Betrayals: Fort William Henry and the Massacre

Description

On the morning of August 9| 1757| British and colonial officers defending the besieged Fort William Henry surrendered to French forces| accepting the generous parole of honor offered by General Montcalm. As the column of British and colonials marched with their families and servants to Fort Edward some miles south| they were set upon by the Indian allies of the French. The resulting massacre| thought to be one of the bloodiest days of the French and Indian War| became forever ingrained in American myth by James Fenimore Cooper’s classic novel The Last of the Mohicans. In Betrayals| historian Ian K. Steele gives us the true story behind Cooper’s famous book| bringing to life men such as British commander of Fort William Henry George Monro| English General Webb| his French counterpart Montcalm| and the wild frontier world of Natty Bumppo. The Battle of Lake George and the building of the fort marked the return of European military involvement in intercolonial wars| producing an explosive mixture of the contending martial values of Indians| colonials| and European regulars.The Americans and British who were attacked after surrendering| as well as French officers and their Indian allies (the latter enraged by the small amount of English booty allowed them by the French)| all felt deeply betrayed. Contemporary accounts of the victims-whose identities Steele has carefully reconstructed from newly discovered sources-helped to create a powerful| racist American folk memory that still resonates today. Survivors included men and women who were adopted into Indian tribes| sold to Canadians in a well-established white servant trade| or jailed in Canada or France as prisoners of war. Explaining the motives for the most notorious massacre of the colonial period| Steele offers a gripping tale of a fledgling America| one which places the tragic events of the Seven Years’ War in a fresh historical context. Anyone interested in the fact behind the fiction will find it fascinating reading.