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This is CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor.
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It is February 1st, 1775. The Pennsylvania Journal. This begins
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a story that starts in the 18th century, right prior
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to the American Revolution, and continues here in the 21st
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century in analyzing at the forks of the Ohio what
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was the relationship between the colonials all Englishmen in general,
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and the Native Americans, the indigenous people, especially the tribes
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that are famous, the Iroquois, the Shawnee, the Mingo, the Wyandotte.
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On this time, 1775, we associate with the American Revolution. Well, simultaneously,
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there was a contest between the Native Americans on their
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land and the Colonials of Virginia and Pennsylvania on their land.
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I welcome Professor Robert G. Parkinson. His new book is
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Heart of American Darkness, Bewilderment and Murder on the Early Frontier. Rob,
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the Pennsylvania Journal in February of 1775 prints what is
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famous as Logan's Lament. This is a document written up
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by a man named John Gibson, sitting with a Native American,
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a Mingo chief named, we call him Logan. He had
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an Indian name that is important, Shikolame. And Logan was
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reflecting upon what had happened to him and his family
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the year before. I read in part, Logan is the
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friend of white men. I had even thought to live
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with you. but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cressip.
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Colonel Cressip, he writes, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut
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off all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my wife,
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my women, and children. That is part of the lament
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that is printed in the Pennsylvania Journal and has become
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extremely famous through the last two centuries, certainly was part
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of the learning of school children in the 19th century.
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At that point, what do we need to know about
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the document when he says Colonel Cressip? You have identified
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that as an error. Who was Colonel Cressip and who
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was Logan at that moment that he had vengeance on
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Colonel Cressip? Good evening to you.
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Thank you.
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It's lovely to be with you, John. Uh, well, Colonel
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Cressip isn't the guy who killed his family. In fact, uh,
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anybody who killed his family wasn't, didn't have the last
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name of Cressip. What Logan is referring to is a premeditated, cold-blooded, um,
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murder of eight Mingo, uh, men, women, and children that
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happened on April 30th, the year before in 1774.
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And, uh, The Crescent family was one of the leading.
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Colonial land speculators, traders, and.
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Scouts in this region. And Logan.
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Believes, Logan, his real name, well, he has several names,
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but James Logan Shekelemi, or Soyok Tawa, believes that the
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Crescent family is to be responsible and he misidentifies a,
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so that's one misidentification.
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A second one is that.
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He, he says that it's Colonel Crescent, which is really
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a reference to Thomas Crescent, the father, not Michael Crescent,
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the son who was in the area and, and was.
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Possibly what it could have done. These things.
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This takes place on a river under a Elm tree,
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Logan's Elm famous at the time. afterwards and in the
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19th century. All these events where we now see Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio.
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But at this time, it's best to think of them
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as rivers because there were no sovereign borders that people
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paid attention to. There were no towns. So let's explore
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the Cressop family. And Thomas Cressop is the patriarch. He
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lives a very long time. He was born in England,
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in Yorkshire. And he came to America. and understood that
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the boundaries of Pennsylvania and Maryland were not finalized. There
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was back and forth all the time. Sometimes Lancaster was
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in Pennsylvania, sometimes it was in Maryland. Was that typical
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of these times that men tried to take advantage of
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a moving border and the governors?
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Most certainly.
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And the real problem is that the maps are wrong.
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Load full transcript
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It's not just Lancaster that might be in Pennsylvania. But
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the charter that is given to William Penn says that
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the 30th parallel is the boundary for Pennsylvania, the southern
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boundary for Pennsylvania. If that's the case, the 30th parallel
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cuts– I'm sorry, this is for Maryland.
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Maryland's boundary is the 30th parallel.
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And if that's the case, then Philadelphia is in Maryland,
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not just Lancaster, but Philadelphia is in Maryland. So there's
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the imprecision of all these maps. And so there are
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northern and southern problems about where one colony begins and
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one colony ends. And then, of course, there's a huge
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eastern and western problem about where does colonial settlement stretch
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to as we go deeper into the continent. And so
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both Maryland and Pennsylvania claim what is today Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
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as theirs. And so there starts in the 1730s, there
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starts a simmering civil war between– Settlers in Maryland and
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settlers from Pennsylvania. And Thomas Cressip's house, he's about 30,
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early 30s at this point. His house becomes the epicenter
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of the Civil War.
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It's part of the wonderful confusion of these moments that
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there were times on the page I couldn't tell whether
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this was a war between Pennsylvania and Maryland or between
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the people who lived in Maryland, sometimes in Pennsylvania, and
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indigenous people who resented the... the advances of the colonials.
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And the truth of it is that isn't complicated enough
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because we're about to head into a revolutionary period where
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sometimes the British were sympathetic to the Native Americans and
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used them, and sometimes the colonials were sympathetic and used them,
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and then oftentimes they fought them. And Rob has sorted
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all that out in the person of these two families,
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the Cressips and the Shikolame's. The patriarch Shikolame, also to
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match Thomas Cressip, was a man who did William Penn
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a favor. How so, Rob?
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So the Iroquois are very worried about the Iroquois, who
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was home bases today in upstate New York and are
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a very powerful confederation of at the beginning of the
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18th century, five nations. And then by the 1730s, it
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becomes known as the Six Nations. And they're very concerned
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about as Pennsylvania expands, there's more and more pressure on
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groups like the Shawnee in Delaware who live today in
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northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania especially. They are starting
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to migrate back to the Ohio country. The Shawnee come
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from there originally in the 17th century, and they're starting
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to head back to where they came from about three
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generations before.
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And the Iroquois are very concerned.
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About keeping their own political prominence in the eastern backcountry
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by dominating these groups and saying they have the political
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power over them. So as they begin to sort of
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migrate and try to slip out of the grasp of
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the Iroquois, they send a man named Shekelemi, who's an Oneida,
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to what is today Sunbury, Pennsylvania, to monitor– this migration
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and hopefully stop it. And so he becomes pals with
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William Penn's secretary, a man named James Logan. And together,
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Shekelemi and Logan put together some land deals that are
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bad for the Shawnees and the Delawares, but good for
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the Iroquois. And the most famous of those is the
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walking purchase, the very, very famous or infamous walking purchase
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of 1737.
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That is the.
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Walking purchase, which is basically a wholesale purchase conquest of
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the Eastern Delaware native peoples is orchestrated by the team
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of Shekelemi and Logan. And that's where the Logan name
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comes from. This man, James Logan, who is William Penn's
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sort of chief factotum, is so important to the Shekelemi
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family that he gives his two oldest sons the honorary
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names of Logan. That's where the name Logan of Logan's
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Lament comes from.
It's reflective of this this political partnership
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with James Logan.
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Oh, let's be clear now. We have two families. We're
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going to call one the Cressips. That's their proper name.
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We're going to call the other one the Shikolemi, but
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there are several Shikolemis and there are several Logans. So
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we have to sort them out as there are several,
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Thomases and Michaels and the Cressips. They use family names again.
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We're going to go into what is important here, which
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is Michael Cressip, Thomas Cressip's son, Colonel Thomas Cressip, his
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son Michael. And we're not going to go to Shikaleme,
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the diplomat, oh, not a diplomat. We're going to go
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to his second son, who is called James Logan Shikolemi.
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When we come back, the book is Heart of American Darkness.
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Robert G. Parkinson is the author, Bewilderment and Horror of
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the Early Frontier. I'm John Batchelor. I'm John Batchelor with
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Professor Robert Parkinson. His book is Heart of American Darkness,
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Bewilderment and Horror on the Early Frontier. I am very
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well read in revolutionary material. I have never seen all
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of this put together. Suddenly it becomes important to identify
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how it is the Native Americans were treated by the
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colonials and vice versa because they lived next door to
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each other. They took advantages of the same rivers. They
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hunted the same ground. They intermarried. All of this was
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happening while the colonials– the story we know very well–
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especially out of Boston, revolted from the English crown because
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of indifference. However, we now go to an additional irony
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that Rob finds, and I'm sympathetic to, the story by
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Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, about the conduct of a
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man named Kurtz coming up against natives, indigenous people in
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Central Africa. Rob? Can you explain quickly how these two
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stories intertwined for you?
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Absolutely.
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Bewilderment being the first word of the subtitle is the
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theme of the book for the author as well as
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the reader, I think, of trying to sort out what
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all happens here. And the title and the theme of
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thinking about Joseph Conrad's brilliant and yet problematic novella, Heart
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of Darkness, that was published in 1902. I would teach
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world history, John. In my first job, two sections of
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modern world history, and I would often teach this text
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and leave the classroom thinking, boy, this feels like a
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familiar story to me. This doesn't seem like– and when
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you take– for the readers of Heart of Darkness– you
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might have noticed that at the very, very beginning, at
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the very top of the story, the very first word
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spoken aloud by the narrator, Charles Marlowe, is, and this
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also was one of the dark places of the earth.
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And he's not talking about the Congo River in the
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1880s and 90s. He's not talking about the scramble for Africa.
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He's talking about the Thames River and what that must
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have been like for Roman soldiers, the ends of the earth.
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And so thinking about the Thames, which he then goes
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on to describe as– which also now floats the dreams
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of men, the seeds of commonwealths and the germs of
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empire now in the end of the 19th century for
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Britain was also a dark place on the earth. And
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I always thought that kind of transferability and the themes
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of how– Tell us something, or not tell us something,
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show us a new way to think about the American
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backcountry in the 18th century.
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The American backcountry now has to deal with these two families,
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and we've described them generally, but it's important to come
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to Michael Crescent. The year 1754 is important for George
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Washington because he doesn't die. He takes on the French...
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who are fighting the British Empire on the continent of
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North America, and the French have allies among the Native Americans.
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So do the British. This is supposed to be
confusing
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because everybody in the frontier was confused by it. George
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Washington had built something called Fort Necessity. He's quickly overwhelmed,
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and in retreat of the events of that time, lead him,
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one of the people in his party to murder a Frenchman.
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That may be the beginning of a global war. I
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mention that only because at that point Washington flees after
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these episodes and passes through Old Town, what is now
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Old Town, Maryland, which is the home of the Cressips.
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And Rob, you in the book present the fact that
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the Cressips would have been very well known to Washington
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and Washington to them What was he at that moment
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to them? How did they regard his failed mission in 54?
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They're very important to one another because they're all co-partners
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in the Ohio Company. And the Ohio Company is– the
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sort of center of gravity for the Ohio Company is
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the Lee family and the Washington family. And anybody– so
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the Ohio Company has requested– half a million acres in
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what today is the Forks of the Ohio as a
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private venture for them, a land speculation effort. And the
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Crown has agreed in 1749, agrees to allow the Ohio
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company 200,000 of the 500 that they've asked for right now.
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And then a further 300,000 if they settle a number
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of families in the vicinity of the Forks of the
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Ohio or the Pittsburgh region. And so the only people
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who are not either married to or are in relation
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to a Washington or a Lee family are the Cressips.
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Thomas Cressip is an original partner of the Ohio Company,
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and his oldest son, Daniel, the older brother to Michael,
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are Ohio Company partners. And so when Washington goes to
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Old Town, and he goes there several times over the
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course of his life, And sometimes he brings people with
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him who are other members of the Ohio Company. It's
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almost like a rump meeting of this group. And they're
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the spear point for English colonialism to the force, which
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scares the French so much, which brings on this conflict.
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So Washington's being there is a result of this venture
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that he thinks is going to make him a very,
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very rich man.
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There's no other way to say it that Washington's part
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of the land speculators that the Cressips represent. Everybody's involved
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in that. The English crown is trying to stop it,
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drawing lines in the Appalachians. Can't go beyond this. The
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French are very keen on keeping the British out. And
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the following year, General Braddock leads an expedition to what
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is now Pittsburgh and is soundly defeated and loses his life. Again,
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Washington and the men flee. back through Old Town. We're
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00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:24.500
going to turn now. You see all these contests going on,
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and we haven't even got to the murder by Yellow Creek.
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The book is Heart of American Darkness, Robert Parkinson. Rob
253
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Parkinson is the author. This is CBS Eye on the World.
254
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I'm John Batchelor. I'm John Batchelor with Professor Robert G. Parkinson.
255
00:17:44.009 --> 00:17:47.869
The book is Heart of American Darkness, Bewilderment and Horror
256
00:17:48.369 --> 00:17:52.329
on the Early Frontier. There is no easy sorting this out.
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This isn't good guys, bad guys. This is everybody moving
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around in what one side regards as a wilderness. The
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00:17:59.930 --> 00:18:04.650
other side regards as very well settled and extremely tribal
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so that we have the Shawnees and the Delawares and
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00:18:08.950 --> 00:18:15.009
the Mingos living side by side. And there are Wyandottes,
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there are other tribes. They all know their tribes. We
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00:18:17.670 --> 00:18:21.410
have the colonials, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, living side by
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side and at odds. And then we have land speculators
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who look to take advantage of land that belongs in
266
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the hunting grounds of the Native Americans or in Pennsylvania,
267
00:18:33.119 --> 00:18:36.579
or if you're a Pennsylvanian, in Virginia. You can understand
268
00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:41.200
everybody's armed. And then there are rumors of the Native
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00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:45.539
Americans being savages. This word savage is routine, I learned
270
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00:18:48.289
from Rob. So we come now to the events that
271
00:18:48.329 --> 00:18:52.650
we started with. The Logan's Lament, losing his family by
272
00:18:52.690 --> 00:18:57.430
the Yellow Creek. Please carefully, Bob, Rob, introduce us to
273
00:18:57.470 --> 00:19:00.589
that murder. Why did it take place? What is the reasoning?
274
00:19:00.609 --> 00:19:05.289
It wasn't Colonel Tom Cressip. It was Michael Cressip. Who
275
00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:07.779
was Michael at the time? I believe he was 32
276
00:19:07.779 --> 00:19:10.559
years old. And why did it come to murder?
277
00:19:11.640 --> 00:19:14.039
Well, the operative word in what you just said is
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00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:14.799
the word tribal.
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00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:20.250
And We have long thought of native peoples as tribal,
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but one of the things I like to do in
281
00:19:21.710 --> 00:19:25.619
this book is to consider Pennsylvanians and Virginians and Marylanders
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as acting just as tribal.
283
00:19:28.500 --> 00:19:31.460
They are tribes themselves. And so what has gone on?
284
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The British are broke.
285
00:19:34.299 --> 00:19:37.279
And we know this in reference to the imperial crisis, obviously,
286
00:19:37.299 --> 00:19:40.220
and this is the reason we have taxes and tea
287
00:19:40.259 --> 00:19:44.730
being thrown overboard in Boston. But one of the ways
288
00:19:44.750 --> 00:19:46.970
that Britain tries to cut costs and save money is
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00:19:47.009 --> 00:19:49.930
they take all their troops out of Fort Pitt. And
290
00:19:49.970 --> 00:19:52.970
so Fort Pitt, which had become, which was during the
291
00:19:53.019 --> 00:19:55.599
Seven Years' War, was this sort of bastion of English
292
00:19:55.680 --> 00:20:01.880
power over the mountains, now lays empty. And and so
293
00:20:01.910 --> 00:20:04.779
a power vacuum about who actually controls the forks of
294
00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:07.940
the Ohio going back to the time when George Washington
295
00:20:07.980 --> 00:20:11.200
said it's it's for the Ohio company and therefore for Virginia.
296
00:20:11.920 --> 00:20:17.160
Virginia and Pennsylvania have have battled mostly over paper and
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00:20:17.240 --> 00:20:20.079
maps over who's going to control the force. But after
298
00:20:20.119 --> 00:20:24.700
the British leave, it turns into a yet another. border
299
00:20:24.819 --> 00:20:27.440
civil war, just like the one from the 1730s between
300
00:20:27.480 --> 00:20:28.319
Pennsylvania and Maryland.
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00:20:28.619 --> 00:20:30.380
Pennsylvania and Virginia.
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Start, they both say this is, they extend county borders
303
00:20:36.059 --> 00:20:40.099
to encompass the forks. It's Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. It's also
304
00:20:40.160 --> 00:20:46.740
West Augusta County, Virginia. Both sides elect a slate of magistrates.
305
00:20:47.859 --> 00:20:50.920
They lock one
another up. They beat one another up.
306
00:20:52.430 --> 00:20:56.009
There's some shooting going on, and anybody who lives out
307
00:20:56.049 --> 00:20:58.730
there has to basically decide which tribe they belong to.
308
00:20:59.670 --> 00:21:04.579
That devolves into problems with native peoples who are very
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00:21:04.619 --> 00:21:06.220
concerned about what is going on here.
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Who's in charge here? Is this who do we deal with?
311
00:21:13.529 --> 00:21:18.450
Who's going to restrain any kind of colonial scouting and trading?
312
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What is the regulatory body that's going on here? And
313
00:21:21.849 --> 00:21:25.109
so that devolves into there's a there's a small incident
314
00:21:25.170 --> 00:21:29.049
on the Ohio River of basically a group of a
315
00:21:29.069 --> 00:21:32.029
couple of traders get jumped by a native by a
316
00:21:32.079 --> 00:21:35.440
native group of Cherokees, actually, who really aren't involved at all.
317
00:21:35.869 --> 00:21:38.730
And that devolves, that just sort of escalates fear more
318
00:21:38.789 --> 00:21:44.829
and more over the course of really March and April 1774, right?
319
00:21:45.589 --> 00:21:49.190
Just as the parliament has voted for the coercive acts
320
00:21:49.700 --> 00:21:51.380
and the ship carrying that.
321
00:21:51.279 --> 00:21:53.420
News is on the Atlantic, this is when this is
322
00:21:53.460 --> 00:21:54.140
all devolving.
323
00:21:56.740 --> 00:22:02.359
There is a tavern today where the Mountaineer Casino and
324
00:22:02.420 --> 00:22:06.380
Racetrack is in West Virginia and that's right on the
325
00:22:06.460 --> 00:22:10.440
Ohio River. And right across the river is the mouth
326
00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:13.109
of Yellow Creek, which dumps.
327
00:22:14.710 --> 00:22:16.089
Into the Ohio.
328
00:22:16.309 --> 00:22:19.450
A couple of tenths of a mile up Yellow Creek
329
00:22:19.509 --> 00:22:24.920
is a band of Mingo natives. And Logan, James Logan Shekelemi,
330
00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:28.380
and his family, his mother is there with him, his
331
00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:30.779
sister is there with him, his brother is there with him.
332
00:22:31.759 --> 00:22:33.579
And there are other mingos who are there.
333
00:22:33.640 --> 00:22:36.319
This is the Logan of Logan's Lament, the second son
334
00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:39.289
of the original Shikolame. Please continue, Professor.
335
00:22:39.329 --> 00:22:40.619
That's right. That's right.
336
00:22:40.900 --> 00:22:45.410
Now, so and the Shikolames have been have grown up
337
00:22:45.930 --> 00:22:49.990
for 40 years. Their father was a negotiator. The family
338
00:22:50.009 --> 00:22:54.690
has has tried their best to get along with colonists, colonists.
339
00:22:55.180 --> 00:22:57.640
For their whole lives. And so this is just for them,
340
00:22:57.720 --> 00:22:59.180
another episode.
341
00:22:58.700 --> 00:23:02.269
Of diplomacy, what they think is diplomacy.
342
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So they paddle down Yellow Creek and cross the Ohio River.
343
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And what they think is going to be an effort
344
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to try to keep the peace in, and they go
345
00:23:11.579 --> 00:23:14.599
into this tavern on a place called Baker's Bottom. And
346
00:23:14.700 --> 00:23:20.700
they engage in kind of an act of diplomacy. They
347
00:23:20.759 --> 00:23:23.119
think that this is a way to keep the peace.
348
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What they don't know is there are probably somewhere about
349
00:23:26.680 --> 00:23:29.460
a dozen men lurking in a second room, a back
350
00:23:29.539 --> 00:23:34.069
apartment in that tavern, who have gathered there to kill them.
351
00:23:35.380 --> 00:23:40.170
And so there is a shooting contest is proposed.
352
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Hey, you guys hit a.
353
00:23:43.990 --> 00:23:46.289
Mark out there in the trees. Let's see who can
354
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get closest to it. But that is really an effort
355
00:23:49.329 --> 00:23:53.009
to unload the Mingo's rifles. And then as soon as
356
00:23:53.049 --> 00:23:56.880
the shots are fired, there's a scuffle inside. And those
357
00:23:56.970 --> 00:24:01.019
men hiding in the back apartment leap out and kill
358
00:24:01.079 --> 00:24:02.299
Logan's younger brother.
359
00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:04.579
They kill his sister.
360
00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:08.309
They shoot down his mother and three other Mingo men
361
00:24:08.349 --> 00:24:13.269
whose names we don't know. And so eight native people
362
00:24:13.309 --> 00:24:15.089
die at this episode.
363
00:24:15.190 --> 00:24:19.160
Let me read the names of the shooters. Nathan Tomlinson,
364
00:24:19.319 --> 00:24:26.319
Daniel Greathouse, Edward King, Michael Myers, Jacob Greathouse, Joseph Sferringen,
365
00:24:27.140 --> 00:24:30.980
and Joseph– Raymond Joseph Tomlinson. Not one of them is
366
00:24:31.029 --> 00:24:33.250
named Cressip. Where is Michael Cressip?
367
00:24:33.990 --> 00:24:39.670
Michael Cressip– so as tensions are rising– Michael finds himself
368
00:24:40.210 --> 00:24:42.809
about 10 days before this in charge of a group
369
00:24:42.869 --> 00:24:48.650
of angry settlers who are threatening to do something like this.
370
00:24:49.490 --> 00:24:55.240
And Michael tries to, sometimes he encourages them at some
371
00:24:55.319 --> 00:24:56.140
point during.
372
00:24:55.940 --> 00:24:57.680
The rough week before Yellow Creek.
373
00:25:00.599 --> 00:25:04.539
He attacks natives in a canoe coming down the Ohio River.
374
00:25:05.160 --> 00:25:06.759
But he also tries to talk them out of it.
375
00:25:07.569 --> 00:25:11.529
And so doing further damage. So he's sort of, what
376
00:25:11.549 --> 00:25:13.730
the record shows is Michael's kind of all over the
377
00:25:13.750 --> 00:25:18.529
place about how much violence he wants to inflict this
378
00:25:18.589 --> 00:25:21.890
week before Yellow Creek. And a couple of days before,
379
00:25:22.549 --> 00:25:23.930
he says, I'm done.
380
00:25:23.950 --> 00:25:24.619
I'm out of here.
381
00:25:24.700 --> 00:25:27.640
I can't handle this anymore. And he takes himself to
382
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:31.319
a place called Catfish Camp, which is today's Washington, Pennsylvania,
383
00:25:32.119 --> 00:25:34.880
which is about 30 miles away from the Ohio River.
384
00:25:35.069 --> 00:25:38.589
That's where he is when this massacre happens.
385
00:25:38.730 --> 00:25:39.930
Logan is also not there.
386
00:25:40.529 --> 00:25:43.430
The Logan of Logan's Lament is also out hunting when
387
00:25:43.509 --> 00:25:46.589
his mother, brother, and sister are murdered as well. So
388
00:25:46.670 --> 00:25:50.099
neither of the people that we associate with this are
389
00:25:50.180 --> 00:25:51.039
anywhere near the area.
390
00:25:51.220 --> 00:25:55.619
Important to establish the Cressips are a violent family, and
391
00:25:55.759 --> 00:26:00.349
Thomas Cressip, the patriarch, has often traded shots with authorities
392
00:26:00.430 --> 00:26:02.390
when he was living in Maryland and there was a
393
00:26:02.990 --> 00:26:07.950
contest between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Michael Cressip has grown up
394
00:26:08.009 --> 00:26:12.049
in a family. They are the law, wherever they are.
395
00:26:12.950 --> 00:26:15.759
And they often build on lands that used to be
396
00:26:15.859 --> 00:26:20.319
Native American lands. They're not quite invaders, they're land speculators.
397
00:26:20.359 --> 00:26:23.759
They take advantage of where there is no law or
398
00:26:23.839 --> 00:26:28.519
where there is tension between Pennsylvania and Virginia. The Shikolamis,
399
00:26:28.599 --> 00:26:33.000
on the other hand, as the professor has introduced, the
400
00:26:33.039 --> 00:26:36.799
closest thing I can word is the word diplomat. Does
401
00:26:36.839 --> 00:26:37.940
that work, Rob?
402
00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:38.140
Yep.
403
00:26:38.180 --> 00:26:38.509
Diplomat.
404
00:26:38.529 --> 00:26:42.170
Yep. Yep. Ambassador, diplomat, yep.
405
00:26:42.509 --> 00:26:46.789
And Logan, the second son, is the most diplomatic of all. Yep.
406
00:26:47.250 --> 00:26:52.460
And his family is no threat to anyone. So what happens,
407
00:26:53.180 --> 00:26:56.079
and Rob, you identified as the har, which is the
408
00:26:56.119 --> 00:27:01.119
word from... Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The men who
409
00:27:01.160 --> 00:27:04.740
did the killing. Why, Rob? Can you piece it together?
410
00:27:04.819 --> 00:27:08.660
Why would they open fire on defenseless women? And there
411
00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:10.549
was a baby in the arms of one of them.
412
00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:11.549
That's right.
413
00:27:12.289 --> 00:27:15.029
Well, the baby is the baby of John Gibson, who
414
00:27:15.049 --> 00:27:19.910
you identified at the top as the translator of Logan's Lament.
415
00:27:19.950 --> 00:27:25.130
He is Kune, which is the name of Logan's sister.
416
00:27:26.599 --> 00:27:30.579
runs out of the tavern and makes it down to
417
00:27:30.599 --> 00:27:33.720
the shoreline of the Ohio River, clutching this infant in
418
00:27:33.759 --> 00:27:36.119
her arms. And she turns around and begs for the
419
00:27:36.140 --> 00:27:40.400
child's life. Please don't shoot this baby. And what the
420
00:27:40.460 --> 00:27:42.750
record says is he is the son of a white man,
421
00:27:43.109 --> 00:27:47.250
John Gibson. And they allow her to hand the baby
422
00:27:47.329 --> 00:27:48.589
over and then they shoot her in the forehead.
423
00:27:48.910 --> 00:27:54.329
Right. And this massacre, this massacre right now, we identify...
424
00:27:54.349 --> 00:27:58.579
the moment when Logan himself is not at present, but
425
00:27:58.619 --> 00:28:03.960
he will learn about it. And that leads to eventually
426
00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:06.960
the lament. But I want to characterize all of these
427
00:28:09.019 --> 00:28:14.390
Native American confrontations. There was something of the violence everywhere, Rob,
428
00:28:14.450 --> 00:28:17.910
in reading the story. At any moment, I think you
429
00:28:17.950 --> 00:28:23.069
had one scene where three Native Americans came forward across
430
00:28:23.109 --> 00:28:25.859
the field. They put their rifles down outside and went
431
00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:31.359
inside and started being convivial with the family. But at
432
00:28:31.500 --> 00:28:33.720
one point, one of them reached over to a young
433
00:28:33.779 --> 00:28:37.059
woman's hair, a daughter's hair, and stroked it and said
434
00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:40.359
something in his tongue like, that would make a nice scalp.
435
00:28:40.849 --> 00:28:44.029
So there's tension always. Is that the way to think
436
00:28:44.069 --> 00:28:44.569
of this, Rob?
437
00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:48.990
Yes, well, that's what the young man thinks is what
438
00:28:49.029 --> 00:28:51.250
is being said. We don't know that that's exactly what
439
00:28:51.289 --> 00:28:55.009
he said, but the fear is ever-present, that they are terrified.
440
00:28:55.349 --> 00:29:00.460
And that scene comes at the very end of Pontiac's War,
441
00:29:01.579 --> 00:29:05.400
which is yet another episode of conflict after the Seven
442
00:29:05.420 --> 00:29:07.049
Years' War and before Yellow Creek.
443
00:29:07.750 --> 00:29:11.150
And in that, there is.
444
00:29:11.150 --> 00:29:14.359
A significant fight in Old Town in which Michael Cressip
445
00:29:14.430 --> 00:29:18.339
kills a native person who's attacking his home at the
446
00:29:18.380 --> 00:29:21.400
very end of the lane of his house and scalps
447
00:29:21.460 --> 00:29:25.039
him and takes his moccasins. Michael does this at 21
448
00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:28.519
years old, and his older brother, Thomas Cressip Jr., was
449
00:29:28.619 --> 00:29:30.849
killed during the Seven Years'
War in the hills not
450
00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:36.589
very far away. So these are families that are extraordinarily.
451
00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:40.109
familiar with trauma and horror and violence.
452
00:29:41.450 --> 00:29:44.589
We're now going to turn to a transformation that is
453
00:29:44.630 --> 00:29:49.579
a complete surprise. Michael Cressip, who has been the boaster
454
00:29:50.150 --> 00:29:53.819
and threatener, but at the same time not present at
455
00:29:53.859 --> 00:29:57.839
the scene of the murders that he encouraged, we're going
456
00:29:57.880 --> 00:30:01.480
to turn him into a patriot. The book is Heart
457
00:30:01.509 --> 00:30:06.390
of American Darkness. Robert Parkinson is the author. I'm John Batchelor.
458
00:30:09.329 --> 00:30:12.710
I'm John Batchelor, and I've insisted on telling you this
459
00:30:12.809 --> 00:30:17.339
is so much more complicated than the Colonials versus the
460
00:30:17.470 --> 00:30:22.140
Royal Navy. We have Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia in one contest,
461
00:30:22.859 --> 00:30:27.470
the Mingos, the Shawnees, the Delawares in another contest, and
462
00:30:27.529 --> 00:30:31.390
the British and the American colonials in another contest. And
463
00:30:31.410 --> 00:30:33.519
then we have the colonials who are not quite sure
464
00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:36.000
which side they're on. Nobody is. Rob makes the point
465
00:30:36.059 --> 00:30:38.839
again and again. What happened when they heard about the
466
00:30:38.880 --> 00:30:43.240
Continental Congress in 74 and the one in 75? And
467
00:30:43.980 --> 00:30:46.569
Bunkers Hill, everybody said, what's in it for me? Did
468
00:30:46.650 --> 00:30:48.690
I get that right, Rob? What's in it for me?
469
00:30:49.390 --> 00:30:50.029
You got that right.
470
00:30:50.069 --> 00:30:54.890
It's another layer of bewilderment that now extends over the
471
00:30:55.089 --> 00:30:58.569
older colonial fights about these things. And so everyone has
472
00:30:58.589 --> 00:31:02.589
to all of a sudden choose again which tribe they
473
00:31:02.630 --> 00:31:03.210
want to support.
474
00:31:04.049 --> 00:31:07.190
And we come now to what is known as Bunkers Hill,
475
00:31:07.230 --> 00:31:09.309
which is in fact Breed's Hill. I hope you all
476
00:31:09.349 --> 00:31:11.470
know that I'm not going to have time to tell
477
00:31:11.539 --> 00:31:14.319
that story, but in any event The word goes out
478
00:31:14.920 --> 00:31:18.960
from Congress, which is now in Philadelphia, moving south, away
479
00:31:19.019 --> 00:31:23.930
from the British, that they need volunteers, especially from Pennsylvania.
480
00:31:25.250 --> 00:31:27.789
I'm not sure whether these are Virginians or Pennsylvanians, but
481
00:31:27.829 --> 00:31:31.279
they pass as riflemen. What kind of volunteers? And what
482
00:31:31.319 --> 00:31:33.119
happens with Michael Cressip, Rob?
483
00:31:33.869 --> 00:31:34.089
Right.
484
00:31:34.269 --> 00:31:37.839
So the important thing to know is Logan is not
485
00:31:37.880 --> 00:31:41.619
the only one that blames Michael Cressip for what happens,
486
00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:46.640
the Yellow Creek and then the subsequent war between Virginia
487
00:31:46.660 --> 00:31:48.740
and the Shawnee that develops over the course of late
488
00:31:48.789 --> 00:31:52.349
summer and fall. After that, there are a number of
489
00:31:52.450 --> 00:31:58.470
people who send messages to newspapers in Philadelphia and New
490
00:31:58.509 --> 00:32:01.890
York especially saying, who are saying that Michael Crescent is
491
00:32:01.930 --> 00:32:03.470
the reason for all this. And there are a number
492
00:32:03.490 --> 00:32:06.670
of British officials who think that this is that he
493
00:32:06.750 --> 00:32:10.069
is the reason that all this nonsense has happened. This
494
00:32:10.109 --> 00:32:13.420
this really sort of horrific violence that begins. I shouldn't
495
00:32:13.440 --> 00:32:17.319
call it nonsense. And that happens out in Ohio River.
496
00:32:17.359 --> 00:32:21.779
So because Logan takes revenge through 74. That's right.
497
00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:25.519
Logan Logan takes revenge on several families. Logan, the erstwhile
498
00:32:25.559 --> 00:32:29.599
diplomat before, has now broken. This has had he's had enough.
499
00:32:31.039 --> 00:32:39.069
And he turns into an Avenger. And he kills almost
500
00:32:39.069 --> 00:32:44.549
20 people, takes a number of captives in revenge for these.
501
00:32:44.650 --> 00:32:49.670
And the revenge is very challenging because children are slaughtered,
502
00:32:49.730 --> 00:32:54.009
the Spicer family children, the Roberts family children. Yes. They're
503
00:32:54.069 --> 00:32:59.859
deliberately murdered, provocatively so, because Logan wants revenge. once the
504
00:32:59.940 --> 00:33:03.200
Cressips and the Colonials to know that this is Cressips,
505
00:33:03.579 --> 00:33:05.759
Logan revenging his children.
506
00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:12.140
Right, right. And so the number of people blame Michael
507
00:33:12.339 --> 00:33:15.829
specifically and wrongly at the time, not just Logan. So
508
00:33:15.890 --> 00:33:20.710
when the Continental Congress calls for volunteers, and what this
509
00:33:20.769 --> 00:33:23.690
call is, is really the creation of a Continental Army
510
00:33:23.750 --> 00:33:29.250
because it's the first, it's the first, request for volunteers
511
00:33:29.289 --> 00:33:32.470
for anyone outside of New England. So they asked for
512
00:33:32.539 --> 00:33:35.859
the creation of a number of rifle companies in Virginia, Maryland,
513
00:33:35.900 --> 00:33:39.460
and Pennsylvania to be created for those troops to get
514
00:33:39.539 --> 00:33:43.799
as quickly as they possibly can to Boston. And one
515
00:33:43.819 --> 00:33:46.220
of the two Maryland companies is going to be led
516
00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:52.759
by Michael and two of his nephews. And strangely, one
517
00:33:52.799
--> 00:33:56.019
of the men and a sergeant in that unit is
518
00:33:56.059 --> 00:33:59.150
Daniel Greathouse, who John read as one of the actual
519
00:33:59.210 --> 00:34:01.009
perpetrators of what happens at Yellow Creek.
520
00:34:02.069 --> 00:34:06.109
That is one contest. We have several going on here
521
00:34:06.190 --> 00:34:11.719
because Virginia is now in revolution, but people are deciding
522
00:34:11.780 --> 00:34:17.739
whether they're pro-crown, pro-colonial. Who are the colonials? And we
523
00:34:17.780 --> 00:34:21.110
need to enter into the Virginia governor. His name is Dunsmore,
524
00:34:21.159 --> 00:34:25.969
Lord Dunsmore, who launches a campaign against the Native Americans.
525
00:34:26.619 --> 00:34:31.159
especially Logan. And those are the episodes that come to
526
00:34:31.340 --> 00:34:34.699
Logan making his lament. Who is Dunsmore? What does he
527
00:34:34.739 --> 00:34:35.449
want to achieve?
528
00:34:36.929 --> 00:34:44.429
Dunsmore wants glory for himself and for his colony, a
529
00:34:44.469 --> 00:34:47.849
colony that he doesn't really want to govern when he's
530
00:34:47.909 --> 00:34:50.599
assigned there. He is the governor of New York. when
531
00:34:50.619 --> 00:34:54.360
the Virginia governor dies and he has to go to Williamsburg.
532
00:34:54.800 --> 00:34:57.500
And he spends about 10 months dragging his feet and
533
00:34:57.719 --> 00:35:02.380
roundly complaining and drinking a lot before he finally accepts
534
00:35:02.420 --> 00:35:06.179
his fate and goes to Williamsburg. And he very soon,
535
00:35:06.300 --> 00:35:09.969
once he gets to Virginia, realizes that there is all
536
00:35:10.010 --> 00:35:13.630
this opportunity for him to gain lands.
537
00:35:13.409 --> 00:35:17.889
Out in this unpredictable place.
538
00:35:18.980 --> 00:35:23.719
And so he is looking for ways to exploit this
539
00:35:23.800 --> 00:35:30.789
bewildering situation. And so he especially pushes forward Virginia's claim.
540
00:35:31.489 --> 00:35:35.389
And then once this fight happens in Virginia and Pennsylvania,
541
00:35:35.969 --> 00:35:38.969
he then really pushes for this to turn into a
542
00:35:39.010 --> 00:35:42.429
sort of a military expedition against the Shawnee, but really
543
00:35:42.469 --> 00:35:44.949
to control the Forks of the Ohio for him and Virginia.
544
00:35:45.309 --> 00:35:47.130
And there's a lot of killing going on. This is
545
00:35:47.210 --> 00:35:51.730
Lord Dunmore's war. And there are invaders, and the Native
546
00:35:51.769 --> 00:35:55.670
Americans are the victims of the killing. Eventually, the Native
547
00:35:55.710 --> 00:36:01.170
Americans sue for peace. And that is when Logan comes
548
00:36:01.250 --> 00:36:05.530
forward with a lament to his relative who lost his wife.
549
00:36:05.719 --> 00:36:10.139
Logan's sister was John Gibson's wife. And that's where the
550
00:36:10.219 --> 00:36:13.480
lament comes from. And that's why Logan thinks it was
551
00:36:13.539 --> 00:36:18.010
Colonel Cressip not Michael Cresip, who launched the murder raid
552
00:36:18.090 --> 00:36:22.650
on Yellow Creek. Now, all this is important. As complicated
553
00:36:22.710 --> 00:36:24.829
as it is, it's important because this is going to
554
00:36:24.869 --> 00:36:29.090
become a legend well into the 19th and 20th century
555
00:36:29.309 --> 00:36:33.110
and here in the 21st century. One more detail, Rob,
556
00:36:33.150 --> 00:36:39.829
before we go to Boston. Logan wants peace with the lament.
557
00:36:39.889 --> 00:36:42.949
Is that the way to understand that? He was ending...
558
00:36:43.329 --> 00:36:45.469
his war personally at that point.
559
00:36:46.030 --> 00:36:47.110
Yes. Yes.
560
00:36:47.210 --> 00:36:51.300
Logan is announcing that he has done terrible things, but
561
00:36:51.340 --> 00:36:55.119
he is satisfied. And part of that is also, again,
562
00:36:56.199 --> 00:37:01.659
there is the diplomat coming back out yet again. This
563
00:37:01.699 --> 00:37:04.719
was not a war. I mean, this is really, he
564
00:37:04.760 --> 00:37:07.019
doesn't see this as a war with Virginia. This is
565
00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:10.039
him taking personal revenge for this terrible thing that has
566
00:37:10.099 --> 00:37:15.659
befallen his family. Therefore, now this is over, and we
567
00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:18.869
can return to the great beams of peace.
568
00:37:18.929 --> 00:37:22.650
We're headed to Boston. Heart of American Darkness, Robert Parkinson
569
00:37:22.710 --> 00:37:24.469
is the author. I'm John Batchelor.