TRANSKRIP 🔗
WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.810 --> 00:00:04.049
This is CBS Eye on the World. I'm John Batchelor.
2
00:00:04.690 --> 00:00:11.470
It is February 1st, 1775. The Pennsylvania Journal. This begins
3
00:00:11.570 --> 00:00:17.199
a story that starts in the 18th century, right prior
4
00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:20.539
to the American Revolution, and continues here in the 21st
5
00:00:20.579 --> 00:00:26.960
century in analyzing at the forks of the Ohio what
6
00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:33.380
was the relationship between the colonials all Englishmen in general,
7
00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:39.119
and the Native Americans, the indigenous people, especially the tribes
8
00:00:39.159 --> 00:00:47.030
that are famous, the Iroquois, the Shawnee, the Mingo, the Wyandotte.
9
00:00:47.049 --> 00:00:53.320
On this time, 1775, we associate with the American Revolution. Well, simultaneously,
10
00:00:53.780 --> 00:00:57.920
there was a contest between the Native Americans on their
11
00:00:57.979 --> 00:01:04.489
land and the Colonials of Virginia and Pennsylvania on their land.
12
00:01:05.090 --> 00:01:08.790
I welcome Professor Robert G. Parkinson. His new book is
13
00:01:08.930 --> 00:01:18.519
Heart of American Darkness, Bewilderment and Murder on the Early Frontier. Rob,
14
00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:23.540
the Pennsylvania Journal in February of 1775 prints what is
15
00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:28.640
famous as Logan's Lament. This is a document written up
16
00:01:28.700 --> 00:01:33.319
by a man named John Gibson, sitting with a Native American,
17
00:01:33.379 --> 00:01:37.659
a Mingo chief named, we call him Logan. He had
18
00:01:37.719 --> 00:01:42.400
an Indian name that is important, Shikolame. And Logan was
19
00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:45.500
reflecting upon what had happened to him and his family
20
00:01:46.019 --> 00:01:52.329
the year before. I read in part, Logan is the
21
00:01:52.450 --> 00:01:56.010
friend of white men. I had even thought to live
22
00:01:56.030 --> 00:02:00.599
with you. but for the injuries of one man, Colonel Cressip.
23
00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:08.259
Colonel Cressip, he writes, in cold blood and unprovoked, cut
24
00:02:08.300 --> 00:02:17.449
off all the relations of Logan, not sparing even my wife,
25
00:02:18.129 --> 00:02:22.110
my women, and children. That is part of the lament
26
00:02:22.650 --> 00:02:26.879
that is printed in the Pennsylvania Journal and has become
27
00:02:28.180 --> 00:02:33.219
extremely famous through the last two centuries, certainly was part
28
00:02:33.259 --> 00:02:36.360
of the learning of school children in the 19th century.
29
00:02:37.639 --> 00:02:40.759
At that point, what do we need to know about
30
00:02:40.819 --> 00:02:45.039
the document when he says Colonel Cressip? You have identified
31
00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:47.819
that as an error. Who was Colonel Cressip and who
32
00:02:47.840 --> 00:02:51.300
was Logan at that moment that he had vengeance on
33
00:02:51.360 --> 00:02:52.879
Colonel Cressip? Good evening to you.
34
00:02:53.780 --> 00:02:54.159
Thank you.
35
00:02:54.219 --> 00:02:57.139
It's lovely to be with you, John. Uh, well, Colonel
36
00:02:57.180 --> 00:02:59.780
Cressip isn't the guy who killed his family. In fact, uh,
37
00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:03.500
anybody who killed his family wasn't, didn't have the last
38
00:03:03.539 --> 00:03:11.169
name of Cressip. What Logan is referring to is a premeditated, cold-blooded, um,
39
00:03:12.710 --> 00:03:17.949
murder of eight Mingo, uh, men, women, and children that
40
00:03:17.969 --> 00:03:19.870
happened on April 30th, the year before in 1774.
41
00:03:19.870 --> 00:03:27.169
And, uh, The Crescent family was one of the leading.
42
00:03:28.569 --> 00:03:33.759
Colonial land speculators, traders, and.
43
00:03:35.139 --> 00:03:39.199
Scouts in this region. And Logan.
44
00:03:40.219 --> 00:03:45.919
Believes, Logan, his real name, well, he has several names,
45
00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:51.780
but James Logan Shekelemi, or Soyok Tawa, believes that the
46
00:03:51.819 --> 00:03:54.710
Crescent family is to be responsible and he misidentifies a,
47
00:03:55.539 --> 00:03:56.900
so that's one misidentification.
48
00:03:56.939 --> 00:03:58.479
A second one is that.
49
00:03:58.419 --> 00:04:01.060
He, he says that it's Colonel Crescent, which is really
50
00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:05.219
a reference to Thomas Crescent, the father, not Michael Crescent,
51
00:04:05.240 --> 00:04:08.740
the son who was in the area and, and was.
52
00:04:10.060 --> 00:04:13.060
Possibly what it could have done. These things.
53
00:04:13.659 --> 00:04:18.069
This takes place on a river under a Elm tree,
54
00:04:18.209 --> 00:04:22.850
Logan's Elm famous at the time. afterwards and in the
55
00:04:23.089 --> 00:04:28.949
19th century. All these events where we now see Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio.
56
00:04:29.389 --> 00:04:31.889
But at this time, it's best to think of them
57
00:04:32.129 --> 00:04:35.910
as rivers because there were no sovereign borders that people
58
00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:39.790
paid attention to. There were no towns. So let's explore
59
00:04:39.829 --> 00:04:44.269
the Cressop family. And Thomas Cressop is the patriarch. He
60
00:04:44.310 --> 00:04:46.910
lives a very long time. He was born in England,
61
00:04:47.769 --> 00:04:52.009
in Yorkshire. And he came to America. and understood that
62
00:04:52.089 --> 00:04:58.689
the boundaries of Pennsylvania and Maryland were not finalized. There
63
00:04:58.730 --> 00:05:02.329
was back and forth all the time. Sometimes Lancaster was
64
00:05:02.430 --> 00:05:07.230
in Pennsylvania, sometimes it was in Maryland. Was that typical
65
00:05:07.290 --> 00:05:10.500
of these times that men tried to take advantage of
66
00:05:10.509 --> 00:05:12.620
a moving border and the governors?
67
00:05:13.420 --> 00:05:14.060
Most certainly.
68
00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:17.040
And the real problem is that the maps are wrong.
69
00:05:17.120 -->
Load full transcript
00:05:20.959
It's not just Lancaster that might be in Pennsylvania. But
70
00:05:23.079 --> 00:05:28.019
the charter that is given to William Penn says that
71
00:05:28.990 --> 00:05:31.970
the 30th parallel is the boundary for Pennsylvania, the southern
72
00:05:31.990 --> 00:05:35.230
boundary for Pennsylvania. If that's the case, the 30th parallel
73
00:05:35.269 --> 00:05:38.189
cuts– I'm sorry, this is for Maryland.
74
00:05:38.389 --> 00:05:41.610
Maryland's boundary is the 30th parallel.
75
00:05:41.949 --> 00:05:45.300
And if that's the case, then Philadelphia is in Maryland,
76
00:05:45.459 --> 00:05:48.300
not just Lancaster, but Philadelphia is in Maryland. So there's
77
00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:51.740
the imprecision of all these maps. And so there are
78
00:05:51.800 --> 00:05:54.939
northern and southern problems about where one colony begins and
79
00:05:55.019 --> 00:05:57.160
one colony ends. And then, of course, there's a huge
80
00:05:57.300 --> 00:06:03.439
eastern and western problem about where does colonial settlement stretch
81
00:06:03.459 --> 00:06:08.040
to as we go deeper into the continent. And so
82
00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:12.990
both Maryland and Pennsylvania claim what is today Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
83
00:06:13.319 --> 00:06:17.170
as theirs. And so there starts in the 1730s, there
84
00:06:17.209 --> 00:06:21.699
starts a simmering civil war between– Settlers in Maryland and
85
00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:26.139
settlers from Pennsylvania. And Thomas Cressip's house, he's about 30,
86
00:06:26.139 --> 00:06:28.759
early 30s at this point. His house becomes the epicenter
87
00:06:28.800 --> 00:06:29.480
of the Civil War.
88
00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.430
It's part of the wonderful confusion of these moments that
89
00:06:34.850 --> 00:06:37.550
there were times on the page I couldn't tell whether
90
00:06:37.589 --> 00:06:41.329
this was a war between Pennsylvania and Maryland or between
91
00:06:41.790 --> 00:06:45.410
the people who lived in Maryland, sometimes in Pennsylvania, and
92
00:06:45.490 --> 00:06:50.759
indigenous people who resented the... the advances of the colonials.
93
00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:55.579
And the truth of it is that isn't complicated enough
94
00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.459
because we're about to head into a revolutionary period where
95
00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:03.870
sometimes the British were sympathetic to the Native Americans and
96
00:07:04.029 --> 00:07:07.750
used them, and sometimes the colonials were sympathetic and used them,
97
00:07:08.209 --> 00:07:11.410
and then oftentimes they fought them. And Rob has sorted
98
00:07:11.509 --> 00:07:14.550
all that out in the person of these two families,
99
00:07:14.670 --> 00:07:21.050
the Cressips and the Shikolame's. The patriarch Shikolame, also to
100
00:07:21.089 --> 00:07:24.389
match Thomas Cressip, was a man who did William Penn
101
00:07:24.430 --> 00:07:26.110
a favor. How so, Rob?
102
00:07:27.949 --> 00:07:31.310
So the Iroquois are very worried about the Iroquois, who
103
00:07:31.350 --> 00:07:34.149
was home bases today in upstate New York and are
104
00:07:34.300 --> 00:07:37.759
a very powerful confederation of at the beginning of the
105
00:07:37.800 --> 00:07:40.459
18th century, five nations. And then by the 1730s, it
106
00:07:40.699 --> 00:07:44.870
becomes known as the Six Nations. And they're very concerned
107
00:07:45.009 --> 00:07:51.050
about as Pennsylvania expands, there's more and more pressure on
108
00:07:52.509 --> 00:07:56.050
groups like the Shawnee in Delaware who live today in
109
00:07:56.750 --> 00:08:01.540
northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania especially. They are starting
110
00:08:01.579 --> 00:08:05.160
to migrate back to the Ohio country. The Shawnee come
111
00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:07.540
from there originally in the 17th century, and they're starting
112
00:08:07.560 --> 00:08:10.160
to head back to where they came from about three
113
00:08:10.199 --> 00:08:11.139
generations before.
114
00:08:11.790 --> 00:08:13.850
And the Iroquois are very concerned.
115
00:08:13.410 --> 00:08:22.019
About keeping their own political prominence in the eastern backcountry
116
00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:26.139
by dominating these groups and saying they have the political
117
00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:28.759
power over them. So as they begin to sort of
118
00:08:28.899 --> 00:08:30.899
migrate and try to slip out of the grasp of
119
00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:35.690
the Iroquois, they send a man named Shekelemi, who's an Oneida,
120
00:08:36.649 --> 00:08:42.519
to what is today Sunbury, Pennsylvania, to monitor– this migration
121
00:08:42.710 --> 00:08:45.909
and hopefully stop it. And so he becomes pals with
122
00:08:45.929 --> 00:08:50.409
William Penn's secretary, a man named James Logan. And together,
123
00:08:50.509 --> 00:08:55.320
Shekelemi and Logan put together some land deals that are
124
00:08:55.409 --> 00:08:57.960
bad for the Shawnees and the Delawares, but good for
125
00:08:57.980 --> 00:09:01.299
the Iroquois. And the most famous of those is the
126
00:09:01.340 --> 00:09:05.279
walking purchase, the very, very famous or infamous walking purchase
127
00:09:05.299 --> 00:09:05.860
of 1737.
128
00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:07.519
That is the.
129
00:09:07.820 --> 00:09:11.090
Walking purchase, which is basically a wholesale purchase conquest of
130
00:09:11.129 --> 00:09:16.250
the Eastern Delaware native peoples is orchestrated by the team
131
00:09:16.450 --> 00:09:19.490
of Shekelemi and Logan. And that's where the Logan name
132
00:09:19.549 --> 00:09:23.450
comes from. This man, James Logan, who is William Penn's
133
00:09:23.629 --> 00:09:28.330
sort of chief factotum, is so important to the Shekelemi
134
00:09:28.350 --> 00:09:32.909
family that he gives his two oldest sons the honorary
135
00:09:33.009 --> 00:09:35.509
names of Logan. That's where the name Logan of Logan's
136
00:09:35.549 --> 00:09:41.629
Lament comes from.
It's reflective of this this political partnership
137
00:09:41.789 --> 00:09:42.490
with James Logan.
138
00:09:42.929 --> 00:09:45.690
Oh, let's be clear now. We have two families. We're
139
00:09:45.710 --> 00:09:48.289
going to call one the Cressips. That's their proper name.
140
00:09:48.309 --> 00:09:50.389
We're going to call the other one the Shikolemi, but
141
00:09:50.429 --> 00:09:53.889
there are several Shikolemis and there are several Logans. So
142
00:09:53.909 --> 00:09:55.990
we have to sort them out as there are several,
143
00:09:56.840 --> 00:10:00.240
Thomases and Michaels and the Cressips. They use family names again.
144
00:10:00.820 --> 00:10:04.659
We're going to go into what is important here, which
145
00:10:04.740 --> 00:10:11.190
is Michael Cressip, Thomas Cressip's son, Colonel Thomas Cressip, his
146
00:10:11.250 --> 00:10:14.330
son Michael. And we're not going to go to Shikaleme,
147
00:10:14.730 --> 00:10:17.669
the diplomat, oh, not a diplomat. We're going to go
148
00:10:17.710 --> 00:10:21.720
to his second son, who is called James Logan Shikolemi.
149
00:10:22.360 --> 00:10:26.000
When we come back, the book is Heart of American Darkness.
150
00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:30.899
Robert G. Parkinson is the author, Bewilderment and Horror of
151
00:10:30.940 --> 00:10:37.990
the Early Frontier. I'm John Batchelor. I'm John Batchelor with
152
00:10:38.039 --> 00:10:41.529
Professor Robert Parkinson. His book is Heart of American Darkness,
153
00:10:42.090 --> 00:10:46.340
Bewilderment and Horror on the Early Frontier. I am very
154
00:10:46.399 --> 00:10:49.820
well read in revolutionary material. I have never seen all
155
00:10:49.860 --> 00:10:54.539
of this put together. Suddenly it becomes important to identify
156
00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:57.440
how it is the Native Americans were treated by the
157
00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:00.759
colonials and vice versa because they lived next door to
158
00:11:00.830 --> 00:11:05.690
each other. They took advantages of the same rivers. They
159
00:11:06.009 --> 00:11:09.429
hunted the same ground. They intermarried. All of this was
160
00:11:09.490 --> 00:11:14.110
happening while the colonials– the story we know very well–
161
00:11:14.549 --> 00:11:18.629
especially out of Boston, revolted from the English crown because
162
00:11:18.730 --> 00:11:23.769
of indifference. However, we now go to an additional irony
163
00:11:24.529 --> 00:11:29.779
that Rob finds, and I'm sympathetic to, the story by
164
00:11:29.840 --> 00:11:33.759
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness, about the conduct of a
165
00:11:33.779 --> 00:11:38.570
man named Kurtz coming up against natives, indigenous people in
166
00:11:38.710 --> 00:11:43.860
Central Africa. Rob? Can you explain quickly how these two
167
00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:46.559
stories intertwined for you?
168
00:11:47.440 --> 00:11:48.039
Absolutely.
169
00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:54.940
Bewilderment being the first word of the subtitle is the
170
00:11:55.019 --> 00:11:58.600
theme of the book for the author as well as
171
00:11:58.659 --> 00:12:01.419
the reader, I think, of trying to sort out what
172
00:12:01.480 --> 00:12:07.120
all happens here. And the title and the theme of
173
00:12:07.379 --> 00:12:16.000
thinking about Joseph Conrad's brilliant and yet problematic novella, Heart
174
00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:19.600
of Darkness, that was published in 1902. I would teach
175
00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:25.000
world history, John. In my first job, two sections of
176
00:12:25.059 --> 00:12:29.279
modern world history, and I would often teach this text
177
00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:33.049
and leave the classroom thinking, boy, this feels like a
178
00:12:33.090 --> 00:12:38.330
familiar story to me. This doesn't seem like– and when
179
00:12:38.360 --> 00:12:42.769
you take– for the readers of Heart of Darkness– you
180
00:12:42.840 --> 00:12:45.179
might have noticed that at the very, very beginning, at
181
00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:47.539
the very top of the story, the very first word
182
00:12:47.600 --> 00:12:51.019
spoken aloud by the narrator, Charles Marlowe, is, and this
183
00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:52.799
also was one of the dark places of the earth.
184
00:12:52.840 --> 00:12:55.720
And he's not talking about the Congo River in the
185
00:12:56.139 --> 00:13:00.000
1880s and 90s. He's not talking about the scramble for Africa.
186
00:13:00.100 --> 00:13:02.980
He's talking about the Thames River and what that must
187
00:13:03.019 --> 00:13:06.360
have been like for Roman soldiers, the ends of the earth.
188
00:13:07.639 --> 00:13:10.740
And so thinking about the Thames, which he then goes
189
00:13:10.860 --> 00:13:15.769
on to describe as– which also now floats the dreams
190
00:13:15.830 --> 00:13:20.049
of men, the seeds of commonwealths and the germs of
191
00:13:20.169 --> 00:13:22.389
empire now in the end of the 19th century for
192
00:13:22.429 --> 00:13:24.789
Britain was also a dark place on the earth. And
193
00:13:24.850 --> 00:13:28.570
I always thought that kind of transferability and the themes
194
00:13:28.610 --> 00:13:32.659
of how– Tell us something, or not tell us something,
195
00:13:32.980 --> 00:13:36.090
show us a new way to think about the American
196
00:13:36.129 --> 00:13:37.509
backcountry in the 18th century.
197
00:13:39.570 --> 00:13:44.149
The American backcountry now has to deal with these two families,
198
00:13:44.289 --> 00:13:48.559
and we've described them generally, but it's important to come
199
00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:53.820
to Michael Crescent. The year 1754 is important for George
200
00:13:53.860 --> 00:13:58.740
Washington because he doesn't die. He takes on the French...
201
00:14:00.149 --> 00:14:04.049
who are fighting the British Empire on the continent of
202
00:14:04.210 --> 00:14:08.629
North America, and the French have allies among the Native Americans.
203
00:14:09.210 --> 00:14:12.889
So do the British. This is supposed to be
confusing
204
00:14:12.929 --> 00:14:16.629
because everybody in the frontier was confused by it. George
205
00:14:16.700 --> 00:14:21.799
Washington had built something called Fort Necessity. He's quickly overwhelmed,
206
00:14:22.600 --> 00:14:28.039
and in retreat of the events of that time, lead him,
207
00:14:28.259 --> 00:14:31.940
one of the people in his party to murder a Frenchman.
208
00:14:32.259 --> 00:14:36.539
That may be the beginning of a global war. I
209
00:14:36.659 --> 00:14:41.889
mention that only because at that point Washington flees after
210
00:14:41.990 --> 00:14:46.450
these episodes and passes through Old Town, what is now
211
00:14:46.570 --> 00:14:49.169
Old Town, Maryland, which is the home of the Cressips.
212
00:14:50.210 --> 00:14:54.350
And Rob, you in the book present the fact that
213
00:14:55.090 --> 00:14:57.789
the Cressips would have been very well known to Washington
214
00:14:57.889 --> 00:15:01.009
and Washington to them What was he at that moment
215
00:15:01.049 --> 00:15:05.230
to them? How did they regard his failed mission in 54?
216
00:15:05.230 --> 00:15:11.289
They're very important to one another because they're all co-partners
217
00:15:11.350 --> 00:15:16.970
in the Ohio Company. And the Ohio Company is– the
218
00:15:17.429 --> 00:15:19.850
sort of center of gravity for the Ohio Company is
219
00:15:20.389 --> 00:15:25.070
the Lee family and the Washington family. And anybody– so
220
00:15:25.330 --> 00:15:29.590
the Ohio Company has requested– half a million acres in
221
00:15:29.629 --> 00:15:32.399
what today is the Forks of the Ohio as a
222
00:15:32.500 --> 00:15:36.419
private venture for them, a land speculation effort. And the
223
00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:41.980
Crown has agreed in 1749, agrees to allow the Ohio
224
00:15:42.019 --> 00:15:46.039
company 200,000 of the 500 that they've asked for right now.
225
00:15:46.450 --> 00:15:49.529
And then a further 300,000 if they settle a number
226
00:15:49.570 --> 00:15:54.370
of families in the vicinity of the Forks of the
227
00:15:54.409 --> 00:15:58.220
Ohio or the Pittsburgh region. And so the only people
228
00:15:58.279 --> 00:16:02.620
who are not either married to or are in relation
229
00:16:02.659 --> 00:16:05.320
to a Washington or a Lee family are the Cressips.
230
00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:09.759
Thomas Cressip is an original partner of the Ohio Company,
231
00:16:09.860 --> 00:16:13.269
and his oldest son, Daniel, the older brother to Michael,
232
00:16:13.669 --> 00:16:18.590
are Ohio Company partners. And so when Washington goes to
233
00:16:18.669 --> 00:16:20.309
Old Town, and he goes there several times over the
234
00:16:20.330 --> 00:16:24.230
course of his life, And sometimes he brings people with
235
00:16:24.269 --> 00:16:26.340
him who are other members of the Ohio Company. It's
236
00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:29.919
almost like a rump meeting of this group. And they're
237
00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:35.440
the spear point for English colonialism to the force, which
238
00:16:35.500 --> 00:16:40.110
scares the French so much, which brings on this conflict.
239
00:16:41.009 --> 00:16:45.769
So Washington's being there is a result of this venture
240
00:16:45.870 --> 00:16:48.889
that he thinks is going to make him a very,
241
00:16:48.929 --> 00:16:49.429
very rich man.
242
00:16:49.879 --> 00:16:52.419
There's no other way to say it that Washington's part
243
00:16:52.470 --> 00:16:56.629
of the land speculators that the Cressips represent. Everybody's involved
244
00:16:56.690 --> 00:16:59.320
in that. The English crown is trying to stop it,
245
00:16:59.370 --> 00:17:03.269
drawing lines in the Appalachians. Can't go beyond this. The
246
00:17:03.309 --> 00:17:07.170
French are very keen on keeping the British out. And
247
00:17:07.890 --> 00:17:12.750
the following year, General Braddock leads an expedition to what
248
00:17:12.809 --> 00:17:16.750
is now Pittsburgh and is soundly defeated and loses his life. Again,
249
00:17:17.549 --> 00:17:21.400
Washington and the men flee. back through Old Town. We're
250
00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:24.500
going to turn now. You see all these contests going on,
251
00:17:24.539 --> 00:17:27.779
and we haven't even got to the murder by Yellow Creek.
252
00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:32.480
The book is Heart of American Darkness, Robert Parkinson. Rob
253
00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:36.180
Parkinson is the author. This is CBS Eye on the World.
254
00:17:36.549 --> 00:17:43.910
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.
257
00:17:52.710 --> 00:17:55.849
This isn't good guys, bad guys. This is everybody moving
258
00:17:55.869 --> 00:17:59.869
around in what one side regards as a wilderness. The
259
00:17:59.930 --> 00:18:04.650
other side regards as very well settled and extremely tribal
260
00:18:05.329 --> 00:18:08.930
so that we have the Shawnees and the Delawares and
261
00:18:08.950 --> 00:18:15.009
the Mingos living side by side. And there are Wyandottes,
262
00:18:15.029 --> 00:18:17.630
there are other tribes. They all know their tribes. We
263
00:18:17.670 --> 00:18:21.410
have the colonials, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, living side by
264
00:18:21.470 --> 00:18:24.880
side and at odds. And then we have land speculators
265
00:18:24.930 --> 00:18:28.240
who look to take advantage of land that belongs in
266
00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:32.599
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
269
00:18:41.240 --> 00:18:45.539
Americans being savages. This word savage is routine, I learned
270
00:18:45.559 -->
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
278
00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:14.799
the word tribal.
279
00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:20.250
And We have long thought of native peoples as tribal,
280
00:19:20.549 --> 00:19:21.670
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
282
00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.019
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
00:19:32.420 --> 00:19:33.269
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
289
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
297
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.
301
00:20:28.619 --> 00:20:30.380
Pennsylvania and Virginia.
302
00:20:31.160 --> 00:20:36.019
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
309
00:21:04.619 --> 00:21:06.220
concerned about what is going on here.
310
00:21:07.160 --> 00:21:12.640
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
00:21:19.250 --> 00:21:21.789
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
00:23:02.869 --> 00:23:05.309
So they paddle down Yellow Creek and cross the Ohio River.
343
00:23:05.869 --> 00:23:08.230
And what they think is going to be an effort
344
00:23:08.250 --> 00:23:11.539
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
00:23:23.539 --> 00:23:26.640
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
00:23:41.809 --> 00:23:43.990
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
00:23:46.329 --> 00:23:49.190
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.