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Longrifle
Pioneer
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
April 23 2007
Status: offline
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 Posted - January 18 2009 : 03:44:54 AM
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There's lots of knowledgable historians here, so if any of you have studied Lew Wetzel I'd like to hear your opinion of him.
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/spring97/wetzel.html
By all counts he was a master woodsman. And from the limited reading I've done it seems he was once considered a frontier hero among many for his unrelenting persecution of Indians; yet, some historians now consider him a murderer - someone who would be guilty of war crimes in this day and age.
Is this this fair to Wetzel? Is this objectivity or just politically correct revisionist history?
During the frontier era both European settlers and Natives did things that would now be considered atrocities. Do we not have to evaluate a person's place in history using the standards of their time?
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SgtMunro
Soldier of the King
USA
Bumppo's Patron since [at least]:
September 23 2002
Status: offline
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Posted - January 18 2009 : 11:07:53 AM
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If I were to apply 21st Century American values to Mr. Wetzel, I would say that he was a sociopath at the very least, possibly even a serial killer. However, given the violent atmosphere of the 18th Century Eastern Frontier (and applying a period-correct mindset), his tactics were more a form of "the best defense is a good offense", and not an actual war crime or 'outrage'. Now a real SOB of the period was Greathouse, he was 'trailer trash' by even frontier standards...
YMH&OS,
The Sarge |
Serjeant-Major Duncan Munro
Capt. Thos. Graham's Coy.
42nd Royal Highland Regiment of Foote
(The Black Sheep of the Black Watch)
"Nemo Me Impune Lacessit"
-Or-
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Lewis Wetzel: frontier hero or rogue?
