Texture of Contact

L. Preston David

Description

The Texture of Contact is a landmark study of Iroquois and European communities and coexistence in eastern North America before the American Revolution. David L. Preston details the ways in which European and Iroquois settlers on the frontiers creatively adapted to each other’s presence, weaving webs of mutually beneficial social, economic, and religious relationships that sustained the peace for most of the eighteenth century.

 

Drawing on a wealth of previously unexamined archival research, Preston describes everyday encounters between Europeans and Indians along the frontiers of the Iroquois Confederacy in the St. Lawrence, Mohawk, Susquehanna, and Ohio valleys. Homesteads, taverns, gristmills, churches, and markets were frequent sites of intercultural exchange and negotiation. Complex diplomatic and trading relationships developed as a result of European and Iroquois settlers bartering material goods. Innovative land-sharing arrangements included the common practice of Euroamerican farmers living as tenants of the Mohawks, sometimes for decades. This study reveals that the everyday lives of Indians and Europeans were far more complex and harmonious than past histories have suggested. Preston’s nuanced comparisons between various settlements also reveal the reasons why peace endured in the Mohawk and St. Lawrence valleys while warfare erupted in the Susquehanna and Ohio valleys.

 

One of the most comprehensive studies of eighteenth-century Iroquois history, The Texture of Contact broadens our understanding of eastern North America’s frontiers and the key role that the Iroquois played in shaping that world.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• United States of America
• Indigenous peoples
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Nebraska
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780803225497
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

The Texture of Contact

The Iroquoians and Their World

Editors josé a nt ónio br a ndão w illi a m a. s ta r na

uni v er si t y of nebr a sk a pr e s s | l inc ol n a nd l ond on

The Texture of Contact

European and Indian Settler Communities on the Frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667–1783

David L. Preston

Portions of chapter 2 originally appeared as “George Klock, the Canajoharie Mohawks, and the Good ShipSir William Johnson: Land, Legitimacy, and Commu- nity in the Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Valley,”New York History 86, no. 4 (2005): 473–99.

Portions of chapter 3 original- ly appeared as “Squatters, Indi- ans, Proprietary Government, and Land in the Susquehanna Valley,” inFriends and Enemies in Penn’s Woods: Indians, Colonists, and the Racial Construction of Pennsylva- nia, ed. William Pencak and Dan- iel K. Richter (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004), 180–200.

© 2009 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska

All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Preston, David L. (David Lee), 1972– The texture of contact : Europe- an and Indian settler communi- ties on the frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667–1783 / David L. Preston. p. cm. — (The Iroquoians and their world) Includes bibliographical refer- ences and index. isbn978-0-8032-1369-2 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Iroquois Indians—Govern- ment relations. 2. Iroquois Indians—History—18th cen- tury. 3. Iroquois Indians—His- tory—17th century. 4. Europe— Colonies—America. 5. United States—History—Colonial peri- od, ca. 1600–1775. 6. Iroquois Indians—Canada—History— 18th century. 7. Iroquois Indi- ans—Canada—History—17th century. 8. Frontier and pio- neer life—United States. 9. Fron- tier and pioneer life—Canada. I. Title. e99.i7p75 2009 974.7004'9755—dc22 2009012833

Set in Quadraat.

 List of Illustrations vi  Acknowledgments ix  Introduction Under the Tree of Peace 1

Contents

1. The Tree of Peace Planted Iroquois and French-Canadian Communities  in the St. Lawrence Valley 23 2. Iroquois Communities in the  Eighteenth-Century Mohawk Valley  Schoharie, Tiononderoge, and Canajoharie 61 3. Dispossessing the Indians  Proprietors, Squatters, and Natives  in the Susquehanna Valley 116 4. “The Storm Which Had Been So Long Gathering”  Pennsylvanians and Indians at War 147

5. “Our Neighbourhood with the Settlers” Iroquois and German Communities in  the Seven Years’ War178 6. Imperial Crisis in the Ohio Valley Indian, Colonial American, and  British Military Communities 216  Epilogue The Tree of Peace Uprooted 265  List of Abbreviations 295  Notes 299  Bibliography 341  Index 377

Illustrations

Figures  1. Schoharie Mohawk map, 1734 3  2.View of the Mission of Sault Saint Louis 35  3. “A Canadian Going to War on Snowshoes” 49  4. The Mohawk Valley, 1775 69  5. Petition to George Clinton, 1753 104  6. “Early Settlers and Their Visitors” 127  7. Kittanning Destroyed medal, 1756 176  8. “Palatines’ Village Destroyed,” 1757 179  9. Johannes Klock House, ca. 1750s 186  10.Indians and British Soldiers near Montreal199, ca. 1775  11. Fort Pitt and the early settlement of Pittsburgh, 1761 247  12. Indian deed to Klock and Nellis, 1754 272

Maps  1. European and Iroquoian Communities  in the Eighteenth Century 17  2. Pennsylvania and Indian Communities  in the Susquehanna Valley 121  3. The Ohio Valley, ca. 1760s 219

Tables  1. Murders and Assaults New York Colonists and Iroquois, 1756–70182  2. Services Provided to Indians by European Settlers during  Conferences and Treaties in Colonial New York 209  3. Violence in the Ohio Country, 1760–74 234

Acknowledgments

My gratitude and respect for the many teachers, colleagues, and friends who have shaped my work are ineffable. These terse acknowledg- ments cannot begin to do them all justice. It is impossible for me to imagine a more perfect mentor than James Axtell. His example of a scholar’s life has been inspirational. Colleagues at the College of William and Mary and the Citadel have guided me with their wisdom and blessed me with their friendship. I particularly wish to thank Mike McGiffert, Carol Sheriff, and Jim Whittenburg, for their friend- ship and encouragement. At presentations of my research at vari- ous meetings of the Iroquois History Conference, the Omohundro Institute, the Society for Ethnohistory, the Pennsylvania Historical Association, and the Western Frontier Symposium, I have benefited from conversations with James Carson, George Hamell, William Hart, James Merrell, Jane Merritt, Jon Parmenter, Daniel Richter, Tony Wonderley, and the late Mary Druke Becker. Many institutions have facilitated my research and writing through generous financial support. The Citadel Foundation in Charleston, South Carolina, has been exceedingly generous in awarding me yearly