The American Revolution --"WE should rule OURSELVES" and European thought.

Random thoughts from the last few days:

No one should be mocked for the color of their skin or their sex and that includes White males. Nuff said. Not sure why it has become fashionable in some circles to pretend this isn't racism, but it is. The goal, I thought, was to work towards an America that was a color-blind meritocracy where people of all classes and colors work in harmony and if you think this sort of divisive nonsense somehow helps, well, you are wrong and deserve to be called out on it. Nuff said.

If you think it is appropriate to mock White Males because they are White Males then your vision of America and its ideals does not match mine because my vision of America welcomes people of all races, and colors and I will resist you. Simple enough.

Second, three days after July 4th I find myself reading a classic historical work on the Hessians and other German Auxiliaries of the American revolution. (I finished the book on the French in that war.) For those who don't know their history, in 1775, the British government found itself faced with a large scale uprising in its North American colonies. They needed to send large amounts of troops to try to put down the armed uprising. There were not enough British troops to do this and meet the other obligations of the British army. So the British government looked to hire troops abroad to send to fight in America. Germany was not a unified nation and instead a collection of independent feudal states of various sizes. About half a dozen of the petty tyrants of the minor German states agreed to rent or sell their subjects and citizens to the British with the plan being to put them in military units and ship them to America to fight in a distant war all without their consent or agreement.

As Hesse-Hanau sent the most, such troops are often called Hessians, but this was not the only small German state that sent it's citizens to the USA.

Along the way, the German draftees at times tried to mutiny and riot or escape, but most got to America where they fought George Washington, the other patriot leaders, and their armies. (Please no airport jokes, please. They've worn thin.)  And they often fought surprisingly well once there, and despite not having chosen their lot, there seem to be few if any records that they considered their fate to be unjust, immoral, or a sign of an underlying social or political problem. After all these Germans considered such acts by petty tyrants to be a natural state of affairs for mankind. Instead they seemed to have just considered themselves rather unlucky to be the ones having gotten chosen to do this, but it was only natural to expect such things to happen and it wasn't something one could really do anything about.

Which sort of makes me think how amazing it was that the Americans of this time said "WE should rules OURSELVES." And that was a pretty radical idea for the time. A very radical idea.

And then they tried to make it happen.

And while half informed pseudo-intellectuals today are quite quick to say "What about the Indians? What about the Blacks? The women?" and then use this as a reason to dismiss the entire process and events of the American Revolution as somehow being unimportant and even immoral, they're missing the significance of the whole thing.

The idea was "WE should rules OURSELVES."

And this was in direct contrast to how the Germans of the  day lived.

The Germans sort of thought "WE are ruled by others, WE have no say in the process, and that is the way things always have been and always will be. It is natural.

And not only that, the bulk of the German citizenry had never considered that there might be a better different way to be governed.

The Americans of the time had begun to think outside the box, outside the traditional cultural framework of most Europeans of the time.

The idea that "WE should rule OURSELVES" was a radical one.

And what about the Indians, well. they were clearly not "WE" to the Americans of the time. The Indians were "THEM", the classic other, and, besides not only were the bulk of the Indians already ruling themselves, but they had no desire to become part of the American governmental system and its ethnocentric to think they would have. (Heck, there are still Iroquois today, Mohawks in particular, who are asserting their independence from the USA and its government. I'm not saying the Indians were treated fairly at this time, they weren't, but that does not mean they wished to become US citizens. The issue is, as they say, complicated.)

And the Black slaves, obviously a social and moral problem of the time that still has continuing repercussions today, cannot be ignored. The role of Blacks in the armies of the American Revolution (they fought in surprisingly large numbers on both sides) being a very complicated issue. It was essentially, a war for freedom being fought by a society that had legal slavery, an issue that was grappled with for years and finally only settled with a surprising amount of bloodshed.

But one that does not need distract us from the radical notion of the time that "WE should rules OURSELVES."

Clearly America still had a need to work out for itself who it meant when it say "WE" but the notion was still important and revolutionary for its day.

Women, the same thing. "Are they WE, US, or THEM?" Another issue worth looking at. Despite the presence of religious groups like the Quakers who practiced equality for women and the nearby Iroquois who had developed a Democracy that pre-dated the contact with Whites but one where, interestingly enough, only women could vote, it would be astonishingly long before women got the right to vote in the USA. (Women only got the right to vote in the USA in 1920,believe it or not.)

But regardless, the notion that "WE should rule OURSELVES" was a surprisingly radical idea for the time and an idea that was completely alien to much of the European population of the time.



You can find a PDF of Lowell's book here: https://themarshallhouse.org/assets/pdf_files/Lowell%20-%20Hessians.pdf

If you prefer, you can buy a copy. As the work is out of copyright, it is available from multiple publishers. If you buy though these links you will support this blog.

Indians in the American Revolution and Depictions of Iroquois from Fort Stanwix and Oriskany

The American Revolution ( American War of Independence) produced many changes in North America. One of these was the end of the Iroquois Confederacy as an important political entity. 

An exhibit from the Fort Stanwix visitor center showing two Iroquois and a trader from the period.

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The war in the Mohawk River Valley, then a frontier region of New York, was a civil war. The Whites fought each other, loyalists against those favoring independence, and among the Iroquois Six Nation Confederacy, the nations split, some favoring the American cause, others preferring their traditional loyalties with the British, particularly as the British had promised to help them curb the spread of the aggressive, land-hungry American settlers, and others struggling to remain as neutral as possible in what they considered a White man's war. 

Many Iroquois, particularly the Mohawks, left their home region soon after the war. 

Many of these events focused on a fortification called Fort Stanwix. It is now a National Historical Park and located in Rome, New York, a small city located between Syracuse and Utica. ( see: the National Park Service Website for Fort Stanwix. ) 

The Oriskany Battlefield, perhaps the most important battle of this part of the war, is located a little bit to the East. 

I have a strong interest in the history of the American Revolution (War of Independence) and wargame the period. Among my current projects are a large number of half-painted 25mm Old Glory "woodland Indians with rifles" that I intend to use as Iroquois. I'll try to include some photos of them when they are finished, but here's what the looked like a couple weeks ago. Clearly, there's a great deal of detail and color left to be added. 

Therefore, for those with similiar interests, I offer the following photos from the Fort Stanwix visitors center. Apologies for the poor quality of some of the photos. I have come to the realization that if I wish this blog to be its best, I must improve my photography skills and hope to spend some time on that soon. 

Let's begin with some close ups of the above exhibit. After we will follow up with period and later depictions of some of the key Iroquois involved. 

The life size Iroquois models from the exhibit.
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Notice the bead work on the straps and the knife.
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Detail on the bag.
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This and the one below show the headdress detail on the models.

awful picture but does show some more detail from another angle
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Same poor quality but the other Iroquois model in the display.
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 Important Iroquois of the Time depicted in the Museum

This is a fuzzy photo (apologies) of the Seneca leader Cornplanter ( Gy-ant-wa-chia )
You can find a better image of this painting, plus a full biography at either of these two pages Cornplanter on Wikipedia or Indigenous People Net 

OH MY!! An even worse photo of the exhibit on Red Jacket. Although he reportedly fled the battle of Oriskany early in the fighting he went on to become an important Iroquois statesman. See these sites for better depictions and more details: wikipedia or Indigenous People Net

Iroquois housing and architectural shift at the time of the American Revolution (plus some gaming stuff)

If you have looked at this blog much, you will know that I enjoy miniature wargaming, model building, and studying history, among other things. Currently I am looking into local history from the American Revolutionary War era and reading "The Iroquois in the American Revolution," a classic work by Barbara Graymont (1972, Syracuse University Press.) Please note the link to purchase this book and support the blog below.

Which got me to thinking, what sort of houses did the Iroquois live in at this time and what sort of fortifications did they have?

Traditionally, the Iroquois lived in multi-family longhouses in walled villages. Many illustrations of them exist.  I've included several below, but before you look at them, let's think a bit. Did the Iroquois live in the longhouses at the time of the American Revolution?

For the record, Iroquois still live today and today they do not live in longhouses. Even at the most traditional Mohawk and/ or Iroquois settlements today, you are not going to find people living in longhouses. (In fact, my father once helped with a construction project at Ganienkeh, a radical, Mohawk / Iroquois separatist community with both a Mohawk language school and a stubborn insistence that they are part of the sovereign Mohawk nation, not subject to US or Canadian law. He helped build some houses. They were, for the record, of modern design and not longhouses.)

So when did the architectural shift take place? Like so much in Iroquois history and society, the shift, it seems took place in the mid-eighteenth century.But first let's look a bit at the traditional housing and styles of community lay out.



According to Graymont, pages 9-10, while some of the longhouses were single family, most were multi-family, The number of longhouses in a community varied widely, depending, as one would expect on the size of the community. "Small hamlets" might have just four to five longhouses, while the largest Iroquois communities could have over one hundred longhouses, as well as walls and structures for smoking food and other necessities of community life. The smallest longhouses were  "20 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 15 feet high" (about 6m. by 5m. by 5m) according to Graymont, while the average was "60 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 18 feet high" (about 18m. by 5.5m by 5.5m) again according to Graymont. The largest on record, she says, was 334 feet long by 23 feet wide. (about 102m. long by 7m wide). She gives no height but as longhouses were curved in shape, I think it's safe to estimate it was between 18 and 23 feet high ( 5.5m to 7m. approximately).  She also gives detailed descriptions of the construction and other architectural details of these longhouses. As these are easily found through a websearch, I see no need to share them here. 

Again according to Graymont, these traditional settlements were often fortified. As this is a detail of much interest to wargamers, it seems worth quoting the entire paragraph from the book in full:

"The Iroquois lived in stockaded villages located usually in easily defensible high places near a supply of water. The log palisades were from fifteen to twenty feet in height, in single, double, triple, or quadruple lines, interlaced, and then reinforced with heavy bark. A deep ditch might surround the palisades with the dirt being thrown up to form an embankment next to the palisade. A bark battlement might also run along the top and, in time of war, be supplied with piles of stone to hurl down upon the enemy and jars of water to extinguish fires started by burning arrows. After 1600, when the power of the Iroquois Confederacy was at its height, and particularly after 1700, with the end of the Iroquois wars, fewer of the inner villages of the Five Nations were heavily palisaded. A more modest type enclosure was all that was needed to keep the forest animals from scavenging in the village," (Graymont, pp. 9-10)

However, we are talking about the time of the American Revolution (or as they say in the UK, "the American War of Independence" ), a period when Iroquois culture and politics was in great flux, a time when, as one science fiction series says in the prologue, "everything changed."

So did the Iroquois live in such houses at this time? It seems some did but an increasing numbers of others were adopting White housing styles.  Again, it seems worthwhile to include Graymont's entire paragraph on this:

"Toward the end of the eighteenth century, the Iroquois began to build the same type of log houses used by the white frontier settlers. An occasional well-to-do Indian would even build a frame house in imitation of his more affluent white neighbors. Bark houses survived to some extent well into the middle of the nineteenth century but gradually gave way to the sturdier dwellings copied from the whites." (Graymont, p. 10)

This house is a modern reconstruction of a house on the Saratoga Battlefield, a National Historic Park. It is shared merely to show a typical house of the time and place discussed. You may see other photos at https://benedictarnold.smugmug.com/Battles-of-Saratoga/John-Neilson-House/ I did not wish to infringe upon the copyright of those photos but there is one there that includes people and clearly shows the small size of the house, not uncommon in those days.

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Graymont also includes an interesting story about an Oneida church built in the 1770s. While the missionary who promoted the  church in the first place, Samuel Kirkland, followed a school of theology known as "the New Light Principle" which held that churches need not have steeples and Baptism with water was not essential for salvation (Note: I hope to research this more. It sounds like the teachings of the Religious Society of Friends / "Quakers" may have had an influence here.) his local parishners, Oneida felt otherwise and in 1774 when the church was two years old decided, over his objections that it was unnecessary, that their church should have a steeple insisting, in Graymont's words, that "if white people could have steeples over their churches, so could they. Indian religion was worth no less than the white man's religion." (Graymont, p. 46)

While it was not this church, you may see photos of another Iroquois built church (Mohawk-built) from this era here: https://indiancastle.church/

As for Iroquois fortifications of the era, they are mentioned in several places in this work and in the histories of that time. Lacking knowledge to the contrary (at least at this time of writing), I would assume they would have been a mix of the fortifications described above along with the White style of frontier fortifications of the time.

Stillwater, New York Blockhouse Museum ( https://www.albany.org/listing/stillwater-blockhouse-museum/1006/ )

The Old Stone Fort from Schoharie New York ( see https://theoldstonefort.org/our-museums/old-stone-fort/  )

WARGAMING 

I am painting a large quantity of northeastern woodland Indians from that era, a large bag of 25mm Old Glory French and Indian War figures that were donated to me by a friend who never got around to paint them. ( Product ID: FIW-01 Natives Advancing with muskets ) Although in my mind they are supposedly Iroquois, I do not guarantee the details are correct, some of the hairstyles in particular look quite "iffy" but they are good enough for wargaming particularly as I did get them for free.

They will supplement the old RAFM Flint and Feather figures that I bought and painted years, really decades, ago. ( RAFM Flint and Feather ) I'll try to post pictures later. I also hope to do some supplements with figures from other ranges as well. Perry Brothers and Warlord Games both have some nice looking figures for the period but I am sure they are not alone. Bob Murch and Crucible Crush have an exciting looking line called "Flint and Feather" of pre-European and time of European contact Iroquois and Algonquins that while not quite right for this period seems nevertheless definitely worth mentioning.

ADDITIONAL LINKS

A New York State Museum exhibit and presentation on Iroquois longhouses. 
http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/iroquoisvillage/

Another website with lovely pictures of longhouses and Iroquois architecture.
https://www.hhhistory.com/2016/04/the-iroquois-longhouse.html


Should you wish to purchase one, this company makes resin models of Iroquois longhouses for wargaming. Although I've linked to a particularly nice looking one, there are others on their site, as well as a blockhouse and stockade walls, under the "American Frontier" section. Please note I have not done business with this company or seen their products in person.
https://achesoncreations.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=82&virtuemart_category_id=16

A fun website that gives instructions on how to build your own model longhouses for wargaming if you do not wish or are not able to spend money on resin cast models.
https://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-build-no1-fiw-indian-longhouses.html


I stumbled across this while researching this blog, a biography of Samuel Kirkland, the missionary to the Iroquois mentioned above. I have not read it yet but it seemed worth noting and sharing. 
https://archive.org/details/samuelkirklandsm00lenn 


   

Bad Native American maps and politics

Notes: 

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Perhaps you've heard of this new thing called "the internet"? It's a global technology system that is used to spread, among other things, pornography and misinformation, as well as "memes" where people reinforce their own political and religious views, and here's an example.

I'm not going to worry about the politics too much. They are, for better or worse, not too far from my own. But is the map correct? Is it a true and accurate representation of America before Columbus's arrival?      --absolutely not!

The more one looks, the more problems one finds. What the heck is the "Apache Empire"? And how could such an entity exist when the Apaches lacked a centralized government?

The Aztecs are portrayed as having a huge empire, when books such as Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control , by Ross Hassig (1995, University of Oklahoma Press) explain very clearly why they never had an empire this huge. (hint, logistics is tricky. Logistics without beasts of burden is even trickier.)  And why in the world are the Aztecs and the Olmecs shown as co-existing at the same time?

As for the Iroquois Confederacy, although it is properly named, it stretches too far to the west.

So what the heck is this thing? And why is it dated 2015, another major tip off?  

Noting these things, I went to snopes. ( Snopes  ) They uncovered the source. A hobbyist of some kind decided to make an imaginary map of a North America that was never discovered by Europeans and this was the result.  .