There he served him faithfully, and when his master died he bequeathed to "Old Dick"-- as he was called--the "Havana cane," of which the colored Cuban exile was inordinately proud.
Israel Putnam was now a man of substance, more than ever looked up to by his neighbors and honored by the community in which he dwelt.

Taking up his duties of citizenship where he had left them on being summoned to war, he threw off the military habit as he might an old garment now no longer of service, and became again the contented, humble farmer.

In 1763, about the time the treaty of peace between England and France was signed, he was elected "selectman" of the town in which he lived, and the ensuing spring appointed to receive the heads of such crows as should be killed in the township, for which a bounty was offered of sixpence each! Such humble offices as these he by no means despised, always lending a hand to whatever appeared in the guise of duty.
It became his duty, he thought, to go to war again, in the year 1764, when the Indians, neglected by both French and English, who had now no further need of their services, found themselves in danger of being ground between the upper and the nether millstones.

They looked with apprehension upon the forts the English were erecting on every hand, and finally rose in rebellion, under the leadership of Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas.

He organized a widespread conspiracy among the Indian tribes, believing he could eventually exterminate "those dogs dressed in red," as he called the English.