At the Crossroads: Michilimackinac During the American Revolution (Michigan)

The book focuses on the fur trade and the fragile but supremely important relationship that existed between the British, French habitants, and the native tribes. This area had been the scene of a terrible massacre during Pontiac's War in 1763, and after such a price to maintain this outpost, most of the inhabitants were Loyalists who were eager to remain part of the British Empire. Though no fighting occurred at Michilimacinac during the war, it was an important "jewel in the crown" so-to-speak for the amount of revenue it brought in, which was used to finance the King's War against the rebel colonists. Though American General George Rogers Clark had hoped to launch an attack on Detroit and Michilimacinac following his amazing victory at Vincennes in 1779, the campaign was never approved and most of the modern state of Michigan remained in the hands of the British throughout the war. It comes as no surprise then, when the inhabitants of the area learned that the fort and ,in fact, all the Northwest Territory was ceded to the United States with the Treaty of Paris in 1783 that they were shocked and outraged.

Though the British would continue to maintain a garrison at Detroit and Michilimacinac, in direct violation of the Treaty, until l796, the real losers in this affair would prove to be the Indians who, after the lands became "trapped-out" and the British realized that attempting to maintain an Indian Buffer territory between Canada and the United States was proving disasterously futile, were abandoned. Without British support, the native tribes could not resist American expansion into the Northwest and were eventually wiped out or moved onto reservations. This book is recommended for anyone interested in the history of the Northwest.