Speculators in Empire Iroquoia and the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix pb

Speculators in Empire: Iroquoia and the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix by William J Campbell, assistant professor of history at California State University, explores the Six Nations Iroquois-British diplomacy leading up to this historic treaty. At the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the British secured the largest land cession in colonial North America. Crown representatives gained possession of an area claimed but not occupied by the Iroquois that encompassed parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. The Six Nations Iroquois, however, were far from naïve—and the outcome was not an instance of their simply being dispossessed by Europeans. Campbell examines the diplomacy, land speculation, and empire building that led up to the treaty. His detailed study overturns common assumptions about the roles of the Iroquois and British on the eve of the American Revolution. Through the treaty, the Six Nations directed the expansion of empire in order to serve their own needs while Crown negotiators obtained more territory than they were authorized to accept. How did this questionable transfer happen, who benefited, and at what cost? Campbell unravels complex intercultural negotiations in which colonial officials, land speculators, traders, Nations, and individuals pursued a variety of agendas, each side possessing considerable understanding of the other’s expectations and intentions. Historians have credited British Indian superintendent Sir William Johnson with pulling off the land grab, but Campbell shows that Johnson was only one of many players. Johnson’s deputy, George Croghan, used the treaty to capitalize on a lifetime of scheming and speculation. Iroquois leaders and their peoples also benefited substantially. With keen awareness of the workings of the English legal system, they gained protection for their homelands by opening the Ohio country to settlement. Unfortunately the years following the Treaty meant Haudenosaunee lands were again under threat. The book contains maps, bibliography, and an index.