History I Shouldn't Write - Vol. IV

This is the fourth installment in my series and probably the most difficult to write. I honestly don't like thinking about - much less researching - the evil actions of people. That's why I don't read or write horror or suspense or anything of that nature. It's not my thing.

I've been having a discussion on the History I Shouldn't Write - Vol I, History I Shouldn't Write - Vol II, and History I Shouldn't Write - Vol III. I've talked about how research unveils truths that may not be popular or palatable in our modern culture.

However, one can't write history with their head in the sand. Evil happened. In the mid-1700s, it happened a lot. The era I'm researching follows the French and Indian War. The French were defeated, leaving their Indian allies to deal with the incoming British rule. And they didn't like it. The French had been generous with gifts to the Indians, including plenty of guns, ammunition, and rum. The British thought it was a dangerous combination and costly, so they stopped the practice. They completely missed the significance of gifts to the Native Americans.

In retaliation, Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa tribe, rose to power. He was like so many charismatic leaders throughout history. What he couldn't achieve by his charm, he achieved by intimidation. He wasn't opposed to threatening lesser tribes. He wanted a huge force of combined tribes to wipe the British off the frontier. He got it. And then he sent them out to do their worse.

The accounts are horrific, not just in the numbers of British - and even some French - who were killed, but the manner in which they were killed. Women were raped. Children were slaughtered. Men were tortured. It was, very plainly, a reign of terror. One first-hand account stated that the author could not put pen to paper to describe what had happened to the women of one attack. Considering all the other gruesome details in that account of other things that happened ... I'm glad he left it out.

It wasn't one-sided. Some British also did terrible things. Life was beyond hard during this time. Beyond dangerous. It was a bloody, nasty, terror-filled time in our history.

But from it arose a nation that would one day lead the world. From great tragedy would arise a great people. A united people. Many of the Native Americas would - in about 150 years - rise to the challenges of WWI and WWII to help the very Europeans they fought on our frontier. Imagine that.

 PeggThomas.com