User:Rakin21/sandbox

Rale was tasked with one of the longest and most eventful periods of priesthood in this area of the New World. Rale devoted himself to his mission work and began to study to Abnaki dialect to be a more effective priest. In addition to Abnaki dialect he also studied the Algonquin dialect in order to run a mission in Illiniois for a few years after leaving Kennebec for a short time. In 1694 Father Rale was sent to the Kennebec mission in old Acadia. This was the westernmost mission in the area and Father Rale was the first permanent pastor in lower Kennebec.

Father Rale showed compassion for the Abnaki people, in a letter to his brother which consisted of a long poem he said, "My throat is white and it bleeds" and "I shook the chapel bell in tears And cried revenge!" during Father Rale's war facing the settlers taking the side of the tribe. At a time when many French people and Jesuit priests like Father Rale himself believed the Abenaki people were wild beats in need of civilization, Rale showed compromise and felt for them eventually becoming a martyr dying to help save the people of Norridgewock when colonists came to take their land and kill their people.

The Jesuit mission in Wabanaki territory had existed since 1632, many years before Rale had begun his mission there. The mission was created by the French when they gained control of Quebec around the same time period. Rale was put in charge to keep them from moving, and to have a more sedimentary lifestyle that revolved around Christianity. Many people in St.Lawrence looked toward the Wabenaki's land to help with the fur trade as their land was to the south of them.

The Abenaki peoples land was of high priority for the settlers in the area because of fur trade implications. Before Rale got to Norridgewock the Indian there had signed a treaty making them English subjects with very little idea of what this meant.This made the French come after Father Rale and his group of Abenaki Indians in search of supplies needed to further the fur trade.

The Indians in Norridgewock were said by the English to have verbally proclaimed themselves at their will but Father Rale denied this had ever happened and kept loyalties to the French. Throughout his life and mission Rale remained a beloved priest of the people of the area and is still thought to be a martyr as many Abenaki's believe he gave his life to help them escape the grasp of the English colonists.

The colonists asked the Abenaki's to remain neutral near the beginning of the French and Indian War but because of their religious ties with the French they could not fight against them. Father Rale was present at the meeting on behalf of the Abenaki people he stated that The Abenaki's would be "ready to take up the hatchet against the English whenever he gave them the order" The English decided to seize the Abenaki camp leading to the battle of Norridgewock in which Father Rale was killed.

Death of Father Rale

Father Rale was sent to North America with the fur traders and Fishermen and was said to have been the reason the Abenaki people were planning to help the French forces fight off the English in the new world. This began in 1721 when Rale demanded that the English return indian hostages which in turn made the English stop trading the Abenaki gunpowder and other supplies. Then later in 1722 Col. Thomas Westbrook decided to raid Father Rale's mission to capture him but he escaped. This raid to capture Rale was a failure but they obtained letters that suggested he was working for Canadian authorities. To revenge this raid, the Abenaki's burned Brunswick but in Father Rale's words, "they took care to not harm the settlers, but to destroy their property" Later in August 1724 English Militia, and Massachusetts, and Mohawk Indians fighting alongside them destroyed Norridgewock killing at least 100 Abenaki's and Father Rale himself.

“Biography – RALE, SÉBASTIEN – Volume II (1701-1740) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography.” Home – Dictionary of Canadian Biography, www.biographi.ca/en/bio/rale_sebastien_2E.html.

Clark, William A. “The Church at Nanrantsouak: Sébastien Râle, S.J., and the Wabanaki of Maine's Kennebec River.” The Catholic Historical Review, vol. 92, no. 3, 2006, pp. 225–251. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25027092. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

William Goodreau. (1957). Father Sebastien Rale, S.J.-A Letter to His Brother. The Hudson Review, 9(4), 534-540. Retrieved March 29, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/4621624

“‘The Devil and Father Rallee’: Narrating Father Rale’s War.” The Protestant Interest: New England After Puritanism, by Thomas S. Kidd, Yale University Press, New Haven; London, 2004, pp. 91–114. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1nq28x.8. Accessed 29 Mar. 2020.

The Apostle of the Abnakis: Father Sebastian Rale, S. J. - CHR 1:164‑174 (1915), penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/CHR/1/2/Sebastian_Rale*.html.

Sébastien Rale