In 1763, the Seven Years' War ended in a victory for the British, but then the shrewd Ottawa warrior Pontiac led mistrustful Native Americans against the westernmost colonial settlements. Even as wily diplomat George Croghan attempted to broker a truce between the two sides, though, a ragtag group of frontiersmen known as the Black Boys set about stopping this peace deal in its tracks. Furious at Britain for capitulating to Native groups, these colonists turned Native American tactics of warfare on the British Empire. Drawing on largely forgotten manuscript sources, Patrick Spero suggests that these struggles in the West played a crucial role in igniting the flame of American independence.