Henry Hamilton
Henry Hamilton was the Lieutenant Governor of Canada and British commander of Fort Detroit during the American Revolution.
Hamilton was known as the "hair buyer" because of his policy of paying Indian allies for American scalps. Symbolizing the brutal fighting that took place in the Ohio Country during the Revolution, both the British and the Americans engaged in this practice. In 1779, George Rogers Clark captured Hamilton during a raid into modern-day Indiana. Hamilton was taken in chains to Williamsburg, Virginia, where he was treated very poorly as a prisoner.
Exchanged in 1781, Hamilton later returned to Canada as Lieutenant Governor and Deputy Governor of Quebec. He later served as the Governor of Bermuda and Governor of Dominica. He died on the island of Antigua in 1796.
References and Suggested Reading
- Bakeless, John Edwin. Background to Glory: The Life of George Rogers Clark. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, 1957.
- Barnhart, John D., ed. Henry Hamilton and George Rogers Clark in the American Revolution: With the Unpublished Journal of Lieut. Gov. Henry Hamilton. Crawfordsville, IN: R. E. Banta, 1951.
- Barr, Daniel P., ed. The Boundaries Between Us: Natives and Newcomers Along the Frontiers of the Old Northwest Territory, 1750-1850. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2006. - Available from Amazon.com
- Bond, Beverley W., Jr. The Foundations of Ohio. Columbus, OH: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, 1941.
- Flavell, Julie, and Stephen Conway, eds. Britain and America go to War: The Impact of War and Warfare in Anglo-America, 1754-1815. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Harrison, Lowell Hayes. George Rogers Clark and the War in the West. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1976. - Available from Amazon.com
- Hurt, R. Douglas. The Ohio Frontier: Crucible of the Old Northwest, 1720-1830. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1996. - Available from Amazon.com
- James, James Alton. The Life of George Rogers Clark. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1928.
- Knepper, George. Ohio and Its People. Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 2003. - Available from Amazon.com
- Nester, William R. The Frontier War for American Independence. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- O'Donnell, James H., III. Ohio's First Peoples. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2004. - Available from Amazon.com
- Palmer, Frederick. Clark of the Ohio: A Life of George Rogers Clark. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1930. - Available from Amazon.com
- Ricky, Donald B., ed. Encyclopedia of Ohio Indians. St. Clair Shores, MI: Somerset Publishers, Inc., 1998. - Available from Amazon.com
- Waller, George Macgregor. The American Revolution in the West. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall, 1976. - Available from Amazon.com
Time Periods
Citation
"Henry Hamilton", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=204
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