[Arlo]
> But the interesting thing here is that this kind of
> overlooks the
> idea that America was a "synthesis" of European and
> Indian values. No
> one's suggesting that the entirety of the government
> was modeled
> after Indians, but that elements of Indian life
> (such as
> egalitarianism) and elements of European life (class
> hierarchies) were melded.
Anybody ever been to a French and Indian War
re-enactment and 'fair'. Around here, they are
popular. The war did start here, the signs on the
road showing where George Washington (as a young man)
traveled from Virginia to Fort LaBoeff (spelling) to
give the French a message to get out of what is now
Western PA, so the Virginians Ohio Company partly
owned by the governor of Virginia, Dinwiddie
(spelling). The Virginians wanted the land to expand
their land ownership that began when the colony was
first established. If you, a new employee from
England, worked seven years, I believe the timeframe
was, on somebodies land, then you could get your own
land for free, and this process went on til land
became scarce as the Indians died out (war, disease,
etc...) the pressure at this point in time
(mid-1700's) was the French in Western PA. The French
were claiming land from Canada to Erie, the French
Creek (Fort LaBoeff), down the Allegheny River, Ohio
and then Mississippi River and all lands west, except
for the Spanish lands in California and Mexico, etc...
Well, young George Washington delivered the message,
the French followed him to see what kind of solider
force Washington had in the region. Further south,
below the eventual Pittsburgh, Washington found out
the French followed him. The French were under orders
to follow Washington and keep an eye on him.
Washington walked to the French encampment at
Jumonville Glen, and somebody in Washington's force
fired first. "The Shot Heard Round the World"
occurred, and then the war began. The British thought
the Americas needed a disciplined, well ordered force
to conquer the French. The British and French stayed
out of conflict in Western PA, for the most part, in
the early years until General Braddock a British
officer of British officers straight out of England
came with a force to take Western PA from the French.
He complained bitterly about the undisciplined U.S.
colonists who he said fought like the savages, had no
discipline, and with all his color and British
discipline said he would tame the land. He soon found
it difficult to tame the U.S. colonist much less to
try to tame the land, including the Amerindians who
were involved in the war on both sides. Braddock died
in Western PA as many of the bullets came out from the
trees from undisciplined Amerindians who knew how to
shoot and take cover. The British tried to fight in
the open in their usual orderly way. The French took
cover, and the U.S. colonists who knew fighting in
these woods was not to be the usual British style,
also hid beyond trees to fight. The British regulars
complained about this unorderly fighting, but many
U.S. colonist saw this fighting before and understood
the terrain and ways of these woods. Freedom, freedom
in the mind of each individual solider helped. The
British lost this battle under Braddock, but at the
re-enactments it is easily seen in the clothing
themselves, the order of the British, the loosely
ordered U.S. regulars, the Roger's Rangers style of
U.S. colonists who adopted the Amerindian fighting
techniques that were models influencing what would
eventually became today's Special Forces, and the
pragmatic fighters of the Amerindian who knew the
logistics and fought with the freedom that some would
later say would be a freedom that couldn't fight back
against the imperialistic mindset of the U.S.
expansion west that fought to exterminate whole
societies not for honor, but $ (remember why the
French and Indian War even started, the Ohio Companies
business expansion). Oh, and by the way, that young
George Washington interested in delivering the French
the message and ridding the French for Ohio Company's
business interest, well, we all may know became the
1st President of the U.S.
The styles of fighting, the clothing, and much
else during the French and Indian War era showed
distinctly the clash of cultures that still held their
own but were on the verge of merging in the
northeastern U.S and eastern Canada.
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