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The Schenectady Massacre was a Canadien attack against the village of Schenectady in the colony of New York on 8 February 1690. A party of more than 200 Canadiens and allied Mohawk, Sault (Ojibwe), and Algonquin warriors attacked the unguarded community, destroying most of the homes, and killing or capturing most of its inhabitants. Sixty residents were killed, including 11 African slaves. About 60 residents were spared, including 20 Mohawk. Of the non-Mohawk survivors, 27 were taken captive, including 5 Africans. Three captives were later redeemed; another two men returned to the village after three and 11 years with the Mohawk, respectively. The remainder of the surviving captives were likely adopted by Mohawk families in Canada. The French raid was in retaliation for the Lachine massacre, an attack by Iroquois forces on a village in Quebec. These skirmishes were related both to the Beaver Wars and the French struggle with the English for control of the fur trade in North America, as well as to King William's War between France and England. By this time, the French considered most of the Iroquois to be allied with the English in their New York colony, and hoped to detach them while reducing English colonial power. ==Background== In much of the late 17th century, the Iroquois and the colonists of New France engaged in a protracted struggle for control of the economically important fur trade in northern North America, known as the Beaver Wars. The Iroquois also fought other Native American nations to control the lucrative trade with the French. In August 1689, the Iroquois launched one of their most devastating raids against the French frontier community of Lachine. This attack occurred after France and England declared war on each other, but before the news reached North America. New France's governor the Comte de Frontenac organized an expedition from Montreal to attack English outposts to the south, as punishment for English support of the Iroquois, and as a general widening of the war against the northernmost English colonies. He intended to intimidate the Iroquois and try to detach them from trading with the English. The expedition was one of three directed at isolated northern and western settlements, and this was originally directed against Fort Orange (present day Albany). It consisted of 114 French Canadiens, mostly frontier-savvy ''coureurs de bois,'' 80 Sault and 16 Algonquin warriors, with a few converted Mohawk. They marched the 200 miles overland in about 22 days.〔 Taking Fort Orange would have been a major blow against the English. At what is now Fort Edward, the French officers held council on the plan of attack.〔(Hart, Larry. ''Tales of Old Schenectady'', Chap. 8, pp. 37-40 )〕 The leaders were Jacques Le Moyne de Sainte-Hélène and Nicolas d'Ailleboust de Manthet; the second in command was Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, who founded Louisiana in 1718. The expedition made its way across the ice of Lake Champlain and Lake George toward the English communities on the Hudson River. They found Fort Orange to be well defended, but a scouting party reported on February 8 that no one was guarding the stockade at the small frontier village of Schenectady to the west. Its residents were primarily ethnic Dutch and they held numerous African slaves.〔 Schenectady and Albany were so politically polarized in the wake of the 1689 Leisler's Rebellion that the opposing factions had not agreed on the setting of guards in the two communities. The village of Schenectady (its name came from a Mohawk word meaning "beyond the Pines") was located on a patent to farm on the Great Flats of the Mohawk River originally granted by the Dutch in 1661. It was located about seven miles beyond the western border of Rensselaerswyck.〔(Bielinski, Stefan. "Schenectady", New York State Museum )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Schenectady massacre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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