The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America

In 1763, with the peace treaty that ended the French and Indian War, France and Spain handed over all the territory east of the Mississippi, as well as Canada, to the British. In this one stroke, settlers both on the East Coast and on the frontier came under British rule. Calloway's enthralling chronicle follows the lives of settlers, Indians and immigrants as this new British rule affected them. He demonstrates convincingly that the seeds of the American Revolution were planted in 1763, as a near-bankrupt Britain began to impose heavy "taxation without representation."

The year brought bloody skirmishes between Indians, who were being pushed off more of their lands, and settlers; Calloway also narrates the expulsion of Acadians from Nova Scotia and their resettlement in Louisiana. This first-rate cultural history, part of Oxford's Pivotal Moments in American History series, reveals that the events of 1763 changed not only the political geography of a nation but also its cultural geography, as various groups moved from one part of the country to another.

Click for the original review.

Background Information

There were three wars that collectively have been called the French and Indian Wars, culminating in King George's War, which is sometimes referred to simply as the French and Indian War. Along with the Missouri, the Mississippi forms the longest river system in the world and ultimately drains almost all of the central United States. The colonists were outraged that the British Parliament, in which they had no voice, would impose taxes on them. The State of Louisiana represents the oldest and at the time most settled portion of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Reviews with Integrated Context

Books You May Like

The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America

Enter a word or phrase in the box below