The Old Northwest: A Chronicle of the Ohio Valley and Beyond
- Pages
- about 149
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2.7 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
Benjamin Franklin, who was in London in 1760 as agent of the
Pennsylvania Assembly, gave the British ministers some wholesome advice
on the terms of the peace that should be made with France. The St.
Lawrence and the Great Lakes regions, he said, must be retained by
England at all costs. Moreover, the Mississippi Valley must be taken, in
order to provide for the growing populations of the seaboard colonies
suitable lands in the interior, and so keep them engaged in agriculture.
Otherwise these populations would turn to manufacturing, and the
industries of the mother country would suffer.
The treaty of peace, three years later, brought the settlement which
Franklin suggested. The vast American back country, with its inviting
rivers and lakes, its shaded hills, and its sunny prairies, became
English territory. The English people had, however, only the vaguest
notion of the extent, appearance, and resources of their new possession.
Even the officials who drew the treaty were as ignorant of the country
as of middle Africa. Prior to the outbreak of the war no widely known
English writer had tried to describe it; and the absorbing French books
of Lahontan, Hennepin, and Charlevoix had reached but a small circle.
The prolonged conflict in America naturally stimulated interest in the
new country. The place-names of the upper Ohio became household words,
and enterprising publishers put out not only translations of the French
writers but compilations by Englishmen designed, in true journalistic
fashion, to meet the demands of the hour for information.
These publications displayed amazing misconceptions of the lands
described. They neither estimated aright the number and strength of the
French settlements nor dispelled the idea that the western country was
of little value. Even the most brilliant Englishman of the day, Dr.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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