George II - King of England

George II - King of England

George II was born into the House of Hanover in 1683 in the Schloss (Castle) Herrenhausen, which had been the seat of the dynasty since George, the duke of Brunswick-Luneberg, moved to Hanover during the Thirty Years’ War. When George II’s father became king of England, the court moved from Herrenhausen to London.

Unlike George I, who had a bevy of mistresses, George II was devoted to his wife, Caroline of Anspach, whom he wed in 1705. Caroline, the daughter of the margrave of Brandenburg-Anspach, accompanied her husband to England when his father, usually known as the elector of Hanover, became king of England in 1714.

Caroline of Anspach was one of the most illustrious women of her age and a patroness of science and philosophy. When the great philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1646–1716) was at Schloss Herrenhausen, Caroline was his best student.

The rule of George I featured a stormy relationship between George I and his son. In a dispute over British policy in Germany, the future George II broke with his father when Robert Walpole, George I’s prime minister, felt that British interests were being subordinated to those of Hanover in Europe.


With Caroline’s help, the future George II set up what amounted to a government in exile at Leicester House, where Caroline established a learned salon similar to what she had at Schloss Herrenhausen. However, father and son were reconciled and in 1720, Walpole returned to the government.

When George I died in Germany in 1727, his son immediately became king, as much a testimony to the skill of Walpole as to the Act of Succession of 1701. When James Edward Stuart, the son of James II, invaded Scotland in 1715 and 1719, it showed the value of his legislation in the eyes of those who favored the Hanovers over the Stuarts.

For the duration of George I’s reign and much of George II’s, the threat of a Stuart restoration to the throne was real. In 1745, the son of James Edward, Bonnie Prince Charlie, did in fact land in Scotland and administer two stinging defeats to the Hanoverian army at Prestonpans and Falkirk and occupied Scotland.

This precipitated the greatest crisis of George II’s kingship. Bonnie Prince Charlie reached as far south as Derby in England, but concerned about a lack of support among the English, he began his retreat north again.

George II, who at Dettingen in 1743 in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48) had been the last British king to take part in a battle, sent his son, George Augustus, duke of Cumberland, in pursuit of Bonnie Prince Charlie. At Culloden Moor in April 1746, Cumberland defeated him in a decisive engagement.

Aside from the Stuart threat, the kingdom, which included Scotland and Ireland, enjoyed peace and stability, shown by the rise of the middle class and the birth of modern English literature. Henry Fielding gained prominence in the reign of George II.

Fielding’s satiric plays incurred the wrath of Walpole, who set about closing Fielding’s theater. Rebounding from this defeat, he would go on to write his greatest novel, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749), which perhaps better than any other work presents life in the time of the second George. Daniel Defoe had an active career through the reigns of Queen Anne, George I, and George II.

In 1756, Britain became involved in the Seven Years’ War, which had actually begun in the conflict between the British and French colonies in North America in 1754. The war soon spread to encompass much of the world, although the decisive battles would be fought in Europe and America. Britain’s greatest ally was Frederick the Great of Prussia, an admirer of the French field marshal Maurice de Saxe.

The use of English money as a subsidy, an inheritance from Walpole’s passionate pursuit of mercantilism, enabled Frederick to field an army that, along with his undisputed military genius, would keep at bay the combined forces of France, the Austrian Empire, and Russia.

William Pitt was an accomplished and reliable wartime prime minister for England. He strategically strengthened the British navy, sent fleets where they would be most effective, and oversaw supply exchanges with allies. After several years of reverses, British arms in 1758 scored several victories against France, earning both the king and Pitt great popularity among the people.

In 1760, at the height of his power, George tragically succumbed to a stroke. Since his son Frederic Louis had died in 1751, his grandson succeeded him on the throne as George III. From his grandfather, George III inherited a monarchy—and an empire—at the height of its power and prestige.

Coercive Acts

Coercive Acts

In answer to the Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament inward March 1774 passed a serial of punitive laws known every bit the Coercive Acts, which many colonists interpreted every bit a deliberate conspiracy against their rights. As a business office of the protests against British taxation, Bostonians had inward Dec 1773 destroyed a large shipment of tea, inward opened upwards defiance of Governor Thomas Hutchinson too all British authority.

Since this protestation was solely the latest inward an escalating serial that would eventually atomic number 82 to the American Revolution, the direction of Oliver, Lord North planned to brand an trial of unruly Massachusetts inward the promise of getting the American colonies dorsum inward line. While these measures were officially known every bit the Coercive Acts, colonists critical of British policies since 1763 typically dubbed them the Intolerable Acts.

The Coercive Acts consisted of 4 laws. The Boston Port Act near downwardly Boston Harbor until restitution was made for the destroyed tea too King George III decided it was rubber to reopen the harbor. In the Massachusetts Government Act, Parliament decreed that the colonial council should hold out appointed past times the king.


The police line every bit good forbade the traditional town meetings from debating anything other than local matters. The Justice Act allowed for the trial of British officials too their subordinates inward about other colony or Great Britain, if the governor decided a fair trial was non possible inward Massachusetts.

Finally, the Quartering Act allowed the governor to requisition unoccupied populace buildings for the housing of troops. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 5th law, the Quebec Act, was unconnected to the Coercive Acts only critical colonists perceived it every bit business office of the Intolerable Acts every bit well. This mensurate organized the colony of Quebec, solely lately acquired from French Republic every bit the effect of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763).

The Quebec Act allowed the Catholic Church to retain many aspects of existence the established church building inward the predominantly Catholic colony. It every bit good upheld French civil law, which differed considerably from English linguistic communication mutual law; for example, it did non include trial past times jury.

For American patriots, the Coercive Acts inward conjunction alongside the Quebec Act amounted to no less than an outright conspiracy to eradicate traditional liberties inward America. In their interpretation, the laws enabled the British authorities to choke the colonies economically past times closing downwardly the ports, dissolve representative authorities too regional traditions of political autonomy, too quarter soldiers inward soul homes too lead keep them kill political dissidents at will. Trial would accept identify inward England where the soldiers would hold out acquitted.

Finally, this conspiracy theory continued, Quebec would serve every bit an trial for a tyrannical authorities of colonial America, eliminating traditional boundaries, destroying religious liberty, too imposing alien laws that did away alongside sacred rights similar trial past times jury.

Many of these charges were quite unfounded. The Quebec Act was quite unrelated to the events inward Massachusetts, too the Quartering Act did non genuinely permit for the quartering of soldiers inward soul homes. This erroneous interpretation yet found its means into twentieth-century U.S. schoolbooks.

On the other hand, the Coercive Acts for sure did aim at curbing the political autonomy of Massachusetts, too they reduced participatory elements of the political organisation too imposed harsh economical sanctions.

The stance was to unmarried out Massachusetts too past times extension bailiwick the other colonies. However, spell the North administration’s intention for the Coercive Acts was express too specific, many colonists’ interpretations were vast too alarmed.

Instead of intimidating the other colonies, the Coercive Acts prompted them to declare their solidarity alongside Massachusetts. The First Continental Congress convened every bit a answer to the crisis too decided upon full general nonimportation of English linguistic communication goods.

In its Declaration of Colonial Rights too Grievances, the Congress echoed a conspiratorial interpretation of British policy past times denouncing it every bit “a organisation formed to enslave America.” The sick volition generated past times the Coercive Acts contestation contributed substantially to the outbreak of the American Revolution.

Christian Identity

Christian Identity

Christian Identity is a loosely organized religious movement associated with a issue of small-scale fundamentalist churches as well as extreme right-wing political as well as religious groups inwards the United States.

By the lastly 3 decades of the twentieth century, Identity had perish the organized religious belief of choice for a issue of conspiracy-minded survivalists, millennialists, as well as neo-Nazi groups, similar Aryan Nations, The Order—responsible for a moving ridge of law-breaking inwards the American West inwards the 1980s, including the murder of Denver radio host Alan Berg inwards 1984—and approximately factions of the Ku Klux Klan.

Because it is non an organized denomination, at that spot is approximately variation inwards Identity doctrine with its many churches as well as groups, but almost part its pith beliefs: that Anglo-Saxons are the truthful descendants of the 10 lost tribes of State of Israel as well as thus God’s chosen people; that Jews are the literal offspring of a sexual liaison betwixt Satan as well as Eve inwards the Garden of Eden; as well as that, equally a result, Anglo-Saxons are locked inwards battle over the redemption of humankind against a global Jewish conspiracy intent on the eradication of white Christians as well as consummate worldwide domination.


Christian Identity has its roots inwards British Israelism, a benign religious movement founded inwards Victorian England past times John Wilson. In his Lectures on Our Israelitish Origin (1840), Wilson sought to test empirically that the lost tribes of State of Israel migrated from the East over the Caucasus mountains as well as eventually settled inwards northern Europe.

In Wilson’s view, however, Jews were non the enemy. Rather, they were beau Israelites, though members of a dissimilar tribe. British-Israelism made its means to North America inwards the piece of cake nineteenth century as well as kickoff gained broad appeal inwards the the States inwards the 1920s as well as 1930s.

The spread of British-Israelism inwards the the States was due largely to the efforts of Howard Rand, a one-time structure worker turned British-Israelism organizer, as well as William J. Cameron, editor of Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent, which published approximately of the period’s almost explicit antisemitic writings, including “The International Jew,” the kickoff widespread U.S. popularization of Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Thus inwards the United States, British-Israelism came increasingly to live linked with extreme right-wing politics: nativism, racism, and, especially, antisemitism. From this strand of the British-Israelist movement inwards the United States, Christian Identity emerged.

Drawing on scriptural ascendence as well as peculiarly biblical prophecy, Identity followers sentiment all of human history equally a conspiracy past times Jews to subvert Christianity as well as constitute Satan’s kingdom on earth. In the writings of post–World War II Identity leaders such equally Gerald L. K. Smith as well as Wesley Swift, the international Jewish conspiracy to command the public begins at creation.

Jews are non solely distinct from Saxons, they are the straight descendants of Cain, the boy of Eve’s seduction past times Satan. Saxons, on the other hand, are descended from Adam’s boy Abel as well as are the truthful Israelites.

The Jews are only impostors performing the operate of Satan to eliminate the truthful Israelites precisely equally Cain, the progenitor of modern Jews, killed Abel. Identity followers believe World Jewry is behind the persecution of Jesus, the ritual killing of Christians at the Roman Colosseum, the invasion of Western Europe past times Gengis Khan to destroy Christian civilization, as well as Napoleon’s essay to conquer the world.

As foretold inwards the Book of Revelation, the lastly phase of the Jewish plot begins inwards the twentieth century with the Jewish-backed Communist revolution inwards Russia, Jewish command over the international banking scheme as well as peculiarly the Federal Reserve Corporation, as well as the institution of such international organizations equally the United Nations as well as the Council on Foreign Relations. Much of Identity doctrine, such equally the schism inwards the Nation of State of Israel inwards the 10th century B.C. that separated the southern tribes from the 10 northern tribes, follows scholarly orthodoxy.

However, scholars spend upwardly Identity’s “two-seeds” theory of Genesis too equally a issue of other spurious practices upon which Identity doctrine relies: numerology, pyramidology, as well as a cast of philology based upon similarities inwards the sounds of words. Because the movement lacks a fundamental organization, the issue of Identity Christians is hard to determine, but it continues to live the religious orientation of choice for white supremacist groups inwards the United States.

Bank Of The United States

First Bank of the United States

Seen every bit an musical instrument of British interests, the Bank of the U.S. (BUS) was the virtually powerful unmarried fiscal establishment inwards the nation, together with therefore was the target of those who suspected that foreigners, especially the British, engaged inwards “shadow control” of the bank.

After the First BUS had its charter expire, together with was afterward replaced yesteryear the Second BUS (1816), the novel banking concern became the object of a dissimilar conspiracy thought inwards which the “monied interests” sought command over the “common man” through the Bank.

As business office of his Report on Public Credit, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton recommended creation of a national banking concern to concur the nation’s deposits, brand loans to the novel regime of the United States, together with to provide a source of stability for the nation’s coin supply.


Based on the model of the Bank of North America, the Bank of the U.S. was chartered yesteryear Congress inwards Jan 1791 for xx years amongst a majuscule stock of $10 million, of which $2 1000000 was to survive paid inwards gold. The regime subscribed to one-fifth of the majuscule stock, together with the residue of the Bank’s ownership was inwards someone hands.

In improver to asset regime deposits, the BUS had roughly other of import wages over all futurity privately owned banks, inwards that it was authorized to opened upwardly branches inwards several states. Among the cities to obtain BUS branches were Norfolk, Virginia, Washington, D.C., together with New Orleans. Operations at the primary branch inwards Philadelphia commenced inwards 1792.

It took exclusively a few hours on 4 July 1791, for subscribers to snatch upwardly shares of BUS stock. One-third were members of Congress, together with many to a greater extent than were world officials. Thomas Willing, Robert Morris’s partner, was the president.

Second Bank of the United States

Despite the clear together with obvious representation inwards ownership yesteryear powerful Americans, the Bank at nowadays came nether suspicion of existence inwards the command of “foreign interests.” These attacks remained especially shrewd until 1800, when Thomas Jefferson was elected president.

Jefferson, an opponent of the Bank, withal did non enquire for repeal of the Bank charter amongst his novel Republican Congress, nor did his allies innovate such a bill. Rather, he ordered the sale of all regime involvement inwards the bank, spell at the same fourth dimension he cutting the national debt together with therefore diminished the Bank’s portfolio of regime securities.

For the side yesteryear side several years, the BUS produced respectable net of 8–10 per centum for its stockholders, kept a large reserve, together with was operated effectively, if secretly. The Treasury had the authorization to require regular reports, exactly did not, together with none were offered. This secrecy, combined amongst growing anti-British feelings together with the corollary suspicion that British investors controlled large portions of the stock, placed the recharter of the BUS inwards jeopardy inwards 1811.

By that time, the novel president of the United States, James Madison, who was a quondam Federalist, constitute himself inwards conflict amongst many of the Republicans inwards Congress. Tensions amongst England had grown so rigid that the recharter nib narrowly failed inwards both houses despite back upwardly from the (by so many) state-chartered banks. Soon thereafter, the U.S. was i time again at state of war amongst Great Britain.

Following the War of 1812, banknote circulation rose from $45 1000000 to $68 million, generated yesteryear roughly 246 state-chartered someone banks. Pressures on reserves (in which banks had to redeem their newspaper banknotes inwards aureate or silvery “specie”) mounted until, inwards August 1814, the banks had to “suspend” specie payments—that is, decline to pay aureate together with silvery for notes.

Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Dallas, who had supported a novel national bank, used the episode to scrap for chartering a Second Bank of the United States. In Jan 1815, before the War of 1812 ended, Congress had passed a novel charter, which Madison vetoed, contending that it did non encounter the government’s needs for loans.

However, Congress redrafted the nib together with inwards Apr 1816 submitted a novel charter, which was similar to that of the First BUS. Important differences included a larger majuscule stock ($35 million) together with in that location were novel locations for branches, exactly the operations resembled the before bank’s.

Like the First BUS, the headquarters was inwards Philadelphia, together with similar the previous institution, the Second BUS was eighty per centum privately owned. Stephen Girard of Philadelphia subscribed to $3 1000000 together with William Jones, a Republican from Pennsylvania, was the root president.

Jones’s leadership proved less than inspiring, together with after the Bank constitute its liquid draining away, Congress investigated the operations together with defendant Jones of mismanagement. After Jones resigned inwards 1819, South Carolinian Langdon Cheves took over together with at nowadays began calling inwards loans. Although a recession gear upwardly in, Cheves managed to correct the Bank together with to position it on a theater footing, earning a position out of enemies along the way.

Critics who favored “loose money” began to gear upwardly on the bank—most notably Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, who called it “the monster.” When Cheves was replaced yesteryear Philadelphian Nicholas Biddle inwards 1923, supporters of the Bank hoped the criticism would end.

Biddle managed the Bank well—perhaps besides well, every bit the BUS gained influence together with political mightiness far beyond what the First BUS e'er held. By 1828, when Tennessean Andrew Jackson was elected president, he had a history of antipathy toward banks.

Nevertheless, early on indications were that he would non human activeness unfavorably toward the Bank. Biddle, overestimating his ain political back upwardly together with underestimating Jackson’s popularity, dramatically sought to recharter the BUS inwards 1832, roughly 4 years before its renewal day.

He counted on the fact that Jackson would non adventure the wrath of Earth inwards an election year, exactly badly misjudged Jackson, who saw the Bank every bit his primary crusade foil. Picking upwardly the old “monster” tag, together with using soundless other descriptions such every bit “the hydra,” Jackson vetoed the recharter nib together with so made the veto stick. Furthermore, Earth supported him.

Central to Jackson’s “war” on the BUS was his political rhetoric—whether he believed it or non remains a affair of contestation amid historians—that the Bank represented the “elites” together with involved undue unusual control. Jackson’s speeches touched a long-held U.S. suspicion of speculators together with investors, especially if they were foreigners.

Playing to a British “conspiracy” to command U.S. fiscal markets, Jackson succeeded inwards withdrawing the deposits of the U.S. regime from the BUS inwards 1833, depriving the Bank of i of its 2 primary advantages over other institutions.

When the Bank’s national charter expired, it got a charter from Pennsylvania, exactly amongst none of the mightiness it i time had. By 1840, the quondam Bank of the U.S. was out of business, together with subsequent scholars convey failed to position whatever substantial unusual command that was exerted over its operations.

Sugarcane Plantations in the Americas

Sugarcane Plantation in the America

The histories of African slavery and sugar production in the Americas are inextricably bound together. The plantation economies of the Caribbean and Brazil, which together received approximately 80 percent of the estimated 10 million African slaves transported to the Western Hemisphere from the 1490s through the 1860s, were dominated by sugar production.

As an expansive scholarly literature since the 1960s has made plain, sugar and slavery are the keywords of much of Brazilian and Caribbean history and together have shaped the cultural, economic, political, social, and demographic history of the Atlantic World in many profound ways.

The origins of sugarcane (Saccarum officinarum L.), a type of grass, have been traced to New Guinea in around 8000 b.c.e. By the first century c.e., it was grown across much of southern Asia and the Pacific. By 1000 c.e., its production and consumption among the elite had spread through much of the Mediterranean world, largely in consequence of the spread of Islam.


In the 1400s, the Portuguese and Spanish developed important templates for later New World plantation sugar production on their Atlantic islands: the Portuguese in São Tomé and Madeira, the Spanish in the Canaries. Before the encounter with the Americas in 1492, both were employing African slave labor to produce sugar and developing processing techniques that, after 1492, were transplanted wholesale to the sugar-producing zones of the Western Hemisphere.

Christopher Columbus is credited with taking the first sugarcane to the New World in 1493 from Spain’s Canary Islands. Soon Hispaniola had largely reproduced the industrial processing techniques developed in the Atlantic and made its first shipments of sugar to Europe around 1516.

By the mid-1520s, large quantities of sugar were being shipped from Brazil to Lisbon. The sweet granular substance proved a sensation among its elite customers, and demand skyrocketed. Cultivation and processing of sugar quickly spread throughout the Antilles and the Brazilian littoral as well as to Mexico, Paraguay, and South America’s Pacific coast.

Early Spanish efforts in the Caribbean ended largely in failure, though by the 1580s the French and English began plantation sugar production using African slave labor in the Lesser Antilles. Large-scale slave-based commercial sugar production in the Caribbean did not take off until after 1650, on the islands claimed by the French, English, and Dutch.

The English example is instructive. Sugar from Barbados began arriving in England in the mid-1650s. In the 40 years from 1660 to 1700, annual English consumption rose from 1,000 to 50,000 hogsheads, while export rose from 2,000 to 18,000 hogsheads. By the 1750s, the vast bulk of the 110,000 hogsheads imported annually were being consumed at home.

The peak of British West Indian sugar exports to England was in 1774, with nearly 2 million hundredweight. Growth rates for the French were comparable. For the Portuguese, the 1600s was the century of sugar, as their coastal plantations in Brazil spread rapidly inland, especially in the Northeast. Demand seemed insatiable, and production grew apace.

Sugar making, especially in its New World incarnation, has been aptly described as an industry that depends on farming and factory production. Through a series of complex steps requiring substantial skill and technical infrastructure, the cane juice was extracted from the stalk by mechanical means (crushing, chopping, etc.).

After the juice was boiled and cooled numerous times, with precise temperatures and timing, the end product consisted of a granular precipitate of the plant’s naturally occurring sucrose, ranging in color from dark brown to white. Its labor demands were intensive and immediate; for optimal production values, the cane juice must be extracted from the plant within 24 hours of its harvest.

Two Categories of Labor Needed

Sugar production thus required two broad categories of labor: one in the field to cut and haul the cane to the mill, and another in the mill to process the juice into granulated sugar. These labor requirements in turn created two broad strata of slave laborers: more numerous field slaves, among whom mortality rates were exceedingly high (in 17th-century Brazil, an average of 90 percent of imported African slaves died during their first seven years in the colony), and a smaller number of skilled slaves, who tended to receive more preferential treatment. Among mill slaves, industrial accidents were common, as many were crushed to death in the grinders and burned in the mill’s many boilers and kettles.

As sugar production skyrocketed so did the importation of African slaves into the sugar-producing zones. The relationship between the two was direct, as most scholars agree. In 1645, before widespread sugar production had taken root, Barbados counted 5,680 African slaves; by 1698, with sugar production having grown by more than 5,000 percent, its slave population exceeded 42,000.

Jamaica counted 1,400 African slaves in 1658; by 1698, their numbers had risen to over 40,000. Slave population growth rates in Antigua, Saint-Domingue (later Haiti), and other English, French, and Dutch sugar islands were comparable. The vast majority slaved in the sugar economy.

In 17th-century Brazil, sugar plantation slavery came to form the central pillar of the colonial economy. Similarly, one of the colony’s core social institutions became the engenho (same root as the English engine), which came to mean both the machinery of the mill itself and the larger plantation complex.

The sugar harvest (safra in Portuguese, zafra in Spanish) began toward the end of July and continued without stop for the next eight or nine months. Slaves were divided into crews: one to cut and haul cane to the mill, another to process the cane into sugar.

Water power turned the grinding mill in larger engenhos, oxen in smaller engenhos. The highest strata of workers consisted of the boiler technicians and artisans, who could be either slave or free. The average engenho had from 60 to 80 slaves, though some counted more than 200.

Overall slave mortality rates averaged from 5 to 10 percent annually but were higher among field slaves. Sugar planters became the dominant social class in Brazil and almost everywhere else where sugar production formed the basis of the colonial economy.

Caribbean and Brazilian sugar production generated ripple effects throughout the Atlantic World. Large quantities of West Indian sugar were exported to Britain’s North American colonies, where most of it was distilled into rum. The West Indian trade also fueled the North American colonial economy through its large and growing demand for lumber, foodstuffs, and other goods produced for export to the sugar islands.

Rum exports to Britain similarly skyrocketed, from 100,000 gallons in 1700 to 3,341,000 gallons in 1776. The effects generated by West Indian sugar production on the British and British North American economies were enormous and remain the topic of ongoing scholarly research and debate.

In his book Capitalism and Slavery (1944), West Indian historian Eric Williams was the first to propose a direct causal relationship between the growth of African slavery in the New World, dominated by sugar production, and the development of capitalism in Europe, particularly in Britain. Spawning a huge debate and literature, this book has been challenged in many specific points.

Yet the overall thrust of his thesis—that sugar, slavery, and British capitalism all emerged together as part of the same process of social transformation—has stood the test of time, its main arguments retaining credibility in the scholarly community six decades after the book’s publication.

African Slavery Expands

After the French acquisition of the western portion of the Spanish island of Hispaniola in the Treaty of Ryswick of 1695 (henceforth Saint-Domingue), sugar production and African slavery exploded. By the 1760s, slave imports averaged between 10,000 and 15,000 per year.

By 1787, the number exceeded 40,000 per year. By the time of the French Revolution in 1789, Saint-Domingue was populated by an estimated 500,000 slaves, more than two-thirds born in Africa, vastly outnumbering both whites and mulattoes.

Known in France as the “Pearl of the Antilles,” Saint-Domingue had quickly become the world’s largest sugar producer, with more than 800 sugar plantations, many with hundreds of slaves. Decadal mortality rates among slaves on Saint-Domingue in the mid- and late 1700s are estimated at more than 90 percent.

The more than 10 million African slaves transported over nearly three centuries to work in New World plantation agriculture, most in sugar production, has been called accurately the largest forced migration in the history of the world.

The African diaspora, fueled in large part by an insatiable European demand for sugar, coffee, tobacco, and other tropical plantation export commodities of the Americas, profoundly shaped every aspect of African, European, and American history, especially in the Caribbean and Brazil. The long-term historical effects of Europe’s sweet tooth remain readily apparent across the Americas, Africa, and the broader Atlantic World.

Quebec Sovereignty Movement

Canadian history has been plagued by issues of national identity since 1763, when Britain conquered New France in the French and Indian War. Britain’s Québec Act of 1774 recognized the rights of French-speaking Roman Catholics.

The British North America Act of 1867, the basis for Canada’s constitution, is premised on a doctrine of "two founding nations" in which the English-speaking and French-speaking cultures are recognized as equal partners.

Because the two national identities exist in a country that has traditionally favored Anglophones, Quebec (Québec), the heart of Francophone Canada, and its leaders have tried to assert their nationalism as a distinct cultural community within Canada.

The modern sovereignty movement is a product of the 1960s. It is a demand for political independence for Quebec combined with economic association with the rest of Canada. It was introduced by René Lévesque, a former Liberal cabinet minister and popular broadcast journalist who organized the Parti Québécois (PQ) in 1968. PQ gained support when the 1969 Official Languages Act seemed to trivialize Quebec’s demand for special status.

In the October Crisis of 1970, a radical fringe group called the Front de Libération du Québec kidnapped James Cross, the British trade commissioner in Montreal, and Pierre Laporte, Quebec’s minister of labor and immigration. Quebec soon asked the Canadian armed forces to intervene, and the next day the federal government banned the FLQ under the War Measures Act.

Laporte’s body was found October 17, and a group holding Cross released him in return for safe passage to Cuba in early December. A federal inquiry later ruled that the suspension of normal civil liberties had been illegal.

In 1976, the PQ gained control of Quebec’s government and promised to consult the people of Quebec before taking any steps toward independence and secession. Four years later, majority-French provincial voters soundly rejected a referendum to authorize sovereignty negotiations with Ottawa.

Even so, the PQ was reelected in 1981, and in 1982 it refused to accept the new Canadian constitution. When the PQ removed sovereignty-association from its party platform in 1985, the Liberal Party regained control of the Quebec assembly.

Reorganized under the leadership of former finance minister Jacques Parizeau, the PQ again promised to declare Quebec independent after the voters of Quebec voted oui in a referendum.

The Meech Lake Accord, which agreed to conditions that Quebec had placed on its acceptance of the national constitution, collapsed in 1990 due to opposition. A subsequent package of constitutional reforms, presented to voters in a 1992 national referendum, was also defeated.

By 1994 the Bloc Québécois, a national party devoted to Quebec sovereignty, had won enough votes to become the official opposition party in Ottawa. Another sovereignty referendum in 1995 lost narrowly.

Canada was startled in November 2006 when Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper proposed a resolution, passed overwhelmingly by Parliament, stating that the 7 million "Québécois form a nation within a united Canada". Although this recognition was called "symbolic", it was unclear whether it might spark a renewed push for Quebec’s independence.

Native Americans

Native Americans

Native Americans were the featured villains inwards what were likely the inaugural off non-supernatural conspiracy fears experienced past times European migrants to America.

Fear in addition to Loathing inwards the American Woods

The early on American frontier was inwards many ways a deeply fearful place, especially inwards the inaugural off decades of white settlement inwards whatever given region. Settlers knew footling nigh their novel home’s existing occupants, in addition to possessed only the sketchiest notions of how many at that spot were, where they lived, in addition to what their intentions mightiness be.

Though equally many equally 7 1000000 people lived to a higher identify the Rio Grande at the fourth dimension of inaugural off contact, Europeans thought of North America as, inwards Pilgrim leader William Bradford’s words, a “hideous in addition to desolate wilderness”.


In traditional Judeo-Christian culture, wilderness was a identify to live feared rather than cherished, a identify where monsters in addition to devils lived to assay the faith of good, civilized people.

Especially amid the New England Puritans, it was commonly believed that the Indians were devil worshippers out to create their master’s bidding, though non actual devils themselves. (However, it was considered quite probable that the Indians lived amid existent monsters, including dragons!) Thus the expectation of confronting ultimate evil was built into the Puritans’ sense of their “errand into the wilderness”

Certainly non all the colonists shared the Puritans’ high marking of theological dread, but some fearfulness of the Indians was fairly constant in addition to non without justification, since over the inaugural off 3 centuries of European settlement, at that spot was ever some business office of North America where the natives were resisting their ain conquest in addition to displacement.

This resistance often took the cast of a raiding vogue of warfare that was intended to spread terror in addition to normally preferred striking at weakly defended targets, similar an outlying cabin or an isolated outpost. Always seeking ways of fighting that minimized their ain casualties, Indian state of war leaders were non to a higher identify using devious tactics such equally ambushes, sneak attacks, in addition to feigning peaceful intentions.

One of the keen Indian victories during Pontiac’s Rebellion (or War or Conspiracy, depending on your indicate of view) of 1763, the Ojibways’ triumph over the British at Ft. Michilimackinac was accomplished past times lulling the soldiers into complacency amongst a friendly game of ball. The Indian players hitting the ball into the opened upwardly gates of the fort, chased after it, in addition to thus all of a abrupt attacked amongst weapons the Ojibway women had smuggled within the transportation service piece the whites were watching the game.

Native american human foot soldiers

Though the European armies of the Early Modern Period were no slouches at wreaking decease in addition to devastation on the civilian population, Indian warfare was perceived equally peculiarly in addition to intimately awful. In some ways Indians were improve at distinguishing their targets than whites were—the French were often spared inwards raids on European outposts— but their military machine customs made few allowances for noncombatants.

Indian massacre stories invariably featured a scene inwards which a warrior tore an babe from her mother’s arms in addition to dashed her caput against a hearth or a tree; this became a cliché, but past times no way 1 without a footing inwards reality. Numerous mutual practices of Indian warfare haunted the dreams of European settlers, soldiers, in addition to officials, especially the scalping or other mutilation of victims’ bodies in addition to the taking of captives to live assimilated into Indian society.

(It should live noted that whites fighting Indians made few such allowances themselves, in addition to showed far less involvement than the Indians inwards taking captives. Nevertheless, white attacks on Indian villages were called “raids” or “battles,” piece successful Indian attacks on white settlements or military machine posts were termed “massacres.”)


This fearfulness of assimilation past times an alien, collectively minded society, a recurrent theme inwards the annals of American conspiracy theory, has 1 of its roots inwards tales of captivity amid the Indians. Some of the stories fifty-fifty admitted what historians receive got flora to live true, that many captives, especially women in addition to children, were successfully assimiliated, in addition to showed footling want to provide to European ways. Ever to a greater extent than lurid Indian captivity narratives became a staple of American pop culture, in addition to perhaps its inaugural off unique contribution to populace literature.

The before comment nigh Indians haunting settlers’ dreams should live taken quite literally. Recent interpretations of the 1692 Salem witchcraft crisis receive got emphasized the purpose of New England’s lateseventeenth-century Indian wars (1675–1678 in addition to 1688–1691) inwards generating the psychological stress in addition to supernatural fears that exploded inwards Massachusetts.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 large number of the accusers had some at in 1 lawsuit or immediate household unit of measurement sense amongst the Indian wars, in addition to those who didn’t had likely read Mary Rowlandson’s popular, in addition to thus lately published volume on her sense equally a captive during the before conflict, King Philip’s War. The witchcraft evil was thought to receive got inaugural off come upwardly from Indian powwows inwards the forest, in addition to the devil appeared to several Massachusetts women equally “a thing similar an Indian,” or “a Tawny man”.

Accuser Mary Toothaker of Billerica finally admitted nether questioning that she had lashed out because she was “troubled w’h feare nigh the Indians, & used to dream of fighting amongst them.” Toothaker claimed to receive got signed upwardly amongst the devil herself because he had “promised to maintain her from the Indians”.

At to the lowest degree these colonial New Englanders had some at in 1 lawsuit or nearly at in 1 lawsuit sense of the Indians they feared thus much. In afterwards centuries, far to a greater extent than white Americans eagerly consumed Indian atrocity stories some the household unit of measurement tabular array in addition to inwards pop literature in addition to newspapers than ever interacted amongst Indians or witnessed an Indian raid.

Given the emphasis placed on the depredations of “murderous savages” inwards their information nigh the Indians, it is perhaps non surprising that nineteenth-century migrants heading to the Pacific coast on the Overland Trail brought hair-trigger emotions to all their thoughts in addition to actions concerning Indians.

Many reported their scalps itching at the really thought of Indians. Most westering travelers suffered “far more,” according to historian Glenda Riley, “from their ain anxieties what could come about to them than from what really did happen”.

Unfortunately, the Indians themselves did suffer, at the hands of settlers who were easily panicked into acts of violence in addition to prejudice, in addition to eager to back upwardly harsh regime policies against Indians, having learned to bargain amongst their anxieties past times fearing in addition to hating the natives.

The Myth of the Superchief

Although it would live stretching the Definition of conspiracy theory to include all fears of Indian assault inwards this category, much of what settlers, soldiers, in addition to regime officials believed nigh the Indians sure does qualify. Whites often became convinced that the Indians of different villages, tribes, in addition to languages were leagued against them, in addition to secretly plotting mayhem fifty-fifty when relations were peaceful in addition to friendly.

In some respects, a conspiracy model of Indian conduct came naturally to Europeans, who struggled to sympathize or fifty-fifty perceive the complex cultural, social, in addition to political distinctions amid the diverse Indian groups they encountered. As amongst many cross-cultural conspiracy theories, it was slow to displace from lumping all Indians together culturally to believing that all Indians were working together against the colonists.

This pattern emerged fifty-fifty before the get-go of permanent settlement. The leaders of the 1585 lost colony of Roanoke abandoned their isle off the coast of introduce North Carolina out of a belief that Pemisapan, the weroance of the local Indian village, had organized a region-wide conspiracy, involving many tribes, to starve in addition to and thus wipe out the colony.

According to historian Michael Oberg, Pemisapan had likely done naught to a greater extent than than “grown weary of an intolerant, violent, contagious, in addition to subject people”, and, quite understandably, moved his hamlet off Roanoke Island to a to a greater extent than congenial neighborhood. Even so, colony commander Ralph Lane led a forcefulness that brought dorsum the weroance’s head, the culmination of a pattern of precipitous, threatening actions past times Lane.

“No conspiracy is needed,” writes Oberg, to explicate the growing hostility of the region’s Indians to the Roanoke colony. The English linguistic communication settlement abruptly shifted locations after Pemisapan’s death, in addition to disappeared completely a few years after that.

Pemisapan represents the original version of 2 ideas that became touchstone parts of conspiracy theories nigh the Indians: the Indian mastermind or monarch inwards command of tens of thousands of warriors, in addition to the unfaithful Indian ally or convert.

From “Pemisapan’s Conspiracy” on, serious or widespread Indian resistance was normally attributed past times Europeans in addition to afterwards chroniclers to the machinations of some preternaturally brilliant, all-powerful “superchief” (Bourne, 202).

This analysis may receive got been somewhat accurate for the Powhatan Indian rebellions against Virginia inwards 1622 in addition to 1644, which almost destroyed the colony in addition to are to a greater extent than often than non thought to live the run of the state of war principal turned paramount principal Opechanacanough, Pocahontas’s uncle, in addition to the reputed ability behind her manlike someone raise Powhatan’s throne.

The reputations of most other putative Indian masterminds were built on much shakier foundations. In many cases, a widespread conflict was blamed on someone who was really only a major figure inwards some critical early on encounter, or promoted himself equally the primary conspirator inwards a afterwards treaty amongst the white authorities.

For instance, New England propagandists depicted their apocalyptic, region-wide Indian state of war of 1675–1678 equally the run of Philip, sachem of Pokanoket, whom they dubbed “King Philip” to reemphasize their claim that the conflict was, equally Russell Bourne puts it, “not a serial of separate raids past times provoked people but a brilliantly orchestrated war, conducted past times a devilish military machine genius”.

Besides personalizing the conflict equally conspiracy theories thus often do, this conspiratorial stance of the New England Indians’ resistance was a political in addition to ethical convenience for whites, who were authorized past times their belief inwards this evil plot to ignore the purpose of their ain conduct inwards the Indians’ unrest, choose extreme measures against tribes whose the world rights conflicted amongst their ambitions, in addition to to declare the occupation solved when the designated villain was eliminated.

Philip (who changed his cite from Metacom when he became sachem) was the boy of Massassoit, the Indian principal who had befriended the Pilgrims in addition to allowed their Plymouth Colony to survive. Relations had deteriorated after Massassoit’s decease equally the local fur merchandise dried upwardly in addition to agricultural settlement expanded, bringing livestock that consumed the Indians’ open-field crops in addition to forcing them into economical dependence upon whites.

Philip in addition to his people also chafed nether Plymouth’s unequal laws, which had lately been used to travail to hang 3 of Philip’s followers. Plymouth leaders coveted the Pokanokets’ land, in addition to eagerly accepted rumors circulated against Philip past times the sachem’s Indian political rivals, to the final result the sachem planned a major war, mayhap inwards concert amongst the French.

When Philip was recorded at a coming together amongst Rhode Island officials complaining nigh his people’s mistreatment past times Plymouth, in addition to vowing that he was “determined non to alive until I receive got no country”, the drapery of conspiratorial mastermind was fitted in addition to cook to live forced on him.

Philip was thought to live seeking the extermination of New England’s white population. The Pokanokets did get hostilities amongst a much exaggerated raid on the nearby town of Swansea, but Philip himself spent the state of war running piece the Narragansetts, Abenakis, in addition to other tribes some New England did most of the fighting.

He nonetheless ever remained New England’s primary target, in addition to past times the terminate of the war, his hamlet had vanished, his married adult woman in addition to boy had been sold into slavery, in addition to his dismembered trunk was on display inwards the town of Plymouth.

Pontiac played a similarly inflated purpose inwards accounts of the 1763 “conspiracy” that bears his name. An obscure Odawa state of war leader (not a chief), Pontiac touched off a frontier-wide uprising but really led only 1 stage of it, the failed siege of Ft. Detroit.

Both he in addition to the British tried to advance their interests inwards the aftermath of the war, finally a peace treaty that bolstered British claims to the Trans-Appalachian West in addition to acknowledged Pontiac an Indian potentate, but likely got the old rebel assassinated equally a traitor to the Indian cause.

As they had long done amongst the alleged “conquests” of the Iroquois “Empire,” the British authorities in addition to the Anglo-American colonists exaggerated Pontiac’s ability in addition to condition inwards ways that magnified both the military machine threat he posed in addition to the glory in addition to ability that accrued to those who had pacified him.

The operative theory regarding Pontiac in addition to many other superchiefs was good expressed inwards “Ponteach, or the Savages of America,” a drama published inwards 1766 past times French in addition to Indian War hero Robert Rogers.

Rogers’s Ponteach is a haughty woods emperor set tragically depression past times his pride. “This Country’s mine, in addition to hither I reign equally King,” a Rex whose “Empire’s measured only past times the Sun,” the grapheme asserts inwards explaining his disdain for British authority.

In fact, it is unlikely that full general Indian uprisings could ever receive got been the run of a unmarried conspiratorial mastermind, or fifty-fifty a knot of them. The primitive nature of the available way of communication alone—symbolic state of war belts of clamshell beads (“wampum”) were used to coordinate the 1763 risings—precluded whatever variety of command in addition to control. Conspiracies were unlikely for to a greater extent than fundamental cultural reasons equally well.

Most North American Indian tribes lacked whatever variety of truthful principal executive who could impose his volition on his followers. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 chief, different a European general, governor, or king, drew his ability non from police line or force, but only from the honour in addition to dear that his prowess, wisdom, in addition to generosity had garnered amid his people, who could obey him or non equally they chose.

The superchief mythology, from the exaggerations of the leader’s influence in addition to the depth of his scheming to the pop dramas (and often identify names) that celebrated his nobility inwards defeat, was applied successively to every meaning Indian resistance leader after Pontiac, from John Logan of the 1774 Lord Dunmore’s War (immortalized inwards Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on Virginia for his oratorical prowess) to Tecumseh, Black Hawk, in addition to Osceola inwards the early on nineteenth century and, inwards a somewhat less conspiratorial vein, to such far western Indian rebels equally Cochise, Geronimo, Sitting Bull, in addition to Crazy Horse. It was applied retroactively to Philip inwards 1 of the antebellum era’s most pop plays, “Metamora.”

The celebrity that the superchief myth brought all of these men should non obscure how damaging it was to Indian people when they were soundless struggling to remain inwards their homelands. In their time, the names of all of these leaders were capable of plunging whole frontiers into panic, in addition to such panics normally brought on white military machine campaigns that would live followed past times the expropriation of Indian lands.

“Our Most Dangerous Enemies”: Indian Converts in addition to Allies equally Victims of Conspiracy Fears

Far to a greater extent than harmful than the “superchief” myth, inwards damage of the brutality it inspired inwards whites, was the related conspiracy theory that all Indians alike were actual or potential enemies, no affair what mental attitude they professed to concur toward whites. Even Indians who had acquire Christians, pursued white occupations, in addition to lived peaceably nigh white towns for decades were treated equally probable traitors, spies, in addition to saboteurs.

Since the get-go of European contact, the colonizers had been urging the natives to lay downward their weapons, adopt European ways of life, in addition to convert to the Christian religion. Most Indians resisted this pressure level when they could, but for many resistance became impossible in 1 lawsuit European settlement had engulfed their homelands.

Some responded to the urgings of Christian missionaries in addition to adopted the faith, piece others sought to only alive equally quietly equally they could, at peace amongst the settlers or fifty-fifty joining inwards the whites’ battles amongst other Indians.

In most of the colonies, then, at that spot were at to the lowest degree small-scale communities of peaceful in addition to often Christian Indians living nigh white towns in addition to farms. In times of full general Indian conspiracy scares, these communities became deeply suspicious to whites, in addition to often suffered equally much or to a greater extent than than the tribes really engaged inwards hostilities.

The residents of Puritan missionary John Eliot’s “praying towns” discovered this during King Philip’s War. Stories circulated of “Praying Indians” joining inwards raids on Christian towns in addition to spying for the rebels. According to historian Jenny Hale Pulsipher, “The English linguistic communication were quick to believe tales of Christian Indian perfidy,” in addition to the burning of English linguistic communication barns or haystacks “became pretexts for English linguistic communication violence against the praying towns”.

The Christian Indians at Wamesit had to abandon their hamlet in addition to nutrient supplies inwards belatedly 1675 after furious English linguistic communication militiamen fired on them without alarm on 2 separate occasions, inwards 1 incident wounding a number of women in addition to children, a twelve-year-old fatally. Various Puritan commentators questioned the sincerity of Indian religious conversions in addition to depicted the “Praying Indians” equally contemptible mockeries of Christianity.

Sometimes amongst in addition to sometimes without official approval, New England troops sacked the villages of Indian Christians in addition to Indian allies. Meanwhile, the authorities close downward many praying towns in addition to interned numerous friendly natives on barren Deer Island inwards Boston Harbor. Some praying Indians fifty-fifty shared the fate of Philip’s family, enslavement inwards the Caribbean.

Other groups of peaceful Christian Indians were visited past times some of the worst atrocities inwards the annals of European-Indian relations inwards North America. The infamous Paxton Boys massacre, for instance, was business office of the fallout from the conspiracy theories surrounding Pontiac.

The Pennsylvania frontier had been wracked past times Indian raids both during the 1763 rebellion in addition to the French in addition to Indian War that preceded it. There were a number of Christian Indian villages inwards the colony, including Conestoga, where a handful of people eked out a meager living selling bowls in addition to baskets.

Looking for payback in addition to charging that some of the Conestoga men had fought amongst Pontiac, a number of men from the town of Paxton, on the Susquehanna River inwards east-central Pennsylvania, concluded that these supposedly friendly Indians amounted to a “Basket & Broom-making Bandittey” who were “in Reality our most unsafe enemies”.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 calendar week in addition to a one-half before Christmas, 1763, fiftyfour Scots-Irish men from Paxton rode to Conestoga, in addition to shot in addition to hacked to decease 6 Indians they flora there, allegedly inwards revenge for Pontiac’s Rebellion. Local authorities gathered the surviving Conestogas (who had been lucky plenty to live out) in addition to placed them inwards a workhouse for protection. The men from Paxton presently rode inwards in addition to killed the rest.

Far from horrifying their beau Pennsylvanians, the “Paxton Boys” flora themselves at the caput of a pop cause. Their numbers swelled amongst novel recruits, the Paxton Boys rode downward to Philadelphia, inwards arms, to choose some Christian Delaware Indians beingness protected at that spot in addition to topple the regime itself if necessary. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 manifesto was issued inwards which the supposedly Quaker-dominated regime of Pennsylvania was charged amongst beingness insensitive to frontier needs because it was also soft on the Indians.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 poetry form called “The Cloven Foot Discovered” expressed the settlers’ stance that whites who gave sympathy or assistance to whatever Indians were traitors to their beau colonists in addition to beau travelers of the Indians’ subway plots against the frontier settlements:

Go, skilful Christians, never spare
To give your Indians Clothes to wear
Send ’em skilful Beef, in addition to Pork, in addition to Bread,
Guns, Powders, Flints, in addition to Stores of Lead,
To Shoot Your Neighbours Through the Head;...
Encourage every friendly Savage
To murder, burn, destroy, in addition to ravage.

Only some fast talking past times leading Pennsylvania political leader Benjamin Franklin finally defused the Paxton Boys situation, but non before to a greater extent than than 50 of the “protected” Christian Delawares died of diseases inwards the city.

Time in addition to in 1 lawsuit again inwards early on America, peaceful Christian Indians flora that the most unsafe identify to live was anywhere nigh their supposed allies in addition to coreligionists, the Anglo-American settlers.

No affair how devout a Christian in addition to firmly committed to peace in addition to friendship amongst whites a grouping of Indians mightiness be, many settlers assumed all Indians were secretly conspiring against them, in addition to inwards the correct circumstances mightiness slaughter whatever Indians they happened to run across. The biggest occupation that the immature the States had inwards recruiting Indian allies during the Revolutionary War was the fact that pro-American chiefs kept getting killed past times American soldiers.

By far the most heinous illustration of intentional “friendly fire” on Indians during the Revolution tin live flora inwards a 1782 incident that came to live known equally the Gnadenhutten massacre, inwards introduce east-central Ohio. The “Ohio Country” was a bitter battleground betwixt the British in addition to Indians on the 1 hand, in addition to the settlers exactly southward of the Ohio River inwards Kentucky on the other.

High German American missionaries from a sect called the Moravians had converted large numbers of Delaware Indians who lived inwards this expanse to Christianity in addition to kept them on the American side. The Moravians were pacifists, thus in 1 lawsuit converted these Indians did non fifty-fifty believe inwards fighting.

The Christian Indians of Gnadenhutten happened to live harvesting their corn 1 24-hour interval inwards 1782 when a state of war political party of American settlers appeared. They were pursuing some hostile Indians who had been seen inwards the area.

The settlers charged the friendly villagers of Gnadenhutten amongst beingness warriors, pointing to the existence of European implements, such equally axes, spoons, in addition to tea kettles, inwards this hamlet of Indians who had adopted white lifestyles, equally evidence they had killed in addition to stolen from whites.

On the strength of this flimsy evidence, the Gnadenhutten Indians were sentenced to death. They spent the black praying to the European God, in addition to inwards the morning time the settlers dragged the Indians out of their cabins inwards groups of 2 or 3 in addition to executed them amongst a mallet thus equally non to waste matter ammunition.

These sorts of incidents often turned white suspicions nigh Christian in addition to friendly Indians into self-fulfilling prophecies. With friends similar the American settlers, many Indians reasoned, who needed enemies?

During wars in addition to state of war scares amongst neighboring colonial powers similar Great Britain, France, in addition to Spain, most Indians amongst whatever access to the “foreign” ability were quite willing to run amongst them against the settlers and/or the the States if they mayhap could, though the Indians’ fondest want was ever to live left relatively independent of whatever European power.

Colonial in addition to U.S. officials oftentimes turned this rational pattern of Indian conduct into the footing of some other variety of conspiracy theory, of the Indians equally cat’s-paws of foreigners out to split upwardly off pieces of their territory or curb American expansion.

Andrew Jackson inaugural off made a cite for himself past times brutally precluding the possibility that the southeastern Indians mightiness collaborate amongst the Castilian or British to block the the States from accessing the Gulf Coast in addition to its ports.

This was the basic aim of his campaigns against the Creeks, the British, in addition to the Seminoles betwixt 1813 in addition to 1818, which began amongst a settler panic nigh a “massacre” at Ft. Mims inwards Alabama, in addition to ended amongst the summary execution of 2 British citizens in addition to an Indian religious leader in addition to the forcible U.S. annexation of Castilian Florida.

But at to the lowest degree Jackson’s enemies were really hostile to the United States. Unfortunately, the mistreatment of friendly in addition to Christian Indians continued long after the indicate had passed when Indians posed whatever existent threat to the the States in addition to fifty-fifty inwards cases where they could hardly receive got done to a greater extent than to demonstrate their loyalty. Perhaps the most egregious illustration of many occurred inwards Civil War era Minnesota.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 grouping of Winnebago Indians, previously removed past times the regime from their Wisconsin homeland, were living peacefully inwards the vogue of white farmers inwards the expanse some Blue Earth. When a Sioux uprising broke out inwards 1862, the Winnebago were forced out of their homes equally a safety threat, in addition to sent to a novel reservation inwards a barren department of introduce Nebraska.

The Winnebago had no connection to the Sioux outbreak, in addition to could non receive got made much of a military machine contribution to it inwards whatever case, since most of the fighting-age Winnebago men were serving inwards the Union regular army at the time. The Winnebago veterans would observe no homes to provide to after the war. At that point, many of them doubtless wished they had been conspiring against the United States.

Bacon’s Rebellion

Bacon’s Rebellion

This uprising, the most significant in British North America before the Revolution, occurred in Virginia in 1675–76. It was a result of colonial government corruption, declining opportunities for white immigrants, and increased conflict with Native Americans.

Since the late 1610s, Virginia had been a profitable enterprise for both tobacco planters and impoverished English men and women who came to America as indentured servants. By 1665, however, a decline in the price of tobacco and increased regulation of trade had brought the boom times to a halt.

By this point, the wealthiest planters, especially those allied with the royal governor Sir William Berkeley, had patented thousands of acres of land and were well suited to ride out the hard times.


For small planters and recently freed servants, hard times coincided with a decline in the amount of available land and a high male to female ratio. “Six parts of seaven at least are Poore, Endebted, Discontented and Armed,” noted Berkeley, although he did little to mitigate the situation.

Instead, as landownership became less attainable, the government limited suffrage to property owners. Faced with a lack of opportunity and high taxes, poorer colonists rented land or headed to the frontier. As the latter group grew in number, it came into conflict with the Susquehannock Indians and war broke out in 1675.

Into this volatile situation came Nathaniel Bacon. A young and charismatic member of the English gentry, Bacon garnered a following among poor and frontier colonists by leading indiscriminate attacks on Native Americans. Berkeley worried that Bacon’s actions were hurtful to peaceful tribes and interfered with his monopoly over the fur trade.

Accordingly, Berkeley denied Bacon a military commission to continue his war with Native Americans, but the growing unrest of the populace soon sent events spiraling out of control. On June 23, 1676, Bacon and four hundred armed men arrived in Jamestown and demanded that Berkeley accede to their demands.

However, once Bacon left town, Berkeley declared him a traitor, to which Bacon responded by twice chasing Berkeley out of the capital and burning Jamestown to the ground on September 18. A month later, Bacon fell ill and died, bringing the rebellion to an abrupt halt. His fellow conspirators were hanged the following spring, while Berkeley returned to England and died soon after.

In the short term, Bacon’s Rebellion changed little in Virginia society. Although political inequalities had been addressed during the uprising, many of these, including the expansion of the electorate, were rescinded thereafter.

Poverty and a lack of opportunity remained prominent for at least another generation and it was less than a decade before another uprising broke out. In the long term, Bacon’s Rebellion further poisoned relations between colonists and Indians.

It also caused Virginia’s planters to realize that the success of a tobacco economy could not rest on a population of white servants for whom there was little opportunity for land ownership and a family once they finished their indentures. Indirectly, then, Bacon’s Rebellion became an impetus for the Chesapeake’s shift from white indentured servants to African slaves.

Toledo War

Toledo Strip

H5N1 long-running border dispute betwixt Michigan in addition to Ohio was eventually settled through a metro operation. At 1 A.M. on 7 September 1835, Colonel Mathias Van Fleet chose 30 of his best Ohio militiamen, each armed alongside a musket in addition to 2 pistols.

They rode into Toledo alongside members of the Lucas County Court to enforce the orders of Governor Robert Lucas. By candlelight in addition to alongside guards standing watch, the courtroom conducted its concern inward secret session.

This covert coming together of Ohio officials exercising jurisdiction inside the disputed Toledo Strip virtually settled the boundary disceptation that had raged for years alongside numerous skirmishes threatening confrontation betwixt the militias of the nation of Ohio in addition to the territory of Michigan.


The number that led to hostilities over the Ohio–Michigan boundary resulted from an inaccurate survey in addition to conflicting linguistic communication inward 4 documents. As Michigan moved closer to statehood, the precise boundary became increasingly important.

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided for the admission of iii states, Ohio, Indiana, in addition to Illinois, in addition to specified that “if Congress shall uncovering it expedient, they shall conduct keep the authorisation to shape i or 2 [additional] states inward that share of the said [Northwest] Territory, which lies due north of an eastward in addition to W employment drawn through the southerly curvature or extreme of Lake Michigan” (1 Stat. 51).

The Ohio Enabling Act of 30 Apr 1802, every bit passed past times Congress in addition to signed past times the president, laid the northern boundary of Ohio as: “an eastward in addition to W employment drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan, running eastward after intersecting the due due north employment from the oral cavity of the Great Miami River, until it shall intersect Lake Erie, or the territorial line, in addition to thence alongside the same through Lake Erie to the Pennsylvania line” (2 Stat. 173).

On the advice of an onetime fur trapper who was familiar alongside the remote expanse inward question, the Ohio Constitutional Convention added department 6 to Article VII of its novel constitution, proclaiming:

That if the southerly curvature or extreme of Lake Michigan should extend so far south, that a employment drawn due eastward from it should non intersect Lake Erie, or if it should intersect said Lake eastward of the oral cavity of the Miami river of the Lake, so in addition to inward that case, alongside the assent of the Congress of the United States, the northern boundary of the State shall travel established by, in addition to extend to, a direct employment running from the southerly extremity of Lake Michigan to the most northerly cape of the Miami Bay, Maumee, after intersecting the due due north employment from the oral cavity of the Great Miami river every bit aforesaid, thence, northeast to the Territorial employment in addition to past times the said Territorial employment to the employment of Pennsylvania. (2 Stat. 201)

When Congress admitted Ohio to statehood, it accepted the Ohio Constitution alongside the improver of department 6, but it did non expressly approve the added section.

Louis Joliet’s eighteenth-century map of the Great Lakes created the error. John Mitchell, a Virginia botanist, physician, in addition to swain of the Royal Society, accepted Joliet’s plot when he mapped western America for the British Lords of Trade. His drawing became the authorisation for the Proclamation Line of 1763 in addition to the Peace Treaty of 1782. Thomas Hutchins, geographer-general of the United States, endorsed it.

The mistake inward the maps arose from the false belief that a employment of latitude drawn eastward from the southern tip of Lake Michigan would nail Lake Erie somewhere due north of Maumee Bay. Lake Michigan genuinely extends so far that a employment of latitude drawn eastward from its southern extremity strikes Lake Erie southeast, non north, of Maumee Bay.

In 1807, 1809, in addition to 1811 the Ohio legislature instructed the state’s congressional delegation to conduct keep the national authorities ready its boundary line. On 20 May 1812, Congress directed the surveyor-general to score the boundary on a due east-west line, but the War of 1812 prevented immediate action.

After the war, on 22 August 1816, Deputy Surveyor William Harris discovered that a employment due eastward from the most southern indicate of Lake Michigan intersected Lake Erie 7 miles due south of the most northerly cape of Maumee Bay.

Harris plotted a employment direct from the southern tip of Lake Michigan to the northern cape of Maumee Bay inward conformity alongside department 6 of the Ohio Constitution, non inward accordance alongside the state’s enabling act.

The adjacent yr Governor Lewis Cass of the Michigan Territory protested that the employment took a strip of land, including the urban substance of Toledo, “seven miles in addition to forty-nine chains” broad from Michigan in addition to gave it to Ohio. On 24 June 1818, Secretary of the Treasury William H. Crawford agreed alongside Cass in addition to directed the commissioner of the Land Office to conduct keep the northern boundary of Ohio redrawn to handgrip alongside the social club of 1812.

The disceptation continued for years. Then, every bit progress halted inward Congress, a newly appointed acting governor of the Territory, twenty-seven-year-old, Virginia-born Stevens T. Mason, sent a alphabetic lineament to Ohio governor Lucas, stating that his legislature had passed a constabulary on 26 Dec 1834 opposing whatsoever measures to rob Michigan of its soil.

He said he had appointed iii commissioners to run into alongside a similar number from Ohio to accommodate the boundary. On 6 Feb 1835, Governor Lucas informed his legislature of Mason’s proposal. He said he did non wishing to appoint whatsoever commissioners in addition to requested the legislature to declare Ohio authorisation all the means to the Harris employment in addition to to direct local officials to practise jurisdiction over the Toledo Strip.

Michigan responded alongside a statute of 12 Feb 1835 “to preclude unusual jurisdiction” inside the limits of its territory, providing penalties of $1,000 fine or v years’ difficult project or both for persons other than Michigan officials exercising authorisation inward the area.

The confrontation grew. Both sides anticipated armed conflict. On nine March, Governor Mason wrote to General Joseph W. Brown, commander of the Michigan Militia Third Division:

[Y]ou volition perceive that a collision betwixt Ohio in addition to Michigan is instantly inevitable, in addition to yous volition thence travel prepared to run into the crisis .... You volition role every exertion to obtain the earliest data of the military machine movements of our adversary, every bit I shall assume the responsibleness of sending yous such arms, etc., every bit may travel necessary for your successful operation, without waiting for an social club from the Secretary of War, so shortly every bit Ohio is properly inward the field. (Killits, 140)

Governor Lucas alongside members of his staff in addition to General John Bell, commanding the 17th Division of the Ohio Militia, marched into Perrysburg inward the disputed territory alongside surveyors to attain down mark the Harris employment on 31 March.

Michigan conducted iii raids. Between midnight in addition to 3 A.M. on the morning time of 8 April, the sheriff of Monroe County in addition to his posse rode into Toledo, broke into 2 homes, in addition to seized a twosome of people.

Three days afterward they returned, pulled downward Ohio’s flag, dragged it through the streets, threatened around of the residents, in addition to indicted several persons for belongings Ohio office. Another laid on of nearly 200 posse men failed to bring whatsoever prisoners since most officers had fled.

As the armies prepared to engage, the president appointed 2 commissioners, Richard Rush of Pennsylvania in addition to Colonel Benjamin C. Howard of Maryland, who arrived inward Perrysburg on 6 April.

They conferred alongside the governors, examined a few witnesses, ordered running the Harris line, in addition to recommended to the residents of the expanse that they should select which authorisation to obey. But on 25 Apr a Michigan forcefulness of over 50 men captured nine members of the survey political party after firing nigh xl shots, i piercing the wearing clothing of a surveyor.

Hostilities continued. On xv July the deputy sheriff of Monroe County, Michigan, rode into Toledo in addition to made 150 arrests. When the deputy tried to arrest Two Stickney, the homo drew his knife in addition to inflicted a 4-inch slash to the manus of the Michigan officer. Later that twenty-four hours Michigan forces returned, broke into the local newspaper, demolished its press, in addition to arrested Stickney in addition to vi or 7 others.

On 6 September Governor Mason invaded Toledo alongside an armed militia of 1,200. They threatened to give notice the town, shot a horse, i time again damaged the paper office, in addition to laid give notice to a cornfield. Even after the secret 7 September coming together a few skirmishes continued. For example, on nine September a Michigan sheriff captured an Ohio sheriff inward a 100-shot battle inward which i homo was wounded.

President Jackson removed Mason from share in addition to appointed a novel territorial governor to attain harmony. Then, inward Oct the people of Michigan petitioned Congress for statehood, adopted a constitution, in addition to elected Mason their get-go governor. On 2 March 1836, the House Judiciary Committee reported a mouth to acknowledge Michigan to the Union, minus the 500-square-mile Toledo Strip but alongside the 20,000-square-mile Upper Peninsula.

The mouth became enmeshed inward the slavery controversy, so that Michigan, a costless state, was eventually paired alongside Arkansas, a slave state. Finally, on 7 Jan 1837, Toledo held a gala celebration every bit share of Ohio, in addition to Michigan was admitted to statehood on 26 Jan 1837.