Original Document

During Lord Dunmore's War (1774), a conflict between Virginians and Shawnee Indians along the Ohio-Kentucky frontier, Logan's family was murdered by a group of Virginians. In the peace negotiations that ended this conflict, Logan had the following speech delivered to Lord Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia. The speech, famously praised in 1785 by Thomas Jefferson in Notes on the State of Virginia, became one of the most famous examples of Indian oratory in American history.



"I appeal to any white man to say, if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat; if he ever came cold and naked, and he cloathed him not. During the course of the last long and bloody war Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, "Logan is the friend of white men." I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relations of Logan, not even sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. I have sought it; I have killed many; I have fully glutted my vengeance; for my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbour a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan?-Not one."


Credit: Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, edited by William Peden (New York: W. W. Norton, 1954), 63.