This week on The Historians Podcast, site manager Scott Haefner talks about Old Fort Johnson, the 1749 limestone house that British Indian agent William Johnson built on the Mohawk River in colonial New York. It was fortified for protection during the French and Indian Wars. [Read more…] about Scott Haefner of Old Fort Johnson on Historians Podcast
French And Indian War
Comments Sought On Lake George Battlefield Management
The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) and the Lake George Park Commission (LGPC) has announced they are holding a joint public comment period to solicit comments for the Lake George Battlefield Park Unit Management Plan.
Public comment will be accepted until May 3, 2018. [Read more…] about Comments Sought On Lake George Battlefield Management
Fort Ti History Educators Conference Planned For May
“The Great Wars: The French & Indian War and the First World War” will be the focus of the Tenth Annual History Conference for Educators to be held on Friday, May 18, 2018 at Fort Ticonderoga.
Sessions focused on the French & Indian War (known as the Seven Years’ War in Europe) and World War I will answer the question on how global conflict affects local communities. Participants will learn about the scope and impact of “Great Wars” on society in general through the study of primary accounts. [Read more…] about Fort Ti History Educators Conference Planned For May
1763-1848: The Age of Revolutions
Between 1763 and 1848, an age of revolutions took place in North America, South America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe. But why is it that we only seem to remember the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution?
Given that the American Revolution took place before all of these other revolutions, what was its role in influencing this larger “Age of Revolutions?” Did it influence this larger period?
Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History’s exploration of what the American Revolution looked like within the larger period known as the “Age of Revolutions” continues as Janet Polasky, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire and the author of Revolutions Without Borders: The Call of Liberty in the Atlantic World (Yale University Press, 2015), guides us through the period to explore answers to these questions. [Read more…] about 1763-1848: The Age of Revolutions
French & Indian War Bayonet Discovered In The Adirondacks
Last fall a rusted old military bayonet was unearthed on private property just east of Loon Lake in Warren County. It was taken to David Starbuck, a noted local historical and industrial archeologist who has written extensively on Fort William Henry on Lake George.
Coincidentally, on that day Jesse Zuccaro, a student who has focused his studies on early bayonets, happened to be visiting Starbuck. Together they inspected this new find. After careful examination they concluded it was French in design and probably dated between 1728 and the 1740s. Twenty thousand of these bayonets were made and sent to New France prior to the American Revolution. [Read more…] about French & Indian War Bayonet Discovered In The Adirondacks
Montcalm’s Cross: Report from Carillon Reenactment Weekend
On July 22 and 23, Fort Ticonderoga commemorated the 259th anniversary of the 1758 Battle of Carillon with a series of events called “Montcalm’s Cross,” named after French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm.
The Battle of Carillon was fought on July 8, 1758, during the French and Indian War. It was the bloodiest battle of the Seven Years War fought in North America, with over 3,000 casualties. French losses were about 400, while more than 2,000 were British. [Read more…] about Montcalm’s Cross: Report from Carillon Reenactment Weekend
1757: What Adirondack History Might Have Been
“These are mere deserts on both sides of the river St. Lawrence, uninhabited by beast or bird on account of the severe colds which reign there.”—Samuel de Champlain.
“One cannot see a more savage country, and no part of the earth is more uninhabitable.” —Pierre Charlevoix, 1756. And about winters in the north: “It is then a melancholy thing not to be able to go out of doors, unless you are muffled up with furs like the bears…. What can anyone think, where the very bears dare not show their face to the weather for six months in the year!”
The last quotation (1767) is from John Mitchell, who cited the above comments by Charlevoix and Champlain in assessing New England, New York, and Quebec during discussions about the future of the American colonies. His writings at that time supported a solution Mitchell had proposed a decade earlier, one that would have drastically altered today’s map of the Americas and seriously revised the history of the Adirondack region. [Read more…] about 1757: What Adirondack History Might Have Been
Fort Ticonderoga War College Registration Open
Registration is now open for Fort Ticonderoga’s Twenty-Second Annual War College of the Seven Years’ War, May 19 to 21, 2017.
With a panel of distinguished historians from across the United States, this seminar focuses on the Seven Years’ War in North America, also known as the French & Indian War. [Read more…] about Fort Ticonderoga War College Registration Open
Battle of Lake George Book Talk, Signing Feb 4th
Schenectady County Historical Society will host a book talk and signing with historian William Griffith on Saturday, February 4th at 2 pm at the Mabee Farm Historic Site.
In his book The Battle of Lake George (2016) Griffith tells the story of the first major British battlefield victory of the French and Indian War.
In late summer in Lake George, 1755, a bloody conflict for control of Lake George and its access to New York’s interior took place between the British and French forces. Against all odds, British commander William Johnson rallied his men through the barrage of enemy fire to send the French retreating north to Ticonderoga. The stage was set for one of the most contested regions throughout the rest of the conflict. [Read more…] about Battle of Lake George Book Talk, Signing Feb 4th
Disease & The Seven Years’ War
When we think of the French and Indian, or Seven Years’ War, we often think of battles: The Monongahela, Ticonderoga, Québec. Yet, wars aren’t just about battles. They’re about people and governments too.
In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World: A Podcast About Early American History, we explore a very different aspect of the French and Indian or Seven Years’ War. We explore the war through the lens of disease and medicine and how disease prompted the British government to take steps to keep its soldiers healthy.
Our guide for this investigation is Erica Charters, an Associate Professor of the History of Medicine at the University of Oxford and author of Disease, War, and the Imperial State: The Welfare of British Armed Forces during the Seven Years’ War (University of Chicago Press, 2014). You can listen to the podcast here: www.benfranklinsworld.com/116