GENERAL JEFFERY AMHERST PONDERS THE BEST GENOCIDE METHODS TO USE

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General Jeffery Amherst



In July 1763, two years after the "Burying of the Hatchet Ceremony," General Jeffery Amherst, the Commander-in-Chief of all British forces in North America asked this question in a memo he wrote to Colonel Henry Bouquet, a Huguenot in the service of England:

"Could it not be contrived to send the Smallpox among the disaffected Tribes of Indians?"

Bouquet replied: "I will try to inoculate the [the word is illegible but probably says "Indians" with some blankets that may fall into their hands, and take care not to get the disease myself."

Amherst answered: "You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets."

Amherst's contempt for the Indians is amply reflected in his journals and correspondence, though it may perhaps be doubted whether he was more bigoted than the average official of his Time!

One could argue, but in my opinion not very successfully, that Amherst wrote his letter to Bouquet proposing the use of genocide in the knowledge that Pontiac, "Chief Detroit," was making an effort to organize the Amerindian Nations, from the east coast to the mid-west, including the Mi'kmaq, into a unified force to eject the English from their territories. Thus Amherst had no choice but to take drastic measures to stop him. This type of argument might have some legitimacy if the English were the defender rather than the aggressor, but as they were the aggressor it offers none.

From the tone of the racist language he used in his diaries I believe that elitist racist beliefs were the prime factor behind the General's desire to commit genocide. One can easily support this theory from the degrading names he and Bouquet had for the Natives. Amherst described the Amerindians as an "execrable race." Colonel Bouquet's pet description was "the vilest of brutes." Lawrence Shaw Mayo states in his biography of Amherst:

As he sped on his way to the relief of Fort Pitt, the Colonel exchanged interesting suggestions with the General as to the most efficient manner of getting rid of the redskins. His first orders to Bouquet were that he wished "to hear of no prisoners should any of the villains be met with arms." Besides using smallpox the two gentlemen contemplated another method: "As it is a pity to expose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spanish method, to hunt them with English dogs." Amherst lamented that the remoteness of merry England made the canine aid impracticable.