The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America (Pivotal Moments in American History)

by Colin G. Calloway (Author)

49 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0195300710

ISBN-10: 0195300718

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In this superb volume in Oxford's acclaimed Pivotal Moments series, Colin Calloway reveals how the Treaty of Paris of 1763 had a profound effect on American history, setting in motion a cascade of unexpected consequences, as Indians and Europeans, settlers and frontiersmen, all struggled to adapt to new boundaries, new alignments, and new relationships.

Britain now possessed a vast American empire stretching from Canada to the Florida Keys, yet the crushing costs of maintaining it would push its colonies toward rebellion. White settlers, free to pour into the West, clashed as never before with Indian tribes struggling to defend their way of life. In the Northwest, Pontiac's War brought racial conflict to its bitterest level so far. Whole ethnic groups migrated, sometimes across the continent: it was 1763 that saw many exiled settlers from Acadia in French Canada move again to Louisiana, where they would become Cajuns. Calloway unfurls this panoramic canvas with vibrant narrative skill, peopling his tale with memorable characters such as William Johnson, the Irish baronet who moved between Indian campfires and British barracks; Pontiac, the charismatic Ottawa chieftain; and James Murray, Britains first governor in Quebec, who fought to protect the religious rights of his French Catholic subjects.

Most Americans know the significance of the Declaration of Independence or the Emancipation Proclamation, but not the Treaty of Paris. Yet 1763 was a year that shaped our history just as decisively as 1776 or 1862. This captivating book shows why.

Winner of the Society of Colonial Wars Book Award for 2006

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Dartmouth historian Calloway (author of the outstanding One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark) tells a spellbinding tale of a year in American history. In 1763, with the peace treaty that ended the French and Indian War, France and Spain handed over all the territory east of the Mississippi, as well as Canada, to the British. In this one stroke, settlers both on the East Coast and on the frontier came under British rule. Calloway's enthralling chronicle follows the lives of settlers, Indians and immigrants as this new British rule affected them. He demonstrates convincingly that the seeds of the American Revolution were planted in 1763, as a near-bankrupt Britain began to impose heavy "taxation without representation." The year brought bloody skirmishes between Indians, who were being pushed off more of their lands, and settlers; Calloway also narrates the expulsion of Acadians from Nova Scotia and their resettlement in Louisiana. This first-rate cultural history, part of Oxford's Pivotal Moments in American History series, reveals that the events of 1763 changed not only the political geography of a nation but also its cultural geography, as various groups moved from one part of the country to another. B&w illus., maps. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

In North America in 1763, people were on the move, some under compulsion, some under their own volition, many under arms. The ensuing cultural and political collisions are Calloway's theme as he surveys the consequences of the French and Indian War. A historian of American Indian history, Calloway ably delivers on his introductory promise to explain how the war's territorial transfers impacted countless people. Immediately objecting to their abandonment, in their perception, by the French and accurate in their belief that the victorious British came to conquer, the Indians of the Ohio country raised the tomahawk in Pontiac's War. The war heralded that adjustments to the new imperium would be required of every ethnic group: the southern Indian tribes; British settlers surging over the Appalachians; the French inhabitants of Canada, Illinois, and Louisiana; and the Spanish colonists of East and West Florida. Imbued with cultural erudition and diplomatic insight, Calloway's study sequences perfectly with Fred Anderson's War That Made America (2005). Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product details

Series: Pivotal Moments in American History
Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press (May 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0195300718
ISBN-13: 978-0195300710
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 1.2 x 6.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 49 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #840,630 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1487 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Colonial Period
- #2053 in Books > History > Europe > Great Britain > England
- #2218 in Books > History > Europe > France

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Casey

Great Overview of an Important, but Not Well Understood, Time in American History

October 27, 2015

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This is a detailed overview of the affects of the French and Indian War. It's not about the war itself, but the consequences of the war and the treaty that ended it. The relations among the English, French and various Native America tribes, were all impacted by the change in the balance of power.The Native Americans had good relations with the French traders. When the British took over the area between the Appalachians and the Mississippi River, the relation with the Indians changed. The British acted less like trade partners and more like conquerors. Jeffrey Amherst was notable in not wanting to placate the Indians, but rather to show them who is the boss. This caused a lot of conflict, like Pontiac's War.

In addition to discussing the events in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, and Ontario, there is also a good overview of the French Acadians and their travel to Louisiana. The Spanish in Florida and the Spanish take over of the French land west of the Mississippi are also covered. These topics are not usually given much coverage in writings about this time between the wars.

Some of the comments have mentioned that the book is an overview, and not a comprehensive history. But this period of history is often forgotten and not very well known. An overview is a great introduction. It gives the reader a good understanding of the events. A large, academic tome would be overkill for the average person interested in history.

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What Does the 1763 Treaty of Paris Have to Do with the 1783 Treaty of Paris? More than You Might Think

July 7, 2012

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A part of the "Pivotal Moments in American History" series, "The Scratch of a Pen" is a well-researched and -written account of the events surrounding the creation of the demarcation line separating British settlements along the eastern seaboard from the Native Americans to the West. It took the crest of the Appalachian Mountain chain as that demarcation line, setting in train significant complaints about arbitrariness at Parliament and controversies that would not be settled until the American Revolution more than a decade later. At least that has been what most students of history have been taught about the event.

What is clear from Colin B. Calloway's narrative, however, is that the story is both more complex and more interesting, to say nothing of its greater significance. Calloway, professor of history at Dartmouth College, relates the story of the Seven Years War, an international conflict with theaters in several continents, usually called the "French and Indian War" in North America, and how this changed the nature of imperialism in the Western Hemisphere and the geopolitical relationship between not only France and Great Britain but also the other nations of Europe.

At a fundamental level the Treaty of Paris that ended the Seven Years War must be viewed through the lens of unintended consequences. The Great Powers experienced a seismic shift in relations as a result, especially as France lost its North American colonies. North Americans of all stripes had to deal with new situations, boundaries, governments, and restrictions. The costs of winning that war prompted British leaders to begin increasing efforts to squeeze more money out of their colonies, setting on a path toward revolution the American colonies--we all know that the American Revolution began as a tax revolt.

Calloway also makes much of the arbitrary demarcation line put into place by the British government and the fact that it served to rile up traders, hunters, settlers, Native Americans, ethnic British, ethnic Franch, ethnic Spanish, and just about anyone else on the frontier. From everyone's perspective this was an intrusion on their liberty and deserving of either ignoring it or overturning it. The fact that the British army sought to enforce the line ensured that disagreements would take center stage. Clashes increased in frequency and in their violence. Pontiac's War demonstrated all the more for the British government why it had to separate European and Native American populations. The result was enormously significant for the future of the United States.

Colin Calloway has written a very fine short history of these ramifications of the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and how they contributed to the rise of revolutionary fervor in what became the United States. "The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America" is an excellent history and well worth reading and pondering.

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Solid Historical Reconstruction about the events of 1763

March 31, 2013

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In "The Scratch of a Pen" Colin Galloway effectively draws upon the idea of contingency in history in order to demonstrate that 1763, often understood as just one year among many other leading to the American Revolution, was in fact THE key year which set in motion the events that precipitated and enabled the revolt of the American colonies in 1776. The greatest strength of Galloway's work is his integration of the myriad players and their roles into a coherent narrative without over-simplifying any of these historical players roles. As may be expected, Galloway focuses a great deal of attention on Native Americans, their key role in the French-Indian War and their subsequent resistance to the British after Paris. He documents their role in the conflict, their relatively small role in the peace, and their often and justified complaints about the consequences of that peace. He also does an effective job showing how both Indian resistance and presence affected British North American policy and the way in which that policy--from the perspective of British colonists--began the slow process of turning NA British sentiment against the Crown.

Nonetheless, immigration patterns from Europe as well as migration patterns in North America are duly noted and the effects of Paris on these movements are pursued to great benefit. The final chapter, which emphasizes Acadian migration and the establishment of "French" New Orleans" is especially noteworthy. As such, Galloway's work is an excellent example of how to document a transitionary period that includes multiple dynamics and turn the events into a coherent narrative. It may be said that Galloway's strength is not his prose (those they are more than adequate for the occasion), but rather his strong grasp of cause-effect relationships in both the political and social context. This is easily seen in the way he seamlessly transitions from micro-level political history, to detailed, local history. Galloway includes what may be considered unfortunate (cynical?) political swipes at early 21st Century American political policies, but these are sufficiently embedded in "drawing lessons from history" types of settings to keep one's blood pressure at ease.

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