Paxton massacre, the
The atrocities of
Pontiac's confederates on the frontiers of
Pennsylvania aroused the ferocity of
[
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the Scotch-Irish settlers there, and on the night of Dec. 14, 1763, nearly fifty of them fell upon some peaceful and friendly Indians at
Conestoga, on the
Susquehanna, who were living quietly there, under the guidance of Moravian missionaries.
These Indians were wrongly suspected of harboring or corresponding with hostiles.
Very few of the Indians were ever at
Conestoga, and all who remained—men, women, and children—were murdered by the “
Paxton boys,” as they called themselves.
The village, with the winter stores, was laid in ashes.
The citizens of
Lancaster collected the scattered survivors into the workhouse for protection.
The “
Paxton boys” burst into it, and before the citizens could assemble, murdered all the Indians and fled.
The
Moravian Indians at
Wyalusing and
Nain hurried to
Philadelphia for protection, but the “
Paxton boys” threatened to go there in large numbers and kill them, and they were sent to
Province Island, put under the charge of the garrison there, and were saved.
The government offered a reward for the arrest of the murderers, but such was the state of feeling in the interior of
Pennsylvania that no one dared to move in the matter.
It assumed a political and religious aspect.
The proprietary governor w a s blamed for not removing these friendly Indians to
Philadelphia long before, as he had promised to do The
Moravians and
Quakers were blamed for fostering “murderous
Indians.”
The citizens of
Lancaster were blamed for what they did and what they did not do; and the whole Presbyterian Church (the Scotch-Irish were mostly Presbyterians) was charged with shielding the murderers from the hands of justice.
The participators in the crime were not ignorant and vulgar borderers, but men of such high standing and consequence that the press, in denouncing their acts, forbore to give their names.
