James Smith (frontiersman)
| James Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 26, 1737 Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, present-day Franklin County, Pennsylvania |
| Died | April 11, 1813 (aged 75) Green County, Kentucky |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Black Boy |
| Occupation | frontiersman, road builder, farmer, soldier, state militia officer, politician, rebel leader, author, hunter, missionary |
| Employer | British government, Pennsylvania state government, U.S. government |
| Known for | Being the leader of the "Black Boys" and settling on the American frontier. |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Wilson |
James Smith (November 26, 1737 – April 11, 1813) was a frontiersman, farmer and soldier in British North America. In 1765, he led the "Black Boys", a group of Pennsylvania men, in a nine-month rebellion against British rule ten years before the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. He participated in the war as a colonel of the Pennsylvania militia and was a legislator in the Kentucky General Assembly. Smith was also an author, publishing his analysis of Native American methods of fighting in his Narrative in 1799.
Smith was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in an area now part of Franklin County, Pennsylvania. He had little formal education, but could read and write.
In May 1755, he worked on the Braddock Road, a road built west from Alexandria, Virginia in support of General Edward Braddock's ill-fated expedition against the French. He was captured by Delaware Indians and brought to Fort Duquesne at the Forks of the Ohio River, where he was forced to run a gauntlet before being given over to the French. He was adopted by a Mohawk family, ritually cleansed, and made to practice tribal ways – ultimately gaining respect for Indian culture. He escaped near Montreal, but was jailed by the French for four months until his release in a prisoner exchange with the British. He returned to the Conococheague Valley in Pennsylvania and took up farming, marrying Anne Wilson in May 1763.
During Pontiac's War, he fought in the 1763 Battle of Bushy Run and accompanied the 1764 British expedition led by Henry Bouquet into the Ohio Country. When the unrest subsided, however, the British allowed trading with the Native Americans to resume, arousing the anger of the colonists.
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