A Most Pernicious Thing: Gun Trading and Native Warfare in the Early Contact Period

149 Pages·1994·8.479 MB·English

by  Brian Given

A
MOST
PERNICIOUS
Gun TTHHIINNGG
Trading
and
Native Warfare
in the Early
Contact Period
BRIAN J* GIVEN
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A
MOST
PERNICIOUS
Gun THING
Trading
and
Native Warfare
in the Early
Contact Period
BRIAN J< GIVEN
Carleton University Press
Ottawa, Canada
1994
©Carleton University Press Inc. 1994
Printed and bound in Canada
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Given, Brian J. (Brian James), 1952-
A most pernicious thing: gun trading and Native
warfare in the early contact period
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-88629-222-0 (bound).-
ISBN 0-88629-223-9 (pbk.)
1. Indian of North American-First Contact with
Europeans. 2. Indians of North America-History-
Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.3. Indians of
North America-Foreign influences. 5. Firearms
and trade-North America I. Title.
E45.G481994 970.004'97 C93-090642-X
Carleton University Press Distributed in Canada by:
160 Paterson Hall, 1125 Colonel By Dr. Oxford University Press Canada
Ottawa K1S 5B6 Canada 70 Wynford Dr., Don Mills, ON M3C1J9
[phone] [phone]
Cover Design: Aerographics Ottawa
Interior: Campbell Typesetting Winnipeg
Acknowledgements
Carleton University Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its publishing
programme by the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council.
The Press would also like to thank the Department of Communications, Government of
Canada, and the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and
Recreation, for their assistance.
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation
of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
of Canada.
To my parents, Jim and Phyllis
and to my wife Heather
and daughter Alexis.
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Contemporary Ethnohistory 1
Chapter Two
13
The Gun in Europe - Evolution and Deployment
Chapter Three
33
Colonial Arms
Chapter Four
49
The Native/ European Gun Trade Before 1640
Chapter Five
57
The Weapons Trade Begins in Earnest
Chapter Six
81
1655 to the End of King Philip's War 1676
Chapter Seven
93
The Musket - Operational Parameters
Chapter Eight
111
Conclusions and Hypotheses
Appendix
119
Notes on Lethality
Bibliography 121
Illustrations
1. Sketch of a matchlock 16
2. Sketch of a flintlock 29
3. Detail from Samuel de Champlain's sketch 37
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Acknowledgments
Much of the research for this book was done for a Master's thesis
supervised by Professor Bruce Cox. I thank him for his help then and more
recently, as my friend and colleague at Carleton, for his encouragement
and comments on the manuscript. I owe much to the librarians and staff
of the University of Illinois Library at Champagne-Urbana, the Newberry
Library in Chicago, the New York State Archives at Albany, the Canadian
National Archives and the Canadian National Archives Library in Ottawa.
I especially want to express my appreciation to the most helpful and
knowledgeable librarians at Interlibrary Loans, Carleton University. The
staff at the War Museum of Canada were always helpful and I especially
want to thank Mr. John Chown for his generosity. Pam Mitchell typed the
original manuscript and made numerous corrections with speed and
accuracy. The sketches of lock designs on pages sixteen and twenty-nine
are the work of our friend Edwina Billyk. My editor, Jennifer Strickland of
Carleton University Press, patiently pointed out several times that I wasn't
done yet.
Their help and scholarship have contributed to the merit of this
work, and its flaws are no one's responsibility but my own.