How many here knew that George Washington ordered slaughter of Indians during Revolutionary War?

[Sympthsical]

5. It traces back to the French and Indian War

Kind of the entire point of that war was that the English and French were fighting over land claims west of the Appalachians. Then, after all that, Parliament drew the Proclamation Line of 1763 - "Hey, don't settle west of the Appalachians."

For many colonists - particularly those in the back country - it was like, "Well, wtf did we just fight that war for?" And Washington was all up in that war at the time. Fort Necessity, etc. He lost plenty of men and friends during it. I would not be surprised if he shared the resentful sentiments of western settlers. And the settlers were pissed. Read the Remonstrance of the Pennsylvania Frontiersman from a year after the war ended to see how the people living close to the proclamation line were all about treating Natives as one common group - and, more pointedly, one common enemy. I mean, it's totally crazy shit.

So what Washington was doing wasn't too unusual a sentiment at the time and grew directly from a war he fought.

The colonists were not great in many ways. They were humans, capable of wonders and atrocities.