Lay of the Ancient Valley

DESCRIPTION: "My tale is of a battle, God give it worthy rime, That fell out in this valley...." "John" Rogers brings his small force to Lake Champlain and ambushes the Indians. He kills ten chiefs and many others; the dead still lie there
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1851 (according to Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales)
KEYWORDS: death battle homicide Indians(Am.)
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759 - the Saint Francis Massacre (see NOTES)
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, pp. 318-320, "Lay of the Ancient Valley" (1 text)
Roud #6612
NOTES [139 words]: As best I can tell from the Dictionary of American Biography entry on Robert Rogers, this refers to Robert Rogers's 1759 raid on the Saint Francis Indians, in which he destroyed the Native American village. This was in the context of the French and Indian War -- Rogers was part of Jeffery Amherst's Crown Point force -- but it doesn't change the fact that he committed mass murder. As his DAB entry notes, Rogers was incapable of dealing with civilization -- or of being civilized.
There is a good deal of doubt about Rogers -- perhaps not surprising for a semi-independent officer. DAB gives his dates as 1731-1795, but J. Franklin Jameson's Dictionary of United States History 1492-1895, Puritan Press, 1894, p. 563, says 1727-1800. They agree that he was forced out of the Americas during the revolution, and died in England. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.0
File: TNY318

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