Patriots and Indians , livre ebook

Patriots Indians
Patriots Indians
SHAPING IDENTITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SOUTH CAROLINA
Jeff W. Dennis

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA PRESS
2017 University of South Carolina
Published by the University of South Carolina Press
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
www.sc.edu/uscpress
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data can be found at http://catalog.loc.gov/
ISBN 978-1-61117-756-5 (cloth)
ISBN 978-1-61117-757-2 (ebook)
Front cover illustration: Matt Maniscalco
For Tasha and Chloe, the two greatest blessings in my life
The objects of these murders massacres were on harmless, peaceable, and almost defenseless people, circumstances which give them a just claim to the compassion of every humane noble mind, it is unworthy of American Valor.
Andrew Pickens and fellow South Carolina justices denouncing actions taken against the Cherokees in eastern Tennessee, Justices of Abbeville County, July 1788
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
One Beyond the Mountains and Over the Sea: A Tour of Cultures with Thomas Sumter and Ostenaco
Two The Cherokee War of 1759-61 and the Philopatrios-Philolethes Debate
Three Alienation: Indians, Britons, and Carolinians, 1763-75
Four The British and Indian War: The American Revolution in South Carolina
Five A Backcountry George Washington: Andrew Pickens and Southern Indian Policy in the Early Republic
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
Indian Peoples of the Southeast
Green Corn Dance, Hidatsa
Choctaw Belle
Tul-lock-chish-ko, Drinks the Juice of the Stone, in Ball-player s Dress
A Draught of the Cherokee Country
Ostenaco s Farewell Address
View of St. James s Palace
Skyacust Ukah
Cunne Shote, Cherokee Chief
William Moultrie
Francis Marion at the 1761 Battle of Etchoe
Christopher Gadsden
Henry Laurens
His Most Sacred Majesty, George III
Cantonment of His Majesty s Forces in North America
A View of Charles-Town, the Capital of South Carolina
A General Map of the South British Colonies in America
The Cherokees Are Coming
The Militia under General Pickens Defeating the Indians
John Rutledge
William Henry Drayton
A Map Shewing the Marches of the Army of Col. Andrew Williamson
Thomas Sumter
General Andrew Pickens
Hopothle Mico, the Talasee King
The Cherokee Country
The Plan of Civilization
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Each of us is an individual by committee. We look upon the contributions and ideas of many people whenever we view the work of any one person. That principle certainly holds true in any larger effort towards scholarship. This book could not have been completed without the expertise and kindness provided by others. It is with deep and sincere gratitude that I wish to acknowledge the following people.
To begin, this book originated during studies conducted at the University of Notre Dame under advisor Gregory Evans Dowd. Notre Dame provided generous fellowships for research, teaching, and travel. Professor Dowd is an exemplary professional, scholar, and mentor. He encouraged me greatly and helped me throughout the initial process of research and writing. Thank you, Greg. Thanks also to Professors Walter T. K. Nugent and Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C. of Notre Dame for their thoughtfulness and intellectual support.
For the book s final completion, I am most indebted to Charles Baxley, Director for the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution. This manuscript would not have been achieved without his inspiration and untiring efforts on my behalf. Charles is an amazing friend and facilitator, and the Southern Campaigns is a model of historical vigor and investigation. My special thanks also go to co-director David Reuwer, as well as Barbara Abernethy, John Allison, Bill Anderson, Greg Brooking, Will Graves, Nancy Lindroth, Jack Parker, Jim Piecuch, Tom Powers, Ben Rubin, John Robertson, Steve Rauch, Bobby Ross, Mike Scoggins, Christine Swaeger, Daniel Tortora, Bob Yankle, and other Campaigns contributors.
I am grateful to all of the curators and archivists who assisted at the research institutions consulted during the creation of this book, particularly those who serve at the Charleston Library Society, the South Carolina Historical Society, the Caroliniana and Thomas Cooper libraries at USC, and the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Special thanks to Alex Moore of USC Press for his encouragement and sound judgment as well as to Linda Fogle and Bill Adams for their helpful assistance in processing the manuscript.
Andrew Goulston and my niece Barbara Dennis assisted in digitizing images while Matt Maniscalco created a variety of skillful artistic works for the book. Will Tomory of Southwestern Michigan College perused the whole of the text, lending his impressive skills as a wordsmith and editor. Thank you so much Will for your assistance. Thanks also to my brother Greg Dennis for his suggestions in proofreading.
Finally, I wish to acknowledge those individuals who hearten me to strive towards the better than the lesser self. In this regard, I recognize my parents, Janice and Robert; my brothers Randy, Terry, Greg, Don, Brian, and their families; my spiritual mentors and most trusted confidants, Dan Heintz, Dale and Betty Duvall, Lois Johnson, Albert and Joyce Fritz, Dan and Linda Ferguson, Paul, Lois and Ken Fox; and my family in Kentucky, the Roarks and Harry Sigler. I especially am thankful for my wife Tasha and daughter Chloe, who cheer and inspire every day.
Introduction
The American founding was a collective enterprise with multiple players who harbored fundamentally different beliefs about what the American Revolution meant The American founding was, and still is, a group portrait.
Joseph Ellis, American Creation , 16-17
I
Writing in 1988, historian James Axtell stressed how it is taking us painfully long to realize that throughout most of American history the Indians were one of the principal determinants of human events. It is insufficient, Axtell cautioned, to tell parallel stories of American development and Native American decline. Scholars should seek instead to understand the mutual history of continuous interaction and influence shared by these peoples. 1
Axtell s admonition appears especially relevant concerning colonial America and the formative years of the United States. The founding of America, Joseph Ellis writes, was a collective enterprise with multiple players who harbored fundamentally different beliefs about what the American Revolution meant The American founding was, and still is, a group portrait. 2
The effort to comprehend America s birth as a pluralizing, integrative enterprise represents more than ingenious novelty. It is centerpiece to accurately knowing the story. In Three Peoples, One King , for example, Jim Piecuch offers helpful explication on the contributions of Loyalists, Indians, and slaves in the southern Revolution. Piecuch shows that the British effort failed not because these peoples lacked courage or virtue, but largely due to relentless, often brutal repression by the rebels. Nevertheless, following the Patriot perspective, generations of American historians have tended to overlook or malign the British-aligned solely because they pursued a different dream for America s future. 3
Thankfully, since the 1980s, a variety of thoughtful works have been published that explore the multiracial and multicultural identity of the founding era. 4 In particular, Richard White s Middle Ground brilliantly prepared colonial history, 5 while scholars such as Edward Countryman, Gregory Dowd, and Alfred Young worked to extend new syntheses to the Revolution and early republic. 6
Much work remains of course. Little has been undertaken, for instance, to explore the personal relationships between Indians and the American Revolutionary elite. Referencing the middle ground experiences of such luminaries as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, Richard White remarks, That so many names significant in the larger American history occur in this story without dominating it indicates that parameters of American history need readjusting. Colonial and early-American historians have made Indians marginal to the periods they describe. They have treated them as curiosities in a world that Indians also helped create. 7
The founding fathers were of prime importance in the struggle for independence, a truly remarkable group of leaders. 8 Understanding their interactions with others -and perhaps no people seemed more other than Indians-may reveal a great deal about the meaning and boundaries of the American Revolution. Whether as enemies or allies, James Axtell suggests, Native Americans did more to Americanize British subjects, than any other human factor : 9 Without the steady impress of Indian culture, the colonists would not have been ready for revolution in 1776, because they would not have been or felt sufficiently Americanized to stand before the world as an independent nation. The Indian presence precipitated the formation of an American identity. 10
On the eve of the American Revolution, at least 150,000 Eastern Woodland Indians still resided in North America in spite of the disease, war, and dislocation introduced through colonial expansion. Native Americans were present throughout the thirteen colonies. They were a visible and integral part of colonial life. 11 All of the founding fathers personally observed and met with Indians. In many instan