Massacre of the Conestogas: Resulted from Relations that Began Between the Colonists Before, During and After the Seven Years' War

Abstract

In December 1763 a horrible massacre of the Conestogas occurred in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was the result of frontier violence between Ohio Native Americans, French, British, and their allies. A group of men called the Paxton Boys, who felt that all Indigenous People were responsible for the frontier violence by the French and French allies massacred the Conestogas. Primary sources at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Lancaster County Historical Society provided significant proof of the difficult relationships the Delawares, Conestogas, Susquehannocks, Iroquois, and other Pennsylvania tribes had with the Provincial government. Religious factions including the Presbyterians and the Quakers were also very influential in aiding and complicating the relationships between Pennsylvania’s government and the Indigenous People. The French and Indian War caused continuous difficulty between the Indigenous People and British colonists, that relating the primary and secondary source aspects of the violence contained various reasons why the Paxton Boys sought to murder the Conestogas on top of why the Delawares and other tribes used violence across the frontier. Providing various situations involving the Seven Years’ War included land fraud by the Proprietors, Quaker interference with Indigenous conferences, and preconceived ideologies of the Indigenous savagery all perpetuated a vehement atmosphere. These new developments provide evidence to premeditative assumptions the new colonists had about the Indigenous People and governmental land deals.