Jeffery Amherst: US college removes ‘racist and offensive’ colonial general as mascot

Lord Amherst was commander of British forces in pre-independence America and called for the use of smallpox to eliminate Native Americans during the 1760s

Students at Amherst protest last week (AP)

An 18th-century British general who advocated wiping out Native Americans by deliberately giving them smallpox is to be removed as the official mascot of an elite liberal arts college in Massachusetts.

Jeffery Amherst, a commanding general of British forces in pre-independence America during the 1760s, has become the latest victim of a movement across college campuses to redress historical racial injustices.

Staff at the $63,000-a-year Amherst College bowed to student protests demanding the rejection of “Lord Jeff” as the institution’s unofficial mascot at a faculty vote.

The college’s own records show that the colonial governor explored giving infected blankets to Native Americans to eliminate the population.

It quotes the general as writing to an officer: “Could it not be contrived to send the Small Pox among those disaffected tribes of Indians?”

‘Lord Jeff’, after whom the college is named (Alamy)

“You will do well to try to inoculate the Indians by means of blankets, as well as to try every other method that can serve to extirpate this execrable race.”

The association has become embarrassing for Amherst, ranked as the 10th best university in the US and whose alumni include the economist Joseph Stiglitz and novelist David Foster Wallace.

Virginia Hassell, a student campaigning to end the use of the mascot, said it was “racist and offensive”.

Students, who cheered the faculty vote this week, want to replace Lord Jeff with a moose symbol.

The college has begun removing the mascot from its athletic gear, pending a final decision by the board of trustees. Don Faulstick, athletic director at the college, told his staff: “We’re moving on here; the Lord Jeff is done.” However, some alumni want to retain the historic link with Amherst, for whom the town and college are named. Sensitivities over the perpetuation of negative stereotypes prompted Adidas to announce that it would offer financial support to any US high school that wants to change its logo or mascot “from potentially harmful Native American imagery or symbolism”.

President Barack Obama backed a campaign to force the Washington Redskins NFL team to change its name.

The Amherst student rebellion began in solidarity with protests against racism at the University of Missouri and Yale. There are also movements at Harvard and Princeton to remove references to figures deemed racist by student campaigns.

Lord Jeffery Amherst, 1717-1797

• Architect of Britain’s successful campaign to conquer New France during the Seven Years’ War of 1756-63
• The first British Governor General in the territories that eventually became Canada. Under his command British forces captured Louisbourg, Quebec City and Montreal.
• Historians debate whether proposed use of smallpox blankets to suppress 1763 uprising was acted upon.
• Oversaw the British army as it suppressed the anti-Catholic 1780 Gordon Riots in London.
• Born and died in Sevenoaks, Kent.