HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Lachine massacre, part of the Beaver Wars, occurred when 1,500 Mohawk warriors launched a surprise attack against the small (375 inhabitants) settlement of Lachine,
New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to King ...
, at the upper end of
Montreal Island The Island of Montreal (french: Île de Montréal) is a large island in southwestern Quebec, Canada, that is the site of a number of municipalities including most of the city of Montreal and is the most populous island in Canada. It is the main ...
, on the morning of August 5, 1689. The attack was precipitated by the growing
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian Peoples, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Indigenous confederations in North America, confederacy of First Nations in Canada, First Natio ...
frustration with the increased French incursions into their territory and the ongoing concern about French Marquis de Denonville's attack of 1687, and it was encouraged by the settlers of
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces o ...
as a way to leverage power against New France during
King William's War King William's War (also known as the Second Indian War, Father Baudoin's War, Castin's War, or the First Intercolonial War in French) was the North American theater of the Nine Years' War (1688–1697), also known as the War of the Grand Alli ...
. In their attack, the Mohawk warriors destroyed a substantial portion of the Lachine settlement by fire and captured numerous inhabitants, killing around 240.


Motives

The Mohawk and other Iroquois attacked the French and their native allies for a variety of reasons related to both economic and cultural circumstances.


Cultural

The Europeans in the Northeast developed a fur trade with natives, including the Five Nations of the Iroquois, and beaver furs were most desired. In the 17th century, the dominance of what the historian Daniel Richter refers to as "Francophiles," or the French takeover, contributed to an erosion of French-native relations. The French mission to assimilate natives required the abandonment of native traditions, which was met with resistance. By 1667, large numbers of Hurons and Iroquois, especially Mohawks, started arriving at the St Lawrence Valley and its mission villages to escape the effects of warfare. Many traditionalists, including some Mohawks, resented the Jesuits for destroying traditional native society but could not do anything to stop them. Traditionalists reluctantly accepted the establishment of a mission to have good relations with the French, whom they needed for trade. That cultural invasion increased tensions between the two factions. The relationship between the French and the Iroquois had been strained long before the Lachine Massacre, as the French maintained relations with other tribes as well for both trade and war alliances, such as the
Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pr ...
. In 1679, after the end of the Iroquois war with the
Susquehannock The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern p ...
and the
Mahican The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an Eastern Algonquian Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native American Native Americans in the United States, tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Al ...
, the Iroquois raided native villages in the West. Pushing out Siouan tribes to the west, they claimed hunting grounds in the
Ohio Valley The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
by the
right of conquest The right of conquest is a right of ownership to land after immediate possession via force of arms. It was recognized as a principle of international law that gradually deteriorated in significance until its proscription in the aftermath of Wor ...
. They were kept empty of inhabitants to encourage hunting. As a result, the Iroquois regularly raided trading parties in the western frontier, which was under French protection, and took loot from them. After a military confrontation in 1684, the Iroquois negotiated a peace treaty with New France Governor
Antoine Lefèbvre de La Barre Joseph-Antoine le Fèbvre, sieur de La Barre (or Antoine Lefebvre, Antoine Lefèvre; 1622–1688) was a French lawyer and administrator best known for his disastrous three years term as governor of the colony of New France (Quebec). As a young ...
, but it stated the Iroquois were free to attack the western Indians. The
French Crown France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the Kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I () as the fi ...
objected to the treaty and replaced La Barre with the Marquis de Denonville. He was less sympathetic to native relations and did not pay attention to the Iroquois-Algonquian tensions. The Iroquois attacked the French partly because they were not willing to accept constraints against their warfare related to traditional Iroquois enemies. "Mourning wars" were also an important cultural factor in native warfare. Natives fought war to "avenge perceived wrongs committed by one people against another." They were also a means to replace the dead within a native community. In wartime, natives would capture members of another group and adopt them to rebuild their society. When new diseases such as
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
killed large numbers of native people within their communities, survivors were motivated to warfare to take captives to rebuild.


Economic

What the Iroquois wanted was not war but a better share of the fur trade. To serve as punishment for attacks on French fur fleets, New France ordered two expeditions under Courcelles and Tracy into Mohawk territory in 1666. The expeditions burned villages and destroyed much of the Mohawk winter corn supply. In addition, Denonville's 1687 invasion of the
Seneca nation The Seneca Nation of Indians is a federally recognized Seneca tribe based in western New York. They are one of three federally recognized Seneca entities in the United States, the others being the Tonawanda Band of Seneca (also in western New Y ...
country destroyed approximately 1,200,000 bushels of corn and crippled the Iroquois economy. That kind of aggression served as fuel for the Iroquois' retaliation that would come.


International

After two decades of uneasy peace, England and France declared war against each other in 1689. Despite the 1686 Treaty of Whitehall in which both European forces agreed that European conflicts would not disrupt colonial peace and neutrality, the war was fought primarily by proxy in New France and New England. The British in New York prompted local Iroquois warriors to attack New France's undefended settlements. While the British were preparing to engage in acts of warfare, the inhabitants of New France were ill-prepared to defend against Indian attacks because of the isolation of the farms and villages. Denonville was quoted as saying, "If we have a war, nothing can save the country but a miracle of God."


Attack

On the rainy morning of August 5, 1689, Iroquois warriors used surprise to launch their nighttime raid against the undefended settlement of Lachine. They traveled up the
Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting t ...
by boat, crossed
Lake Saint-Louis Lake Saint-Louis is a lake in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers. The Saint Lawrence Seaway passes through the lake. Lake St. Louis is a widening of the St. Lawrence River in the Hochelaga Ar ...
, and landed on the south shore of the Island of Montreal. While the colonists slept, the invaders surrounded their homes and waited for their leader to signal when the attack should begin. They attacked the homes, broke down doors and windows, and dragged the colonists outside, where many were killed. When some of the colonists barricaded themselves within the village's structures, the attackers set fire to the buildings and waited for the settlers to flee the flames. According to a 1992 article, the Iroquois, wielding weapons such as the tomahawk, killed 24 French and took more than 70 prisoners. Justin Winsor in ''Narrative and Critical History of America'' (1884) stated that "it is estimated that more than two hundred persons were butchered outright, and one hundred and twenty were carried off as prisoners." Other sources, such as ''
Encyclopædia Britannica The ( Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...
,'' claim that 250 settlers and soldiers lost their lives during the massacre. The Iroquois wanted to avenge the 1,200,000 bushels of corn burned by the French, but since they were unable to reach the food stores in Montreal, they kidnapped and killed the Lachine crop producers instead. Lachine was the main departure point for westward-traveling fur traders, a fact that may have provided extra motivation for the Mohawk attack.


Aftermath

Word of the attack spread when one of the Lachine survivors reached a local garrison away and notified the soldiers of the events. In response to the attack, the French mobilized 200 soldiers under the command of Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, along with 100 armed civilians and some soldiers from nearby Forts Rémy, Rolland, and de La Présentation to march against the Iroquois. They defended some of the fleeing colonists from their Mohawk pursuers, but just prior to reaching Lachine, the armed forces were recalled to Fort Rolland by the order of Governor Denonville, who was trying to pacify the local Iroquois inhabitants. He had 700 soldiers at his disposal within the Montreal
barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...
and might have overtaken the Iroquois forces but decided to follow a diplomatic route. Numerous attacks from both sides followed, but none was fatal, and the two groups quickly realized the futility of their attempts to drive the other out. In February 1690, the French began peace negotiations with the Iroquois. The French returned captured natives in exchange for the beginnings of peace talks. Throughout the 1690s, there were no major French or native raids, and even against the will of the English, peace talks continued. The time of relative peace eventually led to the Montreal Treaty of 1701 by which the Iroquois promised to remain neutral in case of war between the French and the English. Following the events at Lachine, Denonville was recalled to France for matters unrelated to the
massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
, and
Louis de Buade de Frontenac Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau (; 22 May 162228 November 1698) was a French soldier, courtier, and Governor General of New France in North America from 1672 to 1682, and again from 1689 to his death in 1698. He established a nu ...
took over governorship of Montreal in October. Frontenac launched raids of vengeance against the English colonists to the south "in Canadien style" by attacking during the winter months of 1690 such as the
Schenectady massacre The Schenectady massacre was an attack against the colonial settlement of Schenectady in the English Province of New York on February 8, 1690. A raiding party of 114 French soldiers and militiamen, accompanied by 96 allied Mohawk and Algonquin ...
.


Historical accounts

According to the historian Jean-Francois Lozier, the factors influencing the course of war and peace throughout the region of New-France were not exclusive to the relations between the French and Iroquois or to those between the French and British crowns. A number of factors provide the context for the Lachine Massacre. Sources of information regarding the victims of the Iroquois in New France are the writings of Jesuit priests; the state registry of parishes in Quebec, Trois-Rivieres, and Montreal; letters written by Marie Guyart (French: Marie de l'Incarnation); and the writings of
Samuel Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fr ...
. The accuracy of those sources and reports varies. For instance, in the town of Trois-Rivieres, approximately one third of deaths attributed to the Iroquois lack names. According to Canadian historian John A. Dickinson, although the cruelty of the Iroquois was real, their threat was neither as constant nor terrible as the contemporary sources represented although the residents felt under siege. European accounts of the Lachine massacre come from two primary sources: survivors of the attack, and
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
missionaries A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
in the area. Initial reports inflated the Lachine death toll significantly. Colby arrived at the total number of dead, 24, by examining Catholic parish registers before and after the attack. French Catholic accounts of the attack were recorded.
François Vachon de Belmont François Vachon de Belmont (3 April 1645 – 22 May 1732) was the fifth superior of the Montreal Sulpicians from 1700 to 1731. Vachon de Belmont was born in Burgundy, France to a wealthy family. He moved to Canada Canada is a country ...
, the fifth superior of the
Sulpicians The Society of Priests of Saint-Sulpice (french: Compagnie des Prêtres de Saint-Sulpice), abbreviated PSS also known as the Sulpicians is a society of apostolic life of Pontifical Right for men, named after the Church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris, ...
of Montreal, wrote in his ''History of Canada'': Surviving prisoners of the Lachine massacre reported that 48 of their colleagues were tortured, burned, and eaten shortly after capture. Further, many survivors showed evidence of ritual torture and recounted their experiences. After the attack, the French colonists retrieved many English-made weapons, which the Mohawk had left behind in their retreat from the island. The evidence of the English arming the Mohawk incited a longstanding hatred of the English colonists of New York as well as demands for revenge. Iroquois accounts of the attack have not been recovered, as they were recounted in
oral histories Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
. French sources reported that only three of the attackers were killed. Because all of the written accounts of the attack were by the French victims, their reports of
cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...
and parents forced to throw their children onto burning fires may be exaggerated or apocryphal. The Mohawk and the Iroquois have used ritual torture after warfare, sometimes to honour the bravery of enemy warriors, as was then common practice among native tribes.


See also

* List of massacres in Canada *
History of Montreal The history of the area around what is now known as Montreal, Montreal itself was established in 1642, located in what is now known as the province of Quebec, Canada, spans about 8,000 years. At the time of European contact, the area was inhabi ...
*
List of Indian massacres In the history of the European colonization of the Americas, an Indian massacre is any incident between European settlers and indigenous peoples wherein one group killed a significant number of the other group outside the confines of mutual co ...


References


Sources

* Also * Also * Also * * * * * * * Also * * * Also and * {{New France Conflicts in 1689 Battles involving the Iroquois Massacres in Canada Massacres by First Nations 1689 in North America History of Montreal 1689 in New France Massacres in 1689