[Franklin, Benjamin]:

$35,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

A NARRATIVE OF THE LATE MASSACRES, IN LANCASTER COUNTY, OF A NUMBER OF INDIANS, FRIENDS OF THIS PROVINCE, BY PERSONS UNKNOWN. "This is one of the rarest and most important of the so-called 'Paxton Boys pamphlets,' describing violent actions of angry Pennsylvanians stemming from tensions created by the French and Indian War. The massacre...saw a group of Scots-Irish frontiersman, known as the Paxton Boys, attack the small tribe of [peaceful] Conestoga Indians on December 14, 1763....After news of the murder spread, Governor John Penn condemned the actions and called for the capture of the Paxton Boys, putting the remaining Conestoga in protective custody. The vigilante group laid siege on the building where the Conestoga were held, maiming, scalping and killing fourteen men, women, and children in what was seen as one of the most barbaric acts in Pennsylvania history" - Reese. Outraged that the government had denounced their actions and was protecting other Native Americans, among other grievances relating to perceived favoritism of Philadelphia Quakers over Pennsylvanians on the frontier, the Paxton Boys, now numbering about 250, marched on Philadelphia, reaching Germantown on February 5. "Dressed in blanket coats and moccasins, they looked like Indian traders. They carried rifles, tomahawks and pistols....[and] 'uttered hideous outcries in imitation of the war whoop, knocked down peaceable citizens, and pretended to scalp them'" (Hindle). The insurgents were met at Germantow

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