Paxton Boys
The Paxton Boys were a group of backcountry frontiersmen from western Pennsylvania who banded together to defend themselves against Indian attack during Pontiac's Rebellion. They felt that the colonial government, which was dominated by Quaker pacifists, was negligent in providing them with protection, so they took matters into their own hands.
In December, 1763, they attacked a settlement of Conestoga Indians, killing 6 and capturing 14, all of which they later killed. In response to the attack, Governor John Penn issued warrants for their arrests, but they were never apprehended. Next, they targeted a village of Moravian Indians, but the Indians were able to escape to Philadelphia, where they were protected by a contingent of British soldiers. Like the Conestoga, the Moravian Indians were peaceful and unconnected to Pontiac's uprising.
Nonetheless, the Paxton Boys were outraged that the colonial government would provide protection to Indians while denying it to them, and, similarly aggrieved at what they perceived to be backcountry underrepresentation in the legislature, a group of the Paxton Boys 600–1500 strong marched on Philadelphia. The colonial government, with the help of Benjamin Franklin, averted a crisis only by making concessions to them.
Similar to the frontier vigilantes of the Regulator movement in South Carolina, the Paxton Boys revealed the tension between the established societies of the Atlantic coast and the more precarious and beleaguered areas of white settlement on the western frontier.
External links
Categories: U.S. colonial history | Pennsylvania history