Scope and Contents:
This collection contains the oath, which is dated July 20, 1778, and signed by 181 inhabitants, "to renounce all fidelity to George the Third, King of Britain, and to his successors, and to be faithful and true subjects of the Republic of Virginia as a free and independent state."
Biographical/Historical Context:
Early in 1778, the Commonwealth of Virginia authorized George Rogers Clark to lead an expedition to protect American settlers in Kentucky and gave him secret instructions also to take Kaskaskia, an outpost on the Mississippi. With about 175 men, he floated down the Ohio to the falls at Louisville, proceeded to the present site of Fort Massac, and marched overland to Kaskaskia. Receiving word of the French-American alliance, the inhabitants of Kaskaskia welcomed Clark.
Clark continued his expedition by crossing what is now southern Illinois to the French outpost at Vincennes, just across the Wabash River in what is now Indiana. By taking Vincennes without resistance, Clark curtailed British plans to use the native population of the area to resist American expansion.
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