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Men To Be Raised ! ! ! Hogs Run
Wild ! ! !
 The Assembly of November 1654 authorized the three
new northern counties of Lancaster,
Northumberland, and Westmoreland to
march against the Rappahannock Indians
to punish various "injuries and
insolencies offered” by them. One
hundred men were to be raised in
Lancaster, forty in Northumberland, and
thirty in Westmoreland. The
commissioners of these counties were
authorized to raise the troops, and one
of their number was appointed
commander-in-chief of the expedition.
He was to march to the Rappahannock
Indian town and demand and receive "such
satisfaction as he shall thinke fitt for
the several! Injuries done unto the
said inhabitants not using any acts of
hostility but defensive in case of
assault.” The charge of the war was to
be borne by the three counties
concerned.
This expedition was like many others that both
preceded and followed it. In each case,
enormous authority and responsibility
were given to local officials who were
themselves frequently the leading
oppressors of the Indians. Such
expeditions not infrequently took on the
character of private wars between die
big landowners of the frontier and the
Indian towns in the vicinity. The
Governor, Council, and Burgesses
frequently heard the complaints of the
local settlers, but rarely the
complaints of the Indians. The
authorization to the local community to
administer justice to the Indians often
proved a cover for their expulsion.
 The
usual grievances of the settlers against
the Indians were not the violent murders
and massacres so often associated in the
public mind with Indian-white relations,
but minor irritations concerning
property and animals. The settlers let
their hogs run wild. The hogs would get
into the Indians' corn. The Indians
would kill the hogs. The settlers would
demand satisfaction. Many acts of the
Assembly testify to the fact that
shooting of wild hogs was one of the
most frequent points of dispute not only
between the English and the Indians, but
among the English themselves. |
