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The Mentor: The Contest for North America, Vol. 1, No. 35, Serial No. 35 / The Story of America in Pictures cover

The Mentor: The Contest for North America, Vol. 1, No. 35, Serial No. 35 / The Story of America in Pictures

Chapter 14: THE CONTEST FOR NORTH AMERICA The Pontiac Conspiracy
By Albert Bushnell Hart
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About This Book

The volume traces the struggle between French and English for control of North America through early exploration, settlements, and warfare, describing adventurous French penetration inward from the St. Lawrence, the founding of Quebec, La Salle's Mississippi expeditions and claim to the interior, English coastal settlements and assaults on French positions such as Louisbourg and Quebec, frontier raids and battles including Braddock's defeat and the Pontiac uprising, and the habits of explorers who lived off the land and relied on Indigenous alliances; it combines narrative vignettes, illustrations, and historical summary to show how exploration, military contest, and cultural contact shaped the continent's early unfolding.

THE CONTEST FOR NORTH AMERICA
The Pontiac Conspiracy

SIX

Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas, a remarkable Indian in many ways, had a power rare among members of his race, the power of organization. He was the leader of the Indian rising known as “Pontiac’s Conspiracy,” which took place in 1763-1764. He was cruel and treacherous, but a brave fighter. Pontiac was probably born sometime between 1712 and 1720. He became chief of the Ottawas about 1755. As an ally of France he took part in the defeat of General Braddock on July 9, 1755.

In 1762 Indian prophets began preaching a union of tribes to expel the English. The French took advantage of this religious fervor to stir up trouble. On April 27, 1763, representatives of the Algonquin tribes met near Detroit. It was at this meeting that Pontiac outlined the plans for his conspiracy.

With sixty warriors he attacked Detroit on May 7; but this attempt failed. Major Henry Gladwin, with one hundred and sixty men, was in command of this fort. When Pontiac’s attack failed he and his braves calmly sat down outside the stockade and besieged the fort until the end of October. Reinforcements managed to get into the fort during this time, and there were many bloody fights between the besiegers and the besieged; but the fort held out, and on October 30, after Pontiac learned that the French were not going to help him, the Indians quietly stole away.

In the meanwhile other English forts all along the frontier were being attacked. On June 22, 1763, Fort Pitt, with a garrison of three hundred and thirty men, stoutly repelled an assault. At Michilimackinac (Mackinac), Michigan, on June 4, the Indians gained admission to the fort by a trick, killed nearly twenty of the garrison, and captured the rest, seven of whom were killed in cold blood by a chief of the Ojibwas. Fort Sandusky at Sandusky, Ohio, Fort Miami at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort St. Joseph at Niles, Michigan, and many other British outposts were captured and their brave little garrisons massacred.

In June, 1764, Colonel John Bradstreet led twelve hundred men from Albany to Fort Niagara, where, at a great gathering of Indians, several treaties were made. But these treaties were of little value. Colonel Bouquet led an expedition of fifteen hundred men from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to the present site of Tuscarawas, Ohio, in August, 1764. Here he put an end to the conspiracy, forced the Indians to release their prisoners, and made them stop their warfare.

Pontiac himself surrendered to Sir William Johnson on July 25, 1766, at Oswego, New York. Three years later he was murdered, when drunk, by another Indian. It was an ignominious ending for one of the greatest Indians that ever lived.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 35, SERIAL No. 35
COPYRIGHT, 1913. BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.