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American History
Pontiac’s Rebellion and the Proclamation of 1763
At the conclusion of the French and Indian War
the Treaty of Paris (1763) changed control of
North America. The British Empire now
controlled all lands east of the Mississippi River.
When the French and English negotiated their
treaty they left out one important player from the
war, Native Americans. With European powers
deciding ownership of land that the vast majority
of had never seen the people who actually lived
on the land decided to fight back.
The Indian tribes (Delaware, Ottawa, Seneca,
Chippewa, Miami, Potawatomi, Wyandot,
Ojibwa) of the Ohio Valley were surprised and
angered by the defeat of their French allies in the
French and Indian War; the natives owned their
homelands and had little feeling of loss while the
French had claimed the same lands. When word
arrived in the Ohio Valley that the tribes were
expected to turn their loyalty to a new European
monarch, King George III of Britain, they were
outraged.
Native anger was understandable and was rooted
in several issues beyond their refusal to
acknowledge defeat in the recent war:
 English control in North America meant the
construction of new forts and the movement of
new settlers into traditional Indian lands. The
earlier French presence had been small and the
relationship often harmonious.
 British traders lacked the reputation for
fairness in dealing with the Indians that the
French had earned. The natives had become
dependent on European firearms, ammunition
and other manufactured goods, and were now
forced to deal with untrustworthy English
partners (the French had given the Native
Americans free ammunition).
 British arrogance was well-known among the
Indians. The French in many instances had
married native women and been adopted by
the tribes. Few British followed that example
and many expressed utter contempt for the
natives' lifestyles and worth as humans.
Tensions between natives and British were
further heightened when, in early 1763, Sir
Jeffrey Amherst, the new North American
governor-general, announced that he would stop
the practice of presenting annual gifts to the
tribes, an event long honored by the French. The
Indians were insulted by this snub, but also were
angry to be denied the expected tools, blankets,
guns and liquor.
The Ottawa chieftain, Pontiac (c.1720-1769),
who was known primarily for his speaking skills
and as a supporter of the French in the recent
war, spoke of returning to traditional ways and
rejection of contact with the British. His
message found sympathetic ears among the
Delaware, Seneca, Chippewa, Miami,
Potawotomi and Huron, among others. The
resulting conflict in the Ohio Valley has been
labeled Pontiac’s Rebellion.
Pontiac held a war council with like-minded
tribes in April 1763. Pontiac led an attack
against Fort Detroit in May and set up a siege.
Later during the summer, a British force
attempted to free the fort by launching a surprise
attack against Pontiac’s village. The plan was
discovered and the attacking British soldiers
suffered heavy casualties in the Battle of Bloody
Run (July 31, 1763). Pontiac continued his
unsuccessful efforts at Detroit into November.
To the east, another British bastion, Fort Pitt,
was also the target of allied Indians. British
relief forces were en route to the besieged fort
when they encountered a large Indian force. The
resulting Battle of Bushy Run (August 5-6,
1763) was costly to the British, but they
successfully preserved Fort Pitt.
Despite these two defeats, the allied
tribes were highly successful during much of
1763. Eight British forts fell, which included
major installations at Presque Isle, Sandusky and
Michilimackinac.
Fort Michilimackinac (present Mackinaw
City, Michigan) was the largest fort taken by
surprise. On June 4, 1763, local Ojibwas staged
a game of Indian stickball (a forerunner of
lacrosse) with visiting Sauks. The soldiers
watched the game, as they had done on previous
occasions. The ball was hit through the open
gate of the fort; the teams rushed in and were
then handed weapons previously smuggled into
the fort by Indian women. About fifteen men of
the 35-man garrison were killed in the struggle;
five more were later executed.
Biological warfare was also attempted if
not successfully used. While under siege at Ft.
Pitt, British commanders sent out blankets and a
handkerchief infected with smallpox in an
attempt to spread the disease to their attackers.
While many natives in the area were infected
and died of smallpox, there had already been an
outbreak so it is impossible to tell if the British
plan was to blame for the spread of disease.
One of the prime results of Pontiac's
Rebellion was the decision of British
policymakers to issue the Proclamation of
1763, a measure designed to shut down white
settlement of the West until organizational
reforms could be affected. American reaction to
this measure was immediate and heated.
It is also important to note that most of
the fighting against the Indians during this
uprising was conducted by British regulars. The
colonial soldiers had performed poorly during
the French and Indian War and were purposely
excluded by British commanders.
On October 7, 1763, the British
government issued the Royal Proclamation of
1763. It is sometimes written that the
Proclamation was a response to Pontiac's War,
but this is only partially correct. The
Proclamation was part of an effort to reorganize
British North America after the Treaty of Paris,
and the policies contained in the Proclamation
were already in the works when Pontiac's War
erupted. The outbreak of the war hastened the
process.
The most significant aspect of the
Proclamation was that it drew a boundary line
between the British colonies and American
Indian lands west of the Appalachians. Some
Crown officials wanted to limit colonial
westward expansion because expansion
threatened to undermine the Empire's economic
relationship with the colonies. Others wanted the
colonies to expand, but in a more peaceful and
orderly fashion. These expansionists supported a
boundary line in order to temporarily halt
westward migration until a better expansion
policy could be devised — one that would not
provoke expensive wars with American Indians.
The colonists generally resented the
Proclamation of 1763 because many of the
colonies had extensive land claims in the west.
Many colonists (often landless) hoped to settle
in the west themselves, and land speculators
looked upon the west as a source of potential
wealth. Although the success of the British
Empire in the Seven Years' War was a source of
pride for many in the British colonies, the
Proclamation served to undermine colonial
attachment to the Empire.
In the coming years, many in the
colonies resisted the new taxation that was
imposed by the Crown — taxes that were
intended to pay for the wars that had been fought
to secure North America for the British Empire.
Royal officials regarded the colonists as
ungrateful for refusing to help pay for the army
that had protected them during the "Indian
uprising." Pontiac's War and the Proclamation of
1763 were thus contributing factors to the
coming of the American Revolution.
Proclamation of 1763
The end of the French and Indian War in 1763
was a cause for great celebration in the colonies,
for it removed several ominous barriers and
opened up a host of new opportunities for the
colonists. The French had effectively hemmed in
the British settlers and had, from the perspective
of the settlers, played the "Indians" against them.
The first thing on the minds of colonists was the
great western frontier that had opened to them
when the French ceded that contested territory to
the British. The royal proclamation of 1763 did
much to dampen that celebration. The
proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to
colonial expansion. The King and his council
presented the proclamation as a measure to calm
the fears of the Indians, who felt that the
colonists would drive them from their lands as
they expanded westward. Many in the colonies
felt that the object was to pen them in along the
Atlantic seaboard where they would be easier to
regulate. No doubt there was a large measure of
truth in both of these positions. However the
colonists could not help but feel a strong
resentment when what they perceived to be their
prize was snatched away from them.
It asserted that all of the Indian peoples were
thereafter under the protection of the King. It
required that all lands within the "Indian
territory" occupied by Englishmen were to be
abandoned.
Summary
After the war England controlled all of North
America east of the Mississippi River. Many
colonists wanted to move across the
Appalachian Mountains into land that the French
had controlled before the war. King George
made a law saying that these lands were to be
"reserved" for the Indian Nations. This law was
called the Proclamation of 1763 and stated the
colonists could not move westward over
the Appalachian Mountains. Those settlers who
were already living there were to return to the
east. This new law angered the colonists and
many moved west anyway.
People to Identify
Pontiac
King George III
Jeffery Amherst
Vocabulary
Proclamation of 1763
Siege
Smuggle
Ceded