The Juniata Valley Celebrates the 250th Anniversary of
The Treaty of Albany ~ 1754
The Albany Congress –
1754, painting by
Allyn Cox, 1973-1974.
From the Great
Experiment Hall at the
U.S. Capitol Courtesy
Architect of the Capitol
n July of 1754, agents representing the
Penn family traveled to Albany, New York,
the site of a Congress ordered by the British
Board of Trade to negotiate a new peace treaty
with the Indians and discuss matters of
importance to the colonies. Public proceedings
at the Congress included a proposal by
Benjamin Franklin for what would become
known as the Albany
Plan of Union.
Franklin believed
military affairs,
westward expansion,
and Indian relations
would all be
I
managed best by a united public authority,
rather than by thirteen colonial governments.
Many private negotiations took place on
the periphery of the Congress. With the help of
Conrad Weiser, a respected Indian interpreter,
Penn family agents John Penn and Richard
Peters made an agreement with the Iroquois to
purchase the land located south of the West
Branch of the Susquehanna River and east of
the Allegheny Mountains. The purchase was
recorded in the official proceedings of the
Congress, and the land—the Juniata River
Valley—became part of the colony of
Pennsylvania.
This political cartoon appeared in the
Pennsylvania Gazette, May 9, 1754.
Franklin intended it as a warning to the
British colonies in America to “join or
die,” to unite and be a stronger force in
dealing with the French and the
Indians. He worked to promote
this idea at the Albany Congress.
Benjamin Franklin, etching
by J. Pelicier, 1782.
Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division,
LC-USZ62-45334
“Join or Die,” woodcut by Benjamin
Franklin. Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-5315
Before the Treaty:
The State of Affairs
he Juniata River Valley existed as a lush wilderness that might have
beckoned to colonists in eastern Pennsylvania, but the area was
considered
dangerous Indian
territory and
remained largely
unsettled. The few
that ventured west
were mostly
trappers and
traders, and many
of them followed
the Juniata River
like a road west to
the Allegheny
Mountains.
T
William Penn’s treaty with the Indians, when he founded the province of Pennsylvania in
North America 1681, engraving by John Hall, c. 1775. Library of Congress, Prints and
Photographs Division, LC-USZ62-2583
As the colony’s population grew, so did the need
for additional land. Indians and Europeans had
developed an uneasy familiarity through 150
years of colonization in America, and negotiations
for land involved suspicions and expectations on
both sides.
In keeping with
their Quaker faith,
the Penn family
chose to deal
fairly with the
Indians, and
Guerrier Iroquois, hand-colored
bought land claims
etching by Jacques Grasset de SaintSauveur after J. Laroque, c.1795.
from them before
Courtesy of the National Archives
opening new areas
of Canada, C-003165
for settlement.
The Six Iroquois Nations, a group of Indian
tribes in the colony of New York, were often
involved in negotiations for the purchase of
The Six Iroquois Nations, drawn by Armen
Sarrafian. Courtesy of Timothy J. Shannon
land in the mid-Atlantic colonies.
After the Treaty:
The Consequences
ettlers moved
eagerly into the
new land,
unaware of a dispute
between the Iroquois
who sold it to the
Penn family and the
Delawares and
Shawnees, who
actually inhabited the
area. Indian raids by
these displaced tribes
and the brewing war
between the French
A New Map of North America -1763, drawn by John Spilsbury, 1763. Library of Congress,
and the British drove
Geography and Map Division, g3300.ar0890100
colonists back to the
safety of the east;
the Juniata River Valley became home to only several small forts, built to
defend the western frontier against French invasion.
S
Benjamin Franklin continued to promote the plan for a colonial union, but
both Britain and the individual colonies themselves rejected it. No colony
wanted to give up the degree of independence it enjoyed because Britain
was an ocean away, and the British were reluctant to agree to anything that
might encourage the colonies to think they were self-governing. Britain
needed to control the American colonies as it prepared for a war with France
that would last seven years.
In 1763, Britain and France agreed to terms of peace and the French left the
Ohio Valley. The Penn family added to the size of their colony by making
additional purchases of land as far west as the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers.
Six years later, 3,200 applications for western land were submitted by people
living in eastern Pennsylvania. The Juniata River Valley welcomed many of
these new settlers, and the Juniata River became a road west once again.
Activities celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Albany Congress have been made
possible in part by a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.