Sébastien Rale (also Racle, Râle, Rasle, Rasles, and Sebastian Rale (January 20, 1657 – August 23, 1724) was a French Jesuit missionary and lexicographer who preached amongst the Abenaki and encouraged their resistance to British colonization during the early 18th century. This encouragement culminated in Dummer's War (1722–1725), where Rale was killed by a group of New England militiamen. Rale also worked on an Abenaki-French dictionary during his time in North America.
Early years
Rale was born in Pontarlier, France and studied in Dijon. In 1675, he joined the Society of Jesus at Dole and taught Greek and rhetoric at Nîmes. He volunteered for the American missions in 1689 and came to the Americas in a party led by Louis de Buade de Frontenac, the Governor General of New France. His first missionary work was at an Abenaki village in Saint Francois, near Quebec City. He then spent two years with the Illiniwek Indians at Kaskaskia.
Queen Anne's War
In 1694, Rale was sent to direct the Abenaki mission at Norridgewock, Maine on the Kennebec River. He made his headquarters there and erected a church in 1698. The New England colonists were suspicious of a French missionary arriving in the midst of a tribe that was already hostile, anticipating that the Frenchman would do his best to stoke hostility towards the colonists.
Queen Anne's War pitted New France against New England, fighting to control the region. Massachusetts Governor Joseph Dudley arranged a conference with tribal representatives at Casco Bay in 1703 to propose that they remain neutral. However, a party of the Norridgewock tribe joined a larger force of French and Indians commanded by Alexandre Leneuf de Beaubassin to attack Wells, Maine in the Northeast Coast Campaign. New England colonists suspected Father Rale of inciting the tribe against them. However, French minister Pontchartrain also wrote to Rale's Jesuit superior because he suspected Rale of "being lukewarm about the war".
Governor Dudley put a price on Rale's head. In the winter of 1705, 275 New England militiamen were dispatched under the command of Colonel Winthrop Hilton to seize Rale. The priest was warned in time, however, and escaped into the woods with his papers, but the militia burned the village and church. Rale wrote to his nephew:
The French induced in the local Indians a deep distrust of British intentions—and they accomplished this despite Abenaki dependence on British trading posts to exchange furs for other necessities.
Treaty of Utrecht
The Peace of Utrecht brought an end to ongoing conflicts in North America in 1713, and the Indians swore allegiance to the British Crown at the Treaty of Portsmouth. It is most likely, however, that the Indians had no idea of what the treaty actually stipulated. Meanwhile, the boundary remained contested between New France and New England. The British Crown claimed all lands extending to the St. George River, but most Abenaki inhabiting them were sympathetic to the French and to the Catholic Church. In August 1717, Governor Samuel Shute met with tribal representatives of Norridgewock and other Abenaki bands in Georgetown, Maine on a coastal island, warning that cooperation with the French would bring them "utter ruin and destruction". Kennebec sachem Wiwurna objected to colonists establishing settlements on the land and to their constructing forts; he claimed sovereign control of the land, while Shute reasserted rights of the colonists to expand into the territory. New England settlers continued to settle on the Kennebec River, and the Wabanakis responded by stealing livestock. Governor-general of New France Vaudreuil wrote in 1720: "Father Rale continues to incite Indians of the mission at [Norridgewock] not to allow the English to spread over their lands." Shute protested the presence of Rale at Norridgewock and demanded that he be removed. The Wabanakis refused in July 1721 and demanded that hostages be released (who had been given in surety during earlier negotiations).
Chief Taxous died, and his successor was Wissememet who advocated peace with the Colonists, offering beaver skins as reparation for past damages, and four hostages to guarantee none in the future. Rale, however, continued to stir up individuals within the tribe, urging armed resistance. He declared: "Any treaty with the governor… is null and void if I do not approve it, for I give them so many reasons against it that they absolutely condemn what they have done."