| Penn's Creek massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the French and Indian War | |
 Penn's Creek | |
| Location | Central Pennsylvania |
| Coordinates | 40°48′49″N 76°51′22″W / 40.813649°N 76.856207°W |
| Date | October 16, 1755 |
| Target | The settlement at Penns Creek, Pennsylvania |
Attack type | Indian massacre, kidnapping |
| Deaths | 14 |
| Injured | 1 |
| Victims | Swiss and German settlers |
| Perpetrators | Lenape Native Americans |
The Penn's Creek massacre was an October 16, 1755 raid by Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans on a settlement along Penn's Creek,[n 1] a tributary of the Susquehanna River in central Pennsylvania. It was the first of a series of deadly raids on Pennsylvania settlements by Native Americans allied with the French in the French and Indian War.
Of the 26 settlers they found living on Penn's Creek, the Lenape killed 14 and took 11 captive (one man was wounded but managed to escape). Three of the preteen girls who were taken captive regained their freedom after years of slavery, and their stories have been popularized in several young adult novels and a film.
The Lenape had been angered by years of European settlers encroaching on their land. They had lost their traditional lands in the Lehigh Valley to the provincial government of Pennsylvania in a fraudulent deal known as the Walking Purchase, and many of them had subsequently moved into the Susquehanna Valley by permission of the Iroquois. One year before the Penn's Creek massacre, the Iroquois had sold much of the Susquehanna Valley to the governments of Pennsylvania and Connecticut without consulting the Lenape, who once again found themselves being displaced by arriving settlers.
As a direct result of the Penn's Creek massacre and subsequent raids, Pennsylvania assemblyman Benjamin Franklin persuaded the governor and assembly of the province to abandon its roots in Quaker pacifism and establish an armed military force and a chain of forts to protect the settlements. Franklin himself helped to organize and train the first Pennsylvania regiments. The Lenape and other displaced Native Americans continued their attacks on settlers and battles with the provincial forces for three years, until the Treaty of Easton was signed between the tribes and the British in 1758.
- ^ Snyder, Downie & Kalp 2000, p. 6
- ^ Denaci 2007, p. 307
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