Clearing Iroquoia

New York's Land Grab in the 1779 Campaigns of the American Revolution

Travis M. Bowman, Matthew A. Zembo

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2024
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978790162
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Early American History
• Index: History

In 1778, George Washington, Philip Schuyler, army officers, and New York officials began planning invasions against Iroquoia, the homeland of the Haudenosaunee and several other allied Indigenous nations. This invasion was one of the largest American offensives of the Revolutionary War, curated to punish the Haudenosaunee for raids against frontier settlements in New York and Pennsylvania. However, the resulting 1779 campaigns of Goose Van Schaick, Daniel Brodhead, and Generals John Sullivan and James Clinton were not simple retaliation. Clearing Iroquoia: New York's Land Grab in the 1779 Campaigns of the American Revolution by Travis M. Bowman and Matthew A. Zembo critically examines archival materials from these campaigns to investigate the driving force behind the campaigns: removal. Through their research, Bowman and Zembo explore how colonial leaders ignored peace efforts and how George Washington ordered his officers to do the same – prioritizing the destruction of Iroquoia and placing native peoples at the lower end of a racial hierarchy to justify their actions. Using letters, journals, speeches, and reports, this book brings the buried truths to light, exploring these series of coordinated attacks that were designed to destroy Haudenosaunee political cohesion, clear the Indigenous population from the land, and replace it with a non-Indigenous one.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Haudenosaunee and Colonizing New York
• Chapter 2: Dunmore’s War: 1774
• Chapter 3: The Haudenosaunee and the New Nation
• Chapter 4: Picking Sides: Phillip Schuyler and the Failed Effort at Neutrality
• Chapter 5: The Cherokee War: War of Extirpation
• Chapter 6: Schuyler’s Ultimatum: Declaring Enemies
• Chapter 7: War Comes to the Valley, Again: 1778
• Chapter 8: Retaliation and Escalation on the Frontier
• Chapter 9: The New York Elite: Land and Bread
• Chapter 10: Laying the Plans
• Chapter 11: Schuyler Strikes First: The Destruction of Onondaga
• Chapter 12: Iroquoia Invaded
• Chapter 13: Coveting the Land While Destroying Its Bounty
• Chapter 14: Winter at Niagara: Starving in the Snow
• Chapter 15: Suing for Peace
• Chapter 16: Redrawing the Map of New York
• Chapter 17: Selling Out the Haudenosaunee
• Chapter 18: Surviving the Destruction: The Smaller Kettle and Canoe
• Chapter 19: On Extirpation
• Epilogue
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Authors