“I would not comply”

Abstract

Abstract Many notable scholars have focused on the breakdown of Indian-white relations in Pennsylvania during the Seven Years’ War and the near total collapse of relations that occurred in the region. While there is evidence to suggest there were areas of accommodation in other mid-Atlantic regions, the situation in Pennsylvania between settlers and the Native population was particularly brutal. This study focuses attention on three groups of historical actors who were heavily involved in the breakdown—the Delaware, the Scots Irish Covenanters, and the provincial Quakers—through the lens of the captivity narrative of Jean McCord Lowry. Lowry's unique narrative exemplifies the Covenanter experience of the Seven Years’ War. As part of a larger body of research, this study suggests that what lay at the heart of all the other considerations in Pennsylvania during the Seven Years’ War—for land, riches, conquest, and revenge—was a Euro-American war of religion.