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Digital Paxton: Digital Collection, Critical Edition, and Teaching Platform

Introduction

Welcome to Digital Paxton. This site isn't only a digital collection dedicated to a massacre, but also a window into colonization, print culture, and Pennsylvania on the eve of the American Revolution.

The “Paxton” in Digital Paxton refers to a little-known massacre in colonial Pennsylvania.

In December 1763, a mob of settlers from Paxtang Township murdered 20 unarmed Susquehannock Indians in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. A month later, hundreds of "Paxton Boys" marched toward Philadelphia to menace and possibly kill more refugee Indians who sought the protection of the Pennsylvania government. While Benjamin Franklin halted the march just outside of Philadelphia in Germantown, supporters of the Paxton Boys and their critics spent the next year battling in print.

The Paxton Boys accused the Conestoga Indians of colluding with the Ohio Country Lenape and Shawnee warriors who were attacking Pennsylvania's western frontier, a charge that had no basis in fact. Their opponents accused the Paxton Boys of behaving more savagely than the Indians they had killed.

The pamphlet war that followed in 1764 was not so different from the Twitter wars of today. Pamphleteers waged battle using pseudonyms, slandering opponents as failed elites and racial traitors. At stake was much more than the conduct of the Paxton men. Pamphleteers staked claims about colonization, peace and war, race and ethnicity, masculinity and civility, and religious association in pre-Revolutionary Pennsylvania.

Digital Paxton began in Spring 2016 when Will Fenton partnered with the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to digitize both institutions' rich holdings related to the Paxton massacre. Originally conceived as a way to make those records freely accessible via the web, the site quickly expanded to include primary source materials from some two-dozen archives, research libraries, and cultural institutions; a dozen contextual essays from leading historians and literary scholars; and half a dozen lessons from secondary and post-secondary educators.

Jump to Credits.

As of July 2024, the site features 3,225 pages of material, including 41 artworks, four books, 17 broadsides, 236 manuscripts, 27 newspaper issues, 71 pamphlets, and nine political cartoons, many of which have never before been digitized. About half of the collection (108 records) is fully-transcribed and searchable, and new transcriptions are added on a regular basis.

Jump to the Digital Collection.

The site also includes six middle school, 13 high school, and three undergraduate lesson plans; 14 contextual essays written by leading historians and literary scholars; and a crowd-sourced transcription platform.

Jump to Education.
Jump to Transcriptions.

Will Fenton has presented Digital Paxton at numerous archival, digital humanities, and public events, and the project has been featured in academic journals (American Quarterly, Common-place, Journal of Interactive Teaching & Pedagogy), general interest publications (Albuquerque Journal, PennLive.com, Philadelphia Inquirer, and WHYY), special interest publications (American Indian, Education Week, History News Magazine, and Humanities Magazine), podcasts (Code Switch and Our Fake History), and other media (C-SPAN and Pennsylvania Cable Network).

Jump to Public Outreach.

Thanks to the support of The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Digital Paxton has grown considerably, with new archival materials, contextual essays, and lesson plans. It's also given rise to an exciting new public humanities project: Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga is a Native American graphic novel available both online and in print and a public art exhibition at the Library Company of Philadelphia. To learn more about future plans, follow Digital Paxton on social media or visit GhostRiver.org.

Jump to GHOST RIVER.

To learn more about how to use Digital Paxton, follow this path to "Using Digital Paxton," listed below Contents. To submit questions, share feedback, or get involved in the project, contact the editor.

Jump to Contact.

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Penn's Treaty with the Indians (1771-72) Commissioned by Thomas Penn, son of Pennsylvania's founder, this painting depicts a legendary meeting between William Penn and members of the Lennie Lenape tribe at Shackamaxon on the Delaware River. Honoring his patron's and his own Quaker heritage, West employed a Neoclassical style to suggest both visual and political harmony. By depicting the three factions that shaped Pennsylvania for most of the eighteenth century - Native Americans, Quakers, and merchants - united in the act of settlement, West created a powerful symbol of peace. Although the scene is allegorical rather than historical, the image has become an icon of American history.Benjamin West was the first American-born artist to earn acclaim outside his homeland. West was born in Springfield (now Swarthmore), Pennsylvania, and his early artistic promise encouraged Philadelphia's leading citizens to finance his training in Rome. Subsequently, in 1763 West traveled to London and never returned to the Colonies. His acclaim as a painter of historical scenes attracted the attention of King George III. West was appointed official history painter to the king and was a founder and later was elected president of the Royal Academy. Well aware that, as an American, he was a novelty, West used this mystique to his advantage, claiming that he had learned color mixing from Native Americans. He greatly contributed to American art in his role as teacher and advisor to the many early American artists who came to London to study with him.
Franklin and the Quakers
Ghost River Trailer
Events in Indian history: beginning with an account of the origin of the American Indians, and early settlements in North America, and embracing concise biographies of the principal chiefs and head-sachems of the different Indian tribes, with narratives a