The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America (Cultural Origins of North America)

403 Pages·1986·21.06 MB·English

by  James Axtell

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THE CULTURAL ORIGINS OF NORTH AMERICA �Z·
The Invasion wIt
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l. The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in
The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America
Colonial North America
JAMES AXTELL
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1985
Oxford University Press Human life is reduced to real suffering,
Oxford New York Toronto to hell, only when two ages, two cultures
Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi
and religions, overlap.
Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo
Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town ALBRECHT VON HALLER
Melbourne Auckland
and associated companies in
Beirut Berlin Ibadan Mexico City Nicosia
Copyright © 1985 by James Axtell
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Axtell, James.
The invasion within.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Indians of North America-Cultural assimilation.
2. Acculturation-United States-History.
3. Acculturation-Canada-History. 4. Indians of
North America-Government relations-To 1789.
5. Canada-Social conditions-To 1763. 6. United
States-Social conditions-To 1865. 7. North America­
History-Colonial period. ca. 1600-1775. I. Title.
E98.C89A93 1985 970.02 85-7260
ISBN 0-19-503596-8
Printing (last digit): 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
Oxford University Press Human life is reduced to real suffering,
Oxford New York Toronto to hell, only when two ages, two cultures
Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi
and religions, overlap.
Kuala Lumpur Singapore Hong Kong Tokyo
Nairobi Dar es Salaam Cape Town ALBRECHT VON HALLER
Melbourne Auckland
and associated companies in
Beirut Berlin Ibadan Mexico City Nicosia
Copyright © 1985 by James Axtell
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Axtell, James.
The invasion within.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Indians of North America-Cultural assimilation.
2. Acculturation-United States-History.
3. Acculturation-Canada-History. 4. Indians of
North America-Government relations-To 1789.
5. Canada-Social conditions-To 1763. 6. United
States-Social conditions-To 1865. 7. North America­
History-Colonial period. ca. 1600-1775. I. Title.
E98.C89A93 1985 970.02 85-7260
ISBN 0-19-503596-8
Printing (last digit): 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
As always, for Susan
As always, for Susan
Preface
I seek to bee short, howsoever my
Subject causeth mee to bee voluminous.
MARC LESCARBOT
Any book that takes nearly twelve years to write calls for an explanation.
This book began in 1972 as a tidy seven-chapter outline, the naive inspiration
of the author of a recent article on the New England colonists' education at
the hands of their Indian neighbors. Having probed a few aspects of accultur­
ation on one side of the colonial frontier, I was curious to know what impact
the major competing cultures of eastern North America-English, French,
and Indian-had had upon each other, especially when they set out con­
sciously to educate or convert their rivals.
Five years later, having plunged into the research and come up sputtering, I
finally conceded that a satisfactory answer could not be obtained in less than
double the number of chapters and two additional volumes. That concession
was made in full recognition of-and mixed admiration for-the work of
Francis Parkman, whose eight-volume France and England in America still
casts a shadow over the writing of colonial history. Parkman's questions,
however, are not mine, so his majestically framed answers (and prejudices) do
not speak to my concerns. Even if they did, modern readers would not be well
served by his Olympian style, which is best read in morning coat and spats.
In history as in other disciplines, new questions invariably open new
perspectives, which in turn uncover new strategies of research and new
sources. While I happily (if more hesitantly) share Parkman's spacious geo­
graphical terrain, I am less concerned with military and political affairs on
the grand scale than with social and cultural interactions on a broad scale.
And I am interested in the educational and acculturative impact of each
society upon the others, which has forced me to seek ways of understanding
America's native cultures that are seldom used by historians of literate
European groups. The best strategy I found was ethnohistory, an imaginative
but disciplined blend of anthropological and historical methods, concepts,
and materials. Demanding parity of focus, unusual sources, and tolerance for
disciplinary tension, ethnohistory is perfectly suited to the moral and cultural
complexities of frontier history, as I have argued and tried to show in The
European and the Indian: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North
America. *
·New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Preface
I seek to bee short, howsoever my
Subject causeth mee to bee voluminous.
MARC LESCARBOT
Any book that takes nearly twelve years to write calls for an explanation.
This book began in 1972 as a tidy seven-chapter outline, the naive inspiration
of the author of a recent article on the New England colonists' education at
the hands of their Indian neighbors. Having probed a few aspects of accultur­
ation on one side of the colonial frontier, I was curious to know what impact
the major competing cultures of eastern North America-English, French,
and Indian-had had upon each other, especially when they set out con­
sciously to educate or convert their rivals.
Five years later, having plunged into the research and come up sputtering, I
finally conceded that a satisfactory answer could not be obtained in less than
double the number of chapters and two additional volumes. That concession
was made in full recognition of-and mixed admiration for-the work of
Francis Parkman, whose eight-volume France and England in America still
casts a shadow over the writing of colonial history. Parkman's questions,
however, are not mine, so his majestically framed answers (and prejudices) do
not speak to my concerns. Even if they did, modern readers would not be well
served by his Olympian style, which is best read in morning coat and spats.
In history as in other disciplines, new questions invariably open new
perspectives, which in turn uncover new strategies of research and new
sources. While I happily (if more hesitantly) share Parkman's spacious geo­
graphical terrain, I am less concerned with military and political affairs on
the grand scale than with social and cultural interactions on a broad scale.
And I am interested in the educational and acculturative impact of each
society upon the others, which has forced me to seek ways of understanding
America's native cultures that are seldom used by historians of literate
European groups. The best strategy I found was ethnohistory, an imaginative
but disciplined blend of anthropological and historical methods, concepts,
and materials. Demanding parity of focus, unusual sources, and tolerance for
disciplinary tension, ethnohistory is perfectly suited to the moral and cultural
complexities of frontier history, as I have argued and tried to show in The
European and the Indian: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North
America. *
·New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
x THE INVASION WITHIN Preface xi
state and national lines but as a topographical map marked only by the
The present volume, then, is an ethnohistory of the colonial French,
natural features of the continent. In the primary effort to reconstruct North
English, and Indian efforts to convert each other. Its two sequels wilJ carry
forward the story of their cultural interaction over more than two centuries. America as it appeared to the natives and colonists who made it their home, I
have indeed tried to follow my own advice. But for the sake of the reader I
The first, American Encounter: The Confluence of Cultures in Colonial
have freely used modern town, state, and provincial names, without the
North America, wilJ examine the ways in which the three cultures became like
awkward prefix "present-day," to locate historical events. Inconsistency is
each other or simply changed as a result of competing and occasionally
sometimes the price of clarity.
cooperating. The second, The European Presence: The Conflict of Cultures
Other choices have been less difficult. I have used "Indians" rather than
in Colonial North America, will seek to explain how the English eventually
"Amerindians," "Amerinds," or "Native Americans" to designate the Ameri­
won the eastern half of the continent from their native and European rivals,
can natives because the former is simpler, sanctioned by tradition, norma­
and at what cost.
tively neutral, and preferred by the vast majority of native people themselves,
It may be asked why the Spanish do not appear in these pages. Two
past and present. Most of the time I refer to members of specific tribes, which
historical reasons and one stylistic consideration must serve. First, by design
raises a possible point of confusion. Ethnological usage distinguishes between
and circumstances the Spanish in the Southeast were not serious contenders
the Algonquin tribe (on the Ottawa River west of Montreal) and the Algon­
for continental hegemony east of the Mississippi; at most they hoped to
quian language family, which spoke closely related dialects (comparable, say,
safeguard their supply routes and bullion fleets in the Caribbean. Second,
to the Romance language family). There was only one tribe of Algonquins,
while Spanish arms and allies posed some threat to the southernmost English
but most of the tribes in the Eastern Woodlands spoke an Algonquian
and (after 1700) French colonies, cultural intercourse was minimal, quite
unlike the extensive exchanges between New France and the northern Eng­ language and were thus known collectively as Algonquians. The exceptions
lish colonies in both war and peace. And finally, even if historical marginality were the five (later six) nations of Iroquois in New York State and a few other
had not excluded the Spanish, the demands of stylistic economy might have. tribes around the eastern Great Lakes (such as the Hurons and Neutrals),
A cast of three main characters is manageable; any more would risk confu­ which spoke Iroquoian languages (equivalent to the Germanic languages). As
sion. In the classroom I have long advocated "A North American Perspective the preceding sentence illustrates, I also refer to the collective members of the
for Colonial History," in which the Spanish, east and west, share the lime­ Huron tribe as "the Hurons," not "the Huron." The latter is a nonsensical
light with the English, French, and Indians. * But in books less ambitious ethnological convention left over from the nineteenth century; with good
than a survey text, selectivity based on historical relevance is a virtuous reason anthropologists steadfastly refuse to say things like "The Puritan
necessity. were . . . ."
Speaking metaphorically of diverse ethnic or national groups as "charac­ Three final notes on usage: I have silently removed indiscriminate italics
ters" might seem misleading and unfaithful to the complexity of the past. I from quotations when it was obvious that they did not contribute to the
h�v� tri�d �o avoid the danger of overgeneralization (some is desirable) by author's meaning but simply distracted the modern reader's eye. For the same
dlstmgUlshmg as often and as clearly as possible individuals, interest groups, reason I have been sparing in my own use of quotation marks to emphasize
and communities within the three societies. Particularly in treating the Indi­ that normatively loaded words such as "pagan," "civilized," and "savage"
ans, I have heeded the warning of Father Paul Le Jeune, who in 1633 noted should be taken not as my characterizations but as those .of contemporary
that "after having seen two or three Indians do the same thing, it is at once Europeans. The reader should bracket such words with mental quotation
reported to be a custom of the whole Tribe. The argument drawn from the marks each time they appear; the context in which they appear will also help
enumeration of parts is faulty, if it does not comprehend all or the greater to avoid misunderstanding. Likewise, I have frequently used the native
part. Add to this that there are many tribes in these countries who agree in a phrase "Black Robes" to designate Jesuit missionaries, and the uncapitalized
num�er of things, and differ in many others; so that, when it is said that "black robes" to indicate other missionaries, mainly Protestant. One rela­
certam practices are common to the Indians, it may be true of one tribe and tively simple way ethnohistory can begin to give equal treatment to its
�ot. true of another. "t What Le Jeune said of Indians applies with equal cultural subjects is to allow them to judge each other through the value-laden
Justice to the French and the English. language each used to characterize the others.
I have also chosen to sin venially against my own preachment to view the The task of writing frontier ethnohistory is difficult enough when only two
geography of colonial America not as a political map crisscrossed by modern societies are the subject. But maintaining a balanced focus on and special
empathy for the diverse peoples of three societies, two of them at a very
different stage of development than the third, poses a unique challenge to the
*The History Teacher 12 (1979):549-62.
historian. I therefore take some comfort from a colonial predecessor in
(CltevReeluabnedn, 1G89o6l-d 19T0h1w),a6it:e2s7,. ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 73 vols. tricultural studies and reiterate his plea. "An Historian's Views must be
x THE INVASION WITHIN Preface xi
state and national lines but as a topographical map marked only by the
The present volume, then, is an ethnohistory of the colonial French,
natural features of the continent. In the primary effort to reconstruct North
English, and Indian efforts to convert each other. Its two sequels wilJ carry
forward the story of their cultural interaction over more than two centuries. America as it appeared to the natives and colonists who made it their home, I
have indeed tried to follow my own advice. But for the sake of the reader I
The first, American Encounter: The Confluence of Cultures in Colonial
have freely used modern town, state, and provincial names, without the
North America, wilJ examine the ways in which the three cultures became like
awkward prefix "present-day," to locate historical events. Inconsistency is
each other or simply changed as a result of competing and occasionally
sometimes the price of clarity.
cooperating. The second, The European Presence: The Conflict of Cultures
Other choices have been less difficult. I have used "Indians" rather than
in Colonial North America, will seek to explain how the English eventually
"Amerindians," "Amerinds," or "Native Americans" to designate the Ameri­
won the eastern half of the continent from their native and European rivals,
can natives because the former is simpler, sanctioned by tradition, norma­
and at what cost.
tively neutral, and preferred by the vast majority of native people themselves,
It may be asked why the Spanish do not appear in these pages. Two
past and present. Most of the time I refer to members of specific tribes, which
historical reasons and one stylistic consideration must serve. First, by design
raises a possible point of confusion. Ethnological usage distinguishes between
and circumstances the Spanish in the Southeast were not serious contenders
the Algonquin tribe (on the Ottawa River west of Montreal) and the Algon­
for continental hegemony east of the Mississippi; at most they hoped to
quian language family, which spoke closely related dialects (comparable, say,
safeguard their supply routes and bullion fleets in the Caribbean. Second,
to the Romance language family). There was only one tribe of Algonquins,
while Spanish arms and allies posed some threat to the southernmost English
but most of the tribes in the Eastern Woodlands spoke an Algonquian
and (after 1700) French colonies, cultural intercourse was minimal, quite
unlike the extensive exchanges between New France and the northern Eng­ language and were thus known collectively as Algonquians. The exceptions
lish colonies in both war and peace. And finally, even if historical marginality were the five (later six) nations of Iroquois in New York State and a few other
had not excluded the Spanish, the demands of stylistic economy might have. tribes around the eastern Great Lakes (such as the Hurons and Neutrals),
A cast of three main characters is manageable; any more would risk confu­ which spoke Iroquoian languages (equivalent to the Germanic languages). As
sion. In the classroom I have long advocated "A North American Perspective the preceding sentence illustrates, I also refer to the collective members of the
for Colonial History," in which the Spanish, east and west, share the lime­ Huron tribe as "the Hurons," not "the Huron." The latter is a nonsensical
light with the English, French, and Indians. * But in books less ambitious ethnological convention left over from the nineteenth century; with good
than a survey text, selectivity based on historical relevance is a virtuous reason anthropologists steadfastly refuse to say things like "The Puritan
necessity. were . . . ."
Speaking metaphorically of diverse ethnic or national groups as "charac­ Three final notes on usage: I have silently removed indiscriminate italics
ters" might seem misleading and unfaithful to the complexity of the past. I from quotations when it was obvious that they did not contribute to the
h�v� tri�d �o avoid the danger of overgeneralization (some is desirable) by author's meaning but simply distracted the modern reader's eye. For the same
dlstmgUlshmg as often and as clearly as possible individuals, interest groups, reason I have been sparing in my own use of quotation marks to emphasize
and communities within the three societies. Particularly in treating the Indi­ that normatively loaded words such as "pagan," "civilized," and "savage"
ans, I have heeded the warning of Father Paul Le Jeune, who in 1633 noted should be taken not as my characterizations but as those .of contemporary
that "after having seen two or three Indians do the same thing, it is at once Europeans. The reader should bracket such words with mental quotation
reported to be a custom of the whole Tribe. The argument drawn from the marks each time they appear; the context in which they appear will also help
enumeration of parts is faulty, if it does not comprehend all or the greater to avoid misunderstanding. Likewise, I have frequently used the native
part. Add to this that there are many tribes in these countries who agree in a phrase "Black Robes" to designate Jesuit missionaries, and the uncapitalized
num�er of things, and differ in many others; so that, when it is said that "black robes" to indicate other missionaries, mainly Protestant. One rela­
certam practices are common to the Indians, it may be true of one tribe and tively simple way ethnohistory can begin to give equal treatment to its
�ot. true of another. "t What Le Jeune said of Indians applies with equal cultural subjects is to allow them to judge each other through the value-laden
Justice to the French and the English. language each used to characterize the others.
I have also chosen to sin venially against my own preachment to view the The task of writing frontier ethnohistory is difficult enough when only two
geography of colonial America not as a political map crisscrossed by modern societies are the subject. But maintaining a balanced focus on and special
empathy for the diverse peoples of three societies, two of them at a very
different stage of development than the third, poses a unique challenge to the
*The History Teacher 12 (1979):549-62.
historian. I therefore take some comfort from a colonial predecessor in
(CltevReeluabnedn, 1G89o6l-d 19T0h1w),a6it:e2s7,. ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 73 vols. tricultural studies and reiterate his plea. "An Historian's Views must be
THE INVASION WITHIN
Xli
curious and extensive," wrote Cadwallader Colden in 1727 in his History of
the Five Indian Nations of Canada, "and the History of different People and
different Ages requires different Rules, and often different Abilities to write
it; I hope therefore the Reader will, from these Considerations, receive this
first Attempt of this kind, with more than usual Allowances." Acknowledgments
Williamsburg, Va. J. A.
History is not a problem.
The writing of it is.
SA VOlE LOTTINVILLE
While this book has been too many years in the making, one benefit of such
tarriance is that I have accumulated a large number of happy debts to people
and institutions who have smoothed the way of the researcher, freed the time
of the teacher, honed the words of the writer, and tolerated the single­
mindedness of the father-husband.
The most enjoyable aspect of scholarship is the shared discovery upon
which it depends and toward which it is aimed. By their nature, libraries are
perhaps the most generous institutions. I have received unflagging assistance
and courtesy from the Yale University Library; the Dartmouth College Li­
brary; the Hamilton College Library and Walter Pilkington; the University of
Maine Library, Orono; the Northwestern University Library; the American
Philosophical Society; the New-York Historical Society; the Moravian Ar­
chives, Bethlehem, Pa.; the Connecticut Historical Society; the Connecticut
Archives; the Massachusetts Archives; the Massachusetts Historical Society
and its director, Leonard Tucker (who kindly supplied a reproduction of the
portrait of Esther Wheelwright); the Library of Congress Manuscript Divi­
sion; the Congregational Library, Boston; the Newberry Library and John
Aubrey; the McGill University Library; the University of Ottawa Library; the
Public Archives of Canada and Michel Wyczynski of the Manuscript Divi­
sion; and especially from the staff of the Swem Library of the College of
William and Mary, for which I am most grateful.
The ethnohistorian must go beyond the library into the museum and the
field in order to recapture the living presence of his subjects. My education in
material culture, Indian and European, has been greatly enhanced by visits to
the Field Museum, Chicago; the Museum of the American Indian, New York;
the Smithsonian Institution; the Cherokee (N.C.) Museum; the New York
State Museum, Albany; the Caughnawaga Museum, Fonda, N.Y.; Plimoth
Plantation; Colonial Williamsburg; Roanoke Island and Jamestown Island
(National Park Service); Fort Ticonderoga; Fortress Louisbourg; the Micmac
Museum, Pictou, N.S.; the New Brunswick Provincial Museum, St. John; La
Maison Saint-Gabriel, Montreal; Ste. Marie-among-the-Hurons, Midland,
Ont.; the Lawson Museum of Indian Archaeology, London, Ont.; and the
National Museum of Man, Ottawa. I am particularly indebted to Ken Lister
and Mirna Kapches of the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and Conrad