ebooks A Holocaust Reader: Responses to the Nazi Extermination by From Oxford University Press in History

Description

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