1.11: George Washington, and the start of the French and Indian War

As a man given the nickname "First in the Hearts of his Countrymen," among many others, what could we possibly explore about the life of the famous George Washington that hasn't already been written?  He led America's Continental Army in the War for Independence against the British, agreed to attend the pivotal Philadelphia Convention in May 1787, and served two terms as the first President of the United States.  However, before all of this, Washington had aspirations of elevating his social status to that of Virginia's elite planter gentry...and he dreamt of military glory on behalf of His Majesty's growing British Empire, and this may well be an aspect of his life about which the least is taught.  This episode of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on the inexperienced George Washington...the young man who sought advancement, but in the process, inadvertently helped trigger a global war that reshaped the relationship between Great Britain and her North American Colonies.

Key People
George Washington, colonial planter and military officer
Tanaghrisson, captured Catawba man and Seneca "Half-King"
Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Joumonville-ill-fated French diplomat
Edward Braddock-British General

Key Event
French and Indian War

The third season of History: Beyond the Textbook focuses on the stories of individuals who shaped "America's Crucial Years" of 1783-1790, and runs from October 8-December 24. Catch up on Season One, "America's Colonial Era," and Season Two, "America's Revolution," wherever you listen to your podcasts!

Feel free to contact us with feedback or questions by clicking the "Send Us a Text" link or email us at: hbttpodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

He’s the Father of our Country, first in the hearts of his Countrymen, the “American Cincinnatus,” the General, the Indispensable Man….you get the idea.  Name your cliché, and it’s probably been said a million times over about George Washington, the man who kept the Continental Army together and led America to victory against Britain, presided over the Philadelphia Convention when the Constitution was written, served as our first president and set dozens of precedents, and on two occasions, willingly stepped down from positions of power so he could return home.  If you possess any background knowledge about any of what I just mentioned, you know that all of these lie beyond the time frame of our current storyline.  However, George Washington wasn’t simply born as the man we remember: the pride, the prominence, the pensive nature that always seemed to lead him to the right decision: these are all traits that were learned and honed throughout his early adulthood.  Before he became the legend, he was just a man…a man who dreamed of social advancement, a man who dreamed of military success, a man who sought to take his place as a leader in the noble British Empire.  He got his chance for all of these things and more during the French and Indian War, a minor conflict that morphed into the worldwide Seven Years’ War…and that Washington helped ignite.  It’s this inexperienced man we’re most interested in today on History: Beyond the Textbook, so join us as we analyze the start of the French and Indian War and its significance through the experiences of the colonial with a craving for glory: none other than George Washington.

Act One: Accelerating Global Conflict

So how did we arrive here?  If this “French and Indian War,” as English colonials called it, or “Seven Years War,” as the rest of the world calls it, was so consequential and carried global implications, why is it a topic that is rarely focused on in schools or pop culture?  A big part of that has to do with the fairly significant American war that began a little over one decade following this war’s conclusion, which admittedly carries a large amount of weight and will be the focus of our next season.  But this war, which began in what was considered by the European world to be in a political and cultural backwater, was one of the first to truly span the entire globe.  So how did this get started, and what did the future general and president have to do with it?  First, a brief backdrop is in order.

It’s certainly worth noting that the continent, or parts of the continent, or Europe had, historically, been in a near constant state of war ever since the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the late 400’s.  These conflicts would extend to the sizable maritime empires that the so-called “civilized” nations began to build and consolidate beginning with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus: shortly before the French and Indian War, the oddly named “War of Jenkins’ Ear” between England and Spain took place.  Yes, this is what it was actually called, albeit 110 years after the fact, named after a British Naval captain whose ship was boarded by a Spanish captain off the waters of Florida in 1731 on suspicion of smuggling.  The Spanish captain used his sword to slice off Jenkins’ ear, which the Brit allegedly displayed to Parliament as evidence of the Spanish insult to British trading rights.  This war’s conclusion began to convince the powers of Europe that expansion in the Western Hemisphere, specifically by one’s enemies in North America, was something to keep an eye on.  

For the purpose of our primary conflict, we’ll acknowledge that England and France weren’t exactly the best of friends, and that’s putting it mildly.  Regarding English colonization, their efforts began on the Atlantic coast with places such as Virginia and Massachusetts Bay and began to push westward with an eye towards permanent settlement.  Meanwhile, the French were a bit more focused along the St. Lawrence River in Canada and emphasized trade, but they claimed the Mississippi Basin for their King and country and even settled at New Orleans at the mouth of this great river; thus, to expand their operations, they would push from west to east.  What lay in the middle?  The fertile Ohio River Valley, and those who lived in this region: primarily the Mingo, Shawnee, and Delaware.  Note that I said,”lived,” not “controlled,” because the mighty Haudenosaunee claimed that the land was theirs by “right of conquest.”  This is a carryover from the gains they made in the “Beaver Wars” of which Chief Canaqueese was a participant, and helps explain why it was impossible for them to ignore the growing tensions between England and France.  Those who lived here were considered to be “tributaries” of the Haudenosaunee, who used the land as an extended hunting ground.  However, the French considered it “theirs” based on the expeditions of de La Salle decades earlier, and the British claimed that their colonial lands stretched all the way to the “Western Sea,” meaning the Pacific Ocean, however far away it might be.  So when word leaked that the French were attempting to settle in the area near what is modern-day Pittsburgh in the heart of the Ohio River Valley, their European rivals demanded answers, and Washington would help provide those answers.

It’s safe to say that, of all Americans that receive attention in history classes, George Washington is probably in the top 10, maybe top 5 or 3, of those who are examined the most.  This begs the question: why view this war from his well-studied lens?  This brings me to two of our self-imposed rules of History: Beyond the Textbook: no episodes about individuals during their time as president, and each individual will receive the “one and done” treatment.”  This means that there will be no episodes about George Washington, or others, while serving as president, mainly because presidents generally receive much attention in history class and can serve as significant background characters during episodes from that time frame.  “One and done” will be a bit trickier…once an episode about a particular individual airs, there will be no more episodes that explicitly focus on the life and exploits of said individual.  Washington certainly plays a huge role in early American history, and if we simplify, we can divide his life into three primary phases: his early military life during the French and Indian War, his role as a Major-General during the American Revolution, and his political life as president of both the Constitutional Convention and the United States.  Of these three, I would wager that his early life is the phase that is least known to the general public, and since he was an eyewitness to, and a participant in, the beginning of the French and Indian War, it makes sense to devote this episode to George Washington.

Act Two: Seeking Mobility

Washington was physically present at the beginning of what became a global conflict, perhaps the first in human history, so we’ll do what we normally do in this act, which is explore his backstory and how it shaped him moving forward.  The Washington line first migrated across the Atlantic in the aftermath of the English Civil War: George’s great-great grandfather was a Puritan-leaning Anglican minister and was thus pressured into leaving his parish.  His son John was the one who decided to try his luck in Virginia in the 1650’s, setting up shop along the Potomac River as a landowner, militia member, and government officeholder.  Some of the wealthiest families in Virginia during the late colonial era could trace their roots back to an ancestor who migrated during this time…Washington wasn’t one of them.  This is why we’ve traced George’s story generations before his birth: try as they may, the Washington men were never quite able to elevate into that upper-echelon of the Virginia gentry.  They made modest gains and were respected members of society, but never were able to obtain that elite status.  This was the situation into which George Washington entered the world on February 11, 1732; that of the struggle for upward mobility and the yearning to prove that he was worthy of advancement in society.  His father died when he was 11, so George looked to his older half-brothers Lawrence and Augustine Jr. as his male role models.  Both received a classical education at Appleby Grammar School in Great Britain, the same place where their father, Augustine Sr., attended.  Had it not been for Senior’s untimely death at age 49, scholars overwhelmingly agree that young George almost certainly would have enrolled in that school.  It definitely might have tightened his bonds with, and hardened his loyalty to, the British Empire, and he absolutely would have held his own intellectually against his more formally-educated contemporaries such as John Adams and Thomas Jefferson…but his mother wouldn’t allow it, so Virginia is where young Washington would stay.

Well, he “stayed” there in the early years following his father’s death, but the influence of his half-brothers came calling.  The aforementioned Lawrence not only received that sought-after classical education, but he also experienced military service serving with the Royal Navy in the War of Jenkins’s Ear.  The grandeur of Lawrence’s military appearance left an impression on George, who was counseled by the former to consider a life at sea.  Upon his father’s death, George inherited very little and what was considered “his” (including 10 slaves) was to be held in trust by his mother, so advancing though society via naval service seemed like a viable option.  Mary Ball Washington mulled this possibility and wrote to her London-based brother for advice.  His assessment: a life as a landowner was preferable to that of a common colonial sailor with little chance to advance in the Royal Navy since he wasn’t well-connected to the old country.  With little inherited land to call his own, and with his mother Mary’s rejection of a naval career, George decided to try his hand at land surveying since he had access to his father’s equipment and there were plenty of opportunities for someone skilled in the profession.  This was the start of a career that would turn into something of a lifelong hobby since he would personally take part in surveying the land that would become America’s capital city and bear his name.  As it stood, when he was 16, Washington took part in an expedition to survey the Shenandoah Valley and the “Frontier” lands to the west.  He learned much about how to survey land and plied this trade the next several years, but his surveying jobs led him to learn of life beyond the privileges of the Virginia Tidewater: no slaves or servants to attend to one’s every desire, no rigid class structure to keep everyone “in their place,” not even reliable shelter in which a dry, warm night’s sleep was guaranteed.  He started to understand the wider, and wilder, world on his initial and subsequent surveying expeditions…and it continued at age 19 when he accompanied Lawrence to Barbados in what would be his only excursion outside North America.  The tropical climate was thought to assist in curing the tuberculosis that would eventually end Lawrence’s life, but several things stand out about this six-week sojourn in the Caribbean: Washington contracted smallpox and survived, leading to his lifelong immunity and future decision to inoculate his men during the Revolution.  Lawrence’s death meant that George also was bequeathed what his father had given the former: the estate Mount Vernon, named after Lawrence’s commander during the war.  The journey also allowed him to rub elbows with island elites whose Virginia equivalents would have been out of reach to one of his status.  This experience convinced him to put his name forward for the position of district adjutancy, a military honor, of his home region in Virginia.  Lieutenant-Governor Robert Dinwiddie gave him this appointment in 1753, so by age 21. George Washington had begun his military, and hopefully by his reckoning, political and social rise in colonial Virginia society.

The benefit of hindsight tells us that from the time of Washington’s appointment, the outbreak of war between England and France was 15 months away.  In the interim, Washington was assigned his first task: lead an expedition into the Ohio River Valley to survey lands on which English forts could be built to take advantage of abundant trade opportunities.  It didn’t hurt that Dinwiddie was a big-time investor in the land-speculating Ohio Comp any and wanted to ensure that their interests were secure.  Washington was also directed to, albeit politely, inform any and all French in the region that they were to vacate the premises ASAP.  Understand that at this moment, England and France were enjoying a rare spell of peace upon completion of fighting, well, another in a long line of wars.  The instructions that Dinwiddie gave Washington were bound to lead to confrontation, and that assessment doesn’t even take into consideration the opinions and potential actions of the Haudenosaunee, who claimed to control the Ohio River Valley.  Part of Washington’s mission had been to make contact with the “Sachems of the Six Nations,” but these communities would serve as intelligence-gathering operations to assess French operations in the region.  One of the first leaders Washington met was Tanghrisson, often referred to solely by his position of “Half-King.”  Tanaghrisson was Catawba, whose lands lay in the Carolina Piedmont, but as a boy was captured by the Seneca in a mourning war and was adopted into their nation, so European contemporaries considered him as such.  We already know that the Haudenosaunee considered the Ohio River Valley to be “theirs,” so to hold sway over its occupants and strengthen their claims, the Onondaga appointed “Half-Kings” to engage in diplomacy, but not to independently negotiate treaties.  Tanaghrisson was one who held this position and still held it when he met George Washington.  He also informed Washington that he would be referred to as “Conotocarious,” usually translated as “Town Destroyer,” because it was a moniker given to his great-grandfather John.  Washington spoke with Tanaghrisson, received his name in stride, and then he was off.

Act Three: Diplomat Down

George Washington received his orders, met with Tanaghrisson, and he marched off to stake his claim on behalf of His Majesty, King George II.  This first mission was somewhat rocky for George: he arrived at Fort Le Boeuf in December 1753, a fort that was ironically commanded by a great-grandson of the subject of our third episode, Jean Nicolet.  Washington delivered his letter expressing Dinwiddie’s wishes, exchanged niceties and formalities for a few days, took note of the massive number of maneuverable canoes that could potentially transport enemy combatants, and left with a response that would not please Dinwiddie nor the British crown.  He also used his surveying experience to create an accurate map of Fort Le Boeuf, which impressed Dinwiddie, and write a report of his experience that enjoyed widespread publication.  Fears of French expansion in North America’s interior appeared to be justified, and Washington was not only authorized to raise troops to address the issue, but he received a desired promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel.  The following April, he set off with a detachment of men back into the wilderness, but the closer he got to his destination of the “Forks of the Ohio,“ which was where the Ohio, Alleghany, and Monongahela Rivers met, the more distressing the reports became.  The French were building a fort of their own on the exact site where Washington had been instructed to erect one, and their combined French-Indigenous forces included over five times the manpower of Washington’s and way more firepower.  He would once again be joined by Tanaghrisson, and he petitioned various colonial governments for more men.  Late May yielded more developments, and Tanaghrisson’s intelligence informed Washington of the precise position of a French garrison.  After enduring a rain-soaked night in which they attempted to stay warm, Washington decided on the morning of May 28 to engage in a preemptive strike.  Reports indicated that France’s fort at the Forks was well-constructed, their forces were getting ready to attack Washington and his men, and two nights prior to the 28th, English sentries fired into the forest at what they deemed “suspicious sounds,” leading to fears that the French were tracking their movements.

The English were led by Tanaghrisson and other Indigenous guides and marched single-file as the latter often did when they were about to engage an enemy.  When they reached an encampment of about 35 Frenchmen positioned in a valley, Washington and his colonial compatriots assumed positions to face them head-on, while Tanaghrisson and the Native fighters sought to block any potential escape routes.  Washington would claim that the French spotted them and fired first, so his orders to fire were made in retaliation.  The confrontation became a one-sided affair partly due to the stealth approach of Washington’s forces, but also because the rain from the previous night rendered French muskets nearly useless.  Facing the prospect of either death by English guns or death by Indigenous tomahawks, the Frenchmen who weren’t initially gunned down threw down their arms and threw up their hands in surrender.  One of the many wounded requested an audience with Washington and claimed that he had a message to deliver: this man was Ensign Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Joumonville, who we will refer to henceforth simply as “Joumonville.”  His message came from the commander of Fort Duquesne, the imposing French fort at the Forks of the Ohio.  The Virginians were to turn around and leave immediately because their claims to the Ohio River Valley amounted to nothing since the land was property of the King of France, and Washington and other Englishmen had no right to trespass.  This message was orally transmitted before it was hand-delivered to Washington, and as he wasn’t fluent in French, he sought to examine the paper in which it was written in more depth.  Unfortunately for Joumonville, this provided Tanaghrisson with the opening he was looking for: he stepped forward, stood over the wounded Frenchman, and planted his tomahawk directly in Jumonville’s skull.  After dispatching Jumonville, Tanaghrisson’s warriors descended on about one dozen of the wounded French and scalped them…alive.  We haven’t really addressed scalping in the podcast, but it involves a knife and a human scalp…and that’s about all the detail we need here.  Washington had already presided over the wounding of an individual who claimed to be an official diplomat, but to basically stand aside and allow this man and other wounded combatants who had already surrendered to be murdered…that was an unconscionable breach of accepted rules of European warfare.  Washington had already been outfoxed by a much more experienced French commander at Fort LeBoeuf, but it now appeared that he had failed to understand the intentions of his Seneca ally, and the results had proven deadly.  To the casual outside observer, military command seemed a task to which Lieutenant-Colonel Washington was wholly unsuited.

The French were certain to arrive at their own conclusion of what occurred and cast Washington and his allies as nothing more than over-aggressive murderers.  Upon returning to his camp at the Great Meadows in southwestern Pennsylvania, Washington started to write to Governor Dinwiddie…not about what had just occurred, but a response to a previous letter in which he complained about insufficient pay.  As an aspiring member of Virginia’s elite gentry, George had a clear idea about what he considered to be “honor,” and in his mind, the compensation he was receiving was deemed an insult to said honor.  He also was disgruntled by the chain-of-command that existed in the frontier of the British Empire; any British officer who received his commission directly from the Crown, no matter where the position was in the military hierarchy, would always outrank a colonial officer, and Washington also spent ample time attempting to correct this perceived injustice as well.   It seems odd that in the midst of what amounted to his first military campaign, directly following what he had just witnessed Tanaghrisson, Washington would spend so much time worried about these issues. However, rank and pay would consume much of Washington’s time throughout his service in the French and Indian War and he would be forced to confront them from a commanding officer’s perspective during the American Revolution.  After attempting to address these issues, Washington fired out another letter to Dinwiddie explaining his version of what had happened regarding Jumonville’s death as rumors were already starting to spread east in quick fashion.  At this time, Washington was just a green 22-year old attempting to rise through society via military service and plot what his men should do next.  It certainly wouldn’t help if he knew that once word reached London of what happened, politicians would appreciate his valor but condemn his actions and use them as evidence that colonials certainly couldn’t be relied upon in the field of battle when instant, precise decision-making was essential to success.

Act Four: Recovering a Reputation

The assessment of these British politicians would certainly have stung the future Major-General Washington, and the present Lieutenant-Colonel Washington had skin that was fairly thin.  These conclusions were made prior to the events of July 3, 1754, just five weeks following Washington’s encounter with (some might call it a massacre of) Jumonville and his French detachment.  Colonel Washington came to believe that a French attack would occur at any moment, understandably so, so he reinforced his camp in the Great Meadows, named Fort Necessity.  Everything leading up to the battle had been a disaster for the English side: Tanaghrisson attempted to rally warriors of the Ohio River Valley to his cause, and ended up with about two dozen fighters.  Dinwiddie was awaiting the arrival of Cherokee allies from the Carolinas to aid in the war effort…they never came.  A Scottish Highlander, Colonel James Innes, was to formally take charge of Washington’s expedition and arrive with reinforcements: neither arrived in time to make a difference.  Food supplies at the fort were also dangerously low, so Washington had to decide whether to retreat, press on, or stand his ground: his pride and sense of duty dictated that he choose the third option.  One of Washington’s strengths as future leader of the Continental Army would be logistics, but he had yet to learn how to properly coordinate spread-out forces at this early stage of life.  He would also be remembered for his measured, almost cautious nature when making decisions: however, it currently wasn’t the smartest move to try and defend a hastily-constructed fort that was built close to the woods that provided the enemy with ample protection.  All of this became clear on July 3 when French soldiers and Indigenous warriors fired at Fort Necessity from behind trees, rocks, really any geographic feature that provided protection from return fire.  A heavy rain that afternoon neutralized British weapons in the same way it had done for Jumonville’s French on May 28, and the pools of water even trapped defenders in their own fortifications.  By nightfall, with one-third of his men killed or wounded, Washington made the choice to surrender to the French, and the official terms made his situation even worse: the official document referred to Jumonville’s death as an “assassination” instead of a death, and Washington would insist that he would not have signed had he known this word would be used (it’s worth noting that Washington’s interpreter was French, but doesn’t appear to have had a reason to mislead him).  He and his men were given the honor of a formal retreat, but all belongings left behind at the fort were confiscated, including Washington’s private journal, which became public (and was much ridiculed by the French) two years later.  So Washington’s military track record up to this point was as follows: one failed negotiation, one murdered diplomat, one inadvertent admission of guilt for said murder, and one bungled defense of a fort.  He decided it was best to press the “pause” button on his desired military career. 

This hiatus lasted 8 months since the disastrous loss at Fort Necessity put North America firmly on the radar of Great Britain, who did not wish to cede any land to its sworn enemy, no matter how remote it might be.  General Edward Braddock, whose lengthy military career included serving in His Majesty’s Coldstream Guards and defending the geographically significant Straits of Gibraltar, which is the crucial choke point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea.  He arrived with two full regiments of British regulars, or professional soldiers, a comprehensive plan to defeat the French using a multi-pronged approach, and no actual experience leading men in the field.  He soon learned that the semi-retired George Washington, bungles and stumbles aside, possessed a unique knowledge of the terrain and had experience dealing with the numerous nations of the frontier, so he asked Washington to assist him in the campaign.  Washington had officially become the occupant of Mount Vernon two months earlier and was overwhelmed in his attempts to run and harvest crops at the estate.  He settled on a solution: he would volunteer to serve as one of several aid-de-camps, or assistants, to General Braddock and serve without pay.  Volunteering without pay allowed him to answer only to Braddock, stay on the plantation until the army was officially ready to move out, and prove that he wasn’t just serving for personal glory (it was part of the equation, but not the only part).  He set off with Braddock in May 1755 with the general personally leading the assault on the French in the Ohio River Valley.  It’s worth noting that not only George Washington, but also Ben Franklin, warned General Braddock that it was not only unwise to plod slowly through the forest, but also that Native enemies were not to be underestimated.  Long story short: Braddock plodded, and he vastly underestimated them due to his perceived belief in British superiority, and about 10 miles from Fort Duquesne along the Monongahela River, the attack began.  In addition to French soldiers, the British faced off against Indigenous warriors from the western Great Lakes and even beyond the Mississippi River.  The ambush to which these warriors were superbly proficient occurred on July 9 and disorder was the only actual order of the day so far as the British were concerned: the advance party of Colonel Thomas Gage, of future Revolutionary War infamy, was attacked first, and as additional British marched towards the gunfire, were easily cut down since they still attempted to fight in formation as if they were fighting on the plains of a European battlefield.  Throughout it all, the 23-year old George Washington emerged as the only uninjured aid-de-camp and he also personally assisted in removing the wounded Braddock from the field: Braddock would die from his wounds days later.  Two-thirds of Braddock’s forces were killed or wounded, 70 percent of the officers were killed, and Braddock took the blame for the disastrous defeat at the hands of the French and Indigenous forces, who fought in what the British deemed a “cowardly” way.  However, there was a bright spot in the aftermath of the battle, and that was Washington: he was ill when the battle began, he had two horses shot out from under him, and had four bullet holes in his jacket at battle’s end, but he had calmly and admirably performed his duties and gained widespread recognition for his efforts.  His metaphorical star, it appeared, was on the rise.

At this point, you’ve probably figured out that this episode is a bit longer than the others in this half of the season: it makes sense because it is George Washington, but remember that it’s also a part of his life that isn’t so well-known.  Everything up to this point related to the French and Indian War had intense global ramifications, although whether or not Washington realized it at the time is another issue altogether.   What’s truly remarkable is that everything we’ve covered with regard to his official military service comprises only two years, with three more to go.  This isn’t to say that the remaining three years of his service are any less important than the first two, but Washington will carry on with a few of the same habits that his has already picked up, yet he’ll mature and apply several hard-learned lessons that will shape him into the leader most Americans remember him as.  For instance, his experience with General Braddock’s force demonstrated to him firsthand that the vaunted British Army, the disciplined fighting force to which he so desperately wanted to belong, could be defeated and was thus not invincible.  He came to understand that warfare in the backcountry was certainly different than the more “formal” combat of Europe, a point he tried to impress upon the apparently tone-deaf Braddock and one that subsequent British officers would ignore at their peril.   His interactions with residents of the backcountry taught him that despite their vastly different way of life than those of the Tidewater elite, their independence and sense of freedom were to be respected and Washington came to empathize with their struggles dealing with Indigenous hit-and-run raids.  He did enjoy the glory and adulation that came with his newfound fame, although his sense of responsibility to others would become more intense in the coming years.  This sense of duty explains why he continued to serve through the perceived low pay and issues with rank that he continued to petition against, and his reputation for leading and disciplining men allowed him the honor of leading one regiment of a three-pronged assault on Fort Duquesne.   This was part of a shifting British strategy, courtesy of Prime Minister William Pitt, to overwhelm the French where they were the weakest, North America, and turn this frontier war into a global conflict that stretched across Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, and South Asia.  Now more experienced and somewhat battle-hardened, Washington would finally get to prove his meddle in true combat in what was to be the greatest battle on North American soil…only to have the French blow up the fort and abandon it before the British arrived.  Washington learned one final lesson: you can prepare for “glorious combat,” and you can dream of that one stunning victory that will be remembered for time eternal, but it doesn’t always pan out that way, so best to take the win when and where you can achieve it.  It would take Washington a while to internalize this reality, as in, he wouldn’t quite understand it until the end of the American Revolution, but the result of this almost confrontation was that England’s new strategy was wreaking havoc on the French, and France began to lose ground in North America, culminating in the capture of Montreal in 1760.  Washington was two years removed from his service at this point, back at Mount Vernon with his wife of several years, Martha, and her two children from her previous marriage.  He carried with him an adjusted outlook on his place in the world, and enjoyed the respect of his peers…two things that would factor heavily into his eventual role as a so-called “Founder” of the future United States of America.

If you’ve made it this far, the final episode of season one of History: Beyond the Textbook has already dropped and is ready to go.  We end the season with an examination of one of the primary effects of the French and Indian War, an event known as Pontiac’s War.  Fittingly, we’ll view this from the lens of Odawa Sachem Pontiac and learn about how his efforts helped bridge the gap between the previous colonial era and the coming American Revolution.