Iroquois Confederacy Following a Peace Essay

During the years of the French Indian Wars, Benjamin Franklin saw the Colonies as needing to be united under one government, particularly for the purposes of defense. His Albany Plan of 1754 was directly influenced by the makeup of the Iroquois Confederacy. It was a commonly held view by American Patriots at the time that the functioning of the Confederacy most closely resembled that of ancient Rome, and offered a unique living insight into the Colonists' own deep past. The Albany Plan was Franklin's first plan for uniting the colonies under one peaceful government. The Plan was not ratified, but several ideas therein moved forward into the Articles of Confederation and laid the platform for Franklin's position in drafting the Constitution. The Albany Plan is the blueprint for modern American government: the proposal included a President (appointed by the British monarchy) who would lead with the support of a Grand Council, to be chosen by representatives of colonial assemblies.

With the onset of the American Revolution, the Six Nations signed a treaty of Neutrality at Albany in 1775. Joseph Brant a Mohawk leader with longstanding ties to the British, violated this treaty when he formed parties of Mohawks and Loyalist volunteers and lead attacks on Patriot settlements.Brant, who was regarded as highly cultured by the British, was received as a delegate to King George III in London in 1775. He hoped that by siding with the British he would eventually help evict settlers from Mohawk Territory.

During the summer of 1779, on George Washington's orders, General Sullivan undertook a campaign that burned forty towns of the Six Nations along with their surrounding fields, essentially forcing the Iroquois out of upstate New York. While this "scorched earth" order came in response to the Cherry Valley Massacre of 1778, it was one of the most severe atrocities committed against civilians, and against the Iroquois Confederacy in particular, during the American Revolution.

References author not specified. "Perceptions of America's Native Democracies"

.doc file provided by client

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Portland State University. Covenant Chain. 10 1, 2001. http://www.iroquoisdemocracy.pdx.edu/html/covenantchain.htm (accessed 5-13, 2011).

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