The Black Boys, also known as the Brave Fellows and the Loyal Volunteers, were members of a white settler movement in the Conococheague Valley of colonial Pennsylvania sometimes known as the Black Boys Rebellion. The Black Boys, so-called because they sometimes blackened their faces during their actions, were upset with British policy regarding American Indians following Pontiac's Rebellion. When that war came to an end in 1765, the Pennsylvania government began to reopen trade with the Native Americans who had taken part in the uprising. Many settlers of the Conococheague Valley were outraged, having suffered greatly from Indian raids during the war. The 1764 Enoch Brown School Massacre, in which ten school children had been killed and scalped, was the most notorious example of these raids. Conococheague Creek, a tributary of the Potomac River, is a free flowing stream that originates in Pennsylvania and empties into the Potomac River in Maryland. ... The Province of Pennsylvania, better known to Americans as Pennsylvania Colony, was a North America colony granted to William Penn in 1681 by King Charles II of England. ... This article is about the people indigenous to the United States. ... Combatants British Empire American Indians Commanders Jeffrey Amherst, Henry Bouquet Pontiac, Guyasuta Casualties 450 soldiers killed, 2,000 civilians killed or captured, 4,000 civilians displaced unknown Pontiacs Rebellion was a war launched in 1763 by North American Indians who were dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes... An Alberta fur trader in the 1890s. ... The Enoch Brown School Massacre was a notorious incident in Pontiacs Rebellion. ...

Led by James "Black Boy Jimmy" Smith, the Black Boys—faces blackened and dressed as Indians—confiscated and destroyed a number of supply wagons that were headed for Fort Pitt on March 6, 1765. Some of the items in the supply wagons were official diplomatic presents, necessary for making peace with Native Americans at Fort Pitt. Other items, however, were trade goods sent by British official George Croghan, a former trader who was seeking to recoup his losses from the French and Indian War. Croghan had secretly (and illegally) included rum and gunpowder in the shipments in order to make a profit once trade with the Indians was legally resumed. A Plan of the New Fort at Pitts-Burgh, drawn by cartographer John Rocque and published in 1765. ... March 6 is the 65th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (66th in Leap years). ... 1765 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... There are articles for more than one person named George Croghan. ... Combatants France and its native allies, mostly Algonquin and Huron Great Britain and its native allies, mostly Iroquois Strength 3,900 regulars 7,900 militia 2,200 natives (1759) 50,000 regulars and militia (1759) The French and Indian War was the nine years North American chapter of the Seven...

Despite the fact that the shipment contained illegal trade goods, British army officers at nearby Fort Loudoun sided with the Croghan and the traders. Using American Indian raiding tactics, the Black Boys continued to prevent shipments from moving through the valley, and Fort Loudoun was surrounded and fired upon on several occasions. Fort Loudoun (or Fort Loudon, after the modern spelling of the town) was a fort in colonial Pennsylvania, one of several forts in colonial America named after John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun. ...

Tensions dissipated after formal peace in Pontiac's War had been established, but in 1769, when another war with Native Americans seemed imminent, Black Boys again stopped another wagon train. After British troops arrested several of the Black Boys and imprisoned them in Fort Bedford, James Smith and the Black Boys surprised and captured the fort on September 12, 1769. No one was harmed, and the prisoners were set free. (This capture of Fort Bedford is documented only in Smith's autobiography, so it may be a tall tale, although historian Gregory Evans Dowd notes that there is some corroborating evidence, and some other historians believe the tale to be true.) Troops were sent to arrest Smith, and in a struggle a friend of Smith was shot and killed. Smith was arrested and charged with manslaughter, but was acquitted, as there were doubts that it was his weapon that had killed the man. Fort Bedford was a French and Indian War era British military fortification located near the present site of Bedford, Pennsylvania. ... Portal:Currentevents September 12 is the 255th day of the year (256th in leap years). ... 1769 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

The Black Boys were similar to the earlier Paxton Boys in their hostility to the British Crown and the colonial government, but the Black Boys did not target Native Americans in their actions. According to historian Gregory Evans Dowd, a number of historians have confused the two movements. The Black Boys Rebellion has generally been forgotten, overshadowed in American historiography by the 1765 Stamp Act crisis. Nevertheless, some historians see the Black Boys Rebellion as a precursor to the American Revolution. The Paxton Boys were a group of backcountry frontiersmen from western Pennsylvania who banded together to defend themselves against Indian attack during Pontiacs Rebellion. ... The Stamp Act of 1765 (short title Duties in American Colonies Act 1765; 5 George III, c. ... John Trumbulls Declaration of Independence, showing the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration in 1776 as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress The American Revolution was a political movement during the last half of the 18th century that resulted in the creation of...

A fictionalized version of the Black Boys Rebellion was depicted in the 1939 Hollywood film Allegheny Uprising, starring John Wayne as James Smith. The film was based on the 1937 novel The First Rebel: Being a lost chapter of our history and a true narrative of America's first uprising against English military authority, by Neil H. Swanson. John Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), born Marion Robert Morrison, popularly known as The Duke, was an iconic, Academy Award winning, American film actor whose career began in silent movies in the 1920s. ...

References

• Dixon, David. Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac's Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8061-3656-1.
• Dowd, Gregory Evans. War Under Heaven: Pontiac, the Indian Nations, & the British Empire. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-8018-7079-8.

External links

• 1880s bio of James Smith
• "Captain James Smith and the Black Boys", Fort Loudon Monument Dedicatory Services, 1916