30: 3. Tribal Politics and the Yellow Creek Massacre Professor Robert G. Parkinson, Heart of American Darkness: Bewilderment and Horror on the Early Frontier This section details the Yellow Creek Massacre. The frontier conflicts are described as tribal, invol
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This section details the Yellow Creek Massacre. The frontier conflicts are described as tribal, involving native groups and colonial groups (Virginians, Pennsylvanians) battling over land, especially after the British left Fort Pitt. The massacre happened on April 30, 1774, at Baker's Bottom, targeting a band of Mingo natives. Logan's family, including his brother, sister, and mother, attempted diplomacy at a tavern but were ambushed and murdered by a group of men, including Daniel Greathouse, though none were named Cresap. Michael Cresap, later blamed in Logan's Lament, was absent. The violence was brutal; Logan's sister was killed after pleading for her infant son's life.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchewitt, Professor Robert G. Parkinson. The book is Heart of American Darkness, |
| 0:05.0 | bewilderment and horror on the early frontier. There is no easy sorting this out. |
| 0:11.0 | This isn't good guys, bad guys. This is everybody moving around in what one side regards as a wilderness. |
| 0:18.0 | The other side regards as very well settled and extremely tribal so that we have |
| 0:24.2 | the Shawnees and the Delawares and the Mingoes living side by side and there are Wyandots, |
| 0:32.8 | there are other tribes. They all know their tribes. We have the colonials, Pennsylvania, |
| 0:37.3 | Maryland and Virginia living side by side and at odds. And then we have land speculators who look to take advantage of land that belonged in the hunting grounds of the Native Americans or in Pennsylvania, or if you're a Pennsylvania in Virginia, you can understand everybody's armed. |
| 0:55.7 | And then there are rumors of the Native Americans being savages. |
| 1:00.5 | This word savages routine I learned from Rob. |
| 1:03.3 | So we come now to the events that we started with, the Logan's lament, losing his family by the Yellow Creek. |
| 1:10.7 | Please carefully, Bob, Rob, introduce us to that murder. Why? the logan's lament losing his family by the yellow creek please carefully bob |
| 1:12.4 | rob introduce us to that murder why did it take place what is the reason he wasn't |
| 1:17.8 | colonel tom cressip it was michael cressup who was michael at the time i believe he was |
| 1:23.6 | thirty two years old and why did it come to murder well the the operative word and what you just said is the word tribal. |
| 1:31.3 | And we have long thought of native peoples as tribal, but one of the things I like to do in this book is to consider |
| 1:39.3 | Pennsylvanians and Virginians and Marylanders as just as, acting just as tribal. They are tribes themselves. |
| 1:46.0 | And so what has gone on? |
| 1:48.0 | The British are broke, and we know this in reference to the imperial crisis, obviously, |
| 1:53.0 | and this is the reason we have taxes and tea being thrown overboard in Boston. |
| 1:59.0 | But one of the ways Britain tries to cut costs and save money is they take |
| 2:02.6 | all their troops out of Fort Pitt. And so Fort Pitt, which had become, which was during the |
| 2:08.1 | Seven Years' War was this sort of bastion of English power over the mountains now lays empty. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.