Diary of Peter Kimball: A Soldier in the French and Indian War
The North American Colonists throughout the 1760s became increasingly self-aware of the growing cultural divide between the British Government and the Provincial Militia of the Colonies. The French and British Empires were struggling to gain the upper hand in the diverse trade economy flourishing around the Ohio River. Native indigenous groups were being pressured to fight or run away from the encroaching armies, and thousands of Colonists were pouring into North America to build a new life away from the European wars and religious persecution. The colonial frontiersmen of the Ohio River Valley, witnessing the British Crown's Warfare against France, would come to accept that they would be better off without the shadow of British majors, officers, and foot soldiers on their lands. This history and its effects on the Colonists are demonstrated throughout the recorded life of my 18th-century ancestor, Peter Kimball. I discovered his perspective during the French and Indian War through