Dummer's War - WikiHQ

Dummer's War (1722–1725) was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wabanaki Confederacy (specifically the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Penobscot, and Abenaki), who were allied with New France. The eastern theater of the war was located primarily along the border between New England and Acadia in Maine, as well as in Nova Scotia; the western theater was located in northern Massachusetts and Vermont in the frontier areas between Canada (New France) and New England.

The root cause of the conflict on the Maine frontier concerned the border between Acadia and New England, which New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine. Mainland Nova Scotia came under British control after the Siege of Port Royal in 1710 and the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 (not including Cape Breton Island), but present-day New Brunswick and Maine remained contested between New England and New France. New France established Catholic missions among the four largest Native villages in the region: one on the Kennebec River (Norridgewock), one farther north on the Penobscot River (Penobscot Indian Island Reservation), one on the Saint John River (Meductic Indian Village / Fort Meductic), and one at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia (Saint Anne's Mission). Similarly, New France established three forts along the border of New Brunswick during Father Le Loutre's War to protect it from a British attack from Nova Scotia.

The Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne's War, but it had been signed in Europe and had not involved any member of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Abenaki signed the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth, but none had been consulted about British ownership of Nova Scotia, and the Miꞌkmaq began to make raids against New England fishermen and settlements. The war began on two fronts as a result of the expansion of New England settlements along the coast of Maine and at Canso, Nova Scotia. The New Englanders were led primarily by Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor William Dummer, Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor John Doucett, and Captain John Lovewell. The Wabanaki Confederacy and other Native tribes were led primarily by Father Sébastien Rale, Chief Gray Lock, and Chief Paugus.

During the war, Father Rale was killed by a force of New England militia at Norridgewock. The Native population retreated from the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers to St. Francis and Becancour, Quebec, and New England took over much of the Maine territory.

Background

thumb|right|350px|A New Map of the North Parts of America claimed by France under the names of Louisiana... in 1720 drawn by [[Herman Moll]]

Dummer's War is also known as the Fourth Anglo-Abenaki War. The three previous Indian Wars were King Philip's War (or the First Indian War) in 1675, King William's War (or the Second Indian War), and Queen Anne's War (or the Third Indian War) from 1703 to 1711.

Queen Anne's War ended with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The colonial borders of northeastern America were reshaped as a result, but the treaty did not account for Indian claims to the same area. French Acadia was ceded to Great Britain which established the province of Nova Scotia, although its borders were disputed. The area disputed by the European powers consisted of land between the Kennebec River and the Isthmus of Chignecto (encompassing the eastern portion of Maine and all of the Canadian province of New Brunswick). This land was occupied by a number of Algonquian-speaking Indian tribes loosely allied in the Wabanaki Confederacy, which also claimed sovereignty over most of this territory and had occupied portions of the land before the colonists.

Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley organized a major peace conference at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In negotiations there and at Casco Bay, the Wabanaki objected to British assertions that the French had ceded their territory to Britain in eastern Maine and New Brunswick, but they agreed to confirm the boundaries at the Kennebec River and to establish government-run trading posts in their territory. The Treaty of Portsmouth was ratified on July 13, 1713, by eight representatives of the Wabanaki Confederacy, however, which asserted British sovereignty over their territory. Over the next year, other Abenaki tribal leaders also signed the treaty, but no Miꞌkmaq ever signed it or any other treaty until 1726.

Encroachment of settlements and fortifications

Following the peace, New England settlements expanded east of the Kennebec River, and significant numbers of New Englanders began fishing in Nova Scotia waters. They established a permanent fishing settlement at Canso, Nova Scotia, which upset the local Miꞌkmaq, who then began raiding the settlement and attacking the fishermen. In response to Wabanaki hostilities, Nova Scotia Governor Richard Philipps built a fort at Canso, Nova Scotia, in 1720. Massachusetts governors Joseph Dudley and Samuel Shute built forts around the mouth of the Kennebec River: Fort George at Brunswick (1715), Fort Menaskoux at Arrowsic (1717), St. George's Fort at Thomaston (1720), and Fort Richmond (1721) at Richmond. The French built a church in the Abenaki village of Norridgewock in Madison, Maine on the Kennebec River, maintained a mission at Penobscot on the Penobscot River, and built a church in the Maliseet village of Meductic on the Saint John River. The Wabanakis were willing to accede to existing settlements if a proper boundary was delineated, beyond which settlement would not be allowed. Shute responded, "We desire only what is our own, and that we will have." Shute protested the presence of the French Jesuit priest Sébastien Rale, who lived among the Kennebec tribe at Norridgewock in central Maine, and he demanded that Rale be removed. The Wabanakis refused in July 1721 and demanded that hostages be released (who had been given in surety during earlier negotiations) in exchange for a delivery of furs made in restitution for their raiding. Massachusetts made no official response.

The Wabanakis then went to extraordinary lengths to produce a written document reasserting their sovereign claims to disputed areas, delineating the areas that they claimed, and threatening violence if their territory was violated. Shute dismissed the letter as "insolent and menacing" and sent militia forces to Arrowsic. He also asserted that the Wabanaki claims were part of a French intrigue, based on Rale's influence, to further French claims to the disputed areas.]]

Governor Shute was convinced that the French were behind Wabanaki claims, so he sent a military expedition under the command of Colonel Thomas Westbrook of Thomaston to capture Father Rale in January 1722.

Shute reiterated English claims of sovereignty over the disputed areas in letters to the Lords of Trade and to Governor General Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil of New France. Vaudreuil pointed out in response that France claimed sovereignty over the area, while the Wabanakis maintained possession, and he suggested that Shute misunderstood the way in which European ideas of ownership differed from those of the Indians. which was under the command of Captain John Gyles. They burned the homes of the village and took 60 prisoners, most of whom were later released. On July 15, Father Lauverjat from Penobscot led 500 to 600 Indians from Penobscot and Medunic (Maliseet) and laid siege to Fort St. George for 12 days. They burned a sawmill, a large sloop, and sundry houses, and killed many of their cattle. Five New Englanders were killed and seven were taken prisoner, while the New Englanders killed 20 Maliseet and Penobscot warriors. After the raid, Westbrook was given command of the fort. Following this raid, Brunswick was raided again and burned before the warriors returned to Norridgewock. Lieutenant Governor John Doucett took 22 Miꞌkmaqs hostage in May to prevent the provincial capital from being attacked. The Indians captured 18 fishing vessels and prisoners in raids from Cape Sable Island to Canso. They also seized prisoners and vessels working in the Bay of Fundy.

On July 25, Governor Shute formally declared war on the Wabanakis. On 30 April 1724, Winslow and Sergeant Harvey left George's Fort with 17 men in two whale boats, and they went downriver several miles to Green Island. The following day, the two whale boats became separated and approximately 200 to 300 Abenakis descended on Harvey's boat, killing Harvey and all of his men except three Indian guides who escaped to the Georges fort. Captain Winslow was then surrounded by 30 to 40 canoes which came off from both sides of the river and attacked him. After hours of fighting, Winslow and his men were killed except for three friendly Indians who escaped back to the fort. The Tarrantine Indians were reported to have lost more than 25 men. They also engaged in a canoe campaign, assisted by the Miꞌkmaqs from Cape Sable Island. In just a few weeks, they had captured 22 vessels, killing 22 New Englanders and taking more prisoner. On August 13, 1723, Gray Lock entered the war by raiding Northfield, Massachusetts, where four warriors killed two citizens. The next day, they attacked Joseph Stevens and his four sons in Rutland, Massachusetts. Stevens escaped, two of the boys were killed, and the other two sons were captured. On June 18, 1724, Grey Lock attacked a group of men working in a meadow near Hatfield, Massachusetts. He then moved on and killed men at Deerfield, Northfield, and Westfield over the summer. In response to the raids, Dummer ordered more soldiers for Northfield, Brookfield, Deerfield, and Sunderland, Massachusetts. In September 1725, a scouting party of six men was sent out from Fort Dummer. Grey Lock and 14 others ambushed them just west of the Connecticut River, killing two and wounding and capturing three others. One man escaped, while two Indians were killed. During the war, a church was erected at the Catholic mission in the Miꞌkmaq village of Shubenacadie (Saint Anne's Mission). In 1723, Miꞌkmaqs raided the village of Canso, killing five fishermen, so the New Englanders built a 12-gun blockhouse to guard the village and fishery.

The worst moment of the war for Annapolis Royal came on July 4, 1724, when a group of 60 Miꞌkmaqs and Maliseets raided the capital. They killed and scalped a sergeant and a private, wounded four more soldiers, and terrorized the village. They also burned houses and took prisoners. The New Englanders responded by executing one of the Miꞌkmaq hostages on the same spot where the sergeant was killed. They also burned three Acadian houses in retaliation. As a result of the raid, they built three blockhouses to protect the town. They moved the Acadian church closer to the fort so that it could be more easily monitored. In 1725, 60 Abenakis and Miꞌkmaqs launched another attack on Canso, destroying two houses and killing six people.

Peace negotiations

Penobscot tribal chiefs expressed a willingness to enter peace talks with Lieutenant Governor Dummer in December 1724. They were opposed in this by French authorities, who continued to encourage the conflict, but Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Dummer announced a cessation of hostilities on July 31, 1725, following negotiations in March. Dummer and Chiefs Loron and Wenemouet negotiated the terms of this preliminary agreement, which applied only to the Penobscots at first. They were allowed to retain Jesuit priests, but the two parties were in disagreement concerning land titles and British sovereignty over the Wabanakis. French Jesuit Etienne Lauverjat translated the written agreement into Abenaki; Chief Loron immediately repudiated it, specifically rejecting claims of British sovereignty over him.

Despite his disagreement, Loron pursued peace, sending wampum belts to other tribal leaders, although his envoys were unsuccessful in reaching Gray Lock, who continued his raiding expeditions. Peace treaties were signed in Maine on December 15, 1725, and in Nova Scotia on June 15, 1726, involving a large number of tribal chiefs. The peace was reconfirmed by all except Gray Lock at a major gathering at Falmouth in the summer of 1727; other tribal envoys claimed that they were not able to locate him. Gray Lock's activity came to an end in 1727, after which he disappears from historical records.

Consequences

As a result of the war, the Indian population declined on the Kennebec and Penobscot Rivers, and western Maine came more strongly under British control. The terms of Dummer's Treaty were restated at every major new treaty conference for the next 30 years, but there was no major conflict in the area until King George's War in the 1740s.

In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Dummer's Treaty marked a significant shift in British relations with the Miꞌkmaqs and Maliseets, who refused to declare themselves British subjects.

The final major battle of the war was the Battle of Pequawket, or "Lovewell's Fight", which was celebrated in song and story in the 19th century. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote "The Battle of Lovells Pond," and Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote "Roger Malvin's Burial" about the battle, while Henry David Thoreau mentioned it in his A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. The town of Lovell, Maine is named after John Lovewell. Paugus Bay, the town of Paugus Mill (now part of Albany, New Hampshire), and Mount Paugus in New Hampshire are named after Chief Paugus. The site of the Kennebec village of Norridgewock was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1993, now located at Old Point in Madison, Maine.

Footnotes

References

;Endnotes

;Sources

Calloway, Colin. The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600–1800: War, Migration, and the survival of an Indian people (University of Oklahoma Press, 1990)
Day, Gordon. In Search of New England's Native Past: Selected Essays (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1998)
Haviland, William; Power, Marjory. The Original Vermonters: Native Inhabitants, Past and Present (University Press of New England, 1994)
Haynes, Mark. The Forgotten Battle: A History of the Acadians of Canso/ Chedabuctou. British Columbia: Trafford. 2004

External links

A Military History of the United States of America: Dummer's War, 1724–1725 at Motherbedford.com
Facts about the History of Vermont at Facts-about.org.uk
Fort Dummer State Park, Vermont State Parks Bureau
Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Richelieu River History Timeline; Part 1 – New France and New England: Discovery and Exploration, Time Span 1609–1645 , James P. Millard, Historiclakes.org
Kidd, Thomas S., "'The Devil and Father Rallee': The Narration of Father Rale's War in Provincial Massachusetts", Historical Journal of Massachusetts Volume 30, No. 2 (Summer 2002)