Kevin Kenny's Peaceable kingdom lost-the Paxton boys and the destruction of William Penn's holy experiment

In Peaceable Kingdom Lost, Kevin Kenny charts the growth of Indian hating in Pennsylvania, from the colony's founding to the American Revolution, focusing on the vigilante group known as the Paxton Boys, who murdered twenty peaceful Conestoga Indians in 1763. Kenny analyzes how that incident reflects broader shifts in racial and political attitudes in Pennsylvania. There have been several studies of the Paxton Boys, but most have focused specifically on the relationship of the unrest to the Seven Years War and Pontiac's War. In contrast, Kenny analyzes the Paxton Boys in a wider chronological context, demonstrating that the animosity of frontiersmen had its origins in the early land policy of Pennsylvania and showing how the Conestoga massacre continued to influence the frontier during the American Revolution. Ultimately, Kenny concludes that the Paxton Boys mark more than simply an end to Pennsylvania's peaceable kingdom; they also helped forge a mentality where “the violent seizure of Indian land became the norm” and “exterminating Indians became an act of patriotism”

Kenny seeks to understand the Paxton Boys' motivation; therefore Peaceable Kingdom Lost complements the work of scholars such as Jane Merritt and James Merrell, who have studied the Pennsylvania frontier from the Indian perspective. Kenny demonstrates how, as early as the 1730s, squatters on the frontier believed that they had a right to the uncultivated land of “savages,” yet they were repeatedly evicted by colonial authorities acting to protect Indian land. This created a strong animosity, particularly among Scots-Irish settlers, many years before the outbreak of war. When the Seven Years War began, followed swiftly by Pontiac's Rebellion, frontier settlers quickly focused their ire on Pennsylvania's General Assembly, which failed to provide immediate protection, and on the colony's Quakers whom ...