Week 17 of 32 • Page 3
Mary Jemison Mary Jemison and her family were settlers in an area of the Ohio Country now known as Gettysburg. This was the homeland of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Native Americans did not want British settlers to be on their land. In the 1750s, members of the Iroquois Confederacy attacked the intruders to get them off the land. The Jemison family’s home was attacked by members of the Shawnee tribe and their French allies. Mary was taken captive, and her family was killed. The raiding party and their captives traveled over the mountains about 200 miles to Fort Duquesne at the forks of the Ohio River. Mary was sold by the Shawnee to a group of Seneca. She was adopted and made a member of their nation. Mary spent her life with the Seneca in the southern Ohio Country. She married Sheninjee, a Seneca warrior, and had two children. Mary and her husband left their home in the south. Sheninjee was afraid that white people would come and take Mary. They traveled on foot 700 miles to her husband’s homeland near the Genesee River in western New York. On the trip, Sheninjee was killed in an accident. Mary and the children continued to the Genesee. Sheninjee’s family welcomed her. Later in her life, Mary was given the chance to return to the British settlements. She refused. Mary lived the remainder of her life with her family, the Seneca.
Confederacy came two empires from Europe. The French and the British established trade with the Iroquois. Furs, pelts, and leather were traded for European-manufactured goods. This trade balance was favorable to all. The French were in the northeast region of the continent in present-day Canada. They were also in the Gulf of Mexico in the settlement of New Orleans. The French wanted to connect the northern trade routes with the settlement of New Orleans. This meant they would need to have control of the Ohio Country in western Pennsylvania to reach the Mississippi River. The British Empire had established colonies on the eastern borders of the Iroquois Empire. The Appalachian Mountains, at first, kept them to the sea coast. In the 1750s,
the Iroquois found the British moving westward into the Ohio Country. The British came into the Iroquois land and built permanent trading posts that expanded into settlements. Settlements used the resources the Iroquois needed for their people. The animals left. The resources were consumed, leaving nothing for the Iroquois to live on or to trade with. Three empires wanted the same territory. One empire was trying to maintain control of the Ohio Country. The other two empires struggled to possess it. Caught in a three-way struggle for power, each empire would do whatever it took to win. Alliances, betrayals, secrets, and lies would cost human lives. They worked against each other in a three-way fight for control. Why? Because whoever controlled the Mississippi would controlthe continent.
Mary Being Arrayed in Indian Costume, by James Seaver, 1856
George Washington Gets His Start Young George Washington of Virginia was ambitious . This means he wanted to make an impression on the world. He wanted a life as a British military Washington took some of his men and followed Tanaghrisson. After the death of Jumonville,
On July 4, 1754, he led his defeated men back to Virginia. It was not a very good beginning for a man who wanted to be a British army officer. His actions with Jumonville sparked the French and Indian War.
French. Washington signed the document, not knowing that it also blamed him for the assassination of Jumonville. An assassination is when someone is killed for political or religious reasons.
Washington and his company of men reunited. They quickly built a small fort in a meadow. Fort Necessity became Washington’s first point of defense against the French. Jumonville’s half-brother, Louis Coulon de Villiers, led 600 French troops and 100 of their American Indian allies from Fort Duquesne to Fort Necessity. He would meet with the people who killed his brother. In a rain-soaked meadow, the Virginia militia waited. The constant rain ruined the gunpowder in the muskets. They had no means of defense. When the French force came, there was little Washington could do to save the lives of his men. The French presented Washington with a document written in French. The document gave conditions for surrender. Washington did not speak
officer. Being a British officer would give him status, respect, and wealth. When Virginia Lieutenant Governor Dinwiddie wanted to send a message to the French Army in the Ohio Country, he chose Washington to deliver it. Dinwiddie sent young Lieutenant Colonel George Washington, his second-in- command, Captain Adam Stephen, and a company of Virginia militia to build a fort at the Forks of the Ohio. This would send the message to the French that the Ohio Country belonged to Virginia. The French were not welcome. In May 1754, Washington was joined by Tanaghrisson, the Half-King of the Iroquois Confederacy. Tanagrhisson knew a French patrol’s location.
Washington in the Uniform of a British Colonial Colonel by Charles Willson Peale, 1772
Made with FlippingBook Annual report