Cherry Valley and the Uses of Memory

Excerpt from Introduction: The Uses of Memory. One of the distinctions of historical maps dealing with the encounters occurring on the frontier between two separate cultures is a unique symbol to indicate massacres. The United States comprised, throughout its pre- and actual history, one great frontier that saw many such exchanges. Some of these were mortal, and many of them, one-sided in nature, tended to be called massacres by the losing side, in an attempt to salvage some moral high ground. However, no one disputes what what happened at Cherry Valley, New York, on 11 November 1778, was a massacre. On that date, Iroquois and Loyalist Rangers raided the hamlet of Cherry Valley on the New York frontier, south of the Mohawk Valley. The raid destroyed the settlement and forced the evacuation of the fort. Forty people died, most of them unarmed civilians. This minor episode seemed to give birth to a considerable body of work, comprising various histories from diverse viewpoints, and works of fiction including dramatic literature and motion pictures. The first question that arose from this material, in the course of preparing research for a historical paper was simple and factual: 1. Is it possible to find the truth of what happened that day?...Master'sCollege of Arts and Sciences: Liberal StudiesUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/117732/1/Paradis.pd