THE FRENCH AND INDAIN WAR 104D

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A few decades ago, pop artists Simon and Garfunkel released a song describing someone trying to isolate themselves from heartbreak and sorrow. Some of the lyrics are as follows:

Don't talk of love,
But I've heard the words before;
It's sleeping in my memory.
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.[i]

The ironic message is that, of course, no one truly lives alone. Both a rock and an island in a river are affected by multiple forces, such as the temperature of the air and water, the change of the seasons, floating debris, the erosion effect of the water and wind, etc. Additionally, even though an island stays put in a river, it affects the flow of the water around it. A rock thrown into the river likewise creates ripples wherever it lands.

The French and Indian War of 1754 - 1763 created some fascinating ripples in the stream of American History. My fellow instructors in the George Washington School of Freedom have written some excellent articles on this war[ii] covering its causes, main events, and resulting effects. I've decided to take a slightly different approach with my lesson. Using the French & Indian War as a springboard, I hope to inspire you to see influences in your life today - both those that act upon you as well as those in which you take an active part - in a historical context that will help shape not only your future, but that of those around you as well.

As I studied George Washington's experiences in the French & Indian War, I started to wonder about other individuals who would later become our nation's Founding Fathers. Where was James Madison? What was he doing during this war? What about Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, or George Mason? Did anything they do or experience during this time affect the rest of their lives and perhaps the rest of American history?

Let's peer into the past for a moment and see what these very influential men were doing during the years of the French & Indian War:

James Madison: Born in western Virginia, James Madison lived closer to the war zone than most other Virginians. He was also quite young, only three years old when the war started. Although Madison wasn't directly involved in the war, it did have an effect on him:

Raised on a plantation in sight of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, James Madison, born on March 16, 1751, was a sickly child who never strayed far from his mother's side. His father, James Madison Sr., acquired substantial wealth by inheritance and also by his marriage to Nelly Conway, the daughter of a rich tobacco merchant. James's youth was marked by extreme changes. His most vivid childhood memories were of his fears of Indian attacks during the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and of the day his family moved from their little farmhouse to a large plantation mansion, Montpelier. He also suffered from psychosomatic, or stress-induced, seizures, similar to epileptic fits, that plagued him on and off throughout his youth.[iii]

I wonder if perhaps his fear of Indian attacks and ill health gave him more of an inclination towards reading and studying rather than outdoor or physical pursuits. Also, it would be interesting to research his views and policies concerning the American Indians, especially when he served in Congress and later as President of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson: Thomas Jefferson was born in western Virginia in April of 1743, making him about eleven years old when the French and Indian War started. Because of his family's prosperous circumstances, Jefferson received an excellent education, first from a minister-teacher at a boarding school until age sixteen, then at the College of William and Mary in 1760 under the influence of Enlightenment-minded Professor William Small, and finally through the careful legal tutelage under the legendary George Wythe from 1762 to 1767. One biographical source notes:



For Jefferson, the study of law, as directed by Wythe, was more than just a means of earning a living; Jefferson felt that examining legal issues enabled one to consider many aspects of society, including its history, politics, culture, institutions, and the moral conscience of its people.[iv]



Thomas Jefferson's thinking and writing certainly encompassed all of these "aspects of society". I also find it interesting to note that, like George Washington, Jefferson's father died fairly early in youth, leaving a fourteen-year-old Thomas to look to his professors for "fatherly advice and direction".[v] It's quite possible that, during his formal education, Jefferson had ample opportunities to discuss the many legal, political, and personal implications of the current French and Indian War.



Benjamin Franklin: Born in 1706, Benjamin Franklin was forty-eight years old by the time of the French and Indian War. He had already enjoyed quite a bit of notoriety for previous successes, such as the Poor Richard's Almanac, the first volunteer fire department, multiple inventions and scientific discoveries, and his public service in the Pennsylvania Assembly. [vi] Connor Boyack wonderfully describes Benjamin Franklin's participation in this chapter of history:

At the start of the war, the Crown called for a colonial congress to meet in New York in 1754. To promote this "Albany Congress", one Benjamin Franklin--among many other professions and talents a printer--created his famous political cartoon of a sectioned snake with the caption "Join or Die". Franklin hoped to encourage unity amongst the American colonies, yet only seven of the thirteen colonies sent delegates to the Congress. . . . Franklin's heavily debated proposal for union included a unified colonial entity, headed by a president whom the Crown would appoint, which would be comprised of a few delegates from each colony, empowered with legislative authority. This plan was rejected by the colonies who were jealous guardians of their own powers . . . . Despite the failure of this congress, the seeds of self-government and the desire for some sort of "more perfect union" were planted. Britain's call for a multi-colonial congress helped spark a hungry appetite of self-government in the colonies who ultimately realized, like Franklin had earlier drawn, that they must "Join or Die".[vii]

Throughout his life, Benjamin Franklin was both a sensible business man and an idealistic thinker, one who could take abstract ideas and find ways to apply them in practical, concrete ways. His "Albany Plan" no doubt reflected a synthesis of ideas that Franklin had been pondering for some time. Many of these ideas found their realization in the Articles of Confederation and, later, the U.S. Constitution.

George Mason: The "Father of the Bill of Rights"[viii] was born in 1725 to a wealthy plantation owner in Virginia and was raised as a gentleman's son. Biographers Carla Heymsfeld and Joan Lewis commented about the expectations of boys like Mason:

Education in the planter society was a mark of a gentleman, and George Mason had to be prepared for this role. . . . Their school day started two or three hours before breakfast, and they worked through the morning. In the afternoon they got a long break, which included dinner, but they then had to return to school until about six o'clock. . . . Being a gentleman involved more than dressing well and knowing how to dance or ride a horse. A gentleman had to protect his family fortune and reputation and was expected to be a leader in his society. Gentlemen served in churches, in court, and in politics. This was especially true of the Masons.[ix]

When George was ten years old, his father drowned in an accident on the Potomac River. George's mother, Ann Mason, moved the family from Maryland to Virginia so they could live closer to their extended family, particularly George's co-guardian, John Mercer. "Uncle John" was a brilliant lawyer with a personal library of over 1,500 volumes, over half of them dealing with law.[x]

George Mason was twenty-nine years old when the French and Indian War started. Although he never personally fought in the war, he was deeply involved as an investor in the Ohio Company, a group of wealthy citizens who petitioned the British Crown for the rights to the fertile land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Their petition was granted, but problems soon followed. First, overlapping boundaries of the Pennsylvania and Virginia charters created disputes between the two colonies. The French also claimed the area, desiring to strengthen their strategic control over the Mississippi River and unite French Canada with French New Orleans. Finally, the Native Americans believed the land belonged to them. Throughout the ensuing French and Indian War, George Mason was instrumental in providing food supplies for the colonial and British soldiers, earning him the title "Colonel Mason."[xi]

When the war finally ended, the British Crown decided they wanted a buffer zone in the Ohio Valley and issued the Proclamation of 1763 forbidding settlement on Indian lands west of the Allegheny Mountains. George Mason chose to fight this Proclamation, and, in the process, became an expert in property rights and land law.[xii] No doubt Mason was able to rely greatly on his Uncle John's library and legal expertise during this time and later during his work with the Virginia Declaration of Rights, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

Conclusion

What can we learn from these glimpses into history? The biographical summaries above highlight how a few of our Founding Fathers, like islands or rocks in the stream of history, were both influenced by and exercised influence on the French and Indian War. I would suspect that a study of other prominent colonists during that time would show a similar pattern.

I believe that the very essence of human life is a complex combination of external environmental forces and personal choices. All of us are affected by events and circumstances around us, whether they are the War on Terror, the recession, increased uprooting of families due to career or marital changes, advances in technology and medicine, local and national policies, social media, or whatever. While we are affected by these forces, however, they do not define us nor determine what we choose to do or become. By exercising our own free will, our choices create ripples in our own personal history and in the histories of our families, communities, and nations. My personal belief is that, even with the negative and positive forces that are ever present in our lives, we can choose what kinds of ripples we create. My hope is that, regardless of our circumstances, we choose to create ripples for Good!



Ideas for Learning and Application

1. Write a journal entry about the influences in your life up until now. Include such things as family life, the community (or communities) in which you grew up, education, economics, global conditions, etc. Then write about ways that you have chosen to act within these experiences and how your choices influenced your life and possibly the life of others around you. What have you learned from these experiences? How might they affect your future and the future of others?

2. Study the life of a Founding Father (or a mother, wife or sister of a Founding Father) not mentioned in this lesson during the years of the French & Indian War. Write a paragraph or two about the influences in that individual's life and another paragraph or two about the choices made by that individual that affected history.

3. Listen to the Simon and Garfunkel song, "I Am a Rock." Discuss together what you think the subject of the song is thinking and feeling. Do you think that someone can be completely isolated from others around them? Why or why not?

4. Watch the following videos about record-setting human dominos events: http://abcnews.go.com/International/video/china-sets-world-record-human-domino-chain-11393906 and http://video.au.msn.com/watch/video/today-snares-human-dominoes-world-record/xkghxhe?fg=rss . After watching these videos, discuss together how each person played their part in the event, both how they were affected by those in front of them and how they affected those behind them. Did each participant have their own free will? What could have happened had one or more of them chose not to topple as instructed? When is it important for us to follow along with what's expected of us and when is it important to break out of those expectations? What can help us decide?

[i] Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, "I Am A Rock," in the album The Sounds of Silence, (Columbia Records: 1966); publication information found through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Rock , accessed on December 7, 2010; lyrics found at http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/simon+and+garfunkel/i+am+a+rock_20124809.html , accessed on December 7, 2010.

[ii] See Lessons 104A - 104E "The French and Indian War" from the George Washington School of Freedom, found at http://www.gwschool.net/.

[iii] Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, "American President - An Online Reference Resource: James Madison (1751 - 1836)," http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/madison/essays/biography/2 , accessed on November 24, 2010.

[iv] Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia, "American President - An Online Reference Resource: Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)," http://millercenter.org/president/jefferson/essays/biography/2 , accessed on November 24, 2010.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] "Benjamin Franklin," found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin#cite_note-Engber-0 , accessed December 7, 2010.

[vii] "Course 104B Connor Boyack - The French and Indian War - The Beginning of Hostilities towards England," found at http://www.gwschool.net/.

[viii] See "Course 103F Wendi Baggaley - Introduction to the Bill of Rights" found at http://www.gwschool.net/.

[ix] Carla R. Heymsfeld and Joan W. Lewis, George Mason: Father of the Bill of Rights (Alexandria: Patriotic Education Incorporated, 1991), 6-7.

[x] Heymsfeld and Lewis, 4-9.

[xi] Heymsfeld and Lewis, 45-47.

[xii] Ibid.
On her blog http://politicalpensieve.blogspot.com, Wendi Baggaley writes, "I'm a Mom who loves my husband and four kids. I love this country. I am eternally grateful for our God-given freedoms. I have a passion for getting involved politically, I like to think and write, I dream and keep working towards having a clean & orderly home, but especially, I try to be an influence for good wherever I am!"
(Not a student yet? Enroll for free at www.gwschool.net.)
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2975 W. Executive Pkwy, Suite 183
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www.gwschool.net

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