that the Susquehanna nations,

502
00:30:25,180 --> 00:30:28,000
while not visible in council
because they're treated as

503
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:32,380
subject peoples and not visible
in the treaty, actually do have

504
00:30:32,380 --> 00:30:35,050
some diplomatic authority behind
the scenes.

505
00:30:35,470 --> 00:30:38,110
Jim Ambuske: The Oneida returned
to the negotiations with an

506
00:30:38,140 --> 00:30:39,670
unwelcome answer.

507
00:30:40,150 --> 00:30:45,280
Christopher Pearl: The Oneida go
back and they replicate the 1765

508
00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:49,120
agreement, and then they agree
to a line that's far more

509
00:30:49,180 --> 00:30:55,180
Eastern than Johnson wanted.
Johnson got angry. He gave this,

510
00:30:55,210 --> 00:30:59,320
what they called a warm speech,
and said that they were going to

511
00:30:59,320 --> 00:31:03,490
undermine the whole purpose of
this conference with such an

512
00:31:03,490 --> 00:31:09,010
agreement, because it imposes on
quote, unquote, grants that were

513
00:31:09,010 --> 00:31:12,400
already given. And to my mind,
he means the grants that were

514
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,790
given to him, the Oneida go
back. There's another,

515
00:31:15,850 --> 00:31:20,320
literally, a week of negotiation
almost, and they give a line

516
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:23,680
that's bit different. Now they
say we're not going to go with

517
00:31:23,680 --> 00:31:25,570
the Appalachian Mountains. We're
going to push it. We'll give you

518
00:31:25,570 --> 00:31:29,380
a line on the West Branch, which
we never agreed to in 1765, but

519
00:31:29,380 --> 00:31:32,350
that's going to go up this creek
called the tie data. It'll hit

520
00:31:32,350 --> 00:31:35,290
Burnett's hills, and then it'll
follow the North Branch up to a

521
00:31:35,290 --> 00:31:40,780
Wego and then an easterly course
to Canada Creek. Johnson said,

522
00:31:40,780 --> 00:31:44,470
not everything that we wanted,
but it's better than the

523
00:31:44,470 --> 00:31:47,020
agreement that the Oneida gave a
week before.

524
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:49,930
Jim Ambuske: Content with the
agreement over the northern

525
00:31:49,930 --> 00:31:54,010
boundary, Johnson also made good
on his promises to the Penn

526
00:31:54,010 --> 00:31:54,550
family.

527
00:31:55,090 --> 00:31:57,070
Christopher Pearl: He struck a
deal independent for

528
00:31:57,070 --> 00:32:00,310
Pennsylvania, and that's the
only independent deal in this

529
00:32:00,310 --> 00:32:05,710
treaty, the pens paid 10,000
Spanish dollars for all of the

530
00:32:05,710 --> 00:32:07,990
agreements within what they
consider the jurisdiction of

531
00:32:07,990 --> 00:32:11,290
Pennsylvania, based on Charter
rights. Johnson also got

532
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:15,520
Haudenosaunee to go on the
public record saying that they

533
00:32:15,700 --> 00:32:21,280
disavow the purchase in 1754
handed the Susquehanna company,

534
00:32:21,610 --> 00:32:24,640
and moreover, that the
Haudenosaunee would never sell

535
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:28,240
land in what is considered
Pennsylvania to Connecticut. So

536
00:32:28,240 --> 00:32:29,860
now Penn's got a legal argument.

537
00:32:31,510 --> 00:32:34,210
Jim Ambuske: But the Treaty of
Fort Stanwix was far from a

538
00:32:34,210 --> 00:32:35,410
perfect agreement.

539
00:32:35,950 --> 00:32:38,620
Christopher Pearl: Nobody's
happy with the Fort Stanwix

540
00:32:38,620 --> 00:32:42,100
treaty. The Haudenosaunee are
divided. Many of the Seneca and

541
00:32:42,100 --> 00:32:46,270
Cayuga are upset that this deal
was struck. They don't

542
00:32:46,270 --> 00:32:49,420
understand why they gave so much
away in the North. The

543
00:32:49,420 --> 00:32:52,510
Susquehanna nations are really
upset. At a meeting at Fort

544
00:32:52,510 --> 00:32:55,960
Augusta, which is in modern day
Sunbury. They tell the officers

545
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,810
there that they're so upset that
they believe the Haudenosaunee

546
00:32:58,810 --> 00:33:02,590
are, quote, the slaves of the
white people, the Ohio nations

547
00:33:02,620 --> 00:33:05,920
are upset because they were
there but never given the

548
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,590
authority to negotiate, even
though they live on those lands,

549
00:33:08,590 --> 00:33:12,100
which Johnson recognized.
Connecticut's upset because it's

550
00:33:12,100 --> 00:33:15,640
been excluded from the deal. And
so Connecticut just decides

551
00:33:15,670 --> 00:33:18,850
we're just going to start moving
there. Now Penn has to race

552
00:33:18,850 --> 00:33:21,190
Connecticut settlers to
basically claim what he thinks

553
00:33:21,190 --> 00:33:25,660
he just purchased. Speculators
are abuzz, obviously, but it

554
00:33:25,660 --> 00:33:30,640
irritates some other speculators
because they don't get a chance

555
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:33,430
to benefit from it because of
the way Johnson's treaty went

556
00:33:33,430 --> 00:33:33,790
down.

557
00:33:34,660 --> 00:33:37,330
Jim Ambuske: And Johnson's
antics infuriated Lord

558
00:33:37,330 --> 00:33:38,020
Hillsborough.

559
00:33:38,500 --> 00:33:41,560
Christopher Pearl: Hillsborough
once he gets news of the treaty

560
00:33:41,950 --> 00:33:46,270
berates Sir William Johnson as
bringing in private interests

561
00:33:46,330 --> 00:33:49,360
that he shouldn't have done and
from not following the precise

562
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:51,670
instructions. And he actually
goes back to Johnson, says,

563
00:33:51,730 --> 00:33:54,220
We're not going to approve this.
You need to go back to the

564
00:33:54,220 --> 00:33:57,160
Haudenosaunee and renegotiate
based on the precise

565
00:33:57,160 --> 00:34:01,150
instructions that I provided.
Johnson can't do that, because

566
00:34:01,150 --> 00:34:03,880
the Haudenosaunee will never
accept it, especially the line

567
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:06,340
to the south, which is what
Hillsborough is worried about,

568
00:34:06,550 --> 00:34:09,970
because the line Johnson agreed
to at Fort Stanwix went against

569
00:34:09,970 --> 00:34:13,150
the line that Cherokee just
agreed with Jon Stewart, who's

570
00:34:13,150 --> 00:34:15,220
the superintendent of Indian
Affairs for the Southern

571
00:34:15,220 --> 00:34:18,130
District, and Hillsborough is
like you've created so much

572
00:34:18,130 --> 00:34:21,220
confusion that is going to
create another war. And he's

573
00:34:21,220 --> 00:34:26,440
right, but Johnson tells him,
you can't do this. Oh, and by

574
00:34:26,440 --> 00:34:30,280
the way, this costs 20,000
pounds, and so renegotiation is

575
00:34:30,280 --> 00:34:33,550
going to be expensive. It might
alienate the Haudenosaunee and

576
00:34:33,730 --> 00:34:36,820
Hillsborough is in the middle of
sort of rock and a hard place.

577
00:34:37,690 --> 00:34:41,290
Eventually, he tells Johnson, I
would wish you renegotiate, but

578
00:34:41,290 --> 00:34:45,340
it's no longer a command and
will approve this treaty.

579
00:34:48,220 --> 00:34:50,890
Jim Ambuske: The Treaty of Fort
Stanwix, negotiated with the

580
00:34:50,890 --> 00:34:54,100
Haudenosaunee, along with later
agreements struck with the

581
00:34:54,100 --> 00:34:56,950
Cherokee, deflected white
settlers away from their

582
00:34:56,950 --> 00:35:01,000
homelands, and set in motion a
mad scramble for the Susquehanna

583
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,710
River Valley and the Ohio
Country. The new boundary lines

584
00:35:05,710 --> 00:35:09,730
raced toward the Ohio River and
followed its course south toward

585
00:35:09,730 --> 00:35:12,970
what is now Kentucky and on to
the Mississippi River.

586
00:35:13,450 --> 00:35:17,020
For Pennsylvanians, Virginians,
and other colonists who had long

587
00:35:17,020 --> 00:35:22,300
prized these lands, this was
their moment. Some, like the

588
00:35:22,300 --> 00:35:25,540
Virginia planter George
Washington, ventured west to

589
00:35:25,540 --> 00:35:29,260
inspect old land grants and
promising ground, while

590
00:35:29,260 --> 00:35:32,530
deputizing others to make new
purchases on his behalf.

591
00:35:33,160 --> 00:35:37,150
Others were more ambitious.
Robert Parkinson explains.

592
00:35:38,530 --> 00:35:42,310
Robert Parkinson: There are
very, very well funded investors

593
00:35:42,310 --> 00:35:45,160
who were wanting to create an
inland colony called Vandalia,

594
00:35:45,550 --> 00:35:48,640
which would incorporate all of
what's today West Virginia,

595
00:35:48,670 --> 00:35:51,790
parts of eastern Ohio and a lot
of Kentucky that would be its

596
00:35:51,790 --> 00:35:55,090
own massive it's referred to
almost as an internal Kingdom.

597
00:35:55,540 --> 00:35:58,000
Jim Ambuske: The Cresap family
was involved in the Vandalia

598
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:03,190
scheme. And by the early 1770s,
Thomas, and his son Michael, had

599
00:36:03,190 --> 00:36:06,910
significant experience in land
speculation, provincial border

600
00:36:06,910 --> 00:36:09,880
disputes, and conflict with
Indigenous peoples.

601
00:36:10,690 --> 00:36:13,030
Robert Parkinson: Thomas Cresap
comes to America the very

602
00:36:13,060 --> 00:36:15,730
beginning of the 18th century
from England. He's from

603
00:36:15,730 --> 00:36:20,440
Yorkshire, and he settles
outside of Baltimore, and he

604
00:36:20,470 --> 00:36:23,560
bounces around. He rents lands
from George Washington's father,

605
00:36:23,590 --> 00:36:27,550
and he settles on the
Susquehanna River in the 1730s

606
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,960
in what is today, maybe 30 miles
inside of Pennsylvania, but they

607
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:34,840
think it's Maryland, and he gets
this permission from the

608
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:36,340
Maryland Governor to settle
there.

609
00:36:37,060 --> 00:36:40,150
Jim Ambuske: Like his son after
him, Thomas became embroiled in

610
00:36:40,150 --> 00:36:41,890
a colonial border dispute.

611
00:36:42,100 --> 00:36:43,420
Robert Parkinson: This one is
between Maryland and

612
00:36:43,420 --> 00:36:48,010
Pennsylvania. There are pitched
battles between the two. Press

613
00:36:48,010 --> 00:36:51,340
have shoots somebody who ends up
dying and he is arrested for

614
00:36:51,340 --> 00:36:53,680
murder once the Pennsylvanians
get their hands on him, he's

615
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:57,280
clapped in a Philadelphia jail
for a while. According to the

616
00:36:57,280 --> 00:36:59,710
charters, Philadelphia should
have been in Maryland because

617
00:36:59,710 --> 00:37:02,410
the maps were so bad in the 18th
century. So when he gets to

618
00:37:02,410 --> 00:37:04,960
Philadelphia, he says, damn,
this isn't the prettiest town in

619
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:05,380
Maryland.

620
00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:08,590
Jim Ambuske: Thomas Cresap’s
actions in the border dispute in

621
00:37:08,590 --> 00:37:12,850
the 1730s earned him the
nickname the “Maryland Monster.”

622
00:37:13,480 --> 00:37:16,930
Those actions later led to the
arrival of English surveyors

623
00:37:16,930 --> 00:37:21,820
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon
in 1763 to map the precise

624
00:37:21,820 --> 00:37:24,550
boundary between Pennsylvania
and Maryland.

625
00:37:25,270 --> 00:37:28,840
Once out of jail, Thomas, his
wife Hannah, and their children

626
00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:32,710
moved west. Michael was born in
1742.

627
00:37:33,220 --> 00:37:35,380
Robert Parkinson: The Cresap of
family gets involved in the Ohio

628
00:37:35,380 --> 00:37:38,500
Company. They are original
partners with the Washingtons

629
00:37:38,500 --> 00:37:41,860
and the Lees and the fairfaxes.
Thomas cressid blazes the road

630
00:37:41,860 --> 00:37:44,950
to Pittsburgh for the Ohio
Company. And in the years after

631
00:37:44,950 --> 00:37:49,420
the Seven Years War, Michael as
the leader of a settlement that

632
00:37:49,420 --> 00:37:51,970
is south of Pittsburgh. Today
it's Brownsville, Pennsylvania,

633
00:37:51,970 --> 00:37:55,060
but then it was called redstone
on Redstone Creek. Michael is

634
00:37:55,060 --> 00:38:00,220
probably in his early 20s here
becomes a leading trader, and

635
00:38:00,220 --> 00:38:02,350
then when that doesn't work out
so much, he opens a store that

636
00:38:02,350 --> 00:38:03,010
goes under.

637
00:38:03,460 --> 00:38:06,850
Jim Ambuske: Michael Cresap lent
his customers credit on far too

638
00:38:06,850 --> 00:38:10,480
generous terms, and he struggled
to stock his store in Redstone

639
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,840
when his supplier in Frederick,
Maryland withheld orders,

640
00:38:13,870 --> 00:38:17,050
fearing that Cresap would
disappear west along with other

641
00:38:17,050 --> 00:38:20,950
settlers headed for the Ohio
River Valley. The son of the

642
00:38:20,950 --> 00:38:24,190
“Maryland Monster” rode east to
confront his supplier,

643
00:38:24,310 --> 00:38:28,060
apparently in a violent manner,
and then proved his supplier

644
00:38:28,060 --> 00:38:32,230
right after all. Cresap left
Redstone for Wheeling Creek,

645
00:38:32,290 --> 00:38:33,700
along the Ohio River.

646
00:38:34,090 --> 00:38:36,490
Robert Parkinson: He becomes a
land scout. He becomes one of

647
00:38:36,490 --> 00:38:40,690
the most important sort of
speculators, settlers, quasi

648
00:38:40,690 --> 00:38:44,260
soldiers of this territory in
the 1760s and 70s.

649
00:38:44,710 --> 00:38:47,800
Jim Ambuske: By then, the now
thirty-year-old Cresap and his

650
00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:51,520
family had a long history of
trading with Indigenous peoples,

651
00:38:51,940 --> 00:38:52,870
and fighting them.

652
00:38:53,410 --> 00:38:57,010
Robert Parkinson: The first time
he comes to public knowledge, is

653
00:38:57,010 --> 00:39:01,270
killing native peoples in the
conflicts of Pontiac's war.

654
00:39:01,510 --> 00:39:05,110
Thomas Cresap, home in Western
Maryland, becomes a centerpiece

655
00:39:05,110 --> 00:39:08,200
of some of the raids that
happen. We always think of

656
00:39:08,230 --> 00:39:11,320
Pontiac's War as a war against
the forts at Detroit and for

657
00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:14,710
Pitt especially, but there's a
lot of country raiding going on

658
00:39:14,710 --> 00:39:17,350
as well, and one of that happens
in what's called Old Tom,

659
00:39:17,350 --> 00:39:21,520
Maryland. Cresap's town in a lot
of ways, and natives attack.

660
00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:24,880
Over three days, they send out
very panicked please help us.

661
00:39:24,910 --> 00:39:27,550
The messages back to the
Governor of Maryland. Thomas

662
00:39:27,550 --> 00:39:32,380
sends Michael, who is 21 at this
point, to go for help. And he

663
00:39:32,380 --> 00:39:35,830
shows up in Frederick, Maryland
wearing moccasins of a native

664
00:39:35,830 --> 00:39:39,850
person that he has killed. He's
always from a very young age,

665
00:39:39,880 --> 00:39:44,020
dealt with native conflict. His
older brother was killed five

666
00:39:44,020 --> 00:39:46,510
years earlier in the Seven
Years' War, and they came upon

667
00:39:46,510 --> 00:39:50,740
his dead body in the mountains,
half chewed up by animals. This

668
00:39:50,740 --> 00:39:55,330
is someone who is up close and
personal with the violence and

669
00:39:55,330 --> 00:39:59,680
trauma of these years and these
places. That's not to say that

670
00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:02,230
he's. One of the main reasons
why that violence and that

671
00:40:02,230 --> 00:40:04,630
trauma is happening, but it is
happening to him.

672
00:40:06,700 --> 00:40:11,020
Jim Ambuske: By the early 1770s,
James Logan – Soyechtowa – had

673
00:40:11,020 --> 00:40:14,350
moved deeper into the Ohio
Country as well. And like

674
00:40:14,350 --> 00:40:17,830
Michael Cresap, we cannot
understand Logan without first

675
00:40:17,860 --> 00:40:21,280
understanding the life of
Shickellamy, his Onedia father.

676
00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:23,680
Robert Parkinson: His father,
Shickellamy was one of the most

677
00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:27,850
important native diplomats of
the 18th century. He's the Six

678
00:40:27,850 --> 00:40:30,760
Nations point person to try to
keep the peace with all the

679
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:34,540
things that are going on in the
1730s and 40s and 50s. He's sent

680
00:40:34,540 --> 00:40:37,420
to a town that's today Sunbury,
Pennsylvania, but then it's

681
00:40:37,420 --> 00:40:40,630
called shamacon. He is sent
there as an ambassador to

682
00:40:40,630 --> 00:40:45,040
negotiate to keep the peace in
central Pennsylvania. He is the

683
00:40:45,070 --> 00:40:48,790
lead native diplomat that
organizes the very infamous

684
00:40:48,790 --> 00:40:53,530
walking purchase in the 1737 and
he does that in negotiation with

685
00:40:53,530 --> 00:40:56,590
and in alliance with James
Logan, who is the land agent for

686
00:40:56,590 --> 00:40:59,560
Pennsylvania. And that
relationship becomes so close

687
00:40:59,620 --> 00:41:04,270
that shekelemi gives his two
oldest sons another name. He

688
00:41:04,270 --> 00:41:06,970
refers to them as Logan. The
oldest brother, his name is

689
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:09,970
Tachnechdorus but he's also
known as John Logan Shickellamy.

690
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:12,820
And the second born son is James
Logan Shickellamy, but he's also

691
00:41:12,820 --> 00:41:15,700
known as Soyechtowa, and that,
that epitome that epitomizes

692
00:41:15,700 --> 00:41:19,690
this kind of relationship, this
tight bond between Pennsylvania

693
00:41:19,900 --> 00:41:22,840
and and this, this one person,
Shickellamy.

694
00:41:23,170 --> 00:41:27,130
Jim Ambuske: When Shickellamy
died in 1748, his oldest sons

695
00:41:27,130 --> 00:41:31,060
John and James Logan –
Tachnechdorus and Soyechtowa –

696
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,960
took up their father’s
diplomatic mantle. They tried to

697
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:38,050
follow Shickellamy’s Way. But
their father’s role in

698
00:41:38,050 --> 00:41:41,920
negotiating away Lenape lands in
the Walking Purchase, their own

699
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:45,130
role in the violence between
settlers and Native peoples that

700
00:41:45,130 --> 00:41:47,980
swept through Pennsylvania
during the Seven Years’ War and

701
00:41:47,980 --> 00:41:51,460
Pontiac’s War, and the
displacement of Indigenous

702
00:41:51,460 --> 00:41:54,820
peoples like the Lenape and
Shawnee, diminished their

703
00:41:54,820 --> 00:41:58,720
political power and influence,
complicating their diplomatic

704
00:41:58,750 --> 00:42:02,830
efforts. They abandoned
Shickellamy’s name, and with

705
00:42:02,830 --> 00:42:05,680
their families, retreated
further west toward the Ohio

706
00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:06,100
River.

707
00:42:06,910 --> 00:42:11,350
Despite all this, in the years
after the war, some white

708
00:42:11,350 --> 00:42:14,410
settlers who encountered Logan
near his home in what is now

709
00:42:14,410 --> 00:42:17,650
Reedsville, Pennsylvania
recalled a relatively friendly

710
00:42:17,650 --> 00:42:21,160
man, who spoke some English, and
offered assistance when it was

711
00:42:21,160 --> 00:42:21,700
needed.

712
00:42:22,540 --> 00:42:26,500
Yet, for Logan, and for many
Native peoples like the Shawnee

713
00:42:26,500 --> 00:42:30,310
and the Lenape, who colonists
called the Delaware, peoples

714
00:42:30,310 --> 00:42:33,430
that inhabited western
Pennsylvania, western Virginia,

715
00:42:33,520 --> 00:42:37,180
and lands to the west of the
Ohio River, the Treaty of Fort

716
00:42:37,180 --> 00:42:40,480
Stanwix in 1768, was a disaster.

717
00:42:42,670 --> 00:42:46,540
However dissatisfied some Native
peoples and provincials may have

718
00:42:46,540 --> 00:42:50,500
been with Sir William Johnson’s
diplomatic triumph, the treaty

719
00:42:50,500 --> 00:42:54,040
resolved the problem of stopping
settlers like the Cresap family

720
00:42:54,070 --> 00:42:57,580
from frequently defying the
Royal Proclamation Line by

721
00:42:57,580 --> 00:42:59,110
bending it to their will.

722
00:42:59,710 --> 00:43:03,190
Robert Parkinson: In the years
after 1768, instead of

723
00:43:03,220 --> 00:43:08,080
preventing future expansion and
speculation, Fort Stanwix starts

724
00:43:08,080 --> 00:43:12,070
the whole machine over again. I
think there are six, maybe Ohio

725
00:43:12,070 --> 00:43:14,920
native peoples who were at the
Treaty of Fort Stanwix. The

726
00:43:14,920 --> 00:43:20,050
treaty is there to please and
placate and make happy, the Six

727
00:43:20,050 --> 00:43:23,920
Nations, the Haudenosaunee, the
ohios, feel like their land has

728
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:26,170
been sold out from under them,
just like what happened before.

729
00:43:26,170 --> 00:43:28,630
And so tensions are rising and
rising and rising and rising.

730
00:43:28,630 --> 00:43:32,230
And then there you see what's
going on in Pittsburgh and the

731
00:43:32,230 --> 00:43:35,320
relighting fuses again on huge
kegs of gunpowder.

732
00:43:35,830 --> 00:43:38,410
Jim Ambuske: Not all members of
the Six Nations were pleased and

733
00:43:38,410 --> 00:43:43,240
placated. For people like Logan,
who was of the Six Nations, but

734
00:43:43,240 --> 00:43:46,750
not in them, the resurgence of
white settlers heading west

735
00:43:46,750 --> 00:43:52,810
after 1768 had consequences far
more personal. His family began

736
00:43:52,810 --> 00:43:53,620
to fracture.

737
00:43:54,220 --> 00:43:56,740
Robert Parkinson: The Mingo
Indians are Iroquois who are

738
00:43:56,740 --> 00:43:59,770
displeased with what's going on
at home. They're Iroquois

739
00:43:59,770 --> 00:44:03,370
speaking, and they are an
amalgamation of a number of

740
00:44:03,370 --> 00:44:06,670
different mostly Six Nations
peoples who are creating their

741
00:44:06,670 --> 00:44:10,030
own groups that start in the
North Branch of the Susquehanna,

742
00:44:10,180 --> 00:44:13,660
and eventually, by about 1770 a
number of them have resettled

743
00:44:13,660 --> 00:44:17,500
even further to the south and
west to the Ohio River. James

744
00:44:17,500 --> 00:44:21,310
Logan soijtawa becomes a leading
member of that group. He takes

745
00:44:21,310 --> 00:44:22,990
his mother and his sister with
him.

746
00:44:23,350 --> 00:44:27,490
Jim Ambuske: By 1770, Logan, his
mother Neonoma, his sister

747
00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:31,240
Koonay, and a younger brother,
known as John Petty, were living

748
00:44:31,240 --> 00:44:34,450
in a Mingo village along Beaver
Creek on the west side of the

749
00:44:34,450 --> 00:44:37,450
Ohio River, some fifty miles
from Pittsburgh.

750
00:44:37,900 --> 00:44:40,540
Robert Parkinson: The family
splits up. His older brother

751
00:44:40,600 --> 00:44:43,690
stays in central Pennsylvania.
They never see each other again.

752
00:44:44,020 --> 00:44:47,590
So the family, which has been
very tight and connected

753
00:44:47,620 --> 00:44:50,740
throughout all this bad stuff
that happens then finally, does

754
00:44:50,740 --> 00:44:52,360
split apart in 1770.

755
00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:57,670
Jim Ambuske: Two years after
Logan and his family resettled

756
00:44:57,670 --> 00:45:01,180
along the Ohio River, the
British made a critical decision

757
00:45:01,210 --> 00:45:04,210
that altered the balance of
power in the Ohio Country.

758
00:45:05,230 --> 00:45:08,380
In one of his final acts as
Secretary of State for the

759
00:45:08,380 --> 00:45:12,160
Colonies, Lord Hillsborough
ordered General Thomas Gage, the

760
00:45:12,190 --> 00:45:15,490
commander-in-chief of British
forces in North America, to

761
00:45:15,490 --> 00:45:20,260
withdraw the army garrison from
Fort Pitt. Both men had come to

762
00:45:20,260 --> 00:45:23,020
believe that maintaining a
garrison at the Forks of the

763
00:45:23,020 --> 00:45:27,010
Ohio River, and one further west
in the Illinois Country, was an

764
00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:29,140
unnecessary burden on the
treasury.

765
00:45:29,920 --> 00:45:32,920
After years of dealing with
colonists who defied the

766
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:36,670
Proclamation Line and provoked
conflict with Native peoples,

767
00:45:36,820 --> 00:45:41,080
Gage wasn’t sorry to see the
fort abandoned. As he told the

768
00:45:41,080 --> 00:45:44,350
Secretary of War, the colonists
ought to live with the

769
00:45:44,350 --> 00:45:46,420
consequences of their own
choices.

770
00:45:46,780 --> 00:45:48,880
Thomas Gage: “If the Colonists
will afterward force the Savages

771
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:51,400
into Quarrells by using them
ill, let them feel the

772
00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:53,830
Consequences, we shall be out of
the scrape.”

773
00:45:54,250 --> 00:45:56,380
Jim Ambuske: By the time the
British garrison withdrew in

774
00:45:56,380 --> 00:46:01,300
October 1772, Lord Hillsborough
had been dismissed from office.

775
00:46:01,810 --> 00:46:05,170
In London, powerful land
speculators involved with the

776
00:46:05,170 --> 00:46:09,160
Ohio Company and the proposed
Vandalia colony had orchestrated

777
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:13,570
his downfall. William Legge,
Earl of Dartmouth, replaced him

778
00:46:13,570 --> 00:46:15,040
as the colonial secretary.

779
00:46:15,580 --> 00:46:19,150
The evacuation of British
Redcoats from Fort Pitt unnerved

780
00:46:19,150 --> 00:46:23,110
white settlers in the region.
The trauma of Indigenous raids

781
00:46:23,110 --> 00:46:27,040
during Pontiac’s Uprising still
echoed in the forests and the

782
00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:31,390
glens. Rumors swirled that
Native warriors had been seen

783
00:46:31,390 --> 00:46:36,310
with painted faces, a sign they
were going to war. Just before

784
00:46:36,310 --> 00:46:40,030
the withdrawal, when Logan was
spotted in Pittsburgh, some

785
00:46:40,030 --> 00:46:42,790
colonists feared that his
appearance was a herald of

786
00:46:42,790 --> 00:46:43,870
things to come.

787
00:46:44,380 --> 00:46:48,280
But as a local minister soon
learned, Logan was just as

788
00:46:48,280 --> 00:46:51,970
troubled. After talking with him
in town, the minister later

789
00:46:51,970 --> 00:46:55,030
encountered Logan in the woods,
who told him:

790
00:46:55,480 --> 00:47:00,550
Logan: “My house, the trees, and
the air, are full of Devils,

791
00:47:01,330 --> 00:47:05,590
they continually haunt me, and
they will kill me. All things

792
00:47:05,590 --> 00:47:07,270
tell me how wicked I have been.”

793
00:47:07,870 --> 00:47:10,840
Jim Ambuske: To banish these
Devils and his wicked thoughts,

794
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:14,770
the minister prescribed Logan
prayer, to little effect.

795
00:47:17,200 --> 00:47:20,920
The soldiers at Fort Pitt did
more than just reassure white

796
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:24,370
settlers who feared Native
attacks; they were an imperial

797
00:47:24,370 --> 00:47:27,430
presence that kept the long
simmering conflict between

798
00:47:27,430 --> 00:47:31,240
Virginia and Pennsylvania over
the Forks of the Ohio River at

799
00:47:31,240 --> 00:47:31,720
bay.

800
00:47:32,320 --> 00:47:35,560
Robert Parkinson: But once they
leave a huge power vacuum, very

801
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:39,910
rapidly after that, Pennsylvania
assembly extends the boundaries

802
00:47:39,910 --> 00:47:42,130
of Westmoreland County to
encompass the village of

803
00:47:42,130 --> 00:47:45,790
Pittsburgh, and in response, the
Virginians establish West

804
00:47:45,790 --> 00:47:49,210
Augusta County that also
encompasses it. So it is both

805
00:47:49,210 --> 00:47:52,060
Pennsylvania and Virginia, and
there are magistrates. There are

806
00:47:52,060 --> 00:47:55,420
two, basically Mayors of
Pittsburgh, one from Virginia,

807
00:47:55,420 --> 00:47:58,660
one from Pennsylvania. There's
also a contest going back and

808
00:47:58,660 --> 00:48:01,780
forth letters between Governor
John Penn and Governor Dunmore

809
00:48:01,780 --> 00:48:04,810
about these kinds of things. So
you're seeing this imperial

810
00:48:04,810 --> 00:48:08,230
rivalry about who gets this
territory and who can make their

811
00:48:08,230 --> 00:48:09,670
writ run in Pittsburgh.

812
00:48:10,210 --> 00:48:13,060
Jim Ambuske: John Murrary, 4th
Earl of Dunmore, had been

813
00:48:13,060 --> 00:48:17,860
appointed Virginia’s chief
magistrate in 1771, after only a

814
00:48:17,860 --> 00:48:21,670
year serving in the same, and
more lucrative post, in New

815
00:48:21,670 --> 00:48:22,270
York.

816
00:48:22,900 --> 00:48:26,410
The disappointed Dunmore
decamped to Williamsburg, hoping

817
00:48:26,410 --> 00:48:29,470
that he would have little reason
to linger long in the hot and

818
00:48:29,470 --> 00:48:33,700
humid Virginia air, but soon,
the Scottish nobleman warmed to

819
00:48:33,700 --> 00:48:37,690
the prospect of expanding his
colony’s western borders into

820
00:48:37,690 --> 00:48:41,290
the Ohio Country, defeating
rival Pennsylvania’s claims to

821
00:48:41,290 --> 00:48:44,980
Pittsburgh, and winning the
adulation of the Virginia gentry

822
00:48:45,010 --> 00:48:46,210
and the common people.

823
00:48:46,750 --> 00:48:49,870
He believed the British
withdrawal from Fort Pitt was

824
00:48:49,870 --> 00:48:55,780
his moment. In the summer of
1773, Lord Dunmore departed the

825
00:48:55,780 --> 00:48:59,590
coastal confines of Williamsburg
and headed northwest into

826
00:48:59,590 --> 00:49:03,520
mountainous West Augusta County,
in what is now West Virginia,

827
00:49:03,790 --> 00:49:07,360
before pressing on to Fort Pitt
to stake the Old Dominion’s

828
00:49:07,360 --> 00:49:10,510
claims to land that Virginians
and Pennsylvanians had been

829
00:49:10,510 --> 00:49:13,300
fighting over since before the
Seven Years’ War.

830
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:17,920
As Lord Dunmore told the Earl of
Dartmouth, when he arrived in

831
00:49:17,920 --> 00:49:21,370
the disputed region, he found a
people desperately in want of

832
00:49:21,370 --> 00:49:24,760
local government and order, who
pleaded with him for help.

833
00:49:25,240 --> 00:49:28,510
Lord Dunmore: “Upon my Arrival
the people flocked about me and

834
00:49:28,510 --> 00:49:32,350
beseeched me, not only as they
were his Majesty’s Subjects, but

835
00:49:32,350 --> 00:49:35,320
likewise as they were of those
within the government over which

836
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:39,010
I preside, to appoint
Magistrates, and officers of

837
00:49:39,010 --> 00:49:43,420
Militia, to remove these
grievous inconveniences under

838
00:49:43,420 --> 00:49:44,530
which they laboured.”

839
00:49:45,310 --> 00:49:49,870
“I found upwards of ten thousand
people settled, and that they

840
00:49:49,870 --> 00:49:53,170
had neither Magistrates to
preserve Rule and order among

841
00:49:53,170 --> 00:49:57,490
themselves, nor Militia for
their defence in case of any

842
00:49:57,490 --> 00:49:59,200
sudden attack of the Indians.”

843
00:50:00,280 --> 00:50:03,880
Jim Ambuske: Dumore felt it was
his duty to appoint magistrates

844
00:50:03,880 --> 00:50:07,840
and officers for the good of the
king’s subjects in western

845
00:50:07,870 --> 00:50:11,980
Virginia, carefully obscuring
the fact that Governor John Penn

846
00:50:12,010 --> 00:50:16,000
had done much the same for the
good of the king’s subjects in

847
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:17,680
western Pennsylvania.

848
00:50:18,490 --> 00:50:21,220
The contest between the
Pennsylvania and Virginia

849
00:50:21,220 --> 00:50:25,210
governments, and between
settlers on the ground, led to a

850
00:50:25,210 --> 00:50:29,680
great deal of confusion, no
small amount of chaos, and

851
00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:30,430
violence.

852
00:50:31,360 --> 00:50:34,300
Robert Parkinson: There are
magistrates who have some sort

853
00:50:34,300 --> 00:50:37,570
of official standing. They've
been given commissions of

854
00:50:37,570 --> 00:50:41,710
things. John Connally, who is
Dunmore's man, he's made a

855
00:50:41,710 --> 00:50:45,370
captain dash commandant of
Pittsburgh. He has blank

856
00:50:45,370 --> 00:50:48,280
certificates to make anybody a
militia captain, and so he has a

857
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:51,280
number of deputies that he sends
there, and they go and break

858
00:50:51,280 --> 00:50:54,880
into the Pennsylvania
magistrates houses. One of the

859
00:50:54,910 --> 00:50:57,460
Pennsylvania's wife has
attacked. She's hit by a sword

860
00:50:57,460 --> 00:51:00,970
in one attack, and she's badly
scratched in another attack,

861
00:51:01,210 --> 00:51:03,760
there's all sorts of violence
spilling out into their homes.

862
00:51:04,270 --> 00:51:07,480
At one point, they're kidnapped
and taken to Stanton, Virginia,

863
00:51:07,750 --> 00:51:09,850
and the Pennsylvanians do the
same thing. They go in in the

864
00:51:09,850 --> 00:51:12,250
middle of night, into John
Connolly's house and roust him

865
00:51:12,250 --> 00:51:14,890
out of bed and haul him off to
the Westmoreland, Pennsylvania

866
00:51:14,890 --> 00:51:18,580
jail. They're bullying and
attacking each other.

867
00:51:19,060 --> 00:51:21,760
Jim Ambuske: For ordinary
settlers who to support

868
00:51:21,820 --> 00:51:25,900
Pennsylvania or Virginia wasn't
always immediately obvious.

869
00:51:26,140 --> 00:51:27,670
Robert Parkinson: There's a lot
of people going back and forth.

870
00:51:27,820 --> 00:51:30,550
You can almost see them as a
microcosm of what's about to

871
00:51:30,550 --> 00:51:34,030
happen to the continent in
general. A lot of them don't

872
00:51:34,030 --> 00:51:37,420
have a lot of ties to one or the
other. I think the Virginians

873
00:51:37,450 --> 00:51:40,330
probably have a little bit more
of an advantage in that a lot of

874
00:51:40,330 --> 00:51:42,490
those settlers come from either
Western Maryland or Virginia,

875
00:51:42,490 --> 00:51:44,740
and so they feel and so they
feel a little bit more beholden

876
00:51:44,740 --> 00:51:48,340
to Dunmore and the Old Dominion.
But the Pennsylvanians, a lot of

877
00:51:48,340 --> 00:51:51,190
those guys, are very recent
immigrants. Maybe in the last

878
00:51:51,220 --> 00:51:54,580
six or seven years, they've come
to the New World, and so they

879
00:51:54,580 --> 00:51:57,400
don't really care all that much
about Pennsylvania, per se.

880
00:51:57,400 --> 00:51:58,480
They're not really attached to
it.

881
00:51:58,990 --> 00:52:01,810
Jim Ambuske: They cared more
about who could best ensure

882
00:52:01,810 --> 00:52:05,380
order and stability in the
region, a piece Dunmore argued

883
00:52:05,380 --> 00:52:08,740
that he could best provide when
he visited Fort Pitt in the

884
00:52:08,740 --> 00:52:10,780
summer of 1773

885
00:52:11,290 --> 00:52:13,390
Robert Parkinson: The other
question is, what are native

886
00:52:13,390 --> 00:52:16,240
peoples who are seeing all this
craziness? What are they

887
00:52:16,270 --> 00:52:18,610
thinking of this? And that's
really where the conflict then

888
00:52:18,640 --> 00:52:23,260
immediately turns to, is seeing
all this chaos and street

889
00:52:23,260 --> 00:52:25,510
fighting, and native peoples are
watching this. And I think the

890
00:52:25,540 --> 00:52:29,560
easiest conclusion is, when is
this going to come at us? And it

891
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:34,450
very rapidly does, by March and
April. And that, in many ways,

892
00:52:34,480 --> 00:52:38,350
is a benefit to certainly the
Virginians, because then they

893
00:52:38,350 --> 00:52:41,710
can close ranks and say, Well,
we have to fight this exterior

894
00:52:41,710 --> 00:52:44,770
threat. We have to stop fighting
with one another.

895
00:52:45,430 --> 00:52:48,670
Jim Ambuske: Governor Dunmore
waited for months, until March

896
00:52:48,700 --> 00:52:54,010
1774 to inform Lord Dartmouth
that he had extended Virginia's

897
00:52:54,010 --> 00:52:57,670
government to the forks of the
Ohio River, lest the King's

898
00:52:57,670 --> 00:53:00,820
minister stop him before he
could act to strengthen

899
00:53:00,820 --> 00:53:01,990
Virginia's claims.

900
00:53:02,500 --> 00:53:05,410
Robert Parkinson: Dunmore loves
to ask forgiveness, not

901
00:53:05,410 --> 00:53:08,920
permission. That's one of his
key attributes. He'll do things

902
00:53:08,950 --> 00:53:11,770
and then it'll be months before
he writes home to tell anybody

903
00:53:11,770 --> 00:53:12,370
what he's done.

904
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:15,520
Jim Ambuske: By the time that
Dartmouth received Dunmore’s

905
00:53:15,550 --> 00:53:20,080
letter in May, Virginians had
already massacred Logan’s family

906
00:53:20,380 --> 00:53:21,430
at Yellow Creek.

907
00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:29,800
In mid-April 1774, as confusion
and bewilderment reigned at the

908
00:53:29,800 --> 00:53:34,660
Forks of the Ohio, violence
erupted along the Ohio River. On

909
00:53:34,660 --> 00:53:39,160
the 14th, a trader named William
Butler sent three employees and

910
00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:42,820
a canoe full of goods downstream
from Pittsburgh to trade at a

911
00:53:42,820 --> 00:53:46,330
Shawnee village. When they
stopped to camp for the night,

912
00:53:46,420 --> 00:53:50,290
they encountered four Cherokee
traveling in the area. The

913
00:53:50,290 --> 00:53:51,850
traders foolishly:

914
00:53:52,150 --> 00:53:54,220
Robert Parkinson: show that they
have silver in a bag to some

915
00:53:54,220 --> 00:53:57,040
natives who they don't really
know. They get robbed of their

916
00:53:57,040 --> 00:53:59,920
silver, and one of them gets
killed in the frica, and

917
00:53:59,950 --> 00:54:02,830
somebody else also gets hurt and
wounded.

918
00:54:03,220 --> 00:54:06,520
Jim Ambuske: The robbery by the
Cherokees, along with a report

919
00:54:06,520 --> 00:54:10,060
from a Shawnee man that the Ohio
Seneca would soon strike against

920
00:54:10,060 --> 00:54:13,540
settlers, and other rumors that
the Shawnee themselves would

921
00:54:13,540 --> 00:54:17,890
attack, raised alarms among
colonists in the area. John

922
00:54:17,890 --> 00:54:21,550
Connolly, Lord Dunmore’s
commandant at Fort Pitt, saw

923
00:54:21,550 --> 00:54:23,470
this as a moment of opportunity:

924
00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:27,820
Robert Parkinson: Connolly says,
aha, here's my chance. Let's

925
00:54:27,820 --> 00:54:31,210
close ranks and go after these
guys. And he literally in his

926
00:54:31,210 --> 00:54:34,420
journal, turns a new page on his
journal and talks about now the

927
00:54:34,420 --> 00:54:37,360
expedition and the fight against
the Indians, as if all the other

928
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:39,490
stuff between Virginia and
Pennsylvania is not happening

929
00:54:39,490 --> 00:54:43,150
anymore. Now this is going to
become a fight with native

930
00:54:43,150 --> 00:54:43,750
peoples.

931
00:54:44,170 --> 00:54:47,440
Jim Ambuske: Connolly circulated
letters warning settlers not to

932
00:54:47,440 --> 00:54:51,340
provoke friendly Native peoples
and to defend themselves in case

933
00:54:51,340 --> 00:54:52,690
a general war broke out

934
00:54:53,350 --> 00:54:56,110
Robert Parkinson: In the last
week of April, there are really

935
00:54:56,110 --> 00:54:58,720
bad things happening all up and
down the Ohio River. Michael

936
00:54:58,720 --> 00:55:00,820
Cresapis involved in some of
those things.

937
00:55:01,240 --> 00:55:04,330
Jim Ambuske: Four days after the
Cherokees attacked William

938
00:55:04,390 --> 00:55:07,870
Butler’s men, a surveying party
marking out lands for George

939
00:55:07,870 --> 00:55:11,380
Washington along the Kanawha
River encountered a settler who

940
00:55:11,380 --> 00:55:13,960
told them of another fight
between colonists and Native

941
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:18,460
people that left three Natives
dead. At a council among Ohio

942
00:55:18,460 --> 00:55:22,210
natives in the wake of the
fight, they decided “to kill the

943
00:55:22,240 --> 00:55:24,820
Virginians and rob the
Pennsylvanians."

944
00:55:25,510 --> 00:55:27,310
Robert Parkinson: 80 years ago,
we would talk about Indians and

945
00:55:27,310 --> 00:55:30,520
tribes, but Pennsylvania is a
tribe, and Virginia is a tribe,

946
00:55:30,580 --> 00:55:34,060
and Maryland's a tribe, and some
of those tribes are more war,

947
00:55:34,060 --> 00:55:37,600
like the Virginians, and some of
them are more inclined to trade

948
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:40,720
and peace. The Pennsylvanians
and natives see it that way.

949
00:55:40,750 --> 00:55:44,410
They talk in the 1770s in some
of these conferences, they talk

950
00:55:44,710 --> 00:55:47,950
about the colonists in terms of
tribes, just exactly like they

951
00:55:47,950 --> 00:55:48,940
talk about one another.

952
00:55:49,390 --> 00:55:52,510
Jim Ambuske: Some Native peoples
called the Virginians “the Long

953
00:55:52,510 --> 00:55:57,100
Knives” in recognition of their
warlike nature. After hearing

954
00:55:57,100 --> 00:56:00,430
the tale of the surveying
party’s encounter, a young Long

955
00:56:00,430 --> 00:56:04,180
Knife named George Rogers Clark
was among the Virginians who

956
00:56:04,180 --> 00:56:07,570
gathered at Point Pleasant to
plan a retaliatory attack

957
00:56:07,570 --> 00:56:11,290
against a Shawnee village.
Knowing that Michael Cresap was

958
00:56:11,290 --> 00:56:14,920
scouting land nearby, they sent
for him, and asked him to lead

959
00:56:14,920 --> 00:56:20,500
the expedition. To Clark’s
surprise, Cresap declined. He

960
00:56:20,500 --> 00:56:23,860
told the groups, he didn’t doubt
that a general Indian war was

961
00:56:23,860 --> 00:56:27,310
coming, but didn’t want to be
blamed for starting it.

962
00:56:27,730 --> 00:56:32,860
Yet, within days, Connelly sent
Cresap a note, addressing him as

963
00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:35,920
“Captain Cresap,” ordering him
and his men to scout the

964
00:56:35,920 --> 00:56:39,910
countryside. They went scouting
for targets instead.

965
00:56:40,630 --> 00:56:44,650
On April 26th, Cresap’s men
killed a Shawnee and a Lenape,

966
00:56:45,010 --> 00:56:48,370
who were canoeing downstream to
Shawnee villages on the Scioto

967
00:56:48,370 --> 00:56:51,520
River. They were traveling with
the lone survivor of the

968
00:56:51,520 --> 00:56:55,420
Cherokee attack from days
earlier. That man dove into the

969
00:56:55,420 --> 00:56:59,440
water when the shooting started,
and despite Cresap’s denials, he

970
00:56:59,440 --> 00:57:02,230
believed Cresap’s men had pulled
the triggers.

971
00:57:02,740 --> 00:57:06,460
The next day, Cresap’s men
attacked canoes carrying the

972
00:57:06,460 --> 00:57:10,270
Shawnee leader Cornstalk, with
at least some Shawnee killed and

973
00:57:10,270 --> 00:57:11,650
some colonists wounded.

974
00:57:12,430 --> 00:57:16,210
When they returned to Wheeling
that evening, Cresap’s men vowed

975
00:57:16,210 --> 00:57:21,220
to attack a Mingo camp, about 30
miles upriver from them. Logan

976
00:57:21,340 --> 00:57:25,180
was there. They began to march,
and then:

977
00:57:25,450 --> 00:57:27,850
Robert Parkinson: For some
reason, Michael says, Hey guys,

978
00:57:27,850 --> 00:57:30,430
this is a bad idea. Let's turn
around, go back, which

979
00:57:30,460 --> 00:57:33,850
aggravates those men who were
looking for blood. For some

980
00:57:33,850 --> 00:57:36,670
reason, Michael thinks, yeah, I
don't like the looks of this.

981
00:57:36,670 --> 00:57:37,990
This is probably not great.

982
00:57:38,230 --> 00:57:39,400
Jim Ambuske: Cresap told the men

983
00:57:39,940 --> 00:57:41,980
Michael Cresap: “it was
generally agreed that those

984
00:57:42,010 --> 00:57:45,400
[Mingo] Indians had no hostile
intentions, as they were

985
00:57:45,400 --> 00:57:48,430
hunting, and their party was
composed of men, women, and

986
00:57:48,430 --> 00:57:50,140
children, with all their stuff.”

987
00:57:50,950 --> 00:57:53,980
Jim Ambuske: As they returned to
camp, the party encountered John

988
00:57:53,980 --> 00:57:58,360
Gibson and three other traders
canoeing downriver. Gibson was

989
00:57:58,360 --> 00:58:02,710
Logan’s brother-in-law. He spent
a frightening night in camp,

990
00:58:02,770 --> 00:58:06,190
filled with more than 100 men,
some of whom threatened to kill

991
00:58:06,190 --> 00:58:10,630
him for trading with the enemy.
The next morning, Cresap all but

992
00:58:10,630 --> 00:58:15,070
told Gibson he could no longer
control his men, that they meant

993
00:58:15,250 --> 00:58:18,820
to “Fall on and kill every
Indian they met on the river.”

994
00:58:19,450 --> 00:58:23,740
Cresap left camp that day and
headed east. Gibson continued

995
00:58:23,740 --> 00:58:24,430
downriver.

996
00:58:25,030 --> 00:58:26,710
Robert Parkinson: I don't know
what it is. I don't know if he

997
00:58:26,710 --> 00:58:29,110
just doesn't like the look of
what's going to happen, but he

998
00:58:29,110 --> 00:58:33,250
takes steps to try to distance
himself from Yellow Creek. It

999
00:58:33,250 --> 00:58:34,150
does not work.

1000
00:58:37,960 --> 00:58:41,110
Jim Ambuske: Logan was away from
Yellow Creek hunting on

1001
00:58:41,110 --> 00:58:44,440
Saturday, April 30, 1774

1002
00:58:45,160 --> 00:58:47,650
Robert Parkinson: Yellow Creek
is about 50 miles downstream

1003
00:58:47,680 --> 00:58:52,210
from Pittsburgh. Yellow Creek
dumps into the Ohio River from

1004
00:58:52,210 --> 00:58:52,870
the West,

1005
00:58:53,170 --> 00:58:56,200
Jim Ambuske: And in the days
prior, some shots had rang out

1006
00:58:56,200 --> 00:58:57,610
across the Ohio River.

1007
00:58:57,940 --> 00:58:59,740
Robert Parkinson: There's a
minor skirmish that happens, and

1008
00:58:59,740 --> 00:59:03,610
so an arrangement is made to try
to keep the peace. People send

1009
00:59:03,610 --> 00:59:06,250
emissaries up to the Mingo
settlement that is about a mile

1010
00:59:06,250 --> 00:59:09,100
up yellow Creek, to say, why
don't you guys come over to a

1011
00:59:09,100 --> 00:59:12,880
tavern run by Joshua Baker and
his wife called Baker's bottom.

1012
00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:15,580
Why don't you come over to
Baker's bottom? Just have a

1013
00:59:15,580 --> 00:59:18,940
drink with us. We will go
through the negotiations of

1014
00:59:18,940 --> 00:59:21,520
peace to make sure that nothing
further happens after as a

1015
00:59:21,520 --> 00:59:24,640
result of this, let's come over
on Saturday morning. The people

1016
00:59:24,640 --> 00:59:28,090
that they're talking to are
these descendants of shekelemi

1017
00:59:28,120 --> 00:59:32,890
who've been raised to listen to
these kinds of opportunities and

1018
00:59:32,890 --> 00:59:37,420
a chance to keep the peace. It's
no surprise that it is the wife

1019
00:59:37,420 --> 00:59:41,080
of shekelemi and the daughter of
shekelemi and one of the sons of

1020
00:59:41,110 --> 00:59:44,830
shekelemi and about four other
mingos who paddle down yellow

1021
00:59:44,830 --> 00:59:47,860
Creek and cross the Ohio River
when the hopes of keeping the

1022
00:59:47,860 --> 00:59:50,620
peace. This is what the family
has been raised to do. This is

1023
00:59:50,620 --> 00:59:51,130
what they do.

1024
00:59:51,880 --> 00:59:54,760
Jim Ambuske: Logan’s mother,
Neonoma, his younger brother,

1025
00:59:54,760 --> 00:59:58,900
John Petty, his sister, Koonay
and her baby girl, and three

1026
00:59:58,900 --> 01:00:01,030
other men crossed the river that
morning.

1027
01:00:01,780 --> 01:00:04,570
Robert Parkinson: It's a trap. A
few of them go into the front

1028
01:00:04,570 --> 01:00:07,600
room of the tavern and have a
drink.

1029
01:00:08,020 --> 01:00:09,850
Jim Ambuske: After some time
passed

1030
01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:13,030
Robert Parkinson: Someone
proposed a shooting contest see

1031
01:00:13,030 --> 01:00:15,130
who can hit this thing over
there first.

1032
01:00:15,520 --> 01:00:18,250
Jim Ambuske: John Petty remained
inside while some of the men

1033
01:00:18,250 --> 01:00:20,320
headed outside for the contest,

1034
01:00:20,590 --> 01:00:22,480
Robert Parkinson: and the
colonists say, why don't you

1035
01:00:22,480 --> 01:00:25,540
guys go first? And the point
being to unload their weapons

1036
01:00:26,260 --> 01:00:29,350
Jim Ambuske: Back inside the
tavern, a British officer’s coat

1037
01:00:29,350 --> 01:00:33,340
belonging to Nathniel Tomlinson
was hanging on the wall. John

1038
01:00:33,340 --> 01:00:36,760
Petty allegedly took it down,
put it on, and began strutting

1039
01:00:36,760 --> 01:00:41,200
around, taunting the white men.
Tomlinson threatened to kill him

1040
01:00:41,200 --> 01:00:43,000
if he didn’t give his coat back.

1041
01:00:43,270 --> 01:00:46,570
Robert Parkinson: There's some
scuffling again. Tensions are at

1042
01:00:46,570 --> 01:00:50,830
their highest point. Some hard
words are exchanged, partly

1043
01:00:50,830 --> 01:00:54,160
after some alcohol has been
consumed, alcohol being another

1044
01:00:54,160 --> 01:00:55,360
kind of colonial weapon.

1045
01:00:55,900 --> 01:00:57,970
Jim Ambuske: One of the
colonists shot petty as he made

1046
01:00:57,970 --> 01:00:58,690
for the door.

1047
01:00:59,050 --> 01:01:01,810
Robert Parkinson: As soon as the
shooting starts, unbeknownst to

1048
01:01:01,810 --> 01:01:05,620
the Mingo, there are somewhere
between 10, maybe even as high

1049
01:01:05,620 --> 01:01:08,980
as 20, people hiding in another
room a back compartment of

1050
01:01:08,980 --> 01:01:09,670
Banker's Bottom.

1051
01:01:10,150 --> 01:01:13,690
Jim Ambuske: Edward King knifed
John Petty to death. Outside,

1052
01:01:13,720 --> 01:01:17,560
Neanoma was killed, and Koonay
began to run with her baby girl.

1053
01:01:18,190 --> 01:01:20,380
Robert Parkinson: Koonaywith her
baby, runs tries to reach the

1054
01:01:20,380 --> 01:01:22,360
Ohio River. Get back in her
canoe. She stopped right as she

1055
01:01:22,360 --> 01:01:25,090
gets to the river bank, she
turns around and begs for the

1056
01:01:25,090 --> 01:01:28,300
child to be spared. They hand
over the child and they shoot

1057
01:01:28,300 --> 01:01:31,210
her in the forehead and kill
her. They have a debate on

1058
01:01:31,210 --> 01:01:33,430
whether or not to kill the
child. They don't.

1059
01:01:33,880 --> 01:01:36,760
Jim Ambuske: In the same moment,
the colonists fired on Native

1060
01:01:36,760 --> 01:01:39,490
peoples who began paddling
across the river when they heard

1061
01:01:39,490 --> 01:01:41,650
the first shots, killing some of
them.

1062
01:01:42,190 --> 01:01:45,880
When the gunfire ended, the
attackers heard something they

1063
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:47,230
never forgot.

1064
01:01:47,710 --> 01:01:50,260
Robert Parkinson: They tell
stories of the moans and the

1065
01:01:50,260 --> 01:01:53,860
wails of the women on the other
side of the river that wafted

1066
01:01:53,860 --> 01:01:57,040
across the water. They could
hear the screaming and yelling

1067
01:01:57,070 --> 01:02:00,010
from Mingo women on the other
side about what they had known

1068
01:02:00,010 --> 01:02:00,610
had happened.

1069
01:02:00,970 --> 01:02:04,090
Jim Ambuske: The colonists left
the tavern with Koonay’s baby

1070
01:02:04,090 --> 01:02:08,620
girl. They later returned her to
her father, the trader John

1071
01:02:08,620 --> 01:02:12,310
Gibson, who at the time of the
killings was far downriver

1072
01:02:12,430 --> 01:02:14,110
visiting Shawnee villages.

1073
01:02:15,370 --> 01:02:19,210
Just when Logan learned of the
Yellow Creek Massacre, we do not

1074
01:02:19,210 --> 01:02:21,400
know. But we do know:

1075
01:02:21,670 --> 01:02:23,200
Robert Parkinson: Logan is
broken by this.

1076
01:02:23,590 --> 01:02:26,350
Everybody understands after this
happens that Logan has to seek

1077
01:02:26,350 --> 01:02:29,800
revenge whenever they try to
tamp the lid down on what

1078
01:02:29,800 --> 01:02:32,890
happens after this, everybody
says, Yeah, except for Logan,

1079
01:02:33,130 --> 01:02:36,250
like, let's not go to war with
the Virginians. The Shawnee

1080
01:02:36,250 --> 01:02:38,590
shouldn't go to war with the
Virginians. Or the Delaware

1081
01:02:38,590 --> 01:02:42,250
shouldn't. But Logan has
permission to do whatever he

1082
01:02:42,250 --> 01:02:46,030
wants to do, and everybody kind
of understands that. Logan then

1083
01:02:46,060 --> 01:02:49,600
initiates a set of about four
different raids that are

1084
01:02:49,600 --> 01:02:53,980
increasingly gaslier and gaslier
as we go along into June and

1085
01:02:53,980 --> 01:02:58,480
then August and into September.
And by that, you can see that

1086
01:02:58,750 --> 01:03:03,310
what has happened to his family,
the shekelemi way for the most

1087
01:03:03,310 --> 01:03:06,850
part, I can still see traces of
it. There are still some moments

1088
01:03:06,850 --> 01:03:11,020
in which he pulls back and tries
to limit the violence, but what

1089
01:03:11,020 --> 01:03:14,440
he has been taught to do is
broken by Yellow Creek.

1090
01:03:15,960 --> 01:03:15,996
Jim Ambuske: Logan’s quest for
vengeance encompassed a wide

1091
01:03:15,997 --> 01:03:16,047
geography. In the first week of
June, Logan and several warriors

1092
01:03:16,048 --> 01:03:16,096
attacked the Spicer family farm
near Redstone, Pennsylvania.

1093
01:03:16,096 --> 01:03:16,146
They killed William and his wife
Lydia. Three of their children

1094
01:03:16,147 --> 01:03:16,192
never had a chance. They took
two more children captive.

1095
01:03:16,192 --> 01:03:23,825
The attack near Redstone, the
Cresap family seat, was no

1096
01:03:23,961 --> 01:03:31,867
accident. In his grief, Logan
came to believe that Michael

1097
01:03:32,003 --> 01:03:40,182
Cresap was the architect of his
family’s slaughter at Yellow

1098
01:03:40,318 --> 01:03:49,042
Creek. It wasn’t an unreasonable
assumption, given Cresap’s role

1099
01:03:49,178 --> 01:03:58,720
in recent events, but he was 30
miles away when the attack took place.

1100
01:03:58,720 --> 01:04:01,298
Robert Parkinson: Who exactly
tells him that this is Michael

1101
01:04:01,360 --> 01:04:04,860
Cresap fault. I don't know.
Logan definitely believes it.

1102
01:04:04,860 --> 01:04:04,881
Jim Ambuske: Word of Logan’s
raids reached Philadelphia and

1103
01:04:04,881 --> 01:04:04,909
Williamsburg, as well as the
ears of Sir William Johnson in

1104
01:04:04,909 --> 01:04:04,934
northern New York. In early
July, Johnson convened an

1105
01:04:04,934 --> 01:04:04,962
emergency conference with 600
Iroquois at Johnson Hall, his

1106
01:04:04,962 --> 01:04:04,988
home, hoping to stave off a
full-scale war. He would not

1107
01:04:04,989 --> 01:04:05,015
live to see peace. Two hours
after delivering an opening

1108
01:04:05,015 --> 01:04:05,043
speech in which he pledged that
the British would bring the

1109
01:04:05,043 --> 01:04:05,069
attacking colonists to justice,
the fifty-nine-year-old

1110
01:04:05,069 --> 01:04:05,098
Anglo-Irishman, long the fulcrum
on which the British alliance

1111
01:04:05,098 --> 01:04:05,122
with the Haudeonsaunee rested,
collapsed and died.

1112
01:04:05,122 --> 01:04:40,253
The next day, hundreds of miles
to the south, Logan struck in

1113
01:04:40,829 --> 01:04:50,620
western Virginia.

1114
01:04:50,620 --> 01:04:52,692
Robert Parkinson: In the second
set of raids. He takes a couple

1115
01:04:52,738 --> 01:04:55,318
of people captive, and one of
them knows how to read and

1116
01:04:55,364 --> 01:04:58,174
write. We know Logan can read,
but I don't think he can write

1117
01:04:58,220 --> 01:05:01,030
because of what he. Does here.
He adopts Robinson, a Virginia

1118
01:05:01,076 --> 01:05:03,840
columnist, and He preserves his
life. And he goes and visits

1119
01:05:03,886 --> 01:05:06,696
this guy a couple of different
times and gives him a piece of

1120
01:05:06,742 --> 01:05:09,000
paper and says, write down what
I'm going to say:

1121
01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:12,835
Logan: “To Captain Cressap. What
did you kill my people on Yellow

1122
01:05:12,901 --> 01:05:16,802
Creek for[?]. The white People
killed my kin at Conestoga a

1123
01:05:16,868 --> 01:05:20,836
great while ago, & I thought
nothing of that. But you killed

1124
01:05:20,902 --> 01:05:24,869
my kin again on Yellow Creek,
and took my cousin prisoner[,]

1125
01:05:24,935 --> 01:05:29,035
then I thought I must kill too;
and I have been three times to

1126
01:05:29,101 --> 01:05:32,540
war since but the Indians is not
Angry only myself.”

1127
01:05:32,540 --> 01:05:34,730
Robert Parkinson: In that he
says, This is not between the

1128
01:05:34,784 --> 01:05:38,015
colonists and all Indians. This
is me and you, brother. Why

1129
01:05:38,070 --> 01:05:41,136
don't we meet somewhere and
we'll settle this out man to

1130
01:05:41,191 --> 01:05:44,366
man. Here, that is a way of
limiting the violence. There's

1131
01:05:44,421 --> 01:05:47,816
an appearance there of the old
shekel in the way that surfaces

1132
01:05:47,871 --> 01:05:49,240
when he writes that note.

1133
01:05:49,240 --> 01:05:49,502
Jim Ambuske: Logan carried that
note with him as he turned south

1134
01:05:49,507 --> 01:05:49,810
toward the Lybrook farm on
Sinking Creek, deep in Virginia.

1135
01:05:49,815 --> 01:05:50,134
He had with him the war club
carved with his initials as well.

1136
01:05:50,134 --> 01:05:57,583
By then, Lord Dunmore had begun
assembling a Virginia army to

1137
01:05:57,705 --> 01:06:05,276
conquer the Ohio Country, using
the outbreak of violence along

1138
01:06:05,399 --> 01:06:12,360
the river that spring to justify
calling out the militia.

1139
01:06:13,080 --> 01:06:16,680
Robert Parkinson: Dunmore has
realized fantastic opportunities

1140
01:06:16,800 --> 01:06:20,720
in escalating a war with native
peoples. It solves the problem

1141
01:06:20,720 --> 01:06:22,760
of Pittsburgh and makes it
theirs. And then there are

1142
01:06:22,760 --> 01:06:27,080
future potential conquests to
come if we can subdue what is

1143
01:06:27,080 --> 01:06:30,380
today, the eastern half of Ohio.
Fantastic. We can line our

1144
01:06:30,380 --> 01:06:34,580
pockets with tremendous amounts
of gold. Dunmore sends two wings

1145
01:06:34,580 --> 01:06:37,340
of an army, one north of
Pittsburgh, to come down the

1146
01:06:37,340 --> 01:06:40,360
Ohio River, and one over land
across the mountains of West

1147
01:06:40,360 --> 01:06:43,300
Virginia. They're going to meet
at a place called Point Pleasant

1148
01:06:43,300 --> 01:06:47,500
where the Kanawha River meets
the Ohio River. Logan goes very

1149
01:06:47,500 --> 01:06:50,500
close to where they're gathering
for that Southern wing of the

1150
01:06:50,500 --> 01:06:54,820
army in his raids in August, he
gets really close to some pretty

1151
01:06:54,820 --> 01:06:55,960
dangerous territory.

1152
01:06:56,680 --> 01:07:00,339
Jim Ambuske: On August 7, 1774,
a Sunday, Logan and three other

1153
01:07:00,412 --> 01:07:04,877
warriors stalked the Lybrook,
Snidow, and McGriff families at

1154
01:07:04,950 --> 01:07:09,561
the Lybrook farm along Sinking
Creek. As they vanished into the

1155
01:07:09,634 --> 01:07:13,732
woods with the scalps of seven
children, and three other

1156
01:07:13,805 --> 01:07:18,270
children in tow as captives,
Logan dropped his war club, with

1157
01:07:18,343 --> 01:07:20,100
his note tied around it.

1158
01:07:20,100 --> 01:07:22,580
Robert Parkinson: When he does
that, he drops the club and the

1159
01:07:22,580 --> 01:07:27,680
note in a way, I think, to be
very loud. He's not trying to be

1160
01:07:27,920 --> 01:07:31,160
silent in these things. He's
trying to do what he can to stop

1161
01:07:31,160 --> 01:07:35,060
that Southern wing of the army
from just raiding and killing

1162
01:07:35,060 --> 01:07:38,180
more and more and more of His
people, His children. He's

1163
01:07:38,180 --> 01:07:41,920
killing children so his children
won't get killed. That club is

1164
01:07:41,920 --> 01:07:45,280
meant to terrify and it does.
Actually, it has a significant

1165
01:07:45,280 --> 01:07:47,980
effect on recruitment for that
Southern army. That Southern

1166
01:07:47,980 --> 01:07:50,260
army is delayed for weeks
because they can't get enough

1167
01:07:50,260 --> 01:07:53,140
people, because no one wants to
leave their women and children

1168
01:07:53,140 --> 01:07:57,100
vulnerable to go volunteer and
march in an army. The Note

1169
01:07:57,100 --> 01:08:00,420
doesn't work very much, but the
club very much works. That's

1170
01:08:00,420 --> 01:08:03,780
what a diplomat does. That's
what a political strategist

1171
01:08:03,780 --> 01:08:04,500
does.

1172
01:08:05,040 --> 01:08:07,740
Jim Ambuske: Logan's warning
could only delay the southern

1173
01:08:07,740 --> 01:08:11,940
wing of dunmore's army for so
long, he soon headed south to

1174
01:08:11,940 --> 01:08:15,720
raid in what is now eastern
Tennessee. In the meantime, the

1175
01:08:15,720 --> 01:08:19,560
Royal Governor led the northern
wing of the army of 1700 men

1176
01:08:19,560 --> 01:08:23,180
from Fort Pitt, down the Ohio
River. The southern wing, with

1177
01:08:23,240 --> 01:08:27,440
1100 men led by Andrew Lewis,
moved west across the mountains

1178
01:08:27,560 --> 01:08:31,160
toward the junction of the
Kanawha and Ohio rivers. They

1179
01:08:31,160 --> 01:08:34,340
intended to attack Shawnee
villages, but the two wings of

1180
01:08:34,340 --> 01:08:35,780
the army never linked up.

1181
01:08:36,379 --> 01:08:38,419
Robert Parkinson: The Shawnees,
under the leadership of

1182
01:08:38,419 --> 01:08:42,759
Cornstalk, realizes that these
two wings are about to join, and

1183
01:08:42,759 --> 01:08:47,139
we should not let that happen.
So he engages the Southern army,

1184
01:08:47,139 --> 01:08:49,959
who arrives at Point Pleasant
first on the 10th of October,

1185
01:08:49,959 --> 01:08:53,139
1774 and this is right in the
middle of the first colonial

1186
01:08:53,259 --> 01:08:56,319
Congress, in one of the biggest
battles in American history

1187
01:08:56,319 --> 01:08:59,139
between natives and colonists,
somewhere between 800 1000

1188
01:08:59,559 --> 01:09:02,219
natives, we think, are there,
and more colonists are there

1189
01:09:02,219 --> 01:09:04,859
than that, but it's a
significant engagement that goes

1190
01:09:04,859 --> 01:09:06,419
on for hours and hours and
hours.

1191
01:09:06,840 --> 01:09:06,933
Jim Ambuske: Cornstalk led a
coalition of Shawnee, Delaware,

1192
01:09:06,935 --> 01:09:07,062
Mingo, and Wyandots against the
Virginians. When it was over the

1193
01:09:07,064 --> 01:09:07,192
Virginians had lost 75 men, with
another 140 wounded. The Native

1194
01:09:07,194 --> 01:09:07,313
confederacy lost dozens, but
threw many of their dead in the

1195
01:09:07,315 --> 01:09:07,375
river to conceal their losses.

1196
01:09:07,375 --> 01:09:30,619
As one Virginian put it with
some considerable understatement.

1197
01:09:30,619 --> 01:09:31,939
Robert Parkinson: We had a very
hard day

1198
01:09:34,520 --> 01:09:37,523
Jim Ambuske: Learning of the
battle, Dunmore crossed the Ohio

1199
01:09:37,586 --> 01:09:41,340
River with his wing of the army
and marched west to Pickaway

1200
01:09:41,402 --> 01:09:44,906
Plains, near what is now
Circleville, Ohio. The governor

1201
01:09:44,969 --> 01:09:48,473
established Camp Charlotte,
named for the British queen,

1202
01:09:48,536 --> 01:09:51,039
just miles from a major Shawnee village.

1203
01:09:51,039 --> 01:09:53,569
Robert Parkinson: The Shawnees
are not broken, but they are

1204
01:09:53,631 --> 01:09:57,272
soundly defeated, and Cornstalk
is convinced by some of the

1205
01:09:57,334 --> 01:10:00,851
people around him that we. We
can't continue this, and so

1206
01:10:00,913 --> 01:10:02,580
they're going to negotiate.

1207
01:10:02,580 --> 01:10:05,369
Jim Ambuske: As Cornstalk and
his people deliberated before

1208
01:10:05,429 --> 01:10:09,128
the talks with Dunmore, Logan
arrived in the Shawnee village,

1209
01:10:09,188 --> 01:10:12,826
having just returned from his
raid in east Tennessee. He had

1210
01:10:12,887 --> 01:10:16,585
not been at the Battle of Point
Pleasant. Nor would he attend

1211
01:10:16,646 --> 01:10:20,041
the upcoming Treaty of Camp
Charlotte, where the Shawnee

1212
01:10:20,102 --> 01:10:23,800
would give up their claims to
land south and east of the Ohio

1213
01:10:23,861 --> 01:10:27,560
River, finishing what the Treaty
of Fort Stanwix had started.

1214
01:10:27,560 --> 01:10:29,891
Robert Parkinson: It was a good
thing that Logan did not had he

1215
01:10:29,943 --> 01:10:33,104
actually gone the first century,
he would have encountered at

1216
01:10:33,156 --> 01:10:36,265
Camp Charlotte, would have been
one of the people who was at

1217
01:10:36,317 --> 01:10:39,426
yellow Creek. He was the officer
of the day on that day. And

1218
01:10:39,478 --> 01:10:42,535
Michael cressid, of course, is
there at Camp Charlotte, and

1219
01:10:42,587 --> 01:10:45,851
there are a number of cressets
there, not just Michael, but his

1220
01:10:45,903 --> 01:10:49,479
brother and his two nephews. So
Logan decides to make himself scarce.

1221
01:10:49,479 --> 01:10:49,673
Jim Ambuske: Logan still blamed
Cresap for his family’s deaths.

1222
01:10:49,677 --> 01:10:49,910
But the weight of vengeance was
a heavy load to bear. He was

1223
01:10:49,914 --> 01:10:50,139
done fighting. And in the days
ahead, he would release his

1224
01:10:50,143 --> 01:10:50,256
captives as a token of peace.

1225
01:10:50,256 --> 01:10:50,293
Finding that his brother-in-law,
John Gibson, was in the village,

1226
01:10:50,294 --> 01:10:50,330
an agitated Logan asked Gibson
to join him under the branches

1227
01:10:50,330 --> 01:10:50,366
of a great elm tree. He had a
story to tell, his own since the

1228
01:10:50,367 --> 01:10:50,402
beginning of the last great war,
one that began not far from

1229
01:10:50,402 --> 01:10:50,428
where he and Gibson rested under
that tree.

1230
01:10:50,428 --> 01:10:50,458
Gibson watched as his
brother-in-law composed himself

1231
01:10:50,459 --> 01:10:50,495
“after shedding [an] abundance
of tears.” And then, Logan began

1232
01:10:50,495 --> 01:10:50,501
to speak.

1233
01:10:50,501 --> 01:11:01,069
In the centuries to come,
Logan’s Lament would become

1234
01:11:01,269 --> 01:11:13,832
twisted to mean something it did
not, an allegory for vanishing

1235
01:11:14,031 --> 01:11:25,198
Native peoples, an oration
recited by the descendants of

1236
01:11:25,397 --> 01:11:38,359
British Americans as they pushed
further west. But under that elm

1237
01:11:38,558 --> 01:11:50,324
tree, in a Shawnee village in
Pickaway Plains, it was a far

1238
01:11:50,523 --> 01:12:02,887
more personal history of what
had been lost in the rivers, the

1239
01:12:03,086 --> 01:12:12,060
mountains, and the woods of the
Ohio Country.

1240
01:12:13,319 --> 01:12:13,335
Logan: “I appeal to any white
man, if he entered Logan’s cabin

1241
01:12:13,336 --> 01:12:13,353
hungry, and he gave him not
meat; if ever he came cold and

1242
01:12:13,354 --> 01:12:13,372
naked, and he clothed him not.
During the course of that long

1243
01:12:13,373 --> 01:12:13,392
and bloody war, Longan remained
idle in his cabin, an advocate

1244
01:12:13,392 --> 01:12:13,411
for peace. Such was my love for
the whites, that my countrymen

1245
01:12:13,411 --> 01:12:13,429
pointed as they passed, and
said, ‘Logan is the friend of

1246
01:12:13,429 --> 01:12:13,433
white men.”

1247
01:12:13,433 --> 01:12:20,482
“I had even thought to have
lived with you, but for the

1248
01:12:20,611 --> 01:12:28,045
injuries of one man, Col.
Cresap, the last spring, in cold

1249
01:12:28,173 --> 01:12:36,249
blood, and unprovoked, murdered
all the relations of Logan, not

1250
01:12:36,377 --> 01:12:43,683
sparing even my women and
children. There runs not a drop

1251
01:12:43,811 --> 01:12:51,887
of my blood in the veins of any
living creature. This called on

1252
01:12:52,015 --> 01:12:59,706
me for revenge. I have sought
it: I have killed many: I have

1253
01:12:59,834 --> 01:13:07,525
fully glutted my vengeance. For
my country, I rejoice at the

1254
01:13:07,653 --> 01:13:14,960
beams of peace. But do not
harbour a thought that mine is

1255
01:13:15,088 --> 01:13:22,650
the joy of fear. Logan never
felt fear. He will not turn on

1256
01:13:22,779 --> 01:13:30,598
his heel to save his life. Who
is there to mourn for Logan? –

1257
01:13:30,726 --> 01:13:31,880
Not one.”

1258
01:13:42,859 --> 01:13:42,864
Jim Ambuske: Two hundred miles
downriver from Pittsburgh, some

1259
01:13:42,864 --> 01:13:42,870
of Lord Dunmore’s officers
gathered in Fort Gower. Michael

1260
01:13:42,870 --> 01:13:42,877
Cresap was among them. It was
Saturday, November 5, 1774.

1261
01:13:42,877 --> 01:13:42,883
The Virginians had constructed
Fort Gower at the confluence of

1262
01:13:42,883 --> 01:13:42,889
the Ohio and Hocking Rivers, a
temporary camp built by the

1263
01:13:42,889 --> 01:13:42,896
provincial army as they marched
west against the Shawnee and

1264
01:13:42,896 --> 01:13:42,900
their allies during Dunmore’s War.

1265
01:13:42,900 --> 01:13:42,906
The officers were not unaware
that Parliament had passed the

1266
01:13:42,906 --> 01:13:42,912
Coercive Acts to punish
Bostonians for destroying tea in

1267
01:13:42,912 --> 01:13:42,919
their harbor, but as they would
write when they returned to Fort

1268
01:13:42,919 --> 01:13:42,925
Gower after the Battle of Point
Pleasant, “We have lived about

1269
01:13:42,926 --> 01:13:42,931
three months in the woods
without any intelligence from

1270
01:13:42,932 --> 01:13:42,937
Boston; or from the Delegates at
Philadelphia.”

1271
01:13:42,937 --> 01:13:42,943
In the days since they had
returned to the fort, they had

1272
01:13:42,943 --> 01:13:42,950
learned that the Continental
Congress had called for the

1273
01:13:42,950 --> 01:13:42,957
Continental Association, a trade
boycott on British goods, an

1274
01:13:42,957 --> 01:13:42,962
escalation of this “very
alarming crisis.”

1275
01:13:42,962 --> 01:14:13,294
As Virginians would soon read in
their newspapers, the veterans

1276
01:14:13,776 --> 01:14:42,664
of Dunmore’s War were ready to
do their part. In a series of

1277
01:14:43,145 --> 01:15:00,960
resolves at Fort Gower, they pledged:

1278
01:15:00,960 --> 01:15:04,358
Officers: "the most faithful
Allegiance to his Majesty King

1279
01:15:04,427 --> 01:15:08,658
George III, whilst his Majesty
delights to reign over a brave

1280
01:15:08,727 --> 01:15:12,750
and free People; that we will,
at the Expense of Life, and

1281
01:15:12,819 --> 01:15:16,981
every Thing dear and valuable,
exert ourselves in Support of

1282
01:15:17,050 --> 01:15:21,420
the Honour of his Crown and the
Dignity of the British Empire.”

1283
01:15:21,420 --> 01:15:22,520
Jim Ambuske: But warned

1284
01:15:22,520 --> 01:15:25,833
Officers: “we can live Weeks
without Bread or Salt, that we

1285
01:15:25,900 --> 01:15:29,822
can sleep in the open Air
without any Covering but that of

1286
01:15:29,889 --> 01:15:34,149
the Canopy of Heaven, and that
our Men can march and shoot with

1287
01:15:34,217 --> 01:15:35,840
any in the known World.”

1288
01:15:35,840 --> 01:15:37,100
Jim Ambuske: And resolved that

1289
01:15:37,100 --> 01:15:39,996
Officers: “as the Love of
Liberty, and Attachment to the

1290
01:15:40,058 --> 01:15:43,962
real Interests and just Rights
of America outweigh every other

1291
01:15:44,025 --> 01:15:48,054
Consideration, we resolve, that
we will exert every Power within

1292
01:15:48,117 --> 01:15:52,020
us for the Defence of American
Liberty, and for the Support of

1293
01:15:52,083 --> 01:15:56,113
her just Rights and Privileges;
not in any precipitate, riotous,

1294
01:15:56,176 --> 01:15:59,953
or tumultuous Manner, but when
regularly called forth by the

1295
01:16:00,016 --> 01:16:02,220
unanimous Voice of our Countrymen.”

1296
01:16:03,359 --> 01:16:06,564
Jim Ambuske: Michael Cresap
would soon make good on that

1297
01:16:06,639 --> 01:16:11,186
promise. Just over two months
after the king’s subjects fired

1298
01:16:11,261 --> 01:16:15,733
on each other at Lexington and
Concord in Massachusetts Bay,

1299
01:16:15,808 --> 01:16:20,355
Michael Cresap began raising a
company of men in Maryland. In

1300
01:16:20,430 --> 01:16:24,530
July 1775, Cresap and his men
began the long march from

1301
01:16:24,605 --> 01:16:29,078
Maryland north to Boston, a town
where a rebel force was now

1302
01:16:29,152 --> 01:16:32,060
laying siege to his majesty’s soldiers.

1303
01:16:37,520 --> 01:16:37,539
Thanks for listening to Worlds
Turned Upside Down. Worlds is a

1304
01:16:37,539 --> 01:16:37,558
production of R2 Studios, part
of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for

1305
01:16:37,558 --> 01:16:37,574
History and New Media at George
Mason University.

1306
01:16:37,574 --> 01:16:37,584
I’m your host, Dr. Jim Ambuske.

1307
01:16:37,584 --> 01:16:37,602
This episode of Worlds Turned
Upside Down is made possible

1308
01:16:37,602 --> 01:16:37,622
with support from a 2024 grant
from the National Endowment for

1309
01:16:37,623 --> 01:16:37,628
the Humanities.

1310
01:16:37,628 --> 01:16:37,647
Head to r2studios.org to find a
complete transcript of today’s

1311
01:16:37,648 --> 01:16:37,663
episode and suggestions for
further reading. ​

1312
01:16:37,663 --> 01:16:37,684
Worlds is researched and written
by me with additional research,

1313
01:16:37,684 --> 01:16:37,701
writing, and script editing by
Jeanette Patrick.

1314
01:16:37,701 --> 01:16:37,719
Jeanette Patrick and I are the
Executive Producers. Grace

1315
01:16:37,720 --> 01:16:37,732
Mallon is our British Correspondent.

1316
01:16:37,732 --> 01:16:37,755
Our lead audio editor for this
episode is Curt Dahl of cd squared.

1317
01:16:37,755 --> 01:16:37,771
Annabelle Spencer is our
graduate assistant.

1318
01:16:37,771 --> 01:16:37,792
Our thanks to Robert Parkinson
and Christopher Pearl for

1319
01:16:37,792 --> 01:16:37,811
sharing their expertise with us
in this episode.

1320
01:16:37,811 --> 01:16:37,834
Thanks also to our voice actors
Adam Smith, John Terry, Anne

1321
01:16:37,834 --> 01:16:37,845
Fertig, and Evan McCormick.

1322
01:16:37,845 --> 01:17:22,381
Subscribe to Worlds on your
favorite podcast app. Thanks,

1323
01:17:23,162 --> 01:17:45,040
and we’ll see you next time.