Chronology of American Indian History

P

forts. When they refuse, he recommends that the
Virginia militia be sent to remove them (see entry
for JULY 4, 1754).

1754

Moor’s Indian Charity School is founded.
Congregational minister Eleazer Wheelock estab-
lishes Moor’s Indian Charity School in Lebanon,
Connecticut, with the support of the Society in
Scotland for Propagating Christian Knowledge.
The school will educate approximately 45 Indian
boys and 15 Indian girls. The boys will receive a
classical education, including lessons in Greek,
Latin, and Hebrew. The girls will be trained in sew-
ing and housekeeping, so they will be able to assist
the male students in future missionary work. The
school will later be moved to Hanover, New Hamp-
shire, and become part of Dartmouth College (see
entry for 1769).

July 4

A Virginia militia attack initiates the French
and Indian War.
Following a failed attempt to persuade the French
to leave the Ohio River valley (see entry for 1753),
George Washington leads the Virginia militia to the
region, where the English have begun building forts
to protect their land claims. With the help of the
Mingo Indians under Chief Half-King, the soldiers
attack a patrol of Frenchmen, killing 10 and captur-
ing 24. In response to the attack, the French force
the militia to retreat and drive off the Englishmen
constructing the forts.
The incident leads the French to amass a huge
army of Indian warriors and helps initiate the
French and Indian War. Although this conflict,
pitting the English against the French for control
over North America, begins with Washington’s
attack, war will not be formally declared until
two years later. (See also entries for JULY 9, 1755;
SEPTEMBER 8, 1755; SEPTEMBER 9, 1760; and
FEBRUARY 10, 1763.)

June to July

The Albany Congress is held.

Preparing for war with France, representatives from

seven British colonies gather in Albany, New York,

to organize a united military offensive. Also in at-

tendance are Iroquois leaders, whom the colonists

want to impress with their resolve to band together

to battle the French. The colonial leaders hope to

coax the Iroquois into abandoning their policy of

neutrality in European wars (see entry for SUMMER

1701) and joining the British cause.

“It would be a very strange

thing if Six Nations of ignorant

savages should be capable of

forming a scheme for such a

union, and be able to execute

it in such a manner, as that it

has subsisted for ages, and ap-

pears indissoluble; and yet that

a like union should be impracti-

cable for ten or a dozen English

colonies, to whom it is more

necessary and must be more

advantageous, and whom can-

not be supposed to want an

equal understanding of their

interests.”

—Benjamin Franklin in 1751 on

the Iroquois League as a model

for a confederacy of colonies

The British fail miserably in these aims. The

meetings are contentious, and leaders from Penn-

sylvania and Connecticut scramble to make secret,

illegal deals with the Iroquois for Indian land that

both colonies claim as their own. Disgusted by

the colonists’ behavior and unconvinced of their

military preparedness, the Iroquois declare that the