22 most effective strategy used by the native allies of New France against the Fox was the Indian slave trade. By attacking Fox settlements in search of victims, then giving or selling these captives to the French as slaves, French allies created a significant and ultimately fatal rift between the French and their once-allies the Fox. While it may seem that this was an inevitability given the Fox's adversaries, the French were not innocent. The desire for Fox slaves from French colonists encouraged this approach, which ultimately guaranteed its success by driving the Fox away from French interests and ultimately pushing them to war, completely in contrast to the official French policy of embracing the Fox, which has tainted the historical narrative. The prior Fox-French alliances only served to benefit the French. However, literature on the colonization of North America from the twentieth century mistook the Foxes' desire to defend their home for violence and was unable to see past the Machiavellian front of New France. In The French and Indian War, Donald Barr Chidsey noted that French settlers "were fascinated by the Indians," "learned the languages, they respected the customs and adopted the habits... the French plunged into the wilderness fearlessly, making astonishing trips of exploration," in contrast to English settlers who "took no interest in the moral well-being of the redskin."9 F.E. Whitton concurred with Chidsey in Wolfe and North America, a book that also focuses on the French and Indian War, regarding a natural attraction between the French and Indians. According to Whitton, "Indian communities sprang up, cherished by the Government and favoured by the easy-tempered people."10 Both accounts exemplify the issue that the French narrative created, depicted themselves as well-intentioned victims to the violence of the Fox, rather than the opposite. 9 Donald Barr Chidsey. 2019. The World of Samuel Adams. 10 Ernest, Frederick. 2021. Wolfe and North America. Hassell Street Press.
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