Book: Formation of the Union

A >> Albert Bushnell Hart >> Formation of the Union




10. COLONIAL SLAVERY.


[Sidenote: Slave trade.]
[Sidenote: The sections.]

In appearance the labor system of all the colonies was the same. Besides
paid white laborers, there was everywhere a class of white servants bound
without wages for a term of years, and a more miserable class of negro
slaves. From Nova Scotia to Georgia, in all the West Indies, in the
neighboring French and Spanish colonies, negro slavery was in 1750 lawful,
and appeared to flourish. Many attempts had been made by colonial
legislatures to cut off or to tax the importation of slaves. Sometimes
they feared the growing number of negroes, sometimes they desired more
revenue. The legislators do not appear to have been moved by moral
objections to slavery. Nevertheless, there was a striking difference
between the sections with regard to slavery. In all the colonies north of
Maryland the winters were so cold as to interfere with farming, and some
different winter work had to be provided. For such variations of labor,
slaves are not well fitted; hence there were but two regions in the North
where slaves were profitably employed as field-hands,--on Narragansett Bay
and on the Hudson: elsewhere the negroes were house or body servants, and
slaves were rather an evidence of the master's consequence than of their
value in agriculture. In the South, where land could be worked during a
larger portion of the year, and where the conditions of life were easier,
slavery was profitable, and the large plantations could not be kept up
without fresh importations. Hence, if any force could be brought to bear
against negro slavery it would easily affect the North, and would be
resisted by the South; in the middle colonies the struggle might be long;
but even there slavery was not of sufficient value to make it permanent.

[Sidenote: Anti-slavery agitation.]

Such a force was found in a moral agitation already under way in 1750. The
Puritans and the Quakers both upheld principles which, if carried to their
legitimate consequences, would do away with slavery. The share which all
men had in Christ's saving grace was to render them brethren hereafter;
and who should dare to subject one to another in this earthly life? The
voice of Roger Williams was raised in 1637 to ask whether, after "a due
time of trayning to labour and restraint, they ought not to be set free?"
"How cursed a crime is it," exclaimed old Sewall in 1700, "to equal men to
beasts! These Ethiopians, black as they are, are sons and daughters of the
first Adam, brethren and sisters of the last Adam, and the offspring of
God." On "2d mo. 18, 1688," the Germantown Friends presented the first
petition against slavery recorded in American history. By 1750
professional anti-slavery agitators like John Woolman and Benezet were at
work in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and many wealthy Quakers had set free
their slaves. The wedge which was eventually to divide the North from the
South was already driven in 1750. In his great speech on the Writs of
Assistance in 1761, James Otis so spoke that John Adams said: "Not a
Quaker in Philadelphia, or Mr. Jefferson of Virginia, ever asserted the
rights of negroes in stronger terms."




CHAPTER II.

EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH (1750-1763).


11. REFERENCES.


BIBLIOGRAPHIES.--Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History_, V.
560-622; Channing and Hart, _Guide_, §§ 131-132.

HISTORICAL MAPS.--No. 2, this volume (_Epoch Maps_, No. 5); Labberton,
_Historical Atlas_, lxiii.; B. A. Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, I. 38, 63
(republished from MacCoun, _Historical Geography_); S. R. Gardiner,
_School Atlas_, No. 45; Francis Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_,
frontispiece; Oldmixen, _British Empire_ (1741); _Mitchell's Map_ (1755);
_Evans's Map_ (1755); school histories of Channing, Johnston, Scudder,
Thomas.

GENERAL ACCOUNTS.--Geo. Bancroft, _United States_, III. chs. xxiii.,
xxiv., IV. (last revision, II. 419-565); R. Hildreth, _United States_, II.
433-513; W. E. H. Lecky, _England in the Eighteenth Century_, II. ch.
viii., III. ch. x.; B. A. Hinsdale, _Old Northwest_, ch. v.; W. M. Sloane,
_French War and Revolution_, ch. viii.; Bryant and Gay, _Popular History_,
III. 254-328; J. R. Green, _English People_, IV. 166-218; Abiel Holmes,
_Annals of America_, II. 41-123; Geo. Chalmers, _Revolt of the American
Colonies_, II. book ix. ch. xx.; T. Pitkin, _Political and Civil History_,
I. 138-154.

SPECIAL HISTORIES.--Francis Parkman, _Montcalm and Wolfe_ (2 vols.),
latest and best detailed account; G. Warburton, _Conquest of Canada_,
(1849); T. Mante, _Late War_ (1772); W. B. Weeden, _New England_, II. chs.
xvi., xvii.; M. C. Tyler, _American Literature_, II. ch. xviii.; Theodore
Roosevelt, _Winning of the West_, II.

CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTS.--John Knox, _Historical Journal_ (1757-1760);
Pouchot, _Mémoires_ (also in translation); Franklin, _Works_
(especially on the Albany Congress); Washington, _Works_, especially
his _Journal_ (Sparks's edition, II. 432-447); Robert Rogers, _Journal;
Documents relative to the Colonial History of New York_, X.--Reprints in
_American History told by Contemporaries_, II.


12. RIVAL CLAIMS IN NORTH AMERICA (1690-1754).


[Sidenote: International rivalry.]

"The firing of a gun in the woods of North America brought on a conflict
which drenched Europe in blood." In this rhetorical statement is suggested
the result of a great change in American conditions after 1750. For the
first time in the history of the colonies the settlements of England and
France were brought so near together as to provoke collisions in time of
peace. The attack on the French by the Virginia troops under Washington in
1754 was an evidence that France and England were ready to join in a
struggle for the possession of the interior of the continent, even though
it led to a general European war.

[Sidenote: Legal arguments.]

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 (Colonies, § 112) had not laid down a
definite line between the French and the English possessions west of the
mountains, According to the principles of international law observed at
the time of colonization, each power was entitled to the territory drained
by the rivers falling into that part of the sea-coast which it controlled.
The French, therefore, asserted a _prima facie_ title to the valleys
of the St. Lawrence and of the Mississippi (§ 2); if there was a natural
boundary between the two powers, it was the watershed north and west of
the sources of the St. John, Penobscot, Connecticut, Hudson, Susquehanna,
Potomac, and James. On neither side had permanent settlements been
established far beyond this irregular ridge. This natural boundary had,
however, been disregarded in the early English grants. Did not the charter
of 1609 give to Virginia the territory "up into the land, from sea to sea,
west and northwest"? (Colonies, § 29.) Did not the Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and Carolina grants run westward to the "South Sea"? And
although these grants had lapsed, the power of the king to make them was
undiminished; the Pennsylvania charter, the latest of all, gave title far
west of the mountains.

[Sidenote: Expediency.]

To these paper claims were added arguments of convenience: the Lake
Champlain region, the southern tributaries of Lake Ontario, and the
headwaters of the Ohio, were more easily reached from the Atlantic coast
than by working up the rapids of the St Lawrence and its tributaries, or
against two thousand miles of swift current on the Mississippi. To the
Anglo-Saxon hunger for more land was added the fear of Indian attacks; the
savages were alarmed by the advance of settlements, and no principles of
international law could prevent frontiersmen from exploring the region
claimed by France, or from occupying favorite spots. There was no
opportunity for compromise between the two parties; agreement was
impossible, a conflict was a mere matter of time, and the elaborate
arguments which each side set forth as a basis for its claim were intended
only to give the prestige of a legal title. In the struggle the English
colonies had one significant moral advantage: they desired the land that
they might occupy it; the French wished only to hold it vacant for some
future and remote settlement, or to control the fur-trade.


13. COLLISIONS ON THE FRONTIER (1749-1754).


[Sidenote: The Iroquois]

For many years the final conflict had been postponed by the existence of a
barrier state,--the Iroquois, or Six Nations of Indians. This fierce,
brave, and statesmanlike race held a strip of the watershed from Lake
Champlain to the Allegheny River. For many years they had been subject to
English influence, exercised chiefly by William Johnson; but the
undisturbed possession of their lands was the price of their friendship.
They held back the current of immigration through the Mohawk. They aimed
to be the intermediary for the fur-trade from the northwest. They remained
throughout the conflict for the most part neutral, but forced the
contestants to carry on their wars east or south of them.

[Sidenote: English claims.]

Southwest of the territory of the Iroquois lay the region of the upper
Ohio and its tributaries, particularly the valleys of the Tennessee, the
Muskingum, the Allegheny, the Monongahela and its mountain-descending
tributary, the Youghioghany, of which the upper waters interlace with
branches of the Potomac. In this rich country, heavily wooded and
abounding in game, there were only a few Indians and no white inhabitants.
In 1749 France began to send expeditions through the Ohio valley to raise
the French flag and to bury leaden plates bearing the royal arms. A part
of the disputed region was claimed by Pennsylvania as within her charter
limits; Virginia claimed it, apparently on the convenient principle that
any unoccupied land adjacent to her territory was hers; the English
government claimed it as a vacant royal preserve; and in 1749 an Ohio
company was formed with the purpose of erecting the disputed region into a
"back colony." A royal grant of land was secured, and a young Virginian,
named George Washington, was sent out as a surveyor. He took the
opportunity to locate some land for himself, and frankly says that "it is
not reasonable to suppose that those, who had the first choice,... were
inattentive to ... the advantages of situation."

[Sidenote: Attempts to occupy.]

Foreseeing the struggle, the French began to construct a chain of forts
connecting the St. Lawrence settlements with the Mississippi. The chief
strategic point was at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela
rivers,--the present site of Pittsburg. The Ohio company were first on the
ground, and in 1753 took steps to occupy this spot. They were backed up by
orders issued by the British government to the governors of Pennsylvania
and Maryland "to repel force by force whenever the French are found within
the undoubted limits of their province." Thus the French and English
settlements were brought dangerously near together, and it was resolved by
Virginia to send George Washington with a solemn warning to the French. In
October, 1753, he set forth, and returned in December to announce that the
French were determined to hold the country. They drove the few English out
of their new post, fortified the spot, and called it Fort Duquesne. The
crisis seemed to Benjamin Franklin so momentous that at the end of his
printed account of the capture of the post he added a rude woodcut of a
rattlesnake cut into thirteen pieces, with the motto, addressed to the
colonies, "Join or die."

[Sidenote: No compromise.]

This was no ordinary intercolonial difficulty, to be patched up by
agreements between the frontier commanders. Both French and English
officers acted under orders from their courts. England and France were
rivals, not only on the continent, but in the West Indies, in India, and
in Europe. There was no disposition either to prevent or to heal the
breach on the Pennsylvania frontier.

[Sidenote: Washington attacks.]

When Washington set out with a small force in April, 1754, it was with the
deliberate intention of driving the French out of the region. As he
advanced towards Fort Duquesne they came out to meet him. He was the
quicker, and surprised the little expedition at Great Meadows, fired upon
the French, and killed ten of them. A few days later Washington and his
command were captured at Fort Necessity, and obliged to leave the country.
As Half King, an Iroquois chief, said, "The French behaved like cowards,
and the English like fools." The colonial war had begun. Troops were at
once despatched to America by both belligerents. In 1755 hostilities also
broke out between the two powers on the sea; but it was not until May 18,
1756, that England formally declared war on France, and the Seven Years'
War began in Europe.


14. THE STRENGTH OF THE PARTIES (1754).


[Sidenote: England and France.]

The first organized campaign in America was in 1755. Its effect was to
show that the combatants were not far from equally matched. France claimed
the position of the first European power: her army was large, her soldiers
well trained; her comparative weakness at sea was not yet evident. The
English navy had been reduced to 17,000 men; the whole English army
counted 18,000 men, of whom there were in America but 1,000. Yet England
was superior when it came to building ships, equipping troops, and
furnishing money subsidies to keep her allies in the field. The advantage
of prestige in Europe was thrown away when France allied herself with her
hereditary enemy, Austria, and thus involved herself in wars which kept
her from sending adequate reinforcements to America.

[Sidenote: The colonies.]

Until 1758 the war in the western world was fought on both sides chiefly
by the colonists. Here the British Americans had a numerical advantage
over the French. Against the 80,000 white Canadians and Louisianians they
could oppose more than 1,100,000 whites. Had the English colonists, like
the Canadians, been organized into one province, they might have been
successful within a year; but the freedom and local independence of the
fourteen colonies made them, in a military sense, weaker than their
neighbors. In Canada there was neither local government nor public
opinion; governors and intendants sent out from Paris ruled the people
under regulations framed in Paris for the benefit of the court centred in
Paris. While the colonies with difficulty raised volunteer troops, the
French commander could make a _levée en masse_ of the whole adult male
population. During the four campaigns from 1755 to 1758 the Canadians
lost little territory, and they were finally conquered only by a powerful
expedition of British regular troops and ships.

[Sidenote: Indians.]
[Sidenote: Theatre of war.]

One reason for this unexpected resistance was the aid of the Indians. The
Latin races have always had more influence over savage dependents than the
Anglo-Saxon. The French knew how to use the Indians as auxiliaries by
letting them make war on their own account and in their own barbarous
fashion. Nevertheless the Indians did not fight for the mere sake of
obliging the French, and when the tide turned, in 1759, they were mostly
detached. One other great advantage was enjoyed by the French: their
territory was difficult of access. The exposed coast was protected by the
strong fortresses of Louisbourg and Quebec, On the east, in the centre,
and on the Ohio they were in occupation and stood on the defensive. Acting
on the interior of their line, they could mass troops at any threatened
point. In the end their line was rolled up like a scroll from both ends.
Louisbourg and Fort Duquesne were both taken in 1758, but Montreal was
able to hold out until 1760.


15. CONGRESS OF ALBANY (1754).


[Sidenote: Indian treaty.]
[Sidenote: Union proposed]

Foreseeing a general colonial war, the Lords of Trade, in September, 1753,
directed the colonial governors to procure the sending of commissioners to
Albany. The first purpose was to make a treaty with the Iroquois; but a
suggestion was made in America that the commissioners also draw up a plan
of colonial union. In June, 1754, a body of delegates assembled from the
New England colonies, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The Indian
treaty was duly framed, notwithstanding the ominous suggestion of one of
the savages: "It is but one step from Canada hither, and the French may
easily come and turn you out of your doors." On June 24 the Congress of
Albany adopted unanimously the resolution that "a union of all the
colonies is at present absolutely necessary for their security and
defence;" and that "it would be necessary that the union be established by
Act of Parliament."

[Sidenote: Franklin's scheme.]

Since the extinction of the New England Confederation in 1684 (Colonies, §
69) there had been no approach to any colonial union. The suggestions of
William III., of the Lords of Trade, of ministers, of colonial governors,
and of private individuals had remained without effect To Benjamin
Franklin was committed the task of drawing up a scheme which should at the
same time satisfy the colonial assemblies and the mother government. The
advantages of such an union were obvious. Combined action meant speedy
victory; separate defence meant that much of the border would be exposed
to invasion. Franklin hoped to take advantage of the pressure of the war
to induce the colonies to accept a permanent union. His draft, therefore,
provided for a "President General," who should have toward the union the
powers usually enjoyed by a governor towards his colony. This was not
unlike a project in view when Andros was sent over in 1685. The startling
innovation of the scheme was a "Grand Council," to be chosen by the
colonial assemblies. The duty of this general government was to regulate
Indian affairs, make frontier settlements, and protect and defend the
colonists. The plan grew upon Franklin as he considered it, and he added a
scheme for general taxes, the funds to be raised by requisitions for
specific sums on the separate colonial treasurers.

[Sidenote: The union fails.]

The interest of the plan is that it resembles the later Articles of
Confederation. At first it seemed likely to succeed; none of the twenty-
five members of the congress seem to have opposed it, but not one colony
accepted it. The charter and proprietary colonies feared that they might
lose the guaranty afforded by their existing grants. The new union was to
be established by Act of Parliament. Of government by that body they knew
little, and they had no disposition to increase the power of the Crown.
The town of Boston voted "to oppose any plan of union whereby they shall
apprehend the Liberties and Priviledges of the People are endangered." The
British government also feared a permanent union, lest it teach the
colonies their own strength in organization. The movement for the union
had but the faint approval of the Lords of Trade, and received no
consideration in England. As Franklin said: "The assemblies all thought
there was too much _prerogative_, and in England it was thought to have
too much of the _democratic_."


16. MILITARY OPERATIONS (1755-1757).


[Sidenote: Character of the war]

Washington's defeat in 1754 was followed by active military preparations
on both sides. So far as the number of campaigns and casualties goes, it
was a war of little significance; but it was marked by romantic incidents
and heroic deeds. Much of the fighting took place in the forest. The
Indians showed their characteristic daring and their characteristic
unwillingness to stand a long-continued, steady attack. Their scalping-
knives and stakes added a fearful horror to many of the battles. On both
sides the military policy seemed simple. The English must attack, the
French must do their best to defend. The French were vulnerable in Nova
Scotia and on the Ohio; their centre also was pierced by two highways
leading from the Hudson,--one through Lake Champlain, the other through
the Mohawk and Lake Ontario. These four regions must be the theatre of
war, and in 1755 the British government, seconded by the colonists,
planned an attack on the four points simultaneously.

[Sidenote: Braddock's expedition.]

The most difficult of the four tasks was the reduction of Fort Duquesne,
and it was committed to a small force of British regulars, with colonial
contingents, under the command of General Braddock. The character of this
representative of British military authority is summed up in a phrase of
his secretary's: "We have a general most judiciously chosen for being
disqualified for the service he is employed on in almost every respect."
Before him lay three plain duties,--to co-operate with the provincial
authorities in protecting the frontier, to impress upon the Indians the
superior strength of the English, and to occupy the disputed territory. He
did none of them. Among the provincials was George Washington, whose
experience in this very region ought to have influenced the general; but
the latter obstinately refused to learn that the rules of war must be
modified in a rough and wooded country, among frontiersmen and savage
enemies. July 9, 1755, the expedition reached a point eight miles from
Fort Duquesne. As Braddock's little army marched forward, with careful
protection against surprise, it was greeted with a volley from 250 French
Canadians and 230 Indian allies. Though the Canadians fled, the Indians
stood their ground from behind trees and logs. The Virginians and a few
regulars took to trees also, but were beaten back by the oaths and blows
of Braddock. "We would fight," they said, "if we could see anybody to
fight with." After three hours' stand against an invisible foe, Braddock's
men broke and abandoned the field. Out of 1,466 officers and men, but 482
came off safe. The remnant of the expedition fled, abandoned the country,
left the frontier unprotected; and over the road which they had
constructed came a stream of marauding Indians.

[Sidenote: Removal of the Acadians.]

In the centre the double campaign was equally unfruitful. On the borders
of Nova Scotia the French forts were captured. The victors felt unable to
hold the province, although it had been theirs since 1713, except by
removing the French Acadian inhabitants. It was a strong measure, carried
out with severity. Six thousand persons were distributed among the
colonies farther south, where their religion and their language both
caused them to be suspected and often kept them from a livelihood. The
justification was that the Acadians were under French influence, and were
likely to be added to the fighting force of the enemy; the judgment of
Parkman is that the "government of France began with making the Acadians
its tools, and ended with making them its victims."

[Sidenote: Campaigns of 1756, 1757.]

The campaigns of 1756 and 1757 were like that of 1755. After the retreat
of Braddock's expedition the frontier of Virginia and Pennsylvania was
left to the ravages of the Indians. The two colonies were slow to defend
themselves, and had no help from England. Systematic warfare was still
carried on in the centre and in the East. The French, under the guidance
of their new commander, Montcalm, lost no ground, and gained Oswego and
Fort William Henry. The English cause in Europe was declining. In the Far
East alone had great successes been gained; and the battle of Plassey in
1757 gave to England the paramount influence in India which she has ever
since exercised.


17. THE CONQUEST OF CANADA (1756-1780).


[Sidenote: William Pitt.]
[Sidenote: Campaign of 1758.]

Few characters in history are indispensable. From William of Orange to
William Pitt the younger there was but one man without whom English
history must have taken a different turn, and that was William Pitt the
elder. In 1757 he came forward as a representative of the English people,
and forced his way into leadership by the sheer weight of his character.
He secured a subsidy for Prussia, which was desperately making head
against France, Austria, and Russia in coalition. He made a comprehensive
plan for a combined attack on the French posts in America. He organized
fleets and armies. He was able to break through the power of court
influence, and to appoint efficient commanders. The first point of attack
was Louisbourg, the North Atlantic naval station of the French. Since its
capture by the New Englanders in 1745 (Colonies, § 127) it had been
strongly fortified. An English force under Amherst and Wolfe reduced it
after a brief siege in 1758. The attack through Lake George failed in
consequence of the inefficiency of the English commander, Abercrombie, but
the English penetrated across Lake Ontario and took Niagara. Nov. 25,
1758, Fort Duquesne was occupied by the English, and the spot was named
Pittsburg, after the great minister. For the first time the tide of war
set inward towards the St. Lawrence.

[Sidenote: Capture of Quebec.]

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.