History Detroit - British Rule 1760-1796

For many years, the French maintained a huge fort at Louisburg to protect the mouth of the St. Lawrence River from the British. They knew that closing the waterway to the British would make it very difficult for them to takeover settlements and trade in the west. On April 30, 1745, 100 New England ships, along with 3600 men, under the command of Colonel William Pepperell, met a British squadron, commanded by Commodore Warren, at the fort at Louisburg and began a 10-week assault against the post. In the end, the French surrendered the post (the British victory was short lived as the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle, signed in 1748, put the fort back in the hands of the French).

In order to try to circumvent any further attacks, the French developed a string of fortifications in present day Pennsylvania and Ohio to extend coverage that already existed from the Niagara River to the head of the Ohio River. The British, in response made an offer of 500,000 acres of land to any New England colonist who would build and maintain a fort in the same area. When the men arrived in the area to establish the post, they found the French were already there. The British sent a surveyor named George Washington to try to convince the French to concede some of the territory. They refused.

In 1745, both the French and the British dispatched men to found a post near present day Pittsburgh. When the two groups met, a fight broke out, and the British group, led by George Washington, killed several of the Frenchmen. Despite the apparent victory, the British knew that another group of Frenchmen were on their way to the area. Wisely, they retreated - for the time.

In 1754 the French successfully established Fort Duquesne in the area where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers join. The same year marked the beginning of the French and Indian War. (In All Our Yesterdays, Woodford says that Washington led an attack on Fort Duquesne in 1754. Whether this is the same as the battle above which Burton attributes to 1745, or if Washington attacked the area twice, is not clear). In 1755, General Braddock led a failed British attack on the fort.

In June of 1758, General Jeffrey Amherst led the British in another attack on Louisburg. The move was successful and Louisburg fell to the British once again. On October 28 (or November 23) of the same year, the British again attacked Fort Duquesne. the French retreated, destroying the fort on the way out. The British immediately began construction of Fort Pitt in Fort Duquesne's place.

Fort Niagara was taken by the British in July of 1759, forcing the French to abandon all of their posts east of Detroit.

At this time, the significance of the post at Detroit grew dramatically. Detroit was, in a sense, the last chance the French had to hold on to at least part of New France. To try to insure the survival of Fort Ponchartrain, the size of the fort was increased and some much needed repairs were completed. To reinforce the soldiers at the fort, the Canadian Governor offered free land, tools and livestock to anyone who would settle in Detroit.

Despite these measures, the odds were heavily against the French. Most of the settlers who accepted the governor's offer used or sold their "incentives" and returned to Quebec where life was more secure and stable. The Iroquois and some Wyandotts allied themselves with the British and immediately began random, individual attacks on settlers and soldiers.

Incidentally, Detroit's fate did not depend on the garrison and its ability to defend the fort. Rather, Detroit's fate was decided on September 8, 1760, when General Amherst captured Montreal and the Articles of Capitulation stipulated that all remaining French holdings, including Detroit, were to be part of the spoils. With Quebec having been taken by British forces on September 13, 1759, there was little point to trying to defend Detroit.

Detroit 1800-1900: War, Growth, and Industry

The War of 1812 started on July 11th. Twenty - five hundred American troops under General Hull, reached the Detroit River. They camped at Fort Detroit. At Amherstburg, on the Canadian side of the River were 100 British regulars, 300 militia, and 150 Indians led by Tecumseh and General Isaac Brock.

On August 11th Hull ordered his army to retreat across the river to Detroit. Two days after the retreat of the Americans, General Isaac Brock held a conference with his officers and Tecumseh. After the conference of the situation Brock decided to make a direct attack by crossing the river to Fort Detroit. Tecumseh was pleased with this decision. During the night of August 15 1812, 600 Indians crossed the river.

On August 16th 1812,330 British regulars, 400 militiamen and Indians moved in on Detroit. The guns of Amherstburg started firing across the river. At this action Indians began to make their war cries

These war cries caused uneasiness for the Americans. On August 1812 British commander General Brock and Native Chief Tecumseh were victorious at Detroit. American General Hull was led to believe that Brock had gathered 5000 native fighters. He only had 600. Hull surrendered Detroit. Hull passed a sword to Brock to show the surrender of the American army. Not only did Hull's surrender prevent the Americans from invading Upper Canada, it allowed Brock to gain 35 cannons, 2500 muskets, 500 rifles, ammunition, and provisions.

Between 1830 and 1870, tens of thousands of slaves found their way to freedom via the Underground Railroad, a collection of secret escape routes from the South to northern states and Canada. Because of its proximity to Canada, Michigan and its people played a critical role in the railroad's success.

The operation was covert, and few documents pertaining to it exist. A few handbills and newspaper ads - written in code - announced meetings, asked for help and gave updates on safe arrivals of runaways.

Modern Detroit  1900-Present

Detroit might have remained little more than a stomping ground for trader types had it not been for an ambitious industrialist named Henry Ford. Born on a farm in nearby Dearborn, Ford left for Detroit to establish the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Within five years he was mass producing cars and perfecting the assembly line. The assembly line inspired another Detroit innovation known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), who kicked off the industrial union movement from the 'Motor City'. Driven by the automobile's success, Detroit was the first city to have a paved concrete road (in 1909), the first to install a traffic light (in 1915) and the USA's first to have an urban freeway (in 1942).

Pre-car, Detroit was an important station along the Underground Railroad, a network of escape routes used by abolitionists and African-American slaves who travelled from America's southern states, through the US north and into Canada. Said to have been in place as early as the colonial period, the height of Underground Railroad activity was between 1830 and 1865. Detroit was a major escape route because of its proximity to the Canadian border. The new arrivals brought with them the beginnings of jazz and blues music. From the late 1800s on, African-American musicians played an important role in Detroit's entertainment scene, and the city was the first to have an integrated musicians' union. Mississippi transplant John Lee Hooker recorded his first blues hits here in the 1940s. Hooker and his peers paved the way for Motown - the biggest American music phenomenon of this century and African-American Detroit's ticket to the big leagues.

But Detroit's prominence on the world music stage didn't prevent the city from imploding. While everyone was dancing in the streets, businesses - following Ford's earlier lead - started fleeing for the suburbs, and middle-class whites followed in painful numbers. Detroit lost nearly a million residents between the 1950s and 1980s and, as the auto industry downturned, hyper unemployment set in, disproportionately affecting African-American men. Along the way, bloody race riots in 1967 and a cruel recession during the 1970s were just a few of the nails in the coffin.

The pickup in the American autmobile manufacturing industry in the past decade has proven to be something of a boon for Detroit. It may never be able to match its glory days, but Detroit is a city on the upswing - blue-collar but rich in cultural output. Musically, the city's rock scene is spawning a string of bands as influential as the Motown studio was in the 1960s. The city's rich history, riverfront locale and considerable dedication to rejuvenation will really take hold of you, if given the chance.