Document 6.1 WilliaM henrY, letter regarding attacks
of Paxton boys on Conestogo indians in
lancaster, Pennsylvania
1763After the evacuation of French forces from North America, British colonists and Native
Americans struggled for control of the western backcountry, best exemplified by Pon-
tiac’s Rebellion (1763) against British settlers in formerly French territories (Doc. 4.2). The
“Paxton Boys” (named for the town of Paxtang) attacked local Conestogo Indians, whom
they unfairly blamed for plotting an uprising against colonists in the region. The following
letter describes a massacre of Conestogo Indians by the Paxton Boys in central Pennsyl-
vania in the aftermath of the French and Indian War (1754–1763).There are few, if any murders to be compared with the cruel murder committed
on the Conestogo Indians in the jail of Lancaster, in 1763, by the Paxton boys, as
they were then called.... The first notice I had of this affair was, that while at my
father’s store, near the court house, I saw a number of people running down street
towards the jail, which enticed me and other lads to follow them. At about six or
eight yards from the jail, we met from twenty-five to thirty men, well mounted
on horses, and with rifles, tomahawks, and scalping knives, equipped for mur-
der. I ran into the prison yard, and there, oh what a horrid sight presented itself
to my view! Near the back door of the prison lay an old Indian and his squaw,
particularly well known and esteemed by the people of the town on account of
his placid and friendly conduct. His name was Will Soc; across him and squaw
lay two children, of about the age of three years, whose heads were split with the
tomahawk, and their scalps taken off. Towards the middle of the jail yard, along
the west side of the wall, lay a stout Indian, whom I particularly noticed to have
been shot in his breast; his legs were chopped with the tomahawk, his hands cut
off, and finally a rifle ball discharged in his mouth, so that his head was blown to
atoms, and the brains were splashed against and yet hanging to the wall, for three
or four feet around. This man’s hands and feet had also been chopped off with a
tomahawk.—In this manner lay the whole of them, men, women, and children,
spread about the prison yard; shot—scalped—hacked and cut to pieces.Israel Daniel Rupp, History of Lancaster County (Lancaster, PA: Gilbert Hills, 1844), 359–360.The Perils and Possibilities of expansion
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