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 The Jews

The Jews: A History is a comprehensive and accessible text that explores the religious, cultural, social, and economic
diversity of the Jewish people and their faith.
Placing Jewish history within its wider cultural context, the book covers a broad time span, stretching from ancient
Israel to the modern day. It examines Jewish history across a range of settings, including the ancient Near East, the age of
Greek and Roman rule, the medieval realms of Christianity and Islam, modern Europe, including the World Wars and the
Holocaust, and contemporary America and Israel, covering a variety of topics, such as legal emancipation, acculturation,
and religious innovation. The third edition is fully updated to include more case studies and to encompass recent events
in Jewish history, as well as religion, social life, economics, culture, and gender.
Supported by case studies, online references, further reading, maps, and illustrations, The Jews: A History provides
students with a comprehensive and wide-ranging grounding in Jewish history.

John Efron is the Koret Professor of Jewish History at the University of California at Berkeley. His specialty is the cultural
and social history of German Jewry. His most recent book is German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic (Princeton
University Press, 2016).

Matthias Lehmann is Professor of History and Teller Chair in Jewish History at the University of California, Irvine. He
has written about the history of Sephardic Jews in the Ottoman Empire and around the Mediterranean. His most recent
book is Emissaries From the Holy Land (Stanford, 2014).

Steven Weitzman directs the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where
he also serves as the Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures. A scholar of ancient
Jewish culture and religion, his recent publications include a biography of King Solomon from Yale University Press and
The Origin of the Jews: The Quest for Roots in a Rootless Age (Princeton University Press, 2017).
The Jews
A History

John Efron
University of California, Berkeley

Matthias Lehmann
University of California, Irvine

Steven Weitzman
University of Pennsylvania

THIRD EDITION
This edition published 2019
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2019 Taylor & Francis

The right of John Efron, Matthias Lehmann and Steven Weitzman to be identified as authors of this work
has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First edition published by Pearson Education Inc, 2009

Second edition published by Routledge, 2018

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Efron, John M., author. | Weitzman, Steven, 1965– author. | Lehmann, Matthias B., 1970– author.
Title: The Jews : a history / John Efron, Matthias Lehmann, Steven Weitzman.
Description: Third edition. | New York, NY : Routledge ; Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2019. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018015595 |
Subjects: LCSH: Jews—History. | Judaism—History.
Classification: LCC DS117 .E33 2019 | DDC 909/.04924—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018015595

ISBN: 978-1-138-30311-9 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-29844-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-01787-9 (ebk)

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 CONTENTS

List of Figures ix Biblical Stories the Bible Doesn’t Tell 52

List of Maps xi Modern Encounters With Mount Sinai 56
Preface to the Third Edition xiii
The Bible and the Birth of Jewish Culture 59
Publisher’s Acknowledgments xv
Acknowledgments xvii Five Questions About the Jewish Bible 60
Notes on Spelling and Transliteration xix
3. Jews and Greeks 62
1. Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors 1 From Alexander to Ptolemaic Egypt 63
Searching for Israel’s Origins 2 Exile or Diaspora? 68
BCE and CE: The Religious Background of How Seleucid Rule and the Maccabean Revolt 71
We Think About History 3 Did Antisemitism Originate in Hellenistic Egypt? 72
The Origins and Meaning(s) of the Name Israel 6 Is Martyrdom a Jewish Invention? 75
The Biblical World in Brief 8 Forgotten Heroines of Hanukkah: Were the True
A Confirmable Chronology of Ancient Israelite Heroes of the Maccabean Revolt Women? 78
History 13 Emerging Religious Differences 80
Fitting the Bible Into History 14 Answering Some Questions About the Dead Sea
Political Awakenings 14 Scrolls 84
The Search for Solomon’s Temple 17 The Afterlife of Jewish Hellenistic Culture 86
Family Ties 18
Biblical Archaeology: A Controversial Quest 20 4. Between Caesar and God 89
Surviving Mesopotamian Domination 22 Roman Rule and Its Jewish Allies 90
Sex and Death in Ancient Israel 24 The Jews in Roman Eyes 95
The Early History of God 27 Resisting Rome—and the Aftermath 95
Where Does God Come From? 30 Who Were the Zealots? 98
From the Historical Israel Back to Biblical Israel 31 The Mass Suicide at Masada 100
2. Becoming the People of the Book 33 Letters From a Rebel 102
Jewish Life Before and After the Temple’s
Restoration? 34 Destruction 104
Intermarriage: Biblical Arguments for and Christianity’s Emergence From Jewish Culture 110
Against 38 The Quest for the Historical Jesus 112
Stage 1: The Composition of Biblical Literature 39 The Origin of Satan 114
On Why the Bible Is Not a Book 40 From the Sabbath to Sunday 116
How Does the Hebrew Bible Differ From Other Did the Jews Kill Jesus? 117
Ancient Near Eastern Texts? 44 The Transition to Late Antiquity 118
A Snapshot of the Hebrew Bible in the
Making 46 5. From Temple to Talmud 120
Stage 2: The Canonization of the Bible 47 The Late Antique Context of Rabbinic Judaism 121
A Crash Course in the Jewish Bible 51 Jewish Life in a Christianized Roman Context 121
v
vi Contents

Converting the Land of Israel Into the Christian Rabbinic Culture in Medieval Ashkenaz 192
Holy Land 126 The Ashkenazi Pietists 194
Jewish Life in Sasanian Babylonia 127 Crusades 195
A Synagogue in a War Zone 129 A Jewish Polemic Against Christianity 198
Putting the Rabbis Into the Picture 131 A Disastrous Fourteenth Century 198
The Emergence of Rabbinic Culture 132 Sefarad 199
What Became of the Priests After the Temple’s Life on the Frontier 199
Destruction? 135 The Blood Libel and Other Lethal
The Age of the Mishnah 136 Accusations 200
The Other Ancient Jewish Language 139 Sefarad and the Rise of Kabbalah 204
The Babylonian Talmud and Beyond 141 Toward Expulsion 207
Wading Into the Sea of Talmud 142 Banning Jewish Philosophy 208
Arguing With God 146 A People Apart? 209
The Impact of the Rabbis on Jewish Culture 146 In the Byzantine Empire 210
A Who’s Who of the Ancient Rabbis 147
8. A Jewish Renaissance 213
Cracking the Bible’s Code Rabbinically 150
Iberian Jewry Between Inquisition and
A Brief Introduction to Jewish Prayer 152 Expulsion 215
The Hebrew Printing Revolution 216
6. Under the Crescent 154
Sephardim and Ashkenazim 217
The Jews and Early Islam 155
Muhammad and the Jews 155 The Sephardi Jews of the Ottoman Empire 221
The Umayyad Caliphate and the “Pact of Ottoman Safed in the Sixteenth Century 224
Umar” 157 The Jews of the Moroccan Mellah 226
The Qur’an and the Jews 158 Coffee and Kabbalah 227
The Abbasid Caliphate and the Babylonian Between Ghetto and Renaissance: The Jews of Early
Geonim 159 Modern Italy 228
The Gaonic Standardization of Jewish A Jewish Renaissance 232
Prayer 163
Christian Humanism, the Protestant Reformation,
Egypt, Palestine, and the Karaite Challenge 163 and the Jews 234
The “Golden Age” of Muslim Spain 165
The Cairo Genizah 166 9. New Worlds, East and West 238
Medieval Messiahs 169 In the Nobles’ Republic: Jews in Early Modern
Eastern Europe 238
Jewish Thought in the Islamic Middle Ages 171
The Jewish Community in Poland-Lithuania 241
How to Become a Jewish Philosopher in the Middle
Ages 175 Early Modern Ashkenazi Culture 243
Jewish Lives Under Islamic Rule 176 Keeping Time in Early Modern Europe 246
Jewish Slave Trading 179 The Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), Mercantilism, and
the Rise of the “Court Jews” 248
7. Under the Cross 183 Glickl of Hameln and Her Zikhroynes 249
From Roman Law to Royal Serfdom 184 Questions of Identity: Conversos and the “Port Jews”
Medieval Charters and Royal Authority 186 of the Atlantic World 250
The Thirteenth Century 189 Rich and Poor 251
Conversion to Judaism 190 The Lost Tribes of Israel 258
Ashkenaz 190 Shabbatai Zvi: A Jewish Messiah Converts to
Jewish Communities in Northern Europe 190 Islam 260
 Contents vii

10. The State of the Jews, the Jews and the Positive-Historical Judaism 330
State 262
Religious Reforms Beyond Germany 331
Changing Boundaries in the Eighteenth Century 264
New Synagogues and the Architecture of
Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia and the Jews 265
Emancipation 331
Jews and Boxing in Georgian England 269
Jews Through Jewish and Non-Jewish Eyes 271 12. The Politics of Being Jewish 335
Jews and the French Revolution 275 A Shtetl Woman 336
Napoleon’s Jewish Policy 276 The Move to Cities 336
The Anglophone World 278 Modern Antisemitism 338
An Old Language for a New Society: Judah Monis’s The Jewish Question 339
Hebrew Grammar 279 Antisemitism in Germany 341
Jewish Emancipation in Southern and Central Antisemitism in Austria 344
Europe 280 Antisemitism in France 346
Antisemitism in Italy 350
Status of the Jews Under Ottoman Rule 283
Antisemitism in Russia 351
Russian Jewry and the State 284
The Paths Jews Took 355
The Rise of Modern Jewish Politics 356
11. Modern Transformations 290
Jewish Socialism 356
Partitions of Poland 290 Jewish Nationalism 358
Frankism 291 Philanthropy and Acculturation 368
Hasidism 292 The Pursuit of Happiness: Coming to America 370
Uptown Jews: The Rise of the German Jews in
Mitnaggdism 298
America 370
The Volozhin Yeshiva 300
Bertha Pappenheim and the League of Jewish
Israel Salanter and the Musar Movement 302 Women 371
Incipient Modernity in Sephardic Amsterdam 303 Downtown Jews: Eastern European Jewish
The Haskalah in Central Europe 304 Immigrants 371
Moses Mendelssohn 305 A Meal to Remember: “The Trefa Banquet” 372
Educational Reforms in Berlin 306
Moses Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem 307 13. A World Upended 378
Literature of the Berlin Haskalah 307 World War I 378
Jews on the Eastern Front 379
The Sephardic Haskalah 309
Jews on the Western Front 379
The Haskalah in Eastern Europe 309 British Jewry 381
The Galician Haskalah 310
The Jews of Interwar Europe 382
The Russian Haskalah 312
Interwar Jewry: The Numbers 383
Haskalah and Language 314 Soviet Russia Between the Wars 385
Wissenschaft des Judentums (Academic Study of Poland Between the Wars 388
Judaism) 317 Romania Between the Wars 390
Sholem Aleichem 318 Hungary Between the Wars 391
The Rise of Modern Jewish Historiography 319 The Balkans Between the Wars 391

Linguistic Border Crossing: The Creation of Jewish Cultural Life in Interwar Central
Esperanto 320 Europe 392
Interwar Jewish Culture in Weimar Germany 392
The Rise of Reform Judaism 321
Interwar Jewish Culture in Poland 395
Jewish Women in Domestic Service 322
Jews in Austrian Culture 396
The New Israelite Hospital in Hamburg 324
Miss Judea Pageant 400
Rabbinical Conferences 325
Zionist Diplomacy Between the Wars 401
Neo-Orthodoxy 328
Sporting Jews 402
viii Contents

Ze’ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky and Revisionist Exodus 1947 461

Zionism 404 In the State of Israel 463
Zionist Culture 405 The Canaanites 463
Zionism and the Arabs 405 Israel’s Wars 467
Mandate Palestine Between the Wars 406 The Eichmann Trial 468
Building Zionist Culture 409
At Home in America 479
Tensions With the Palestinian Arabs 410
Suburbanization 480
The Jews of the Eastern Levant and Muslim
The Impact of the Holocaust 481
Lands 413
Rebelling Against American-Jewish
14. The Holocaust 418 Suburbia 482
The Jews in Hitler’s Worldview 418 The Jews and the Blues 484
American-Jewish Cultures 485
Phase I: The Persecution of German Jewry
American Judaisms 485
(1933–1939) 420
American Jews and the State of Israel 489
Responses of German Jews 424
German Public Opinion 428 Eastern Europe After the Shoah 494
The Economics of Persecution 428 Soviet Union 494
The Night of Broken Glass 431 Poland 497
Romania 498
Phase II: The Destruction of European Jewry
Hungary 499
(1939–1945) 434
The Ghettos 437 Western Europe After the Shoah 500
France 500
The Holocaust and Gender 440
Mass Shootings in the Soviet Union 443 Jews and the Invention of Postmodernism in
The Extermination Camps 446 Postwar France 501
Jewish Resistance 451 Germany 501
Other Western European Countries 502
Resistance in the Vilna Ghetto 453
The Jews of the Southern Hemisphere 503
The Model Concentration Camp:
Contemporary Antisemitism 505
Theresienstadt 454
The Road to the Future 515
Awareness of Genocide and Rescue
Attempts 455 Postscript 515
Anne Frank 456

15. Into the Present 459 Timeline of Jewish History 519

In the Aftermath of the Holocaust 460 Glossary 533
The Rise of the State of Israel 460 Index 555
 FIGURES

1.1 An image of the ancient Israelites? 10 3.3 A coin depicting Antiochus Epiphanes (Antiochus
1.2 A bronze figurine of a male deity, probably the IV) being crowned king by the goddess Athena. 76
Canaanite storm god Baal, dating from c. 1400– 3.4 Judith holding the head of General Holofernes, as
1300 BCE. 11 illustrated in the “Dore Bible” from 1866. 79
1.3 Philistine pottery, very similar in its decoration to 3.5 Members of the contemporary Samaritan
pottery from the Aegean world. 12 community of Nablus in the act of offering a
1.4 A reconstruction of Solomon’s Temple. 17 Passover sacrifice. 81
1.5 An inscribed pomegranate-shaped ornament once 3.6 Aerial view of an ancient settlement at Qumran near
thought to be the only known relic of the Temple of the Dead Sea, where, according to many scholars,
Solomon until its inscription was discovered to be a the sect that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls once
forgery. 17 lived. 83
1.6 An ivory plaque from the royal palace in Samaria, 4.1 Statue of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. 92
capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, dating to 4.2 A modern reconstruction of Herod’s Temple
the ninth or eighth century BCE. 18 complex. 94
1.7 A reconstructed layout of a typical Israelite house in 4.3 A reconstruction based on a foot found with a nail
the period before the sixth century BCE. 19 piercing its heelbone, discovered in a Jerusalem
1.8 Panel from the black obelisk of King Shalmaneser suburb in 1968. 97
III, from Nimrud, c. 825 BCE, showing the tribute of 4.4 The fortress of Masada. 101
King Jehu of Israel, who is on his knees at the feet of 4.5 A coin minted by the Bar Kochba rebels. 102
the Assyrian king. 23 4.6 The earliest dated mikveh, or ritual bath, found
1.9 Does this photo capture an ancient Israelite in a Hasmonean palace at Jericho, believed to
representation of God? 29 have been in use in the period between 150 and
2.1 The Cyrus Cylinder. 36 100 BCE. 106
2.2 Relief sculpture of King Darius the Great. 39 4.7 A 2,000-year-old religious symbol. 107
2.3 Fragments of a silver scroll inscribed with 4.8 An ossuary (a box where the bones of the dead were
portions of the priestly benediction known from gathered) inscribed with the name Caiaphus. 113
Numbers 6. 41 5.1 A mosaic floor from a sixth-century synagogue at
2.4 One of the tablets of the Gilgamesh Epic. 42 Beth Alpha, near Beth Shean in modern-day Israel,
2.5 A researcher from the Israeli Antiquities Authority depicting a Greco-Roman zodiac. 123
examines 2,000-year-old fragments of the Dead Sea 5.2 A relief found in Iran depicting Shapur I’s victory
Scrolls at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel, on over the Roman emperor Valerian. 124
December 18, 2012. 46 5.3 The “Madaba map” was part of a mosaic floor
2.6 A page from the “Aleppo Codex,” the oldest known discovered in the nineteenth century in a Byzantine
manuscript of the complete Hebrew Bible, written church at Madaba, Jordan. 126
around 930 CE. 53 5.4 A scene from the wall painting of the Dura-Europos
3.1 A depiction of a fateful battle, the battle of Issus, synagogue depicting Mordechai and Haman from
fought between Alexander the Great and the Persian the book of Esther, dressed in Persian garb. 129
king Darius III in 333 BCE, from a first-century BCE 5.5 A bowl with an Aramaic magical inscription used to
mosaic found in the Roman city of Pompey. 64 protect individuals from evil spirits. 130
3.2 An image from a mosaic in late Roman Palestine 5.6 An inscription from a synagogue in Rehov, Israel,
depicting a gate from the city of Alexandria. 69 from the sixth or seventh century CE. 140

ix
x Figures

6.1 The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, built under 11.1 Frontispiece of Sholem Aleichem’s three-volume
the Umayyad caliph Abd al Malik ibn Marwan work, Tevye the Dairyman and Other Stories
(r. 685–705) on the site of the Temple. 162 (1912). 319
6.2 Statue of Maimonides (1135–1204), the eminent 11.2 The New Israelite Hospital in Hamburg was founded
medieval scholar of rabbinic law and philosopher, in in 1841 by the Jewish merchant and philanthropist
Córdoba, Spain, where he was born. 174 Salomon Heine (1767–1844), in memory of his wife,
7.1 The statue on the left is a medieval representation of Betty. 324
the Church (i.e., Christianity), depicted as a proud 11.3 Modern Orthodoxy, of which Samson Raphael
and victorious woman. On the right, the synagogue Hirsch was the founder, was just as keen to change
(i.e., Judaism) is depicted as a blindfolded woman Judaism’s aesthetic as was Reform Judaism. 328
bearing a broken scepter. 187 12.1 Election poster for Adolphe-Léon Willette. 349
7.2 Interior of El Transito Synagogue. 201 12.2 Burying Torah scrolls after the Kishinev pogrom
7.3 An illuminated Hebrew manuscript of the Jewish (1903). 354
prayer book from Spain (c. 1300). 202 12.3 Satirical cartoon depicting the process of Jewish
7.4 A diagram of the ten sefirot, or emanations of God assimilation. 363
in Kabbalistic tradition, and their relationship to one 12.4 Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874–1925) was a Galician
another. 206 illustrator and photographer. 366
8.1 Portuguese Inquisition at work: the burning of 13.1 Youngsters at a Jewish summer camp in interwar
heretics after an auto-da-fé in Lisbon, as depicted in Poland. 399
an eighteenth-century print by Bernard Picart. 219 13.2 Zofia Oldak, winner of the Miss Judea Pageant,
9.1 Page from a Hebrew sefer evronot, a book on the 1929. 400
Jewish calendar, depicting the zodiac sign of Pisces. 13.3 Judah Bergman, aka Jack “Kid” Berg, aka “The
Halberstadt, Germany, 1716. 247 Whitechapel Windmill” (1909–1991). 403
9.2 Barukh (Benedict) de Spinoza (1632–1677), the 13.4 The “White City” in Tel Aviv (1930s). 412
first modern Jewish intellectual—and one of the 14.1 “Exodus of the Chosen People Out of Kassel.” 423
great philosophers and political thinkers of the 14.2 Welding instruction for prospective Jewish
seventeenth century. 257 emigrants (1936). 427
9.3 Shabbatai Zvi (1626–1676), the messiah of 14.3 The burned-out interior of Berlin’s Fasanenstrasse
Izmir. 259 Synagogue after Kristallnacht. 435
10.1 The document pictured here is one of the scores 14.4 Persecution of an Orthodox Jew in Warsaw,
of regularly published edicts in eighteenth-century 1941. 438
Prussia that attempted to regulate the movement of 14.5 Jewish money from Theresienstadt. 454
Jews 265 15.1 Camp trunks. 467
10.2 On May 6, 1789, Daniel Mendoza knocked out 15.2 Exterior of Beth Sholom Congregation,
Richard Humphrey after 35 minutes. 269 Philadelphia. 483
10.3 Frontispiece of Judah Monis’s A Grammar of the 15.3 Logo of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries
Hebrew Tongue Being an Essay to Bring the Hebrew (JJAC). 488
Grammar Into English, to Facilitate the Instruction of 15.4 Itsik Fefer, Albert Einstein, and Shlomo Mikhoels
All Those Who Are Desirous of Acquiring a Clear Idea (1943). 495
of This Primitive Tongue by Their Own Studies. 279
 MAPS

Map 1.1 Canaan in the context of the Ancient Near Map 7.2 The expulsion and migration of Jews from
East 5 Western Europe, 1000–1500 209
Map 2.1 The Persian Empire ruled by the Achaemenid Map 8.1 Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, with
dynasty (539–332 BCE) 35 major Sephardi communities in the Ottoman
Map 3.1 The Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms prior Empire 220
to the former’s conquest of Judea around Map 9.1 Jewish communities in the Polish-Lithuanian
200 BCE 65 Commonwealth 239
Map 4.1 The Roman Empire in the second/third Map 10.1 The emancipation of European Jewry,
centuries 90 1790–1918 281
Map 6.1 The expansion of Islam, from Muhammad Map 11.1 The spread of Hasidism and Mitnaggdism in
to the beginning of the Abbasid the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 294
caliphate (750) 160 Map 12.1 The Jewish Pale of Settlement, 1835–1917 338
Map 6.2 The Christian reconquest (Reconquista) of Map 13.1 The Jews of Interwar Europe 384
Muslim Spain 170 Map 14.1 Deportation routes to death camps,
Map 6.3 The trading circuit of the Jewish traders known 1942–1944 449
as the Radhanites 178 Map 15.1 Jewish immigration to the State of Israel,
Map 7.1 The route of the First Crusade, 1096 196 1948–1950 465

xi
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION

A decade has passed since the publication of the first

edition of The Jews: A History, and we are older, per-
haps a bit wiser, and certainly more mindful of the chal-
Chapters 1–5, covering ancient Jewish history until the
rise of Islam, was written by Steven Weitzman, and he has
introduced a number of substantive changes, including:
lenges of undertaking a history like this. Our original goal (1) a revised and expanded discussion of the foundational
was not just to provide a reliable account of Jewish history texts produced in this period, especially biblical literature
that would be accessible and engaging for readers, but to and rabbinic literature; (2) a broadened discussion of reli-
do so in a way that helped readers to learn that history—to gion and culture, including more attention to topics like
understand it for themselves, to remember it, to be able to sexual/mating practices, language, and prayer; and (3) the
question what scholars claim about it, and to feel motivated addition of new boxes meant to make the narrative more
to go deeper. That has proven a humbling challenge, and interesting and varied and that incorporate new research,
this third edition is an acknowledgment that our efforts such as the genetic study of Jewish ancestry. More than in
remain a work in progress, a project that needs to develop earlier editions, he has sought to call attention to some of the
in dialogue with students. challenges of reconstructing ancient history and to highlight
Like the two earlier editions of The Jews, this one is an how our assumptions shape our understanding of the past.
attempt to balance between different goals. We wanted a Chapters 6–9, written by Matthias Lehmann, introduce
narrative that would help readers navigate through 3,000+ the medieval and early modern periods, covering the mil-
years of history, but we did not want to gloss over the chal- lennium from the rise of Islam in the 600s to the end of
lenges of reconstructing and interpreting that history. We the seventeenth century. Chapters 6 and 7 were completely
wanted to be as inclusive as possible, incorporating the rewritten for the second edition, and Chapters 8 and 9
experiences of women, slaves, workers, and others over- expanded. The changes to this middle part of the book
shadowed in earlier accounts, but at the same time we did are modest in the third edition, including improvements
not want to sleight the efforts of the intellectual and cul- and corrections throughout and additional material in
tural elites that produced works like the Bible, the Talmuds, Chapter 9.
and other important texts. We wanted to be faithful to the Chapters 10–15, covering modern Jewish history,
scholarship, to register areas of debate or uncertainty and roughly from the era just prior to legal emancipation in
to capture new developments, but we also want our narra- Europe in the eighteenth century until today, were writ-
tive to be digestible and comprehensible, to not turn away ten by John Efron. Among the expanded and new subjects
or overwhelm readers new to the study of history. It is for he has introduced are (1) greater attention to questions of
readers to decide how successful we have been in balancing gender in modern Jewish history; (2) the incorporation
between these goals, but we have certainly benefited from of new research on Hasidism and Mitnaggdism; (3) a dis-
having the chance to reflect on the shortcomings of ear- cussion of changed Israeli attitudes toward the Holocaust
lier editions, and from the feedback we have received from and Holocaust survivors; (4) a fuller account of the Israeli-
users. Palestinian peace process; and (5) an entirely new discus-
Each of us was responsible for roughly a third of the sion of the rise of contemporary antisemitism in Europe
book, and we wanted to lay out the changes we have made and the United States as well as campus politics surround-
that distinguish this volume from earlier editions. ing Israel and Jews.

xiii
 PUBLISHER’S
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T he publishers are grateful to the following for permis-

sion to reproduce copyright material:
Princeton University Press for excerpts from James B.
Press, 1999, pp. 229–230, 215–216, 186–188, 224–225;
Princeton University Press for excerpts quoted from Mark
Cohen, Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of
Pritchard, Ancient Near Easter Texts Relating to the Old Tes- Medieval Egypt, Princeton: Princeton University Press,
tament, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958, reprint 2005, 94, 119; Koninklijke Brill NV for an excerpt from I.G.
1973; Yale University Press for excerpts from James H. Marcus, Piety and Society, Leiden: Brill, 1981, 93; University
Charlesworth, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume of Pennsylvania Press for Song of the Cid, quoted from
2: Expansions of the Old Testament and Legends, Wisdom Medieval Iberia, ed. Olivia Constable, Philadelphia: Univer-
and Philosophical Literature, Prayers, Psalms and Odes, sity of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, 113; Behrman House Inc.
Fragments of Lost Judeo-Hellenistic Works, Yale University for excerpts from Church, State, and Jew in the Middle Ages,
Press, 1985; Harvard University Press for an excerpt from ed. Robert Chazan, West Orange: Behrman House, 1980,
Manetho, cited in Josephus, The Life. Against Apion, trans- 58–59, 131 Penguin Random House LLC for an excerpt
lated by H. St. J. Thackeray, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni- from Zohar / From Kabbalah by Gershom Scholem, copy-
versity Press, 1926, reprinted 1993, pp. 260–1; Harvard right © 1949 and copyright renewed © 1977 by Penguin
University Press for excerpts from Josephus, The Jewish Random House LLC. Used by permission of Schocken
War, Volume I: Books 1–2, translated by H. St. J. Thackeray, Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927, reprinted Group, a division of Penguin Random House LC. All rights
1989; The Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities for reserved; Princeton University Press for letter from Isaac
translations from Menahem Stern, Greek and Latin Authors Zarfati, quoted in Bernard Lewis, The Jews of Islam, Prince-
on Jews and Judaism, Jerusalem: The Israel Academy of Sci- ton: Princeton University Press, 1984, 135–136; The Jewish
ences and Humanities, vol. I (1974), pp. 210, 197–198, 431; Theological Seminary for an excerpt from Samuel de
vol. II (1980), p. 26. © The Israel Academy of Sciences and Medina, English translation from Morris Goodblatt, Jewish
Humanities. Reproduced by permission.; Harvard Univer- Life in Turkey in the XVIth Century, New York: Jewish Theo-
sity Press for excerpts from Philo, On the Decalogue. On the logical Seminary, 1952, pp. 187–188; Stanford University
Special Laws, Books 1–3, translated by F. H. Colson, Cam- Press for an excerpt from Physician of the Soul, Healer of the
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1937, reprinted 1984; Cosmos: Isaac Luria and his Kabbalistic Fellowship by Law-
WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co for translation of Genesis rence Fine © 2003 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland
Rabbah, adapted from Gary Porton, “Rabbinic Midrash”, A Stanford Jr. University. All rights reserved. Used by permis-
History of Biblical Interpretation, vol. 1, eds. Alan Houser sion of the publisher, Stanford University Press, sup.org;
and Duane Watson, Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerd- Paulist Press for an excerpt from Lawrence Fine, Safed Spiri-
mans, 2003, pp. 215–216; Hackett Publishing for an excerpt tuality: Rules of Mystical Piety, the Beginning of Wisdom,
from a Spanish scholar in Baghdad, in Alexander Altmann, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1984, 62; Princeton University
introduction to Sa’adya Gaon, The Book of Doctrines and Press for excerpts from Leon Modena, The Autobiography
Beliefs, Oxford: East and West Library, 1946, 13; Cricket of a Seventeenth-Century Venetian Rabbi: Leon Modena’s
Media for an eleventh-century Arabic poem, translation Life of Judah, trans. Mark Cohen, Princeton University
from Bernard Lewis, Islam in History, revised ed., Peru, Illi- Press, 1988, 108, 107; Yale University Press for excerpts from
nois: Open Court, 167–170; Koren Publishers Jerusalem for Azariah de’Rossi, The Lights of the Eyes, trans. Joanna Wein-
an excerpt from Judah Halevi, Kuzari, translated by Isaak berg, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001, 86, 241, 386–
Heinmann, in Three Jewish Philosophers, New York: Athe- 388; University of Pennsylvania Press for an excerpt from
neum, 1969, 28; Hebrew Union College Press for excerpts Alexander Marx, “A Seventeenth Century Autobiography”,
from Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Jewish Quarterly Review 8: 288–291; Hebrew Union College
Sourcebook, rev. ed., Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press for excerpt quoted from Edward Fram, Ideals Face
xv
xvi Publisher’s Acknowledgments

Reality: Jewish Law and Life in Poland, 1550–1655, Cincin- Holocaust, Yad Vashem and University of Nebraska Press,
nati: Hebrew Union College Press, 199, 70; Liverpool Uni- 1981, 2831; Behrman House Inc. for a poem from Lucy S.
versity Press for an excerpt quoted in Elchanan Reiner, “The Dawidowicz, A Holocaust Reader, 1976, 207; Simon &
Ashkenazi Elite at the beginning of the Modern Era: Manu- Schuster, Inc. for an excerpt from Scroll of Agony: The War-
script Versus Printed Book”, Polin 10, Oxford: Littman, saw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan by Abraham I. Katsh, Trans-
1997, 86; Penguin Random House LLC for excerpts from lator and Editor. Copyright © 1965, 1973 by Abraham I.
The Memoirs of Glückel of Hamelin by Marvin Lowenthal, Katsh. Reprinted with permission of Scribner, a division of
translation copyright © 1932, renewed copyright © 1960 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved; University of
Rosamond Fisher Weiss. Used by permission of Schocken California Press for “How” in A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry
Books, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing and Prose, ed., and trans., Barbara and Benjamin Harshav,
Group, a division of Penguin Random House LC. All rights Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991; Scholastic
reserved; Simon & Schuster, Inc. for an excerpt from Jews of Library Publishing, Inc. for an excerpt from Abba Kovner
Spain: History of the Sephardic Experience by Jane S. Gerber. speech at Vilna 1/1/1942 quoted in Yehuda Bauer, A History
Copyright © 1992 by Jane S. Gerber. Reprinted with per- of the Holocaust, New York: Franklin Watts, 1982, 250–251;
mission of The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Walter de Gruyter and Company for an excerpt from Joseph
Inc. All rights reserved; Columbia University Press for an Leftwich, An Anthology of Modern Yiddish Literature, The
excerpt quoted in Michael Meyer, ed., German-Jewish His- Hague: Walter de Gruyter, 1974, 306; Princeton University
tory in Modern Times, vol. 1, New York: Columbia Univer- Press for an excerpt from Yuri Slezkine, The Jewish Century,
sity Press, 1996, 97; Liverpool University Press for an excerpt Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, 341; www.
quoted in Daniel Swetschiniski, Reluctant Cosmopolitans: BibleLandPictures.com / Alamy Stock Photo for figures 1.1,
The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 2.3, 2.4, 2.6, 3.2, 3.6, 4.2, 4.6, 4.7,
Oxford: Littman, 2000, 246; Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an 5.1, 5.3, 5.6 and 9.3; Z. Radovan / Bible Land Pictures for
excerpt from Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Slave, translated by figures 1.9, 2.1, 2.2, 3.3, 3.5, 4.3, 4.8 and 5.4; epa european
the author and Cecil Hemley, New York: Avon Books, 1961, pressphoto agency b.v. / Alamy Stock Photo for figure 2.5;
92; The University of Pennsylvania Press for an excerpt by Ivy Close Images / Alamy Stock Photo for figure 3.1; Stefan
Isaac Marcus Jost, noted in Michael A. Meyer, “New Reflec- Schorch for figure 3.4; Erin Babnik / Alamy Stock Photo for
tions on Jewish Historiography”, the Jewish Quarterly figure 4.1; Duby Tal / Albatross / Alamy Stock Photo for
Review, Vol. 97, No. 4 (Fall 2007); Indiana University Press figure 4.4; The Trustees of the British Museum for figures
for an excerpt from Moritz Siegel, quoted in Moika Richarz, 4.5 and 5.5; Sonia Halliday Photo Library / Alamy Stock
ed., Jewish Life in Germany: Memoirs from Three Centuries, Photo for figure 5.2; Lessing images for figure 6.1; Linda
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991, 121; Jewish Whitwam / DK Images for figure 6.2; bpk / Kunstbiblio-
Gen.org for an excerpt from Benjamin Bialostotzky from thek, SMB / Knud Petersen for figure 7.1; Roy Lindman for
an account of Pumpian, http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/ figure 7.2 licensed under the Creative Commons Attribu-
lita/lit1203.html; Columbia University Press for Hayim tion-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License; bpk / Staatsbiblio-
Nahman Bialik, “Be-Ir ha-Haregah”, quoted in Alan Mintz, thek zu Berlin / Ruth Schacht for figure 7.3; Chronicle /
ed., Hurban: Responses to Catastrophe in Hebrew Literature, Alamy Stock Photo for figure 7.4; De Agostini / G. Dagli
New York: Columbia University Press, 1984, 135; Penguin Orti / Getty Images for figure 8.1; Granger / Granger for
Random House LLC for an excerpt from Letter to the figure 9.1 – All rights reserved; Archive Photos / Stringer /
Father / Brief an den Vater: Bilingual Edition by Franz Kafka, Getty Images for figure 9.2; bpk for figures 10.1, 11.3, 12.3,
translated by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins, edited by 14.4, 14.5; Jewish Museum London for figure 10.2; The
Max Brod, copyright © 1953, 1954, 196 by Penguin Random Library of Congress for figures 10.3 and 13.4; John Efron
House LLC. Used by permission of Schocken Books, an for figures 11.1, 12.4 and 15.4; Leo Baek Institute for figures
imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a divi- 11.2 and 14.3; the Archives of the Yivo Institute for figures
sion of Penguin Random House LC. All rights reserved; 12.2, 13.1 and 13.2; Central Press / Stringer / Getty Images
University of California Press for an excerpt from Joseph for figure 13.3; bpk / E.K. Baumgart for figure 14.1; bpk |
Hall, cited in Gerald Fleming, Hitler and the Final Solution, Abraham Pisarek for figure 14.2; Arcaid Images / Alamy
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982, 17; the Yad Stock Photo for figure 15.2.
Vashem Library for an excerpt from Rumkowski, Speech of Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders.
9/4/42 in I. Trunk, Lodz Ghetto, translated in Yitzhak Arad, Please advise the publisher of any errors or omissions, and
Israel Gutman, Abraham Margaliot, eds., Documents on the these will be corrected in subsequent editions.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T he authors wish to express their gratitude to several

individuals whose behind-the-scenes efforts made this
volume possible. Eve Setch, the editor who brought this
also wish to acknowledge the efforts of two others who were
crucial to the process of making the book a reality: produc-
tion editor Bonita Glanville-Morris and Sheri Sipka, project
project to Taylor and Francis, has been a wonderfully resil- manager at Apex CoVantage. As we have moved from one
ient champion, always remaining enthusiastic even in the edition to another, we have come to appreciate that there is
face of formidable challenges that have surfaced along the much more to producing a text book than what its authors
way. We are grateful as well for the patience and attention contribute, and we feel indebted to all those whose efforts
to detail shown by her editorial assistant Zoe Thomson. We have made the current edition possible.

xvii
 NOTES ON SPELLING
AND TRANSLITERATION

T he spellings of many place names that appear in

the history of the Jews have multiple variants, reflect-
ing the different languages spoken by the people who
chapter because they originate with different authors. Yid-
dish words typically follow the YIVO (the Yiddish acronym
for the Yiddish Scientific Institute, the major institution for
inhabited them. In cases such as Vilna/Wilno/Vilnius (the the study of Yiddish and Eastern European Jewish history
modern-day capital of Lithuania), we have chosen the and culture) system of transliteration. Hebrew expressions
name used by the place’s Jewish inhabitants. Wherever less familiar to nonspecialists are transliterated to ensure
possible, the authors have transliterated Hebrew terms accurate pronunciation of the words. We have followed a
using those forms most familiar to them and to lay read- similar procedure for terms drawn from other languages,
ers. These forms may occasionally vary from chapter to such as Greek and Arabic.

xix
 CHAPTER 1

Ancient Israel and

Other Ancestors

J ews have long traced their origin to the Five Books of

Moses in the Bible, to the story of Abraham and Sarah
and their descendants, the Exodus from Egypt, and the rev-
the Bible do not call themselves Jews, but Israelites, or the
“sons of Israel” to be more precise, and their culture and
religion differ from that of later Jews in many ways. Per-
elation at Mount Sinai. We suspect that this is where many haps the beginning of Jewish history should be placed at
readers would expect a book like this to begin, and one has the point at which the ancient Israelites become the Jews,
to admit that stories like those told in Genesis and Exodus but when exactly does that transformation take place?
make for a great opening, one of the most memorable ori- Many scholars place it at the end of the period described
gin stories ever told. But there is a complication that pre- by the Hebrew Bible, in the wake of the Babylonian Exile
vents us from beginning in this way. in 586 BCE. Some place it even later, after the conquests
Over the last few centuries, scholars have come to ques- of Alexander the Great in the fourth century BCE, and
tion the traditional account that traces the Jews back to the some still later, in the age of Roman rule and the ascen-
people and events described in the Bible, just as scientists dancy of Christianity. Depending on which account you
came to question the Bible’s explanation of how the world happen to read, the story of the Jews begins 4,000 years ago
began, and they have developed many alternative recon- in the Middle Bronze Age, or 2,000 years ago in the same
structions of ancient Jewish history, some directly at odds age that produced Christianity, and some would go so far
with the biblical account. Since our goal in this book is to as to argue that we cannot really speak of “the Jews”—as
share the fruits of modern historical research, should we not opposed to the Israelites or the ancient Judeans—until
begin with these scholarly accounts? Perhaps, but scholars medieval or modern times.
do not agree among themselves about how the Jews origi- Why is it so difficult to fix a clear starting point for Jew-
nated. They have been successful in raising doubts about ish history? One reason is that we simply do not have a lot of
the stories of Abraham, Moses, and David—thanks to mod- evidence for the earliest periods of Jewish history, but that is
ern historical and archaeological research, we can no lon- not the only complication. Another is that scholars do not
ger be certain that such figures even existed—but they have agree about what Jewish means exactly and how it relates to
not settled on an alternative understanding of how the Jews or differs from overlapping terms used in the Bible, such as
originated. We have to struggle not only with how little we Israelite and Hebrew. The term Jew derives from the name
know about ancient Jewish history but also with how many “Judah” or Yehuda, but even in the Hebrew Bible that term
possible ways there are to understand that history. has several possible meanings, referring to an Israelite tribe,
Consider how difficult it is to resolve when to begin to a territory in the southern part of Canaan, and also to
Jewish history. Before we can begin recounting the his- the kingdom based in this territory and ruled by David and
tory of the Jewish people, we must obviously decide when his descendants. After the end of the biblical period, the
exactly to begin it, and it is not easy to commit oneself to a terms translated as Judean and Jewish acquired still other
particular date or even a century as a starting point. As we connotations, signifying a particular way of life or adher-
have noted, Jews themselves have long believed their his- ence to particular beliefs. The term’s ambiguity continues to
tory begins with Abraham’s sojourn to the land of Canaan this day, with Jewish signifying a religion for some, for oth-
and the Exodus from Egypt, but we do not know when ers a cultural or ethnic identity that may not be religious in
these events occurred, if they occurred at all, and there are orientation, and for still others a national identity, such as
other problems as well. The people described in much of French, Turkish, or American. To fix a single starting point

1
2 Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors

for “Jewish” history would commit us to a specific defini- We are speaking here of religious Jews but even secularized
tion of Jewishness at the expense of other definitions that Jews—Jews who are not animated by faith in God and do
also have merit. not see their identity as a religious one—can look to the
Still, we must begin somewhere, and this book has Bible to understand themselves or draw on it as a source
opted to begin where Jews themselves have long looked to for poetry, art, and other forms of cultural expression. Even
understand their origins—with “history” as described in if the Bible had no value whatsoever as a historical source
the Hebrew Bible. We put the word history in quotes here (and we will see that it actually has great value as such a
because it is not clear that the biblical account corresponds source), it is important to know what it says about the past
to what counts as history for a historian, the past as it actu- if only to understand how Jews throughout the centuries
ally happened. Modern scholarship has expressed doubts have seen themselves.
about the Hebrew Bible’s value as a historical document, Keeping these points in mind, we have settled on not
questioning whether the people described in the Bible, one but two starting points for Jewish history. The first is
such as Abraham and Moses, really existed and whether ancient Israelite history prior to the Babylonian Exile in
key events, such as the Exodus and the revelation at Mount 586 BCE. Where did the Israelites come from, and what
Sinai, really occurred. The skepticism of scholars has alien- is the historical connection between them and later Jews?
ated some Jews and Christians who believe in the Bible as The present chapter will attempt to answer these questions
an accurate account of how reality works, but the reasons by drawing on the Hebrew Bible, but its testimony will not
for this skepticism cannot be dismissed out of hand if one be sufficient by itself since according to modern scholar-
is willing to approach the evidence with an open mind. ship, its account is questionable, concealing the true ori-
Mindful of what modern scholarship has concluded about gins of the ancient Israelites. What this chapter introduces,
the Bible, one of our goals in this chapter is to open the therefore, is ancient Israelite history as reconstructed by bib-
question of what really happened, to ask whether the bibli- lical scholars, their best attempt to explain the genesis of
cal account of Israel’s history—its stories of Abraham and the ancient Israelites within the context of what is known
his family, the Exodus from Egypt, Joshua’s conquest of the about history from other ancient Near Eastern sources and
land of Canaan, the rule of King David—corresponds to the archaeological excavation.
past as reconstructed by historians and archaeologists. Our second starting point, and the focus of Chapter 2,
Even as we question the biblical account, however, we will is the emergence of the Hebrew Bible itself: where does
also try to provide a sense of how it tells the story of ancient biblical literature come from, and how did it become so
Israel because, regardless of whether that story corresponds important to Jewish culture? It is no easier to answer these
to what actually happened, it is crucial for understanding the questions than it is to reconstruct ancient Israelite history,
development of Jewish culture. For one thing, Jewish culture for there remains much uncertainty about who wrote the
did not suddenly appear one day; it evolved out of an earlier texts included in the Hebrew Bible, and when and why they
Israelite culture from which it inherited beliefs, practices, were written. It is also unclear when these texts acquired
language(s), texts, and patterns of social organization. Why the resonance and authority they would enjoy in later Jew-
do Jews worship a God who they believe created the world? ish culture. Despite the many gaps in our knowledge, how-
Why are Canaan and Jerusalem so central in Jewish culture? ever, there is evidence to suggest that the emergence of the
What are the origins of Jewish religious practices such as Bible marks a watershed moment in the transition from
circumcision, resting on the Sabbath, and keeping kosher? Israelite to Jewish culture; indeed, we will argue that the
Why is Hebrew such an important language in Jewish cul- formation of Jewishness and the formation of the Hebrew
ture? These questions cannot be answered without referring Bible are inextricably intertwined.
to pre-Jewish Israelite culture, and biblical literature is our
richest source for understanding that culture.
A second reason for beginning with the Bible is that the Searching for Israel’s
perception of the Bible as the starting point for Jewish his- Origins
tory is a historical fact in its own right, and an important one For modern scholars who approach the Bible as a text com-
for understanding Jewish identity. For the last 2,000 years at posed by humans, nothing is sacred about the history it tells.
least, Jews have looked to the Hebrew Bible to understand Consider a story that may already be familiar to you—the
who they are and how they are to behave. To this day, in Bible’s account of how David defeated the Philistine Goliath:
fact, many Jews trace their lineage back to patriarchs such
as Abraham and Jacob; during Passover, they recount the A warrior came out of the Philistines’ camp, Goliath
Exodus as if in Egypt themselves, and many look forward by name, from Gath, whose height was six cubits and a
to the coming of a messiah from the line of King David. span. He had a helmet of bronze on his head, and was
 Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors 3

BCE AND CE: THE RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND OF

HOW WE THINK ABOUT HISTORY

As is true of history books in general, this volume employs Era” and “Before the Common Era,” not originally to purge
the abbreviations BCE and CE to help date events in the past, them of their religious association with Jesus but to indicate
especially the ancient past, but their use to understand Jewish dates common to all humanity, Christian and non-Christian.
history in particular raises some issues worth thinking about. To use dates like 586 BCE or 70 CE to describe Jewish his-
There is something ironic about applying the abbrevia- tory is thus to frame it in terms of a calendar introduced by
tions BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common another religious community.
Era) to the Jews: both terms are tied to a Christian con- For their part, Jews have longed used their own calendar,
ception of time. CE is a modern equivalent to AD, anno which counts from the creation of the world as dated in
domini—“the year of our Lord”—namely, the year of Jesus’s Jewish tradition.The origins of this calendar are obscure, but
birth. The idea of dating history in relation to the year of the use of creation as a starting point seems to have been
Jesus’s birth was first developed in the sixth century CE embraced by Jewish communities by the tenth or eleventh
by a Christian monk named Dionysius Exiguus, and we do century CE, perhaps as a reaction against the growing influ-
not know how he was able to calculate the year of Jesus’s ence of the Christian calendar, and is still in use to this day
birth, though scholars think he wasn’t far off (many scholars (as I write this sentence, in 2018, it is the year 5778 accord-
think that Jesus was probably born sometime between 6 and ing to the Jewish calendar). While the application of the
4 BCE). Historians developed the abbreviation BC, “Before abbreviations BCE and CE to Jewish history has scholarly
Christ,” more recently, in the seventeenth and eighteenth value, allowing historians to situate the history of the Jews
centuries, counting backward from 1 BC (there is no year within a broader history of humanity, the use of this chrono-
zero) in order to encompass their growing understanding of logical framework is also a reminder that the way scholars
events that took place before the onset of Christianity. AD think about the past is shaped by the Christian European
and BC were later changed to CE and BCE, “The Common context in which the field of history arose.

armed with a coat of mail; the weight of the coat was struck Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was
five thousand bronze shekels. He had greaves of bronze like a weaver’s beam.
on his legs and a javelin of bronze slung between his (2 Samuel 21:19)
shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s
beam, and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shek- Goliath is still the enemy here, described the same way
els of iron . . . as in the more famous version of the story (cf. 1 Samuel
As the Philistine drew near to David, David rushed 17:7: “the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam”). The
toward the battle line toward the Philistine. David put hero who slays Goliath is not the young shepherd David,
his hand in his bag, took from there a stone, slung it, however, but an otherwise obscure warrior named Elhanan.
and struck the Philistine on his forehead. The stone Interpreters have long recognized this problem and tried to
sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the reconcile the discrepancy by suggesting that Elhanan was
ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a another name for David, but this solution ignores the Bible’s
sling and a stone. claim that David and Elhanan were two different people, a
(1 Samuel 17:4–7, 48–50) king and his servant. Yet a third reference to this battle in
the Bible—this time in a narrative called Chronicles—tries
For thousands of years people have accepted this story
to solve the problem by claiming that David killed Goliath
as true, but is it true in a historical sense? Did David really
while Elhanan killed Goliath’s brother (1 Chronicles 20:5),
fight such a battle? Did he win in the way that this episode
but Chronicles was written much later than 1–2 Samuel by
suggests? Underdogs do occasionally prevail in real life, so
an author trying to resolve the contradictions that he found
the improbability of David’s victory isn’t enough reason to
in these earlier sources, and his solution too is rather con-
reject the story. There is, however, at least one specific rea-
trived. Scholars have therefore proposed another possibil-
son for skepticism: another reference to the defeat of Goli-
ity. Perhaps there is no way to reconcile the discrepancy.
ath tucked away elsewhere in the Bible that attributes the
One or the other of the two accounts is simply wrong, and it
giant’s defeat to someone else:
seems more likely, given how the biographies of important
There was another battle with the Philistines at Gob; political figures often become embellished over time, that
and Elhanan son of Jaareoregim, the Bethlehemite, it is 2 Samuel 21 that records the name of the real slayer of
4 Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors

Goliath, not David but the long forgotten Elhanan, and that so much in the last century from other sources, like archae-
the more famous version of the story in 1 Samuel 17 is a ology, biblical scholarship today is marked by a lively and
later development, an attempt to boost King David’s heroic unresolved debate about what really happened in Israelite
image by giving him the credit for another man’s victory. In history. Some argue that there is much that can be learned
other words, the battle of David and Goliath as depicted in from the Bible about ancient Israel, but others have pro-
the Bible, while making for a very memorable story, proba- posed alternative accounts of Israelite history that diverge
bly isn’t an accurate reflection of history, the past as it actu- from or even contradict the biblical account. These alter-
ally unfolded. native reconstructions are invariably hypothetical, and you
Modern scholars raise such possibilities not because they may not find them persuasive, but the most productive
want to undermine people’s religious beliefs but because response in that instance is to study the evidence oneself,
they are committed to a particular way of knowing real- honestly wrestle with the problems and questions that it
ity that bases itself not on tradition—on what people have raises, and try to develop a more persuasive understanding
believed in the past—but on empirical evidence, unfettered of what really happened.
questioning, and reasoned explanation. Like judges in a Let us begin this particular reconstruction with the
trial, the modern scholar wants to hear from multiple wit- question of where Israelite history begins. The Hebrew
nesses and to cross-examine them about how they know Bible acknowledges that people were living in Canaan
what they claim to know, before rendering a judgment well before the Israelites arrived there, and their existence
about what happened. This is how scholars approach his- has been confirmed by both literary and archaeological
tory in general, and applying the same basic approach to evidence. The region that would come to be known as
the Bible has led scholars to challenge much of what the Canaan, a name that is known in pre-biblical sources and
Bible says about history, and not just particular episodes whose original meaning is unclear, has been continuously
like David’s victory over Goliath but also sometimes even inhabited by humans since prehistoric times, and is the site
more basic claims—that David did any of the things attrib- of some of the earliest known settlements, including the
uted to him in 1–2 Samuel, for instance, or even that there site of the later city of Jericho, which was settled as early
was a King David. as 9000 BCE. The cultures of the peoples living in Canaan,
From the perspective of modern historical scholarship, including the Israelites, has always been tied to the area’s
what the Hebrew Bible says about the past becomes much diverse topography and ecology: a coastal region in the
more credible when other witnesses can back up its testi- west; fertile valleys and rugged hill country in the interior;
mony, when one can point to other independent sources desert to the east and south. In the period just before the
that can provide corroboration. Since we are not talking emergence of the Israelites, a period known now as the Late
about witnesses in a literal sense, what we mean here is Bronze Age (c. 1550–1200 BCE), Canaan was dominated
corroboration provided by (1) written testimony com- by various city-states in places like Hazor, Megiddo, and
posed independently of the Bible and/or (2) the discipline even Jerusalem, cities ruled by kings who controlled not
of archaeology, the retrieval and interpretation of physi- just the city itself but also the surrounding territory and
cal evidence generated by the activities of earlier humans. its villages, while the lower classes consisted of farmers,
The written testimony at our disposal includes inscriptions craftspeople, and some nomads and brigands on the mar-
from Israel itself and texts from other ancient Near Eastern gins of society. There were conflicts among these kings, but
cultures that refer to Israel. The archaeological evidence they were also connected in various ways, and all mutually
consists of pottery, the remnants of buildings, tools, weap- beholden to the king of Egypt, who ruled the region as part
ons, jewelry, and so forth. The written evidence can tell us of its empire (see Map 1.1).
what people thought and how they expressed themselves, This was the geographical context in which Israelite cul-
and sometimes responds to specific historical events. The ture would develop, and it is one that is accurately regis-
archaeological evidence can shed light on what people did— tered in biblical texts. The Bible contains stories situated
the food they ate, the work they did, the battles they fought, throughout the land of Canaan: some stories are set in the
the dead they buried. Sometimes all this evidence confirms southern desert region, in the Negev. Others take place in
what the Bible says about history, and it certainly links it to the rugged and mountainous interior, the vicinity of Jerusa-
the geography, language, and culture of the broader ancient lem, and still others take place in the north, in the vicinity
Near East, but more frequently it challenges our sense of of the Sea of Galilee or the mountain range known as Mt.
what really happened, or speaks to aspects of Israel’s history Carmel. It is clear that whoever produced the stories pre-
simply not reflected in biblical literature. served in books like Genesis, Judges, and 1–2 Samuel was
Partly because people have such strong feelings about familiar with the terrain, weather conditions, animals, and
the Bible for and against, partly because we have learned plant life of ancient Canaan.
 Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors 5

Bla c k S e a

H I T T I T E E M PI R E ASSYRIA
Tigris R

ive
E

r
E u ph
Ugarit

ra
t

es
R
Canaan i v er
Mari
B A BY L ON I A
Damascus
Med ite r ra n e a n S e a Sea of
Samaria Babylon
Galilee
Jerusalem
Dead
Sea
Ur

A R AB IA N DESERT
E GY P T Amarna
Ni

le
Red
Ri

0 200
ve

r Sea
Miles

Map 1.1 Canaan in the context of the ancient Near East.

But there is so much else about the Bible’s description as conquering the Canaanites, but it doesn’t tell us when
of reality that is unclear or does not match up neatly with exactly this conquest happened. We can be confident that
what we know from other sources of information. When Israel existed by this point because, in addition to the
did the Israelites first appear in the land of Canaan? Is Gen- Hebrew Bible’s testimony, a people known as Israel is men-
esis correct to describe them as migrants or refugees from tioned in another source that we can date to a specific time,
other places, or did they develop from within the indige- a victory hymn from the reign of the Egyptian king Merne-
nous population of Canaan, as the archaeological evidence ptah (c. 1213–1203 BCE) inscribed on a stele or stone slab.
might suggest? Does their history in the land begin with an The relevant part of the inscription reads as follows:
act of violent conquest, the destruction of Canaanite cit-
ies and the massacre or expulsion of their inhabitants, or is Plundered is the Canaan with every evil;
there reason to reject the narrative of that conquest in the Carried off is Ashkelon;
book of Joshua, as again many biblical scholars and archae- Seized upon is Gezer;
ologists are inclined to do based on evidence which seems Yanoam is made as that which does not exist;
to contradict the biblical account? There is so much we do Israel is laid waste, his seed is not.
not know about the early history of the Israelites, but we
can be certain of two points: (1) many scholars are skeptical The peoples listed here are various enemies defeated
of what the Bible claims about the early history of Israel; by Merneptah in the land of Canaan, including a people
(2) whatever accurate information it may contain, the Bible known as Israel, allegedly annihilated by the king (thank-
does not tell us the whole story. fully, that claim was exaggerated or else this book would
In our effort to find a starting point for our history, we have been a very short one). Beyond confirming that Israel
can latch on to at least one fairly solid fact: we can be fairly lived in Canaan in the time of Merneptah, the inscription
confident that a people known as “Israel” was already pres- may also contain a clue about Israel’s social organization
ent in Canaan as early as the thirteenth century BCE. How at this stage in the development. The Egyptians used spe-
is it that we can know this? The Bible depicts the Israelites cial signs to indicate what kind of thing a word was, and
6 Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors

THE ORIGINS AND MEANING(S) OF THE NAME ISRAEL

The Merneptah Stele suggests that the name Israel existed subject or vassal in order to signal he is changing their status,
as early as the thirteenth century BCE, but it does not tell and that seems analogous to what God is doing here, reas-
us how the name originated. Our only explanations from serting power over Jacob by renaming him. While the Bible’s
an Israelite source come from the Bible, from the book of explanations are culturally plausible, however, it seems likely
Genesis, which claims that Israel was an alternative name that it records later understandings of a name whose origi-
for Jacob, the ancestor from whom the Israelites descended. nal meaning had been forgotten by that point, and scholars
Genesis actually contains two accounts of how Jacob have suggested other explanations rather different from
acquired this name. In Genesis 32, God bestows it on him those in Genesis. In pre-Israelite Canaan, El could signify not
after wrestling with Jacob in a struggle where Jacob actually God but a Canaanite god named El, and it is possible that
gets the better of God. Unable to defeat Jacob, God declares, the name Israel originated as a description of that deity’s
“You shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have activities, the subject rather than the object of the verb: “El
striven (sarita in Hebrew) with God (Elohim) and men have prevailed” or “El fought” or “El protected.” This is just an
won.” The Hebrew words here were meant to imply an educated guess, but we will see other evidence that Israel
explanation for the name Israel: “the one who strove with inherited some of its culture from earlier Canaanite culture,
God.” Elsewhere, Genesis suggests another explanation for including traditions connected to the god El.
the name, in Genesis 35 where God names Jacob Israel at a Whatever its origins, the name Israel, though after the
place later known as Bethel. This time there is no reference Bible always associated with Jacob, eventually acquired other
to a struggle. Apparently, there was more than one under- meanings. After the first century CE, for example, there
standing of the name Israel within Israel itself. were Jews who believed that it meant “the man (ish) who
Does Genesis reveal the true origins of Israel’s name? saw (raah) God (El ),” taking it as a reference to Jacob and
Personal names constructed from a mini-sentence about a his descendants’ special status as people to whom God had
deity were common in the Near East of this period, so it revealed himself. Much more recently, Israel has taken on
is possible that Israel was once the name of an individual nonreligious significance as the name for the modern state
like Jacob. We also know of cases where a ruler renames a of Israel.

the names “Ashkelon,” “Gezer,” and “Yanoam” in the inscrip- Abraham and his family retain their sense of connection
tion are all written with a sign that indicates they were city- to Mesopotamia even after they settle in Canaan. When it
states, whereas “Israel” is written with a sign used to signal comes time to find a wife for his son Isaac, for example,
a people or an ethnic group. The difference in signs may Abraham shuns the Canaanites and sends his servant back
indicate that the early Israelites were not associated with to Mesopotamia, where the servant meets Rebecca, the
a specific city as were other peoples, but were a rurally woman who will marry Isaac. That is also where Abraham’s
based or nomadic people, which is consistent with how grandson Jacob, or Israel as he would come to be known
Genesis describes the ancestors of the Israelites—Abraham, after God changes his name, finds his two wives, Leah and
Isaac, and Jacob—in the earliest stages of Israelite history Rachel. According to the Bible, in other words, the Israel-
as described by the Bible (see the box “The Origins and ites did not originate from Canaan itself; they are immi-
Meaning(s) of the Name Israel ”). grants from Mesopotamia who retain a sense of connection
Who is this Israel, and from where did it come? No writ- to their homeland long after they leave it (for more on Mes-
ten sources exist for Israel’s history after the Merneptah opotamia, see the box “The Biblical World in Brief ”).
Stele until the ninth century BCE, leaving a documentary Regardless of whether figures like Abraham existed,
gap in precisely the period when Israelite society was tak- the Bible does register an understanding of ancient Near
ing shape in the land of Canaan. As the Bible depicts events, Eastern geography consistent in many ways with what has
the Israelites did not begin as Canaanites but originated as been learned from other sources. Mesopotamia was host to
outsiders to the land who migrated to Canaan from abroad. a succession of civilizations, including the Sumerians, one
Genesis traces the Israelites’ ancestry back to a single person of the earliest civilizations in the world, and the Assyrians
named Abraham, who is said to have traveled with his wife and Babylonians, who play a major role in later biblical his-
Sarah to Canaan at God’s behest from a region between the tory. Mesopotamia was home to some of the earliest cities
Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers, referred to by later Greek of the Near East, such as Ur, which was probably the very
authors as Mesopotamia (from the Greek for “between city mentioned in Genesis 12 as the birthplace of Abraham,
the rivers”), a region located in present-day Iraq and Syria. and Babylon, the ill-fated Babel described in Genesis 11.
 Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors 7

Whoever composed this latter story seems to have known embroiled in the conflict between Israel and the Palestin-
something about Babylon. The story’s mention of a large ians, but that identification, developing among Jews and
tower constructed in the city of Babel, a tower “with its Christians in antiquity, isn’t based on any actual evidence
top in the heavens,” seems a reference to a large, towering that it is really Abraham and his descendants buried there).
temple that was built in Babylon in honor of its chief god, But on the other hand, one cannot prove that Abraham
though the fact that this temple was built much later than didn’t exist, and scholars looking for something historical
Abraham would have lived suggests that the story of the in Genesis have pointed to circumstantial evidence. Names
Tower of Babel was composed at a relatively late date. resembling Abram (Abraham’s name before God changed
Is there evidence to support a Mesopotamian origin for it) and Jacob (Abraham’s grandson) appear in Mesopota-
ancient Israel? Scholars have tried to establish the historical mian sources from the early or mid-second millennium
plausibility of Abraham and his family by connecting them BCE, and the description in Genesis of the patriarchs’ family
to a Mesopotamian people known in ancient Near Eastern life—Abraham’s adoption of a servant as his heir, the details
sources as the Amurru. A related name, translated as Amor- of how marriages are arranged, the importance of death-
ite in English, is used in the Bible to describe a Canaanite bed blessings—also seemed at first to fit the culture of this
people, but its meaning is different in this context, a much period as known from texts discovered at Mesopotamian
narrower reference to a specific group living in the land of sites such as the city of Nuzi. When these parallels came to
Canaan just before the Israelites’ arrival. The Amurru are light, they were seen as evidence that Genesis preserves to
mentioned in various Mesopotamian sources as a people some degree a memory of Israel’s emergence from an earlier
associated with the West (the word means “western” in nomadic people with links to Mesopotamia.
fact)—that is, the region of Syria, Phoenicia, and Canaan, But this is little more than educated guesswork. No spe-
which are Western from a Mesopotamian perspective. cific event in Genesis can be corroborated, and even the
They seem to have originated as a nomadic or migrant peo- effort to connect Abraham to the Amorites has proven
ple, growing particularly prominent in the period between unpersuasive in the end. Maybe there was an Abraham, but
2000 and 1600 BCE, which is roughly the period in which such a figure could have as easily lived 1,000 years after the
one might place Abraham if one starts with, say, a date of Amurru since his name and the nomadic lifestyle he led
1000 BCE for King David and then tries to count backward have parallels as well from later periods of Near Eastern his-
using the chronological information that the Bible provides tory. In fact, indications can be found within Genesis itself
(David’s son Solomon built the Temple 480 years after the that it was composed at a later time. According to Genesis
Israelites left Egypt; the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for 11, Abraham’s family migrated from a place called “Ur of
400 years, etc.). As depicted in the Bible, Abraham and his the Chaldeans.” As we have noted, Ur is a well-known city
descendants travel from Mesopotamia to Canaan and back, in Mesopotamia, but the Chaldeans, a people from south
wandering from camp to camp, never settling in a single Mesopotamia who are known only from sources dating to
place. Their lifestyle fits well with the alleged nomadism of the ninth century BCE and later, could not have been living
the Amorites, suggesting to some scholars that the Israelites in Ur at the time of Abraham if he came from the period
might have been the descendants of the ancient Amurru, between 2000 and 1600 BCE. Other details in Genesis—its
with a memory of this experience preserved in the book of reference to the Philistines, for example—also reflect reali-
Genesis. This effort to frame Abraham’s migration as part ties that emerge in Canaan only after about 1200 BCE, com-
of the larger Amurru migration came to be known as the plicating attempts to place a historical Abraham in the early
Amorite hypothesis. centuries of the second millennium BCE. While it is con-
There is no way to prove such a hypothesis. Searching ceivable that Genesis preserves memories of real people and
for a specific individual like Abraham in the scant textual events, it seems those memories have been framed within a
and archaeological remnants that survive from the distant narrative from a later age that projects the circumstances of
past—a sheep and goat herder who lived in tents and moved the author’s day—sometime after 1200 BCE—onto Israel’s
from place to place—is much harder than looking for a past. To date, there is no agreed-upon way to distinguish
needle in a haystack since one at least knows in the latter between genuine historical experience and fictionalized
instance which haystack to look in, whereas for Abraham, it invention in the book of Genesis, though many scholars are
is not clear in what historical period one should look or what skeptical of much of what it claims about the past.
one should expect to find. There is thus no way to confirm What of the other historical experience that plays such
his existence, much less connect him to a known historical an important role in the Bible’s account of Israel’s origins:
people like the Amurru (in the West Bank city of Hebron, the Exodus from Egypt? In the days of Abraham’s grand-
there is a site venerated by religious Jews today as the tomb son Jacob, Genesis relates, Jacob’s son Joseph was brought
of Abraham, the Cave of Machpeleh, a site that has become down into Egypt as a slave. Thanks to his skills as a dream
8 Ancient Israel and Other Ancestors

THE BIBLICAL WORLD IN BRIEF

To better understand the history of ancient Israel, it is the Great, ancient Egyptian history is divided into Old, Middle,
extremely helpful to know something about the political, and New Kingdoms, with three “intermediate periods,” when
social, and cultural context in which it emerged, including the Egypt experienced political division and economic decentral-
various peoples with whom it interacted. The following is a ization. Israel emerged at the end of the era dominated by
brief introduction to some of those peoples and their rela- the New Kingdom (at its height under Ramses II, who reigned
tionship to the Israelites. between 1279 and 1212 BCE) as it gave way to the Third
Mesopotamia is a plain between the Tigris and Euphra- Intermediate Period.
tes Rivers where the first civilization emerged. The rivers In contrast to the relative stability of Egyptian history,
flooded in the summer and receded in autumn, leaving Mesopotamia was dominated by a number of different peo-
behind sediment for growing crops in the winter, to be har- ples. Toward the end of the third millennium, the Sumeri-
vested in spring. The earliest known Mesopotamian civiliza- ans were overtaken by the Akkadians, based in the city of
tion is Sumerian. Advanced irrigation systems formed larger Akkad—this was where Sargon was from—and they replaced
settlements, and as the local farm economy grew to include the Sumerian language with a Semitic language now known as
trade, towns emerged, one of the earliest of which is known Akkadian. From the remnants of that empire developed two
as Uruk. Towns that grew powerful became city-states with major cultural variants of Mesopotamian civilization, a cul-
dynastic rulers. Eventually one ruler called Sargon founded ture based in northern Mesopotamia (what is now northern
the first empire in history. According to legend, Sargon, Iraq) known as Assyria and a southern Mesopotamian cul-
like Moses, was sent down the river in a basket, found and ture based in Babylon in what is now southern Iraq. Empires
raised by a royal gardener or water-drawer, and grew up in from Assyria and Babylon, known as the Neo-Assyrian and
the royal house, where he eventually rose to the position Neo-Babylonian empires respectively, appear prominently in
of king. the history described in the Bible as major threats to ancient
Sometime in the same period as the rise of Mesopotamian Israel. The Assyrians exiled 10 of Israel’s 12 tribes, the famous
civilization, another civilization arose on the Nile River in 10 lost tribes, while the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, and
Egypt. Unlike the Tigris and Euphrates, the Nile flooded reg- the population that it exiled to Babylonia were the ancestors
ularly and predictably and there were relatively fewer migra- of the people later known as Jews.
tions and invasions into the region as well, and thus Egypt Other peoples also play an important role in the history
achieved a greater degree of political stability than Mesopo- of ancient Israel.
tamia did, though it too underwent periods of fragmentation. The Philistines appear to have been part of a larger
From the beginning of the third millennium until Alexander movement of seafaring raiders known as the Sea Peoples who

interpreter, he eventually arose to a position of power in occurring historical event? Is there evidence that the Israel-
Egypt, second only to the Egyptian king, and was reunited ites were slaves in Egypt? That there was a Moses who lib-
with his 11 brothers and father, who joined him in Egypt erated them? That the Israelites had to trek across the Sinai
during a famine in Canaan. Their descendants, the 12 wilderness before settling in the land of Canaan?
tribes of Israel, thrived in Egypt for some time, but at a cer- Egypt itself was real enough. Like Mesopotamia, Egyptian
tain point a new king came to power who did not remem- civilization was a river culture, forming on the banks of the
ber Joseph and became fearful of the Israelites as they grew Nile River. Its development is roughly parallel to that of Mes-
more populous, enslaving and oppressing them. It was dur- opotamia: a pictographic writing system (hieroglyphics, or
ing this period that Moses, an Israelite but one who grew their cursive equivalent hieratic) developed there sometime
up in the house of the Egyptian king’s daughter, emerged to in the fourth millennium BCE, as did the institution of the
rescue his people from their plight. Wielding divine power, kingship, temples, and other attributes of early Near Eastern
he inflicted ten plagues on the Egyptians that compelled civilization. From an early period, even before the invention
their king to release the Israelites, and they left for the land of writing, Egypt was in contact with Canaan. Egyptians
of Canaan, though not before crossing the Red Sea, which came to Canaan as travelers, soldiers, traders, and—in peri-
God parted to allow their passage and then closed in order ods when Egypt controlled Canaan—administrators, while
to drown their Egyptian pursuers. Their escape from Egypt Canaanites traveled to Egypt as migrants, slaves, and traders
has come to be known in English as the Exodus, from the (in fact, the word Canaan might originate from the word for
Greek word meaning “going out” that was used by Chris- “trader”). The Bible’s description of the Israelites as wander-
tians as a title for the biblical book that tells this story. Can ing back and forth between Canaan and Egypt, serving as
any of the biblical Exodus be confirmed as an actually agents of the Egyptian government or becoming its slaves, is
Other documents randomly have
different content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of With Rogers
on the Frontier: A Story of 1756
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
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under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
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Title: With Rogers on the Frontier: A Story of 1756

Author: J. Macdonald Oxley

Illustrator: F. J. Devitt

Release date: November 20, 2016 [eBook #53560]

Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Graeme Mackreth and The Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
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Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH ROGERS

ON THE FRONTIER: A STORY OF 1756 ***
With Rogers on the Frontier

"I AM SETH ALLEN FROM MASSACHUSETTS."

WITH ROGERS
ON THE FRONTIER
 A Story of 1756
BY

J. Macdonald Oxley, B.A.

Author of "L'Hasa at Last," "On the World's Roof,"
"Bert Lloyd's Boyhood," Etc., Etc.

With Four Illustrations by F.J. DEVITT

TORONTO
THE COPP CLARK CO.,
LIMITED.

Copyright, 1902
A. WESSELS COMPANY

CONTENTS
chapter page

I. English Against French 7

II. A Perilous Ride 16
III. Bullets and Bayonets 25
IV. The Defeat of Dieskau 36
V. Off on a Scout 45
VI. One of Rogers' Rangers 56
VII. Reuben Gets into the Rangers Also 67
VIII. Off to Crown Point 76
IX. Doing Damage to the Enemy 86
X. To Boston Town 95
XI. Seth Receives Promotion 106
XII. From Peril to Peril 117
XIII. Scouting in Whaleboats 127
XIV. The Fight in the Forest 137
XV. Fort William Henry in Danger 147
XVI. The Foiling of the French 158
XVII. The Siege of Fort William Henry 168
XVIII. The Massacre of the English 179
XIX. An Adventure in New York 189
XX. Scouting in a New Field 199
XXI. An Easy Triumph 211
XXII. At Close Grips with Death 222
XXIII. Out of Captivity into Action Again 232
XXIV. The Glorious Victory 242

WITH ROGERS ON THE FRONTIER

 CHAPTER I
ENGLISH AGAINST FRENCH
The great conflict between England and France for supremacy upon
the North American continent was drawing near its final stage. It
had been waged for more than a century with varying fortunes, and
over a vast extent of territory. The sea-girt province of Acadia in the
extreme east, and the rich valley of the Ohio in the far west had
alike been the scene of bloody encounters, and now the combatants
were coming to close grips in that picturesque and beautiful portion
of New York State where the twin lakes Champlain and George lay
embosomed amid forest-clad hills.
The possession of these lakes was divided between the two rivals,
the French being masters of Lake Champlain, and the English of
Lake George, and their crystal waters were again and again
reddened with the life blood of the antagonists and their Indian
allies as they fought fiercely for the prize of sole possession that the
way between Canada and the colonies might be completely closed to
whichever power was vanquished.
In the spring of the year 1755 the New England colonies combined
to undertake the capture of Crown Point, the French stronghold on
Lake Champlain, which for the past quarter of a century had been a
veritable hornet's nest. To Governor Shirley of Massachusetts was
due the credit of inspiring the undertaking, and his province was
foremost in voting men and money toward its accomplishment,
Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and finally New York
followed suit, and the result was a little army of several thousand
men, whose appearance would have filled a European commander
with scorn.
For they were none of them soldiers, but simply farmers and
farmers' sons who had gallantly volunteered for the campaign,
leaving their scattered dingy homes in the midst of rough fields of
corn and pumpkins to shoulder the guns they all knew so well how
to use, and when the fighting was over, if so be that they escaped
the bullet and tomahawk, to return to their ploughing and sowing as
though they had merely been out on a hunting trip.
Only one corps boasted a uniform, blue faced with red. The others
were content with their ordinary clothes, and the most of them
brought their own guns. They had no bayonets, but carried hatchets
in their belts instead, and at their sides were slung powder-horns on
which they had carved quaint devices with the points of their pocket
knives.
Their whole appearance was neither martial nor picturesque, and
gave them no excuse for pride, but they were brave, brawny fellows,
clear of head, quick of eye, swift of foot, and sure of hand, and
incomparably better adapted for the irregular warfare of the time
than the highly disciplined soldiery of either England or France. They
knew the forests as the city-bred man knows the streets, and by day
or night could traverse their fastnesses without fear of losing their
way or falling into the hands of the enemy.
They were of all ages and sizes so to speak, from boys in their teens
to gray-haired grandfathers, and from dwarfs to giants, but they all
could give a good account of themselves in a fight either at long or
close range.
The commander of this curious army was no less remarkable than
his men, for he had never seen service, and knew nothing of war. An
Irishman by birth, William Johnson had held an extensive domain on
the banks of the Mohawk River for a score of years, and grown
powerful and rich by trading with the Indians of the Five Nations
who found him far more honest and reliable than his Dutch rivals in
the business, and over whom he came to acquire so profound an
influence that the Government made him Indian Superintendent, an
appointment that was hailed with joy throughout the Iroquois
Confederacy.
He had taken to himself a Mohawk squaw for wife, and lived in
almost baronial style in a fortified house which was a stronghold
against his foes and a centre of lavish hospitality to friends and
visitors whether white or red.
Governor Shirley had chosen him for the responsible post of
commander because by so doing he prevented any jealousy among
the New England colonies, gratified the important province of New
York, and secured the co-operation of the Five Nations, a threefold
advantage that could be secured in no other way.
The gathering place was at Albany, and here in the month of July
were assembled several thousand provincials ready for the fray.
Hither also came a swarm of Johnson's Mohawks, warriors, squaws,
and children. They made things very lively. They adorned the
General's face with war-paint, and he joined them in the war dance,
and then with his sword cut the first slice from the ox that had been
roasted whole for their entertainment.
"I shall be glad," remarked a New England surgeon surveying the
somewhat riotous goings-on with a touch of complacent contempt,
"if they fight as eagerly as they ate their ox, and drank their wine."
Among the spectators of these rude festivities stood a youth whose
otherwise pleasing countenance was so clouded that one seeing it
could hardly fail to wonder what troubled him thus deeply.
Although still in his teens he had reached the stature of a man, and
his well-knit figure gave evidence of no common share of strength
and activity. He was dressed in a suit of tanned buckskin that
became him particularly well, and with his double-barrelled
smoothbore, carved powder-horn, keen-edged tomahawk, and long-
bladed hunting knife was fully equipped to meet the foe.
The son of a pioneer settler upon the northern border of
Massachusetts, Seth Allen had already drunk to its depths the cup of
sorrow, for at one fell swoop the dusky allies of the French had
rendered him a homeless orphan. With his own eyes he had beheld
his parents tomahawked and scalped, the farmhouse burned, and
the stock slaughtered while he had been carried off for torture in the
Indian camp.
Escaping by a happy chance he made his way back to New England,
and at once volunteered for active service against the French.
Henceforward he had but one purpose in life—to serve his country in
the field, and in view of what he had suffered it is easy to
understand with what impatience he awaited the advance of the
English against Crown Point, and how he chafed at the delay which
seemed to him inexcusable.
Now above all things this expedition needed to act promptly, and yet
preparations went on with exasperating slowness. The troops and
supplies were contributed by five different legislatures, and they
each wanted their own way about something. Indeed at one time
there was a regular deadlock because they could not agree as to
their respective quotas of artillery and stores.
"The expedition goes on very much as a snail runs," grumbled
Surgeon Williams. "It seems we may possibly see Crown Point this
time twelve months."
Seth Allen, burning with eagerness to forget in the excitement of
action the horrors which haunted his memory, could not understand
why there should be all this useless dawdling, and one day ventured
to address a group of men whom he knew to be among the leaders.
"Can you tell me, good sirs," he said, doffing his cap respectfully,
"how much longer we are to be here doing nothing?"
In the little party were Colonel Titcomb and Seth Pomeroy of
Massachusetts, who had both fought so well at Louisbourg, the
sturdy Israel Putnam of Connecticut, and brave John Stark of New
Hampshire, and they all turned to look at the speaker while a
suspicion of a smile curved the corners of their lips.
"Your question is not easy to answer, young man." It was Colonel
Titcomb who spoke. "We would fain have some definite knowledge
upon that matter ourselves. But may I inquire your name, and how
you came here? You seem to have scarce sufficient years for such
hard fighting as must fall to our lot if our purpose be effected."
A ruddy glow showed through the tan of the youth's cheeks, and he
lowered both head and voice as he replied:
"My name is Seth Allen, and I come from Massachusetts. My father
and mother were killed by the Indians who are in league with the
French, and our home was burned. I am here because I have no
other desire than to fight against those who have broken my heart."
There was a strange simplicity in the words. They came from the
heart of the speaker, and they went straight to the hearts of his
hearers. The veteran warriors looked at each other, and then at the
youth with eyes full of intelligent sympathy, and Colonel Pomeroy,
stepping forward, laid his hand gently upon the youth's shoulder,
saying:
"We have heard of your sad story. No one has better reason to be
here than you, and we can well understand how hard you find this
waiting. But patience is a soldierly virtue, and you must have your
share of it. There will be plenty of fighting in due time."
The blush deepened upon Seth's countenance at the implied reproof,
and, murmuring his excuses for having thus interrupted their
conference, he moved away.
"That boy bears a heavy heart," said Colonel Titcomb, "and I should
not like to be either the first Frenchman or Indian that he meets, for
he has a long account to settle with our hated foes."
Patience in no small degree certainly was required by the provincials
who had gathered together for active service, not to waste time in
aimless dallying, and their anxiety to be up and doing was increased
when the four Mohawk scouts which Johnson had sent to Canada
returned with the startling intelligence that the French were fully
informed of the English designs, and that eight thousand men were
being sent to the defence of Crown Point.
Upon this a council of war was held whereat it was decided to send
to the several provinces for reinforcements, and at the same time to
begin the movement northward lest the volunteers, wearied of
inaction, should lose heart in the enterprise.
Accordingly the main body, accompanied by a train of Dutch
wagons, marched slowly over the stumps and roots of a newly made
road, and presently reached the borders of the most beautiful lake
which Johnson loyally called Lake George in honor of the King of
England.
Here camp was made on a piece of rough ground by the water's
edge, the men pitching their tents among the stumps of the lately
felled trees.
With a clear water-way to their destination, and hundreds of bateaux
hauled overland from Fort Lyman (afterward called Fort Edward),
ready to transport them thither, the men's spirits rose, for they
naturally thought they would soon be led against the enemy, but in
this they were again disappointed.
Johnson sent out scouts in different directions, but otherwise did
nothing, and Seth Allen, at last unable to endure the continued
inaction any longer, begged so earnestly of his captain to be allowed
to go out scouting, that when an Indian brought word that he had
found the trail of a body of men moving toward Fort Lyman, and
Johnson called for a volunteer to carry a letter of warning to Colonel
Blanchard, the commander of the fort, the captain at once sent for
Seth, and telling him what was wanted said:
"Now, young man, there's the chance you have been fretting for."
"And I'm ready to take it," responded Seth promptly.

CHAPTER II
A PERILOUS RIDE
In order to a clear understanding of the situation it is necessary at
this point to leave the provincial army for a little while and take a
glance at what the French were doing.
They were by no means idle. While the British were preparing to
attack Crown Point they were preparing to defend it, having first got
warning of their purpose from the letters of the unfortunate
Braddock found on the battlefield, which information was confirmed
by the report of a reconnoitring party that had made its way as far
as the Hudson, and returned with the news that Johnson's forces
were already on the field.
The Marquis de Vandreuil, Governor of Canada, who on his part had
been meditating an expedition for the capture of Oswego, and for
this purpose had got together several battalions of regular soldiers
under the command of Baron Dieskau, thereupon changed their
destination from Lake Ontario to Lake Champlain.
Passing up the Richelieu River these troops embarked in boats and
canoes for Crown Point. Their veteran leader knew that the foes with
whom he had to deal were not disciplined soldiers, but simply a mob
of countrymen, and he never doubted for a moment that he would
put them to flight at the first meeting, and keep them going until he
had chased them back to Albany. Such, too, was the pleasant
conviction of the Marquis de Vandreuil, who wrote to him in this
strain:
"Make all haste, for when you return we shall send you to Oswego to
execute our first design."
And he had obeyed orders to such good purpose that while
Johnson's force lay idle at Lake George he had reached Crown Point
at the head of nearly four thousand men, regulars, Canadians, and
Indians.
Dieskau had no thought of waiting to be attacked. His troops were
commanded to hold themselves ready to move at a moment's
notice. The officers were bidden to take nothing with them but one
spare shirt, one spare pair of shoes, a blanket, a bearskin, and
twelve days' provisions, while the Indians were strictly enjoined not
to amuse themselves by taking scalps until the enemy was entirely
defeated, since they could kill ten men in the time required to scalp
one, a grim injunction that reveals like a lightning flash the barbarity
of that border warfare when all the laws of humanity were ignored.
Early in the month of September a scouting party brought in an
English prisoner caught near Fort Lyman. He was questioned under
threat of being handed over to the Indians for torture if he did not
tell the truth, but, nothing daunted, he endeavored to lure the
French into a trap by telling them that the English army had fallen
back to Albany, leaving only a few hundred men at Fort Lyman,
which he said was a place to be easily taken.
Dieskau at once resolved on a rapid movement to seize the fort,
and, leaving a part of his force at Ticonderoga, he embarked the rest
in canoes, and hurried along through the narrow part of Lake
Champlain, stretching southward through the wilderness.
Reaching the lower end of the lake they left their canoes under
guard, and began their march through the dense forest toward Fort
Lyman. They numbered fifteen hundred in all, and it was concerning
their approach that the report had been brought in to the English
camp, which Seth Allen was ready to carry to the endangered fort.
"You seem a likely lad," said Johnson when Seth was brought to
him, "and will no doubt do as well as any one. You had better take a
horse. You will run a better chance of getting through."
Seth was quite willing to make the venture afoot, but he was still
better pleased to be mounted, and a little later he galloped away
over the rough road on his perilous task with the important letter
hidden in his bosom.
For the first time since coming to the camp he felt in good spirits,
and he would have whistled to keep himself company had he not
known better than to make any more noise than was absolutely
necessary.
He fully realized the danger he was running. Capture by the French
meant probable torture, and certain death, while the chances were
that if perceived by the foe or their merciless allies he would be shot
on sight as so many others had been before him.
But this knowledge in no wise clouded his brave young spirit. He was
too glad at being allowed to undertake the perilous mission to be
concerned about his safety, and with every faculty keen for hint or
sign of danger he hastened along the stump-strewn road toward his
destination.
A high rate of speed was not possible owing to the roughness of the
road, but he made very good progress nevertheless, and one-half
the fourteen miles of the way had been covered ere the still solitude
through which he was passing gave token of other human life.
Then it was revealed in startling enough fashion, for as Seth rode
along carefully through the stumps and roots which were ready to
bring his steed to his knees, a shot rang out on his right, followed by
a blood-curdling whoop, and a bullet whistled uncomfortably close to
his head.
"Now for it!" he exclaimed, bending low over his horse's neck and
driving in the spurs.
The willing creature responded with a bound that nearly unseated
his rider and then sprang away at the top of his speed, soon leaving
the Indian scout far behind.
If he were the only one to discover Seth it would be well enough,
but that was hardly to be hoped for. The very fact of his presence
implied the proximity of the French as Seth thoroughly understood,
and at any moment others might show themselves.
On he rode, glancing anxiously to right and left, yet keeping a close
watch on his horse. Again and again the animal stumbled over a
root, but, thanks to Seth's skill in the saddle, did not go down, and
the remaining distance to Fort Lyman was rapidly being decreased,
when once more peril appeared in the path.
This time it was a small party of Canadians out on scouting duty, and
they were right in the rider's road. He must either turn back, or go
on to apparently certain capture.
For an instant Seth was at a loss which course to pursue. Then with
that quickness of decision which was characteristic of him he
determined upon a desperate expedient.
Reining in his horse he approached the Canadians at a walk as if he
meant to surrender, whereby they were thrown off their guard.
Counting upon an easy capture they dropped their guns which they
had been holding in readiness to fire, and as Seth came up called
out to him in jeering tones that he was their prisoner.
By way of response Seth, now within a few yards of them, clapped
spurs to his horse, and drove him right into the centre of the little
group.
This sudden and unexpected action took them completely by
surprise. With oaths and angry exclamations they threw themselves
out of the way of the horse, which ere they could recover and take
aim with their guns, was many yards away galloping furiously along
the road.
A scattering volley followed the fugitive, but not one of the leaden
messengers touched him as he crouched over the horse's neck, and
only one hit the animal, inflicting a slight wound in the hind quarter
that simply served to quicken its speed.
For the rest of the way Seth did not spare his steed. Taking chances
every minute of a fall that might mean the rendering of one or both
of them helpless, he galloped on until at last the welcome sight of
Fort Lyman gladdened his eyes, and presently he pulled up the
panting creature which had borne him so well at the gate that was
quickly opened to receive him.
Colonel Blanchard thanked him warmly for the warning message,
and bade him stay at the fort until it would be safe for him to return
to Lake George.
Immediately all possible preparations for defence were made at Fort
Lyman, and full of anxiety its garrison awaited the expected attack.
But the days went by without bringing any sign of the enemy, and
Seth again began to grow impatient. The confinement of the fort
became irksome to his liberty-loving nature. He felt sure that there
was plenty to be done at Lake George, and chafed at waiting in
idleness inside the fort, where there was nothing to occupy the long
hours.
Had the garrison known the reason for the non-appearance of the
enemy they might not only have rested with easy minds, but might
even have taken the field on their own account, as all danger of
attack had passed for a time. The change of plan on the part of the
French had been brought about in this way.
They had made their way through the forest until they were within
three miles of Fort Lyman, and there as they halted for the night a
dozen wagons came along the road from Lake George. They were in
charge of mutinous drivers who had left the English camp without
orders, little dreaming the punishment that waited their misconduct.
Several of them were shot, two were captured, and the remainder
escaped into the woods with the Indians at their heels.
The two captives on being questioned, told a very different story
from the prisoner taken by the scouting party a few days previously.
According to them, instead of the English having fallen back upon
Albany, they were encamped in large force at Lake George.
When the Indians heard this they held a council and decided that
they would not attack the fort which they thought well supplied with
cannon, but they were quite willing to go against the camp at the
lake.
All remonstrances went for nothing. They were not to be moved
from their resolution, and Baron Dieskau had perforce to alter his
plan of campaign. Now he was not only young but daring to
rashness, and burning with eagerness to emulate the recent victory
over Braddock. According to the reports the enemy greatly
outnumbered him, but his Canadian advisers had assured him that
the English colonial militia were the worst troops on the face of the
earth.
"The more there are of them, the more we shall kill," he said with
complacent confidence to his Canadian and Indian allies, and in the
morning the order was given to leave Fort Lyman alone, and to
march to the lake.
In the mean time Seth Allen, made desperate by delay, in spite of
the efforts of his friends to restrain him, left the fort, and, by making
a wide detour, succeeded in reaching the camp in safety, although
almost every foot of the way thither had been fraught with perils.
Here he found the whole place astir, for an advance against the
French was about to take place. Congratulating himself upon having
arrived in time to take part in it Seth carefully examined his fighting
gear, to make sure that everything was in readiness for active
service.

CHAPTER III
BULLETS AND BAYONETS
By the wagoners who had managed to escape the fate which befell
their companions Johnson had been warned of the proximity of the
French war party, but he somehow formed a very wrong conception
of its strength.
Instead of preparing to meet them with his full force his first plan
was to send out two detachments of five hundred men each, one
going toward Fort Lyman, and the other toward South Bay, with the
object of catching the enemy in their retreat.
But Hendrick, the brave and sagacious chief of the Mohawks,
expressed his dissent after the dramatic fashion of his race. Picking
up a single stick he broke it easily with his hands. Then picking up
several, he put them together and showed that they could not be
broken thus.
Johnson was shrewd enough to take the hint, and directed that the
two detachments be joined in one. Still the old savage shook his
head.
"If they are to be killed," said he, "they are too many. If they are to
fight, they are too few."
But the commander would make no further change, and the Indian
not only ceased his objections, but mounted on a gun carriage and
harangued his warriors, exhorting them to fight bravely for their
friends, and to show no mercy to their enemies.
The morning was still young when the thousand men, under the
command of Ephraim Williams and Colonel Whiting, marched off
from the camp in quest of the French, their orders being to intercept
their supposed retreat, and if possible find and destroy their canoes.
Seth Allen was with the vanguard, his pulse beating rapidly, and
every nerve a-quiver, for he felt it in his bones that there would be
plenty of fighting before the day ended.
"I hope the French will wait for us," he said to Elisha Halley, by
whom he was walking. "Maybe if they get warning of our advance
they will go back to their canoes and we have nothing to follow
them with on the water."
Elisha smiled contemptuously as he replied:
"It all depends upon how many they are and what they know about
our strength. If they think they outnumber us they will not fail to
wait for us, but if we outnumber them they will retreat fast enough.
Nevertheless I think we ought to go forward carefully. They might be
lying in ambush somewhere ahead."
The Colonials certainly showed a lack of common sense and utter
ignorance of strategy in their advance against the enemy, for no
scouts were thrown out in front or flank. They pushed on in full
security until the sharp eye of old Hendrick detected a sign of
danger.
He at once gave warning, but it was too late. The dense thickets on
the left suddenly blazed out a deadly fire, and the English fell by
scores. The head of the column, as Dieskau afterward boasted, "was
doubled up like a pack of cards." The old Mohawk chief's horse, on
which he rode because he was so old and fat, was shot under him,
and he himself killed with a bayonet as he tried to gain his feet.
Seth had a wonderful escape. The bullets whistled past him on
either side, but left him untouched, and he returned the fire with his
own gun as best he could in the midst of the fearful confusion.
Although it was his first experience of battle he felt no qualm of fear.
On the contrary, all his nervousness vanished, and thinking only how
he might fight to the best advantage, he loaded and fired as rapidly
as possible.
Presently the voice of Ephraim Williams was heard calling upon his
men to follow him to a piece of rising ground on the right, and Seth
obeyed the command.
"We must rally, men, or we will all be destroyed." Williams cried as
he led them up the slope.
But he had not reached half-way when there came a volley from the
bushes that laid him dead. And it was followed close by a hot fire
poured in on the right flank.
Then there was a panic. Many fled outright. The whole column
recoiled and began to retreat. Its van became the rear, and all the
force of the enemy rushed upon it, shouting and screeching.
Seth found himself entangled in a mob of terrified men who had no
other thought than to get out of reach of the deadly fire of their
assailants; and, although his spirit rebelled against this ignominious
flight, he had no alternative than to take part in it.
Happily after a brief interval of confusion Colonel Whiting succeeded
in rallying a part of Williams' regiment; and they, adopting Indian
tactics, fighting behind trees, and firing and falling back by turns,
were able with the aid of the Mohawks to cover the retreat.
"A very handsome retreat they made," was the testimony of Colonel
Pomeroy, "and so continued until they came within about three-
quarters of a mile of our camp. This was the last fire our men gave
our enemies which killed great numbers of them; and they were
seen to drop as pigeons."
In the alternate fighting and falling back Seth took his full share,
using the tree trunks for cover as cleverly as any of the Indians, and
firing and reloading his musket with all possible speed, yet aiming
carefully so that his bullets might not be wasted.
The lust of battle had full possession of him. He utterly forgot
himself in the deadly business of the moment, and without a quiver
of nerve saw white men and red falling beside him and in front of
him mortally smitten.
Again and again the leaden messengers of death passed perilously
close to him, but he remained unscathed. As the fierce conflict
began to slacken somewhat he observed a Colonial, who had not
been quick enough in retreat, stumble and fall headlong, and the
next instant a stalwart Indian, hideous with war paint, sprang out
from the enemy's line and dashed toward the man tomahawk in
hand.
Seth had just fired and there was no time to reload. If he would
save his helpless countryman it must be by exposing himself to a like
fate. Yet he did not hesitate.
Holding his heavy gun in readiness to use as a club, he sprang from
behind the tree-trunk which had sheltered him and rushed into the
zone of fire.
His action was redeemed from utter recklessness by the heroic
impulse which inspired it, and to the credit of the French be it said
that they forebore to fire upon him, leaving it to the Indian to deal
with him first, and then accomplish what he had set out to do.
The Iroquois, when he saw the youth coming at him, gave a grunt of
contempt and raised his tomahawk menacingly. But Seth kept right
on until he had got within striking distance, when whirling his gun
around his head he aimed a terrible blow at his opponent.
The latter sprang aside to evade it, and as he did so his foot caught
in a hidden root and he fell forward on his knees. Ere he could
recover himself the butt of Seth's musket took him in the back of the
head, and over he went like a log, the tomahawk flying from his
nerveless grasp.
While this was happening, the fallen colonial had got to his feet
again and was looking about in a bewildered way, having lost his
bearings and not knowing in which direction to continue the flight
interrupted by his fall.
"Here, come with me," cried Seth, grasping his arm. "Bend as low as
you can and run for your life."
The fellow obeyed instantly and the two of them made all haste
back to their own lines, followed by a volley from the enemy which
happily, however, did neither of them any harm.
Seth's gallant feat won the admiration of all who beheld it, and the
profound gratitude of the man to whom he had rendered such timely
succor, and who proved to be from his own province.
When Dieskau saw that the English had really rallied, and were
returning the fire of his men with deadly effect, he ordered a halt
and had the trumpet sounded to collect his scattered men, with the
purpose of pressing forward in good order so as to make the most of
the advantage already gained.
Had he been able to do so he could hardly have failed to gain a
complete victory over Johnson, but fortunately for the latter, the
Iroquois, who had lost many of their braves, became sullen and
unmanageable, and the French Canadians, whose veteran leader,
Legardeur de St. Pierre, had been killed, showed signs of wavering,
and it was not until after considerable delay that the advance was
made with the regulars leading the way.
Meantime in Johnson's camp there had been great anxiety and no
little confusion. About an hour after Williams had marched out with
his thousand men the sound of heavy firing was heard in the
distance, and as it grew nearer and louder those in the camp
realized that their comrades, instead of pursuing a flying foe, were
themselves in retreat.
Johnson at once set about preparations for defence which should
have been made long before. A barricade constructed of wagons,
inverted bateaux, and tree trunks was hurriedly made along the
front of the camp, and three cannons were planted so as to sweep
the road, while a fourth was dragged up to the ridge of the hill.
In the midst of this confusion the defeated party began to come in.
First, scared fugitives, both white and red; then gangs of men
bringing the wounded, and finally the main body marching in good
order down the road. Among these was Seth, very much out of
humor at having to turn his back on the enemy, and hoping in his
heart that they would have the courage to attack the camp.
"If we hadn't been such fools as to walk right into the trap they laid
for us," he said to the man he had rescued as they marched
together, "we'd not be running from them now, but they'd be
running from us, and thinking only how far it was to Crown Point."
"You're just right," emphatically responded the other, whose name
was John Wilcox. "There ought to have been scouts ahead of us to
give us warning. I don't know what our colonel was thinking about
when he let us go on like that, as if there were no French within
twenty miles of us."
But of course it is always easy to be wise after the event, and now
that the blunder had been committed, and had cost so dearly, it only
remained to make the best of what was certainly a very serious
situation.
Accordingly five hundred men were detailed to guard the flanks of
the camp, while the remainder took up their position behind the
wagons, or lay flat behind the logs and upturned bateaux, the
Massachusetts men being on the right and the Connecticut men on
the left. Not counting the Indians the actual fighting force numbered
about seventeen hundred, the majority of them being rustics, who
had never been under fire until that morning.
They were hardly settled at their posts when Seth's keen eyes
caught the flash of bayonets through the boughs, and a minute later
the white-coated regulars of France came into view, marching
steadily down the road in serried array. At the same time a terrific
burst of war-whoops rose on either side of them, and in the words
of Pomeroy to his wife, "the Canadians and Indians helter-skelter,
the woods full of them, came running with undaunted courage right
clown the hill upon us, expecting to make us flee."
But in this they were greatly mistaken, for although some of the
Colonials grew uneasy, their officers, sword in hand, threatened
instant death to any who should attempt to leave their posts, and
not one of them made a move.
Seth could not help admiring the steadiness shown by the regulars
in their advance. Dieskau certainly had them well in hand, but the
rest of his force, both red and white, scattered through the woods
shouting, whooping, and firing from behind trees.
Well was it indeed for the English that their opponents as a whole
did not display the same good discipline as the French, for had they
done so the result would have been disastrous; but when only the
regulars obeyed orders their attack lost much of its force and gave
Captain Eyre, who commanded the artillery, a chance to open upon
them with grape, which he did so effectually as to break up their
orderly array and compel them to take to cover.
The firing on both sides now became general, and soon waxed so
furious that to quote again Pomeroy's graphic words, "The hail
stones from heaven were never much thicker than the bullets," yet,
as he proudly added, "Blessed be God, that did not in the least
daunt or disturb us."
Seth's position was on the right flank, and as Dieskau first directed
his attack against the left and centre, he was for a time simply a
spectator of the struggle.
But when the commander of the French found he was being so
stoutly withstood, he turned his attention to the right and tried to
force it.
"Ah, ha!" exclaimed Seth in a tone of satisfaction, "it is our turn now.
We will give them all they want."

CHAPTER IV
THE DEFEAT OF DIESKAU
The men from Massachusetts showed no more sign of giving back
before the enemy than had their brethren from the sister provinces.
Loading and firing as quickly as their old-fashioned muskets allowed,
they poured so deadly a fire into the French ranks that the latter
could make no material advance, but were compelled to keep behind
cover, and return the fire as best they might.
The conflict had continued in this fashion for nearly an hour with
considerable loss of life on both sides, but without definite
advantage, when Seth, becoming convinced that an officer in rich
uniform, whom he could see at the centre of the French line, was
their commander, determined to try if he could not shoot him down,
as he reasoned that this would put them in a panic.
So, despite the protests of his companions, to whom alone he
revealed his design, he crept through the barricade and began to
crawl nearer the enemy. It was an extremely dangerous, not to say
reckless proceeding, and those of his own party who observed it
considered him as good as lost. Colonel Williams indeed shouted
after him:
"Come back there, young man, you're going to your death!"
But, carried away by his great purpose, Seth paid no heed to the
command. There was a big tree whose wide-spreading roots offered
excellent cover about fifty yards ahead of him, and it was for this he
was making, as if he reached it unharmed, he could thence get good
aim at the officer he had in mind.
Lying flat on his stomach, he wriggled on slowly, yet steadily. It was
as difficult work as it was dangerous, and demanded all his young
strength. At any moment he might be perceived by an Iroquois or
Canadian, who would make a quick dash forward and despatch him
as he lay upon the ground. More than once a random bullet struck
the turf uncomfortably near him.
Yet with grim determination he kept on, and at last, when nearly
spent with the exertion, reached the roots of the big tree, and curled
himself up there into the smallest possible space until his nerves
should get steady.
Then with the utmost caution he peered out in quest of the officer.
"Good!" he exclaimed exultantly as he quickly withdrew his head.
"He's there still, and I'll have him as sure as my name is Seth Allen."
Resting the gun upon the root and taking aim with the utmost care
he pulled the trigger.
But just as he did so Baron Dieskau, for Seth had guessed rightly,
made a sudden movement, and the bullet went by him harmlessly.
"Botheration!" growled Seth. "Why couldn't he keep still?" and he
hastened to reload.
Warned by the whirr of the bullet, Dieskau stepped behind a tree
and remained there for some time, while Seth, chagrined at the
result of his first shot, impatiently awaited another chance.
It came a little later when the Baron, angered by the persistent
disobedience to command of the Indians and Canadians, forgot his
own safety and sprang out from cover to give an order to the
regulars, who were fast falling into confusion under the well-directed
fire of the English.
"Now then, sir," said Seth, as though he were speaking to his
intended victim, "I'll have you this time," and he fired.
As the report rang out, Baron Dieskau staggered and fell to the
ground, and Seth was for the moment tempted to spring to his feet
and wave his cap triumphantly.
But he held himself in check, and again loaded his musket. The
officer had fallen indeed, but he might not be killed, and another
shot might be necessary to dispose of him. That this was the case
presently became clear, for another officer came galloping to the aid
of the wounded one, and Seth, moved by his unselfish devotion,
forebore to fire.
But some of his companions were not so considerate, and while the
adjutant was attending to the wound from Seth's bullet, the
unfortunate commander was again hit in the knee and thigh.
The adjutant, who himself had been wounded, then called for the
Canadians to carry Baron Dieskau to the rear, but on seeing this
Seth exclaimed:
"Oh, no! You're not going to escape. You must be taken prisoner,"
and fired at one of the Canadians, bringing him to the ground, and
causing the other to seek safety in flight.
The commander thereupon ordered the adjutant to leave him where
he lay and to lead the regulars in a last effort against the English
camp.
But it was now too late. Johnson's men, singly or in small squads,
were already leaping over their barricade and falling upon their
antagonists with their hatchets and the butts of their guns. The
French and their allies alike fled before the fierce onslaught, and
their sorely wounded yet dauntless commander was again shot
before he fell into the hands of those who, realizing who he was,
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