The Conococheague Institute serves as a center for developing and promoting an awareness of the natural history and cultural significance of the Conococheague region, and more broadly, the Appalachian frontier in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. The Institute has a special focus on exploring the history of the clash of cultures in the backcountry and the conflicts here from the French and Indian War through the American Revolution.
The location offers visitors a variety of special events and educational programs, exhibits that illustrate the lives of early Central Pennsylvania Settlers, and provides a collection of primary and secondary books and other materials which explore the history of the region and the French and Indian War. The site offers genealogical information, an events calendar, an online gift shop, and general information about the institute.
Named for royal governor Arthur Dobbs, the fort was built during the French and Indian War to protect settlers. In 1760, a raiding party of Cherokee Indians were repelled during the only direct attack attempted against the fort. Historians believe it was dismantled after pioneers pushed further west. Fort Dobbs is the only North Carolina state historic site associated with the French and Indian War and the only one located along the official colonial frontier.
The site offers tours, demonstrations, educational programs, and recreational and educational events (including living history events).
Built in 1758 by the Colony of New Jersey during the French and Indian War, the Old Barracks was a witness in 1776 to the Battle of Trenton, the turning point of the American Revolution. Today, the Old Barracks serves as an educational center for Colonial and American history, and stands as the last remaining structure of its kind. The Old Barracks staff provides daily tours and interpretations of American colonial life. The building offers a museum of artifacts and weapons.
The site offers exhibits, tours, demonstrations, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).
Old Fort Bedford was a British stockade built in 1758 as part of the French and Indian War campaign against the French at Fort Duquesne. After several failed attempts in the early 1750s, the British launched a major offensive against Fort Duquesne in 1758. Facing the formidable task of crossing the Allegheny Mountains and the treat of attack, numerous stockades were built along the way west. Fort Bedford was constructed as a key fortification along the military path Forbes Road and served as the staging area for the successful campaign. After the war Fort Bedford stood until the 1770s, used as a British outpost on the frontier and as a refuge from Indian attack as westward migration increased in the 18th century. Today, a reconstructed blockhouse structure houses a large-scale model of the original fort. The Museum displays Native American artifacts collected from the region. Thousands of household items dating back 100 to more than 200 years ago from flintlock rifles to early clothing to antique hand tools help to recreate the atmosphere of pioneer days on the frontier of western Pennsylvania.
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes Chief Pontiac's attempts to push British and Americans out of Indian territory in the Ohio Valley. In a concession, the British government issued the Proclamation of 1763.
From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:
"High school and undergraduate survey courses on U.S. history before 1865 rightly treat the War of Independence and the Civil War as decisive events. Three other significant conflicts of the period, the French and Indian War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican-American War, rate mentions in the textbooks, but their events are usually treated cursorily, and their impacts are rarely considered, if they are mentioned at all. This seminar will demonstrate the powerfully ironic significance of these less well-known imperial wars by exploring the linkages between them and the far more familiar revolutionary civil wars that define this period in American history. For in fact the decisive victory of Britain and its colonists in the French and Indian War brought on the collapse of the British empire, just twelve years after the triumphal Peace of Paris (1763); the similarly decisive victory of the United States over Mexico, confirmed by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), precipitated the crises that led, in thirteen years' time, to the disintegration of the Union. The War of 1812, usually seen as having ended indecisively with the Treaty of Utrecht (1815), not only decided the fate of native peoples east of the Mississippi and lent a powerful impetus to the democratization of American electoral politics, but also created an ideological justification for warfare that endures in American political culture to the present day. Our exploration of these striking effects will, we hope, encourage the participants both to reconsider the dynamics of early American history and to re-think the contexts in which they discuss with their students the impact of warfare on the formation of the American Republic."
""The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is proud to announce its agreement with Adams State College to offer three hours of graduate credit in American history to participating seminar teachers. Teachers are required to submit a reflection paper and a copy of one primary source activity completed during or immediately after the seminar."
The Stamp ActAnonymous (not verified)Thu, 09/11/2008 - 17:02
Description
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the Stamp Act, a British tax on all printed material, from marriage licenses to playing cards. It infuriated colonists.
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the situation in North American following the French and Indian War. The French no longer had holdings in the Americas; since Britain was the only remaining superpower left on the continent, the relationship between the colonists and the British grew increasingly strained.
General Washington and the Continental ArmyAnonymous (not verified)Thu, 09/11/2008 - 17:53
Description
This iCue Mini-Documentary describes the selection of the commanding general needed to lead the new Continental Army. John Adams convinced the Second Continental Congress to elect George Washington as the commander-in-chief.