1763: REVOLUTIONARY GATEWAY YEAR FOR CANADA AND THE U.S.

2013 National Council for the Social Studies Conference

Presenters:

 Stephen Marcotte  Beaconsfield High School [Montréal, Québec]  [email protected]

 Ruth Writer  Western Michigan University [Buchanan, MI]  [email protected]

Overview

 Introduction and Background  Treaty of Paris  Pontiac’s Rebellion  Proclamation of 1763  Methods and Materials  Q and A

Background

      Series of wars from late 1600s British [Protestant] vs. French and Spanish [Catholic] Final conflict—French and Indian War [Seven Years War] really lasted 9 years The Conquest—Quebec fell in autumn of 1759 British Colonists proud of victory over New France  Created new identity as free Britons North American colonies hopeful for a time of    Peace Expansion Prosperity

Timeline of 1763

          February 10—Treaty of Paris April 27—Pontiac convenes war council May 9—Natives begin siege of Detroit May 16-June 22—Natives take Forts Sandusky, St. Joseph, Miami, Pitt, Michilimackinac, Verango, LeBoeuf, Presqu’Isle June 24—British give smallpox blankets to Natives at Fort Pitt July 20—British take over St. Augustine July 31—British defeated by Natives at Bloody Run October 7—Proclamation of 1763 passed by British October 30—Natives end siege of Detroit December 27—Paxton Boys murder Natives in Pennsylvania

And the rest was history [1763-1783]

Treaty of Paris 1763

 Fall of Québec City Sept.1759

 Capitulation of Montréal Sept.1760

 Treaty of Paris Feb. 1763  Royal Proclamation Oct. 1763

Capitulation of Montréal —1760

New France 1759/Quebec 1763

Governor Murray’s Task for Québec

 Assimilate 60,000 French-speaking Catholics scattered on farms on either side of the St. Lawrence River with under 3,000 English-speaking Protestants.

Seigneurial System

Francis Parkman said: “Half a continent changed hands at the scratch of a pen.”

Treaty of Paris

Pontiac’s Rebellion

Why Pontiac Lead Natives to Rebel

    French soldiers left but fur traders and settlers stayed  Largest group in some areas for another 6 decades Bad British policy  No gifts  No gunpowder even though Natives dependent on guns Northwest Company changed fur trade  No more competition   Lower prices for furs Cheating going against Natives British wanted control of land   French and Natives shared land for furs British goal involved farming and settling

The Man and the Plan

  Pontiac, Ottawa Chief  Lived near Windsor  Approximately 40 years old  No authentic images Plan  Meeting of Ottawa, Potawatomi, Huron [April 1763]  Proposal to remove British from Detroit and Great Lakes/Ohio region  United various tribes and attack British forts  United, fight, defeat whites

Detroit: What Went Wrong

           Called for meeting with Major Gladwin [May 7, 1763] Bring 11 chiefs and 60 warriors—all with robes [sawed off shotguns] Wampum belt to be used as signal Natives knew something amiss British knew of plan   French woman heard of plan Betrayal by Native woman Plot foiled—Natives left Pontiac attacks on May 8 British had 120 inside fort—situation precarious [food, ammo, etc.] Bloody Run [280 British vs. 3000 under Pontiac command] July 31 Time ran out—fall meant hunting and gathering Longest Native siege in American history—153 days—October 30

Fort Michilimackinac — Only Lacrosse Game

 June celebration of King’s birthday  Chippewa and Sauk to play game of lacrosse  Players, cheerleaders, spectators  Charles Langlade and French spared  Alexander Henry, British survivor, recorded events but POW

Other Areas

 Fort Sandusky—May 16  Fort St. Joseph [four flags]—May 25  Fort Miami—May 27  Fort Pitt siege—May 29—blankets sent June 24—siege ends August 10 th  Fort Venango—June 16  Fort LeBoeuf—June 18  Fort Presqu’Isle—June 22  British defeat at Devil’s Hole Niagara—September 14

October of 1763

       Siege of Detroit ends on October 30 Natives merely drifted away Families and winter became #1 priority Pontiac and Sir Wm. Johnson created peace in 1766    Natives asserted power Natives did get some concessions British got rights of free passage and right to take control of forts Pontiac later killed by Native Great Lakes/Ohio remained in hands of Natives, fur traders, French British stayed only to keep peace

American Colonies in 1763

 Not a world of cities  Native villages  Six Nations of Iroquois—reduced dramatically to 9,000  Cities did exist—really “overgrown villages”  Philadelphia—population 23,000  New York—18,000  Boston—16,000  Québec City—down from 4,750 to 3,500  St. Louis did not yet exist

Backcountry

   Interior of North America, looking East [back] After 1763, looked West to fortune and future Interior vastly unknown  French settlements—i.e. Detroit with less than 1,000  Seasonal  Fort with surrounding long lots  Huron in area 250  Others [Three Fires confederacy]—less than 750  Fur traders  Spanish—in South

Movement West

   Trade networks Roads and trading paths into the hinterland Lived in shadow of death  Diphtheria, typhus, influenza, Scarlet fever, yellow fever, dysentery, fractures, STDs, and the list goes on…  Smallpox—1763 was year of smallpox  5% of Philly died  Native rate higher  Sickness never far away—reality without knowledge  No standards of hygiene, med schools

New Lifestyles

 Speech patterns  Family ways  Folkways  Clan loyalty and rivalry  Gender roles  Fighting farmers  Looked “more like Indians”

Settlers’ War

   Mid-1700s to 1783 Mary Jemison captured in 1758 Paxton Boys—Scots-Irish farmers took matters into own hands  Monrovian Christian Natives blamed for unrest  Governor John Penn stated they “got it into their heads that one Indians should not be suffered to live amongst us.”  Second attack Conestoga Natives who were killed while praying

Goals Differed

     Government imposed  Order  Control  Limits Colonists desire  More freedom and opportunities  Expansion of territory Regulate Protect the new empire from foreign and Native Pay for protection

Room for expansion—yet contested

    Natives fear of British troops lead to rebellion wanted pre European lifestyle—i.e. Mohawk England needed new territory with peace  Timber   Fur trade Sir William Johnson—Superintendent of Indian Affairs Colonists desire for fruits of victory over French  Land speculators—Washington    Flood of people pouring into hinterland German immigration [10-30% of colonies] Scots-Irish immigration Profit vs. Peace—”The challenge… was how to make profitable ‘an immense waste of savage country.’” ~Galloway

Proclamation of 1763

       Appalachian Mountains—boundary  British settlement  Native lands Segregation not interaction Prevent colonies from growth Prevent colonies from becoming ungovernable Seen by some as regulation not elimination Drafted in less than a week Described as the Native’s “Bill of Rights”

Native Bill of Rights

 Commitment made in Articles of Capitulation  France’s Native allies had lands inhabited protected

Quebec and Florida

 Not impacted by Proclamation Line  Could authorized land grants to populate new colonies  Veterans of the last war entitled to FREE land

Methods and Materials

 “Different people experience the same events, the same year, in different ways.” ~Galloway  Look at November 22, 1963  September 11, 2001  ACA  Dissimilar people viewed North America in 1763 very differently in their own way.

Points of View

 Native—diversity of views for Natives, also  British  French  Spanish  New France  British Colonists [soon to be known as AMERICANS]  Fur Traders  Land Speculators Examine and discuss the points of view of the stakeholders following each of the major events of 1763.

BTW

 Thought locally not globally nor in unison  Not all people looking east from Indian Country in 1763 were Natives.

 Not all Natives lived in Indian Country.

 Some Natives lived in small towns and seaports.

 Some Natives worked as indentured servants in households.

 Some Natives studied in colonial schools, i.e. Molly Brant

Additional Activities

 Investigate how the Treaty of Paris (1763) “dismembered” New France in the following manners: politically, militarily, economically, socially, and culturally.

 Historians have long debated whether Amherst ordered the distribution of blankets invested with smallpox. The discussion of germ warfare persists even 250 years later. Discuss the morality of the trading of smallpox invested blankets during the mid-1700s.

   Select one of the interior areas, determine the stake holders, and create a scenario for peaceful transfer of power in 1763. Then research the actual events which occurred.

The national sport of Canada is not hockey but actually lacrosse. Have students research the battle of Michilimackinac during Pontiac’s Rebellion and re-act the celebration of the King’s birthday.

Discuss the how the events of 1763 lead to turmoil, a civil war and eventual revolution NOT peace.

The Washington Post—November 8, 2013

General Resources

       Colin G. Calloway. The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Willis Dunbar and George S. May. Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.

Alvin Josephy. The Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of American Indian Resistance. New York: Penguin Books. 1993.

http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/readings/royal.htm

[Québec History] http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collections www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2013/11/08/which-of the-11-american-nations-do-you-live-in

Resources Related to the Treaty of Paris (1763)

    Yale Law School - The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History & Diplomacy provides translation of the Treaty of Paris (1763) which was originally written in French. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/paris763.asp

There are excellent maps, primary source documents and historical information about France in America on the Library of Congress website at: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/connections/france america/history4.html

This webpage shows, at a glance, the worldwide scope of the Treaty of Paris (1763): http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h754.html

The U.S. Department of State – Office of the Historian is a great site to introduce students to for additional background information and access to primary sources: http://history.state.gov/milestones/1750-1775/TreatyofParis

Resources for Pontiac’s Rebellion

    A video of Pontiac’s Rebellion is on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtxmbrBfoLU explains the viewpoint of the interior tribes as well as the events of the rebellion and the use of germ warfare.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography provides a biographical sketch of Chief Pontiac online at: http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=1597 A biography about James Murray: http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01 e.php?&id_nbr=2085 The Wisconsin Historical Society offers lesson plans on the topic as part of its “Turning Points” resources: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/lessonplans/search.asp?id=71

   David Armour, ed. Attack at Michilimackinac: Alexander Henry’s Travels and

Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories between the years 1760 and

1764. Mackinac Island: Mackinac State Historic Parks, 2009. [graphic recounting of the attack by survivor] The War Chief of the Ottawas: A Chronicle of the Pontiac War is an audio book.  Chapter 8 is of particular interest www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_AviBqg4rs  Chapter 4 about the Siege of Detroit at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qm881lxLKyE Sir William Johnson’s papers are found at http://archive.org/details/papersofsirwilli01johnuoft] but it may take some time to find reference to his relationship with his Native wife Molly Brant. His biography can be found at www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01 e.php?BioId=36096

Resources related to Proclamation of 1763

   The full text of King George III’s proclamation is on the Government of Canada’s website: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/015/002/015002-2010-e.html

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History provides significant learning materials.

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/community/user/register K-12 educators and students must access all online information via free subscription. Create your account…] [Please note that

   The Royal Proclamation as interpreted by Indigenous people can be found at: http://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/government-policy/royal proclamation-1763.html

An investigation of the issue of language rights as a result of the 1763 Royal Proclamation can be found at: http://www.slmc.uottawa.ca/?q=royal_proclamation_1763 High School History Lesson Plans: The Proclamation of 1763 (Gr. 9-12) at Bright Hub Education: http://www.brighthubeducation.com/history-lessons-grades-9-12/50407 the-proclamation-of-1763/

Your Thoughts Questions and Answers

Presenters:

 Stephen Marcotte  Beaconsfield High School [Montreal, Quebec]  [email protected]

 Ruth Writer  Western Michigan University [Buchanan, MI]  [email protected]

or [email protected]