Big Bottom massacre 1791
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 2 January 1791 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1791 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | United States | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | North America | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Northwest Indian War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United States | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 39.5328, -81.7739 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Big Bottom massacre was a mass killing perpetrated by Lenape and Wyandot warriors against American settlers on January 2, 1791. The massacre occurred near present-day Stockport, Ohio. It is considered part of the Northwest Indian Wars, in which native Americans in the Ohio Country clashed with American settlers, seeking to expel them from their territory.
Following the American Revolutionary War, the United States government was selling land in the Ohio Country, mostly to companies that promised to develop it. A group of squatters had moved up to this area and settled along flood plain, or "bottom" land, of the Muskingum River, some 30 mi (48 km) north of an Ohio Company of Associates settlement at Marietta, Ohio. The settlement was raided by Lenape and Wyandot warriors seeking to expel the newcomers. They stormed the incomplete blockhouse and killed eleven men, one woman, and two children. (Accounts vary as to the number of casualties.) The Native Americans captured three settlers, with at least one dying later, while four others escaped into the woods.
The Ohio Company of Associates sought to provide greater protection for settlers in the Northwest Territory, as the conflicts became more widespread.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Big Bottom massacre (revision 1380716535), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
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Other battles of the Northwest Indian War
All 4 battles of the Northwest Indian War →
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