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“My negro Woman Judah”: William's Decision

Claudio Saunt

in Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family

In the two decades preceding removal, Creeks and other Indians in the South were under great pressure to distance themselves from their black relatives. Georgia and the United States seized Creek ... More

In the two decades preceding removal, Creeks and other Indians in the South were under great pressure to distance themselves from their black relatives. Georgia and the United States seized Creek land in the Treaty of Indian Springs and the Treaty of Washington. After the Creek removal treaty of 1832, white land speculators began stealing Indian allotments. At this time, William Grayson purchased his father's slave, Judah, and married her.Less

Race and Removal: Katy's Compromise

Claudio Saunt

in Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family

Many Creeks, including Katy Grayson, understood Indian removal as an object lesson in the power of race to shape their lives. The policies of the federal and state governments as well as scientific ... More

Many Creeks, including Katy Grayson, understood Indian removal as an object lesson in the power of race to shape their lives. The policies of the federal and state governments as well as scientific racism, propounded by some of the nation's leading scholars, suggested that dark-skinned peoples faced a daunting future in the United States. When Katy Grayson arrived in Indian Territory, she settled far from her black relatives.Less

Introduction

Noeleen McIlvenna

in The Short Life of Free Georgia: Class and Slavery in the Colonial South

This chapter establishes the central question of the book: what did the stakeholders want from their new colony? The class-focused English social and political structure is described, outlining the ... More

This chapter establishes the central question of the book: what did the stakeholders want from their new colony? The class-focused English social and political structure is described, outlining the differences between patricians and plebeians. The paternalist Trustees sought a cure for England’s poverty, but did not study the history of the previous colonies and their failure to anticipate and plan properly for Georgia brought problems. The chapter also summarizes the perspectives of Creeks and Cherokees, who sought positive trade relationships with Europeans, while the Spanish in Florida, however, would see the new colony as a threat. The chapter also explains the difficulties of writing history from the perspective of those who left few records.Less

Apalache

Gilbert C. Din

in War on the Gulf Coast: The Spanish Fight against William Augustus Bowles

This chapter provides a historical background to Apalache and Florida, and on the Natives and Spaniards from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The Spanish presence in Apalache revolved ... More

This chapter provides a historical background to Apalache and Florida, and on the Natives and Spaniards from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The Spanish presence in Apalache revolved around Fort San Marcos and dealing with the local Creeks and Seminoles. Spain lost Florida between 1763 and 1783, when Great Britain ruled the area and divided Florida into East (the peninsula) and West (the Gulf Coast) Florida. In 1787 Spain returned to Apalache and Fort San Marcos to forestall British smuggling.Less

William Augustus Bowles Challenges the Spaniards

Gilbert C. Din

in War on the Gulf Coast: The Spanish Fight against William Augustus Bowles

This chapter sketches Bowles's life to 1791, discussing displaced British merchants who wanted to retain their trade with the southeastern Indians and who used Bowles to further their commerce. ... More

This chapter sketches Bowles's life to 1791, discussing displaced British merchants who wanted to retain their trade with the southeastern Indians and who used Bowles to further their commerce. Bowles soon wanted a greater role among the Creeks and Seminoles and to replace McGillivray as an Indian leader. The Creeks sought weapons to defend their lands from encroaching Americans, and Bowles journeyed to England to seek help in trading on the Gulf Coast.Less

A Promising Reset: The Augusta Congress

John T. Juricek

Gene Allen Smith (ed.)

in Endgame for Empire: British-Creek Relations in Georgia and Vicinity, 1763-1776

The proposed general congress at Augusta almost did not occur. Most Indians, especially the Upper Creeks and Lower Creeks, had good reasons to stay home. The southern governors other than host Wright ... More

The proposed general congress at Augusta almost did not occur. Most Indians, especially the Upper Creeks and Lower Creeks, had good reasons to stay home. The southern governors other than host Wright did not wish to make the long trip to Augusta. The congress did take place due to Stuart’s persistence and George Galphin’s influence with the Lower Creeks. Emistisiguo, one of the few Upper Creek leaders to attend, formed a close relationship with Stuart. The main benefit to Indians via the Augusta treaty was oblivion for past misdeeds. The main benefit to the British was a surprisingly generous land cession. Indian attendees accepted the idea of a well-marked British-Indian boundary line, though they probably would have preferred a buffer zone.Less

Creek Ferment and the Plan of 1764

John T. Juricek

Gene Allen Smith (ed.)

in Endgame for Empire: British-Creek Relations in Georgia and Vicinity, 1763-1776

British enjoyment of their great success at the Augusta Congress was short-lived. On December 24 renegade Lower Creeks killed fourteen settlers at Long Canes, South Carolina. Stuart and Wright were ... More

British enjoyment of their great success at the Augusta Congress was short-lived. On December 24 renegade Lower Creeks killed fourteen settlers at Long Canes, South Carolina. Stuart and Wright were forced to spend months of effort toward gaining “satisfaction” (blood for blood) for these murders, without success. Meanwhile the British Board of Trade drafted the “Plan of 1764.” Stuart had a major influence on the plan, including his proposal to follow the French in following the native model of “protector chiefs.” Despite their basic disagreements, Stuart and Wright agreed with many others that the plan’s endorsement of “free and open” trade was a big mistake. The Upper Creeks were beginning to dominate the Lower Creeks.Less

The Empire, the Emperor, and the Empress: The Interesting Case of Mrs. Mary Bosomworth

Joshua Piker

in European Empires in the American South: Colonial and Environmental Encounters

Joshua Piker’s essay on Mary Bosomworth analyzes her imperial ambition in the context of British expansion into Georgia. When a large group of Creeks visited Savannah, the capital of colonial ... More

Joshua Piker’s essay on Mary Bosomworth analyzes her imperial ambition in the context of British expansion into Georgia. When a large group of Creeks visited Savannah, the capital of colonial Georgia, in August 1749, it provided a space for the intersection of three imperial dreams: Britain’s; that of Malatchi, the Creek leader who was asserting a claim that the loose assortment of towns that he led was an empire; and Mary Bosomworth’s, as she tried to assert privileges based on her complex ancestry. The coexistence of these overlapping—and therefore incompatible assertions—reflected a central feature of the lived experience of empire in the eighteenth-century Atlantic: the distance between imperial theory and practice grew by the year.Less

Introduction

John T. Juricek

in Colonial Georgia and the Creeks: Anglo-Indian Diplomacy on the Southern Frontier, 17331763

This book sheds light on the relationship between the English of colonial Georgia and the surrounding Indian communities. The book focuses on Anglo-Creek diplomacy during the period 1733 until 1763, ... More

This book sheds light on the relationship between the English of colonial Georgia and the surrounding Indian communities. The book focuses on Anglo-Creek diplomacy during the period 1733 until 1763, when the French and Spanish rivals withdrew from the scene. The diplomacy centered around land ownership disputes and the biggest challenges to the English from the Creeks both in terms of their large population and military strength. The English approach to the Creeks and the different aspects of the Creeks which led to them being classified as “Lower Creek Nation” and “Upper Creek Nation” are discussed along with the other Indian communities including the Chickasaws.Less

Staking Out the Territory

John T. Juricek

in Colonial Georgia and the Creeks: Anglo-Indian Diplomacy on the Southern Frontier, 17331763

The absence of proper administration and the long absence of trustee James Oglethorpe had a tremendous impact on colonial Georgia. The realization of the apparent difficulties in making the colony a ... More

The absence of proper administration and the long absence of trustee James Oglethorpe had a tremendous impact on colonial Georgia. The realization of the apparent difficulties in making the colony a success led to squabbling among the colonists. While South Carolina welcomed Georgia as a buffer against the Spanish and the French, they feared for their long-established trade with the Southeastern Indians, especially with the Creeks. Oglethorpe reached an understanding with South Carolina Governor Johnson and focused on the Upper Creeks and attempted to establish an English Fort among the Upper Creeks. However, Patrick Mackay, whom Oglethorpe entrusted with power preserve order in the municipal council of Savannah before leaving for England, wanted the Carolinians to willingly surrender Creek trade to Georgia and his miscalculated efforts to establish the English fort are highlighted in this chapter.Less

A Wider War and Deeper Discord

John T. Juricek

in Colonial Georgia and the Creeks: Anglo-Indian Diplomacy on the Southern Frontier, 17331763

This chapter sheds light on the period when King George II declared war on France in 1744. The focus of the campaigns fought elsewhere shifted from the south to the west and the southeast became more ... More

This chapter sheds light on the period when King George II declared war on France in 1744. The focus of the campaigns fought elsewhere shifted from the south to the west and the southeast became more complex and more dangerous with Georgia's role overshadowed by that of the far stronger colony of South Carolina. The British had an unstable coalition of Chickasaws, Cherokees, and a few Choctaws. The Lower Creeks enjoyed this position as they were lured by all the imperial powers and received gifts from all of them. In 1738 the British government relieved the Georgia Trustees of the responsibility for military affairs, and Oglethorpe as the British commander in chief, had the main responsibility for maintaining Indian relations. His appointment of Captain William Horton as his successor as chief negotiator and his subsequent relieving by his superior officer lieutenant colonel Alexander Heron are some of the topics looked at in this chapter.Less

“the antient Friendship and Union”: The Anglo-Cherokee Alliance

Tyler Boulware

in Deconstructing the Cherokee Nation: Town, Region, and Nation among Eighteenth-Century Cherokees

The year 1670 marked a seminal moment in Cherokee history. Far from the Cherokees' mountain homeland, Britain planted the seeds of a new epicenter of regional power near the confluence of the Ashley ... More

The year 1670 marked a seminal moment in Cherokee history. Far from the Cherokees' mountain homeland, Britain planted the seeds of a new epicenter of regional power near the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Charlestown would eventually become the fourth largest city in British North America and the hub of a vast trading network that connected the Atlantic world to the southern hinterlands. The struggling frontier colony seemed like a distant backwater to the more populous and powerful Cherokees. However Charlestown's manipulation of the India slave trade quickly transformed Carolina into the dominant European presence in the colonial Southeast. By 1715, the Cherokees had become fully immersed in British trade and the wars this trade spawned between indigenous peoples. The Yamasee War in particular ushered in a new epoch for Cherokee peoples, for it gave rise to both the Anglo-Cherokee alliance and a forty-year war with the Creeks.Less

“in constant hostility with the Muskohge”: The Cherokee-Creek War

Tyler Boulware

in Deconstructing the Cherokee Nation: Town, Region, and Nation among Eighteenth-Century Cherokees

The Cherokee-Creek War, which lasted roughly from 1715 to 1755, was the longest and most destructive conflict between Cherokees and other indigenous peoples during the eighteenth century. The war's ... More

The Cherokee-Creek War, which lasted roughly from 1715 to 1755, was the longest and most destructive conflict between Cherokees and other indigenous peoples during the eighteenth century. The war's early phases revealed customary disunity among Cherokees from different towns and regions, since villagers rarely had a common enemy when it came to intertribal warfare. The Cherokees engaged multitudes of Indians from near and far who all brought varying agendas to their mountain homeland. Imperial and colonial powers exerted additional pressure, which further complicated Cherokee relations with their indigenous neighbors. As a result, the Cherokee-Creek War was much more than a conflict between two southeastern Indian peoples. Issues of war and peace between the Cherokees and Creeks were particularly influenced by the northern Indians, “Settlement Indians”, and South Carolina.Less

Tradition and the Contemporary Queer: Sexuality, Nationality, and History in Drowning in Fire

Mark Rifkin

in When Did Indians Become Straight?: Kinship, the History of Sexuality, and Native Sovereignty

Chapter 6 explores Creek scholar and novelist Craig Womack’s Drowning in Fire (2001). The novel presents a reconnection with traditional forms of family and community-making as predicated on a ... More

Chapter 6 explores Creek scholar and novelist Craig Womack’s Drowning in Fire (2001). The novel presents a reconnection with traditional forms of family and community-making as predicated on a rejection of imposed norms of sexual moralism that are themselves embedded in efforts to justify continued U.S. control over native peoples. The novel suggests that the critique of heterosexism in the present leads toward an archaeology of the ways it came to be part of everyday Creek consciousness. More specifically, he juxtaposes different time periods to illustrate how the kinds of assaults and restrictions on native sovereignty addressed in Chapters 3 and 4 are not simply in the past but continue to constrain Creek self-understandings, including conceptions of proper homemaking and familyformation. The novel suggests that longstanding forms of collectivity organized around clan membership and town belonging remain submerged beneath the apparent ubiquity of ideologies of straightness which validate a limiting liberal conception of politics. Making visible queerness among contemporary Creeks becomes part of a project not only of revealing the presence of homoeroticism in earlier periods but of connecting resistance to the heteronorm to ongoing struggles against the U.S. management of native peoplehood.Less

Breaking Apart

John T. Juricek

Gene Allen Smith (ed.)

in Endgame for Empire: British-Creek Relations in Georgia and Vicinity, 1763-1776

As disgruntled colonists moved closer to outright rebellion, the role that Indians might play in the conflict became a matter of major concern. Nowhere was this more true than in the Southeast, where ... More

As disgruntled colonists moved closer to outright rebellion, the role that Indians might play in the conflict became a matter of major concern. Nowhere was this more true than in the Southeast, where the issue focused on the Creeks. In bidding for Creek support both sides relied on mixed-blood intermediaries. Despite their traditional preference for neutrality during paleface fights, the Creeks were well aware that the loyalist British were far more capable than the patriots of supplying them. The main advantage on the patriot side was greater control over communication routes. This enabled patriots to block or intercept British messages and freely disseminate their own. Rebels won a major message battle when they intercepted and publicized a catastrophic blunder by General Gage. Patriot leaders, notably Galphin and Bryan, skilfully exploited the few advantages they had to keep the Creeks from joining the British until it was too late. Some Lower Creeks even aided the Patriots.Less

Introduction

John T. Juricek

Gene Allen Smith (ed.)

in Endgame for Empire: British-Creek Relations in Georgia and Vicinity, 1763-1776

Following the British military triumph, after 1763 British sovereignty over eastern North America was no longer disputed by imperial rivals. The main challenge, increasingly aggressive, now came from ... More

Following the British military triumph, after 1763 British sovereignty over eastern North America was no longer disputed by imperial rivals. The main challenge, increasingly aggressive, now came from the native Indians. In the Southeast the main British task was to pacify the Creeks, feared by all of their neighbors. Here as elsewhere the main Indian grievances focused on trade and land. The latter was more serious, for it again raised the issue of sovereignty, this time in a more difficult context. The British government responded with the most comprehensive reform of policies toward Indians it ever undertook. Responsibility for implementing these British initiatives in the Southeast fell mainly to Indian Superintendent John Stuart and Georgia governor James Wright, who had quite different views on how to proceed.Less

Destruction

Nathaniel Millett

in The Maroons of Prospect Bluff and Their Quest for Freedom in the Atlantic World

This chapter considers the destruction of the fort and surrounding village at Prospect Bluff in July 1816. The maroons at Prospect Bluff caused deep anxiety across the South. Whites and many Indians ... More

This chapter considers the destruction of the fort and surrounding village at Prospect Bluff in July 1816. The maroons at Prospect Bluff caused deep anxiety across the South. Whites and many Indians considered the community to be a grave geopolitical threat and the cause of slave unrest. Accordingly, in the summer of 1816, hundreds of American and Creek soldiers descended on Prospect Bluff in hopes of re-enslaving the maroons. At the time of the invasion, many of the community's men were away hunting and the majority of those at Prospect Bluff escaped before the battle began. Regardless of the fact that the maroons were undermanned, they were able to repulse the American and Creek assault for days. Eventually, the fort was blown up after a freak accident led to the ignition of the powder magazine. Americans, Spaniards, and Creeks rejoiced but were soon disappointed to learn that most of the maroons had safely escaped Prospect Bluff.Less

Edward Nicolls and His Black Allies

Nathaniel Millett

in The Maroons of Prospect Bluff and Their Quest for Freedom in the Atlantic World

At the same time that Edward Nicolls was advocating on behalf of the Red Sticks and Seminoles, his anti-slavery plan entered a new and more radical phase. In cooperation with the former slaves, ... More

At the same time that Edward Nicolls was advocating on behalf of the Red Sticks and Seminoles, his anti-slavery plan entered a new and more radical phase. In cooperation with the former slaves, Nicolls thwarted a number of Spanish and Creek efforts to retrieve their slaves. At the same time, he carefully explained his anti-slavery ideology to his black recruits before providing them with documentation that made the former slaves full British subjects with all the rights possessed by any white British man. Because they viewed their political status through the lens of Nicolls's radical anti-slavery ideology, the former slaves believed that they were indeed full British subjects who possessed a series of corresponding rights. Their British status was central to the identity of the maroon community at Prospect Bluff. Prior to departing Prospect Bluff in May 1815, Nicolls turned over the fort and an immense store of military hardware to hundreds of radicalized blacks. What emerged at Prospect Bluff was one of the most remarkable maroon communities in Atlantic history.Less