Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
placeholder article
placeholder article

Lord Jeff

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar
Evelyn Kramer Student Contributor, Amherst College
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Amherst chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

Beyond the bit about giving small pox to the Native Americans, many of us are not up to date on our Lord Jeff facts.  Jeffery Amherst was born in Sevenoaks, England in the year 1717.  At the age of just eighteen (freshman, see what you could have accomplished already!?), Jeffery Amherst served in the War of Austrian Succession.  In case you were wondering, the War of Austrian Succession was a war in which Europeans killed each other over who should succeed the Habsburg throne.  Throughout his life, Lord Jeff participated in numerous battles and wars.  He also earned sweet roles and titles, such as the Crown Governor of Virginia.   
 
 
Amherst’s most impressive victory was defeating the French in the Seven Years’ War, which resulted in the surrender of Montreal.  You wouldn’t know it now though, considering the heavily French-accented English (or lack of English) that people from Montreal seem to speak nowadays.  After the war, Lord Jeff gained even more notoriety for his mishandling of Native American relations.  He ignored the British Superintendent of Indian Affair’s advice to exchange gifts with the Native Americans, as was the tradition.  How like a guy!  They can never take anyone else’s advice, and they’re terrible at giving presents!  Instead he became the first military strategist to engage in biological warfare, handing out small pox blankets to the Native Americans to kill them off.     
 
 
Even though everyone who goes to Amherst College knows and jokes about this story, it still really creeps me out if I think about it.  Did you know that back in the day, the china in Val depicted scenes of English men on horses running after the Indians, who are on foot?  And now we’re one of the most diverse colleges in the nation.
 
 
Lord Jeff left quite a legacy.  We are just one of many towns named after him, including Amherstburg, Ontario, Amherst, New Hampshire, Amherst, Nova Scotia, Amherst, New York, Amherst County, Virginia, Amherst Island, Ontario, and Amherst Island, in Quebec.  You would think North America could have thought of a few other guys to name its towns after!  And then of course most importantly, Lord Jeff is our beloved mascot.  And by the look of his portraits, Lord Jeff was a pretty handsome dude!   

Sources:
http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/amherst/lord_jeff.html 
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/lord-jeffrey-amherst-dies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffery_Amherst,_1st_Baron_Amherst 

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar
Evelyn Kramer

Amherst

Evelyn is the Editor-in-Chief of the Amherst branch of Her Campus. She was a features intern at Seventeen Magazine during the summer of 2011 and a features intern at Glamour Magazine during the summer of 2013. She is a French and English major in the class of 2014 at Amherst College. She is also on Amherst's varsity squash team. She is an aspiring travel writer/novelist, and loves running, ice cream, and Jane Austen.