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Welcome to the digital companion to the exhibition A New Looking-Glass for the 1764 Pamphlet War.
At the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763, France ceded to Britain its claim on North American territories spanning from Quebec to New Orleans. Faced with the prospect of British expansion, a diverse group of native peoples launched a preemptive strike against forts across the trans-Appalachian west.
That December, armed settlers from Paxton township murdered six unarmed Susquehannock in the Conestoga reservation, and 14 more sheltered in the Lancaster jailhouse. In January, they marched toward Philadelphia where the government harbored 140 Moravian Indians. They were stopped in Germantown by a delegation led by Benjamin Franklin, who persuaded their leaders to publish their grievances in a document, Declaration and Remonstrance.
Waged in pamphlets, political cartoons, broadsides, and correspondence, the ensuing pamphlet war featured some of Pennsylvania’s preeminent statesmen, including Benjamin Franklin, governor John Penn, and Hugh Williamson, who would later sign the U.S. Constitution. At stake was much more than the conduct of the Paxton men. Pamphleteers used the debate over the conduct of the Paxtons to stake claims about peace and settlement, race and ethnicity, masculinity and civility, and religious association in pre-Revolutionary Pennsylvania.
The material exhibition situates the stakes of the debate in the context of war, settlement, and nation-building. That exhibition will remain on display throughout the month of April 2017 at the Library Company of Philadelphia. This digital companion both mirrors and enriches that material exhibition by foregrounding the rich archival and scholarly resources available in the Digital Paxton.
Follow the path below Contents to explore the exhibition. In addition to tracing the narrative of the exhibition, web pages often include contextual Tags to supply further reading suggestions. If you have questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact the curator, Will Fenton, at fenton at fordham dot edu.
12017-03-28T17:11:16-07:00Will Fenton82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650aQuakers in the Crosshairs: The Early Paxton Debate4image_header2017-03-29T07:16:38-07:00Will Fenton82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650a
1media/1717 first map showing Indiantown_edited-1.jpg2017-02-08T08:18:08-08:00Will Fenton82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650aA History of Conestoga IndiantownWill Fenton9Darvin L. Martinimage_header2017-02-28T06:02:17-08:00Will Fenton82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650a
1media/brubaker cover iamge.jpg2016-10-24T08:09:43-07:00Will Fenton82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650aThe Aftermath of the Conestoga MassacreWill Fenton7Jack Brubakerimage_header2017-03-14T12:51:35-07:00Will Fenton82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650a
12016-10-16T11:29:58-07:00Will Fenton82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650aElitesWill Fenton6Scott Paul Gordonimage_header2016-10-16T13:11:50-07:00Will Fenton82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650a
This page references:
12016-08-19T12:59:13-07:00A Declaration and Remonstrance - Title Page1A declaration and remonstrance of the distressed and bleeding frontier inhabitants of the province of Pennsylvania, presented by them to the Honourable the governor and Assembly of the province, shewing the causes of their late discontent and uneasiness and the grievances under which they have laboured, and which they humbly pray to have redress'd.2016-08-19T12:59:13-07:00
