Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West: 1846-1890

This extremely short history by Larry McMurtry turned up in the new books section of my library and intrigued me. After reading the atrocities of Stalin and Mao and the US Civil War I'm in a rut of man's inhumanity to man. The title comes from Private Thomas Coleman's account of Custer's last stand. McMurtry's conclusion is heart wrenching...

A final point about these homely little massacres and the even more terrible ones that keep occurring throughout the world: women and children are almost never exempted. A small anthology could be assembled just of quotations about the desirability of killing the women and children while one is killing undesirables.


Inescapable in American slaughters are the involvement of religious men. Methodist Rev. John Chivington who fought for the Union and against the expansion of slavery as a free soil proponent considered his duty after the war to free the West of Indians. Consequently he had no difficulty massacring at Sand Creek an Indian camp mostly composed of women and children. Then there are those Mormons involved in the Mountain Meadow Massacre.

We all are wicked. We all need Jesus to save us. We all need to love others as we love ourselves.

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