Dummer's War

Dummer's War
Part of the American Indian Wars

Battle of Norridgewock (1724): Death of Father Sébastien Rale
Date25 July 1722 – 15 December 1725[1]
Location
Northern New England and Nova Scotia
Result Dummer's Treaty (preliminary 1725, final 1727)
Belligerents
New England
Mohawk		 Wabanaki Confederacy
Abenaki
Pequawket
Mi'kmaq
Maliseet
Commanders and leaders
William Dummer
John Doucett
Shadrach Walton
Thomas Westbrook
John Lovewell †
Jeremiah Moulton
Johnson Harmon		 Gray Lock
Sébastien Rale †
Father Joseph Aubery[2]
Chief Paugus †
Chief Mog †
Chief Wowurna

Dummer's War (1722–1725) (also known as Father Rale's War, Lovewell's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the Wabanaki-New England War, or the Fourth Anglo-Abenaki War[3]) was a series of battles between the New England Colonies and the Wabanaki Confederacy (specifically the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Penobscot, and Abenaki), who were allied with New France. The eastern theater of the war was located primarily along the border between New England and Acadia in Maine, as well as in Nova Scotia; the western theater was located in northern Massachusetts and Vermont in the frontier areas between Canada (New France) and New England.[4]

The root cause of the conflict on the Maine frontier concerned the border between Acadia and New England, which New France defined as the Kennebec River in southern Maine.[5]: 27, 266 [6][7] Mainland Nova Scotia came under British control after the Siege of Port Royal in 1710 and the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 (not including Cape Breton Island), but present-day New Brunswick and Maine remained contested between New England and New France. New France established Catholic missions among the four largest Native villages in the region: one on the Kennebec River (Norridgewock), one farther north on the Penobscot River (Penobscot Indian Island Reservation), one on the Saint John River (Meductic Indian Village / Fort Meductic),[8][9]: 51, 54  and one at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia (Saint Anne's Mission).[10] Similarly, New France established three forts along the border of New Brunswick during Father Le Loutre's War to protect it from a British attack from Nova Scotia.

The Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne's War, but it had been signed in Europe and had not involved any member of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Abenaki signed the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth, but none had been consulted about British ownership of Nova Scotia, and the Miꞌkmaq began to make raids against New England fishermen and settlements.[11] The war began on two fronts as a result of the expansion of New England settlements along the coast of Maine and at Canso, Nova Scotia. The New Englanders were led primarily by Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor William Dummer, Nova Scotia Lieutenant Governor John Doucett, and Captain John Lovewell. The Wabanaki Confederacy and other Native tribes were led primarily by Father Sébastien Rale, Chief Gray Lock, and Chief Paugus.

During the war, Father Rale was killed by a force of New England militia at Norridgewock. The Native population retreated from the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers to St. Francis and Becancour, Quebec, and New England took over much of the Maine territory.[12]

  1. ^ Hatch, Louis Clinton, ed. (1919). Maine: A History. American Historical Society. p. 53. Retrieved 24 July 2011.
  2. ^ Johnson, Micheline D. (1974). "Aubrey, Joseph". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. III (1741–1770) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
  3. ^ Wicken (2002), p. 71.
  4. ^ The Nova Scotia theater of the Dummer War is named the "Mi'kmaq-Maliseet War". John Grenier. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia 1710–1760. University of Oklahoma Press. 2008.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Williamson was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Griffiths, N.E.S. (2005). From Migrant to Acadian: A North American Border People, 1604–1755. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-0-7735-2699-0.
  7. ^ Campbell, Gary. The Road to Canada: The Grand Communications Route from Saint John to Quebec. Goose Lane Editions and The New Brunswick Heritage Military Project, 2005. p. 21.
  8. ^ "Meductic Indian Village / Fort Meductic National Historic Site of Canada". Parks Canada. Archived from the original on June 27, 2012. Retrieved December 20, 2011.
  9. ^ Grenier, John, The Far Reaches of Empire. University of Oklahoma Press, 2008.
  10. ^ "Recent Projects: Mission Sainte-Anne". Northeast Archaeological Research. 2003. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved December 21, 2015.
  11. ^ Wicken (2004), p. 96.
  12. ^ New Englanders safely settled the land, but Massachusetts did not officially lay claim to the entire Penobscot watershed until the treaty of 1752. In 1759, the Pownall Expedition led by Governor Thomas Pownall established Fort Pownall on Cape Jellison within Stockton Springs, Maine.