A School History of the United States · Chapter 5Part 5
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%76. The French on the Allegheny River; the Buried Plates.%—With Louisburg back in their possession and no territory lost, the French went on more vigorously than ever with their preparations to shut the British out of the Mississippi valley; and as but one highway to the valley, the Ohio River, was still unguarded, the governor of Canada, in 1749, dispatched Céloron de Bienville with a band of men in twenty-three birch-bark canoes to take formal possession of the valley. Paddling up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, they carried their canoes across to Lake Erie, and, skirting the southeastern shore, they landed and crossed to Chautauqua Lake, down which and its outlet they floated to the Allegheny River. Once on the Allegheny, the ceremony of taking possession began. The men were drawn up, and Louis XV. was proclaimed king of all the region drained by the Ohio. The arms of France stamped on a sheet of tin were nailed to a tree, at the foot of which a lead plate was buried in the ground. On the plate was an inscription claiming the Ohio, and all the streams that run into it, in the name of the King of France.
[Illustration: [1]Half of one of the lead plates]
[Footnote 1: Now owned by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.]
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In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV., King of France, we, Céleron, commander of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la Gallissonière, commander in chief of New France, to restore tranquillity in some savage villages of these districts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Ohio and … this … near the river Ohio, alias Beautiful River, as a monument of our having retaken possession of the said river Ohio and of those that fall into the same, and of all the lands on both sides as far as the sources of the said rivers, as well as of those of which preceding kings have enjoyed possession, partly by the force of arms, partly by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht, and Aix-la-Chapelle.
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A second plate was buried below the mouth of French Creek; a third near the mouth of Wheeling Creek; and a fourth at the mouth of the Muskingum, where half a century later it was found protruding from the river bank by a party of boys while bathing. Yet another was unearthed at the mouth of the Great Kanawha by a freshet, and was likewise found by a boy while playing at the water's edge. The last plate was hidden where the Great Miami joins the Ohio; and this done, Céloron crossed Ohio to Lake Erie and went back to Montreal.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read T. J. Chapman's The French in the Allegheny Valley, pp. 9-23, 187-197; Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., pp. 36-62; Winsor's The Mississippi Basin, pp. 252-255.]
%77. The French build Forts on the Allegheny.%—This formal taking possession of the valleys of the Allegheny and the Ohio was all well enough in its way; but the French knew that if they really intended to keep out the British they must depend on forts and troops, and not on lead plates. To convince the French King of this, required time; so that it was not till 1752 that orders were given to fortify the route taken by Céloron in 1749. The party charged with this duty repaired to the little peninsula where is now the city of Erie, and there built a log fort which they called Presque Isle. Having done this, they cut a road twenty miles long, to the site of Waterford, Pa., and built Fort Le Boeuf, and later one at Venango, the present site of the town of Franklin.
%78. Washington's First Public Service.%—The arrival of the French in western Pennsylvania alarmed and excited no one so much as Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia. He had two good reasons for his excitement. In the first place, Virginia, because of the interpretation she placed on her charter of 1609, claimed to own the Allegheny valley (see p. 33). In the second place, the governor and a number of Virginia planters were deeply interested in a great land company called the Ohio Company, to which the King of England had given 500,000 acres lying along the Ohio River between the Monongahela and the Kanawha rivers, a region which the French claimed, and toward which they were moving.
As soon, therefore, as Dinwiddie heard that the French were really building forts in the upper Allegheny valley, he determined to make a formal demand for their withdrawal, and chose as his messenger George Washington, then a young man of twenty-one, and adjutant general of the Virginia militia.
Washington's instructions bade him go to Logstown, on the Ohio, find out all he could as to the whereabouts of the French, and then proceed to the commanding officer, deliver the letter of Dinwiddie, and demand an answer. He was especially charged to ascertain how many French forts had been erected, how many soldiers there were in each, how far apart the posts were, and if they were to be supported from Quebec.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read T.J. Chapman's The, French in the Allegheny Valley, pp. 23-47; Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., pp. 128-161; Lodge's George Washington, pp. 62-69.]
With that promptness which distinguished him during his whole life, Washington set out on his perilous journey the very day he received his instructions, and made his way first to Logstown, and then to Fort Le Boeuf, where he delivered Governor Dinwiddie's letter to the French commandant. The reply of Saint-Pierre—for that was the name of the French commandant—was that he would send the letter of Dinwiddie to the governor of Canada, the Marquis Duquesne (doo-kan'), and that, in the meantime, he would hold the fort.
[Illustration: The French and the English Forts]
%79. Fort Duquesne.%—When Dinwiddie read the answer of Saint-Pierre, he saw clearly that the time had come to act. The French were in force on the upper Allegheny. Unless something was done to drive them out, they would soon be at the forks of the Ohio, and once they were there, the splendid tract of the Ohio Company would be lost forever. Without a moment's delay he decided to take possession of the forks of the Ohio, and raised two companies of militia of 100 men each. A trader named William Trent was in command of one of the companies, and that no time should be lost, he, with forty men, hurried forward, and, February 17, 1754, drove the first stake of a stockade that was to surround a fort on the site of the city of Pittsburg. While the English were still at work on their fort, April 17, 1754, a body of French and Indians came down from Le Boeuf, and bade them leave the valley. Trent was away, and the working party was in command of an ensign named Ward, who, as resistance was useless, surrendered, and was allowed to march off with his men. The French then finished the fort Trent had begun, and called it Fort Duquesne, after the governor of Canada.
%80. "Join or Die."%—Meantime the legislature of Virginia voted £10,000 for the defense of the Ohio valley, and promised a land bounty to every man who would volunteer to fight the French and Indians. Joshua Frye was made colonel, and Washington lieutenant colonel of the troops thus to be raised. As some time must elapse before the ranks could be filled, Washington took seventy-five men and (in March, 1754) set off to help Trent; but he had not gone far on his way when Ensign Ward met him (where Cumberland, Md., now is) and told him all about the surrender. Accounts of the affair were at once sent to the governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
[Illustration: JOIN, or DIE.]
In publishing one of these in the Pennsylvania Gazette, Franklin inserted the above picture at the top of the account.[1]
[Footnote 1: There is an old superstition, then very generally believed, that if one cuts a snake in pieces and allows the pieces to touch, the snake will not die, but will live and become whole again. By this picture Franklin meant that unless the colonies joined for defense against the French they would die; that is, be conquered.]
%81. Albany Plan of Union.%—The picture was apt for the following reason. The Lords of Trade in London had ordered the colonies to send delegates to Albany to make a treaty with the Iroquois Indians, and to this congress Franklin purposed to submit a plan for union against the French. The plan drawn up by the congress was not approved by the colonies, so the scheme of union came to naught.
%82. Washington's Expedition.%—Meanwhile great events were happening in the west. When Washington met Ensign Ward at Cumberland and heard the story of the surrender, he was at a loss just what to do; but knowing that he was expected to do something, he decided to go to a storehouse which the Ohio Company had built at the mouth of a stream called Redstone Creek in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pushing along, cutting as he went the first road that ever led down to the valley of the Mississippi from the Atlantic slope, he reached a narrow glade called the Great Meadows and there began to put up a breastwork which he named Fort Necessity. While so engaged news came that the French were near. Washington thereupon took a few men, and, coming suddenly on the French, killed or captured them all save one. Among the dead was Jumonville, the leader of the party. Well satisfied with this exploit, Washington pushed on with his entire force towards the Ohio. But, hearing that the French were advancing, he fell back to Fort Necessity, and there awaited them. He did not wait long; for the French and Indians came down in great force, and on July 4, 1754, forced him, after a brave resistance, to surrender. He was allowed to march out with drums beating and flags flying.[1]
[Footnote 1: Lodge's George Washington, pp. 69-74; Winsor's The Mississippi Basin, pp. 294-315.]
%83. The French and Indian War.%—Thus was begun what the colonists called the French and Indian War, but what was really a struggle between the French and the British for the possession of America. Knowing it to be such, both sides made great preparations for the contest. The French stood on the defensive. The British made the attack, and early in 1755 sent over one of their ablest officers, Major General Edward Braddock, to be commander in chief in America. He summoned the colonial governors to meet him at Alexandria, Va., where a plan for a campaign was agreed on.
%84. Plan for the War.%—Vast stretches of dense and almost impenetrable forest then separated the colonies of the two nations, but through this forest were three natural highways of communication: 1. Lake George, Lake Champlain, and the St. Lawrence River. 2. The Hudson, the Mohawk, Lake Ontario, and the Niagara River. 3. The Potomac to Fort Cumberland, and through the forest to Fort Duquesne.
It was decided, therefore, to have four expeditions.
1. One was to go north from New York to Lake Champlain, take the French fort at Crown Point, and move against Quebec.
2. Another was to sail from New England and make such a demonstration against the French towns to the northeast, as would prevent the French in that quarter going off to defend Quebec and Crown Point.
3. The third was to start from Albany, go up the Mohawk, and down the Oswego River to Lake Ontario, and along its shores to the Niagara River.
4. The fourth was to go from Fort Cumberland across Pennsylvania to Fort Duquesne.
%85. Braddock's Defeat, July 9, 1755.%—Braddock took command of this last expedition and made Washington one of his aids. For a while he found it impossible to move his army, for in Virginia horses and wagons were very scarce, and without them he could not carry his baggage or drag his cannon. At last Benjamin Franklin, then deputy postmaster-general of the colonies, persuaded the farmers of Pennsylvania, who had plenty, to rent the wagons and horses to the general.
All this took time, so that it was June before the army left Fort Cumberland and literally began to cut its way through the woods to Fort Duquesne. The march was slow, but all went well till the troops had crossed the Monongahela River and were but eight miles from the fort, when suddenly the advance guard came face to face with an army of Indians and French. The Indians and French instantly hid in the bushes and behind trees, and poured an incessant fire into the ranks of the British. They, too, would gladly have fought in Indian fashion. But Braddock thought this cowardly and would not allow them to get behind trees, so they stood huddled in groups, a fine mark for the Indians, till so many were killed that a retreat had to be ordered. Then they fled, and had it not been for Washington and his Virginians, who covered their flight, they would probably have been killed to a man.[1]
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., Chap. 7, pp. 162-187; T.J. Chapman's The French in the Allegheny Valley, pp. 60-72; Sargeant's History of Braddock's Expedition.]
Braddock was wounded just as the retreat began, and died a few days later.
%86. The Other Expeditions.%—The expedition against Niagara was a failure. The officer in command did not take his army further than Oswego on Lake Ontario.
The expedition against Crown Point was partially successful, and a stubborn battle was fought and a victory won over the French on the shores of that beautiful sheet of water which the English ever after called Lake George in honor of the King.
%87. War declared.%—Up to this time all the fighting had been done along the frontier in America. But in May, 1756, Great Britain formally declared war against France. The French at once sent over Montcalm,[1] the very ablest Frenchman that ever commanded on this continent, and there followed two years of warfare disastrous to the British. Montcalm took and burned Oswego, won over the Indians to the cause of France, and was about to send a strong fleet to attack New England, when, toward the end of 1757, William Pitt was made virtually (though not in name) Prime Minister of England.
[Footnote 1: Read Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I., pp. 318-380.]
William Pitt was one of the greatest Englishmen that ever lived. He could see exactly what to do, and he could pick out exactly the right man to do it. No wonder, then, that as soon as he came into power the British began to gain victories.
%88. The Victories of 1758.%—Once more the French were attacked at their three vulnerable points, and this time with success. In 1758 Louisburg surrendered to Amherst and Boscawen. In that same year Washington captured Fort Duquesne, which, in honor of the great Prime Minister, was called Fort Pitt. A provincial officer named Bradstreet destroyed Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. This was a heavy blow to the French; for with Fort Frontenac gone and Fort Duquesne in English hands, the Ohio was cut off from Quebec.
An attack on Ticonderoga, however, was repulsed by Montcalm with dreadful loss to the English.
%89. The Victories of 1759; Wolfe.%—But the defeat was only temporary. At the siege of Louisburg a young officer named James Wolfe had greatly distinguished himself, and in return for this was selected by Pitt to command an expedition to Quebec. The previous attempts to reach that city had been by way of Lake George. The expedition of Wolfe sailed up the St. Lawrence, and landed below the city.
Quebec stands on the summit of a high hill with precipitous sides, and was then the most strongly fortified city in America. To take it seemed almost impossible. But the resolution of Wolfe overcame every obstacle: on the night of September 12, 1759, he led his troops to the foot of the cliff, climbed the heights, and early in the morning had his army drawn up in battle array on the Plains of Abraham, as the plateau behind the city was called. There a great battle was fought between the French, led by Montcalm, and the British, led by Wolfe. The British triumphed, and Quebec fell; but Wolfe and Montcalm were among the dead.[1]
[Footnote 1: Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Chaps. 25-27; A. Wright's Life of Wolfe; Sloan's French War and the Revolution, Chaps. 6-9.]
[Illustration: European Possessions 1763]
Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been captured a few weeks before. Montreal was taken in 1760, and the long struggle between the French and the English in America ended in the defeat of the French. The war dragged on in Europe till 1763, when peace was made at Paris.
%90. France driven out of America.%—With all the details of the treaty we are not concerned. It is enough for us to know that France divided her possessions on this continent between Great Britain and Spain. To Great Britain she gave Canada and Cape Breton, and all the islands save two in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Entering what is now the United States, she drew a line down the middle of the Mississippi River from its source to a point just north of New Orleans. To Great Britain she surrendered all her territory east of this line. To Spain she gave all her possessions to the west of this line, together with the city of New Orleans. But Great Britain, during the war, had taken Havana from Spain. To get this back, Spain now gave up Florida in exchange.
At the end of the war with France, Great Britain thus found herself in possession of Canada and all that part of the United States which lies between the Atlantic and the Mississippi, the little strip at the mouth of the river alone excepted.
We have now come to the time when the third European power was driven from our country. The first was Sweden when New Sweden was captured by the Dutch. The second was Holland when New Netherland was captured by the English. The third was France.
1. The struggle for the French possessions in America may be divided into two periods: A. That from 1689 to 1748, when the contest was for Acadia and New France. B. That from 1754 to 1763, when the struggle was for Louisiana as well as New France.
2. The first war, "King William's," was indecisive, but the second, "Queen Anne's," ended (1713) in the transfer of Acadia to England.
3. After the treaty of Utrecht, 1713, the French began seriously to take possession of the Mississippi valley, and began a chain of forts to stretch from New Orleans and Mobile to Montreal.
4. "King George's War" interrupted this work for a few years (1744-1748), but in 1749 Céleron was sent to bury plates in the valleys of the Allegheny and Ohio and claim them in the name of France.
5. The next step after claiming the valleys was to take armed possession, and in 1752 the French began to build forts.
6. This alarmed the governor of Virginia, who sent Washington to bid the French leave the Allegheny valley. When they refused, troops were sent to build a fort on the site of what is now Pittsburg; but these men, under Trent and Ward, were driven away, as were also the reinforcements under Washington (1764).
7. Braddock (with Washington) was next sent against the French, who had built Fort Duquesne. He was surprised by the Indians (July 9, 1755), defeated, and killed.
8. The "French and Indian War" thus opened was fought with varying success till 1760, when the British held Quebec, Montreal, Fort Duquesne, and all the other French strongholds in America. In 1763 peace was made, and nearly all the French possessions east of the Mississippi River were surrendered to the British.
* * * * * THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA:
King William's War:
1690. Sir W. Phips takes Port Royal. Sir W. Phips attacks Quebec. Montreal attacked. 1690-1697. The New York and New England frontier ravaged by the French and Indians. 1697. Peace of Ryswick. Port Royal given back to the French.
Queen Anne's War. Acadia lost to the French:
1702-1713. Frontier of New England ravaged. 1710. Port Royal again taken. 1711. Quebec again attacked. 1713. Peace of Utrecht. Acadia held by the English.
King George's War:
1744. French attack Canso and Annapolis (Port Royal). 1745. Louisburg (Cape Breton Island) taken. 1748. Louisburg given back to the French.
Occupation of Louisiana:
1699. The French at the mouth of the Mississippi. 1701. The occupation of the valley begun. 1701-1748. The chain of forts joining New Orleans and Montreal. 1749. The French on the Allegheny. Céleron's expedition. The buried plates. 1753. The French fortify the Allegheny valley.
The French and Indian War:
1754-1763. The struggle for final possession. 1758. The capture of Louisburg. 1759. The capture of Quebec. 1760. The capture of Montreal. 1763. The French abandon America.
%91. Things unknown in 1763.%—Had a traveler landed on our shores in 1763 and made a journey through the English colonies in America, he would have seen a country utterly unlike the United States of to-day. The entire population, white man and black, freeman and slave, was not so great as that of New York or Philadelphia or Chicago in our time. If we were to write a list of all the things we now consider as real necessaries of daily life and mark off those unknown to the men of 1763, not one quarter would remain. No man in the country had ever seen a stove, or a furnace, or a friction match, or an envelope, or a piece of mineral coal. From the farmer we should have to take the reaper, the drill, the mowing machine, and every kind of improved rake and plow, and give him back the scythe, the cradle, and the flail. From our houses would go the sewing machine, the daily newspaper, gas, running water; and from our tables, the tomato, the cauliflower, the eggplant, and many varieties of summer fruits. We should have to destroy every railroad, every steamboat, every factory and mill, pull down every line of telegraph, silence every telephone, put out every electric light, and tear up every telegraphic cable from the beds of innumerable rivers and seas. We should have to take ether and chloroform from the surgeon, and galvanized iron and India rubber from the arts, and give up every sort of machine moved by steam.
[Illustration: Lamp and sadiron]
[Illustration: Postrider (Footnote: From an old print, 1760)]
%92. State of the Arts, Sciences, and Industry.%—The appliances left on the list, because in some form they were known to the men of 1763, would now be thought crude and clumsy. There were printing presses in those days,—perhaps fifty in all the colonies. But they were small, were worked by hand, and were so slow that the most expert pressman using one of them could not have printed so much in three working days as a modern steam press can run off in five minutes. There was a general post, and Benjamin Franklin was deputy postmaster-general for the northern district of the colonies. But the letters were carried thirty miles a day by postriders on horseback, and there were never more than three mails a week between even the great towns. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday a postrider left New York city for Philadelphia. Every Monday and Thursday another left New York for Boston. Once each week a rider left for Albany on his way to Quebec. On the first Wednesday of each month a packet boat sailed from New York for Falmouth, England, with the mail, and this was the only mail between Great Britain and her American colonies. We put electricity to a thousand uses; but in 1763 it was a scientific toy. Franklin had just proved by his experiment with the kite that lightning and electricity were one and the same, and several other men were amusing themselves and their hearers by ringing bells, exploding powder, and making colored sparks. But it was put to no other use. If we take up a daily newspaper published in one of our great cities and read the column of wants, we find in them twenty occupations now giving a comfortable living to millions of men. Yet not one of these twenty existed in 1763. The district messenger, the telegraph operator, the typewriter, the stenographer, the bookkeeper, the canvasser, the salesman, the commercial traveler, the engineer, the car driver, the hackman, the conductor, the gripman, the brakeman, the electrician, the lineman, the elevator boy, and a host of others, follow trades and occupations which had no existence in the middle of the eighteenth century.
Run away, the 23d of this Instant January, from Silas Crispin of Burlington, Taylor, a Servant Man named _Joseph Morris, _by Trade a Taylor, aged about 22 Years, of a middle Stature, swarthy Complexion, light gray Eyes, his Hair clipp'd off, mark'd with a large pit of the Small Pox on one Cheek near his Eye, had on when he went away a good Felt Hat, a yelowish Drugget Coat with Pleits behind, an old Ozenbrigs Vest, two Ozenbrigs Shirts, a pair of Leather Breeches handsomely worm'd and flower'd up the Knees, yarn Stockings and good round toe'd Shoes. Took with him a large pair of Sheers crack'd in one of the Bows & mark'd with the Word [Savoy]. Whoever takes up the said Servant, and secures him so that his Matter may have him again, shall have Three Pounds Reward besides reasonable Charges, paid by me Silas Griffin.
From a Philadelphia newspaper
%93. Labor.%—On the other hand, if we take up a newspaper of that day and read the advertisements, we find that a great deal of what existed then does not exist now. The newspapers were published in a few of the large towns, and appeared not every day, but once a week. In the largest of them would be from seventy-five to eighty advertisements, setting forth that such a merchant had just received from England or the West Indies a stock of new goods which he would sell for cash; that the Charming Nancy would sail in a few weeks for Londonderry in Ireland, or for Barbados, or for Amsterdam in Holland, and wanted a cargo; that a tract of land or a plantation would be sold "at vendue," or, as we say, at auction; that a reward of five pistoles would be paid for the arrest of "a lusty negroe man" or an "indented servant" or an "apprentice lad," who had run away from his owner or master. Very rarely is a call made for a mechanic or a workman of any sort.
[Illustration: From a Philadelphia newspaper]
The reason for this was two fold. In the first place, negro slavery existed in all the thirteen colonies. In the second place, there were thousands of whites in many of the colonies in a state of temporary servitude, which was sometimes voluntary and sometimes involuntary.
Those who served against their will were convicts and felons, not only men and women who had been guilty of stealing, cheating, and the like, but also forgers, counterfeiters, and murderers, who were transported by thousands from the English prisons to the colonies and sold into slavery or service for seven or fourteen years.[1] Advertisements are extant in which the masters from whom such servants have run away warn the people to beware of them.
[Footnote 1: One act of Parliament, for instance, provided that persons sentenced to be whipped or branded might, if they wished, escape the punishment by serving seven years in the colonies, and never returning to England. Another allowed convicts sentenced to death to commute the sentence by serving fourteen years.]
But all "indented" or bond servants were not criminals. Many were reputable persons who sold themselves into service for a term of years in return for transportation to America. Others, generally boys and young women, had been kidnaped and sold by the persons who stole them.
%94. Indentured Servants.%—In the case of such as came voluntarily, carefully drawn agreements called indentures would be made in writing. The captain of the ship would agree to bring the emigrant to America. The emigrant would agree in return to serve the captain three or five years. When the ship reached port, the captain would advertise the fact that he had carpenters, tailors, farmers, shoemakers, etc., for sale, and whoever wanted such labor would go on board the ship and for perhaps fifty dollars buy a man bound to serve him for several years in return for food, clothes, and lodging. Not only men, but also women and children, were sold in this way, and were known as "indented servants," or "redemptioners," because they redeemed their time of service with labor. Their lot seems to have been a hard one; for the young men were constantly running away, and the newspapers are full of advertisements offering rewards for their arrest.
What we call the workingman, the day laborer, the mechanic, the mill hand, had no existence as classes. The great corporations, railroads, express companies, mills, factories of every sort, which now cover our land and give employment to five times as many men and women as lived in all the colonies in 1763, are the creatures of our own time.