Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in The
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carolina in crisis CAROLINA IN CRISIS cherokees, colonists, and slaves in the american southeast, 1756–1763 Daniel J. Tortora the university of north carolina press Chapel Hill © 2015 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Set in Utopia and Bodoni types By Westchester Publishing Ser vices Manufactured in the United States of America The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. Cover illustration: British military gorget in gilt with royal coat of arms. Photo by John Warner, courtesy of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data Tortora, Daniel J. Carolina in crisis : Cherokees, colonists, and slaves in the American southeast, 1756–1763 / Daniel J. Tortora. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4696-2122-7 (pbk : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4696-2123-4 (ebook) 1. Cherokee Indians— Wars, 1759–1761. 2. Cherokee Indians— Government relations— History— 18th century. 3. United States— History— French and Indian War, 1754–1763— Campaigns. 4. South Carolina— History— Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775. I. Title. E83.759.T67 2015 975.7'01— dc23 2014034900 contents Ac know ledg ments ix Introduction 1 chapter 1 Join’d Together: The Anglo-Cherokee Alliance, 1730–1753 10 chapter 2 A General Confl agration: The French and Indian War Begins 25 chapter 3 Killed on the Path: Cherokees in the Campaigns against Fort Duquesne 43 chapter 4 Till Satisfaction Shou’d Be Given: The Crises of 1759 and the Lyttelton Expedition 60 chapter 5 A Situation Too Terrible for Us: Smallpox and Social Upheaval 81 chapter 6 Put to Death in Cold Blood: The Fort Prince George Massacre 90 chapter 7 That Kindred Duty of Retaliation: The Cherokee Off ensive of 1760 102 chapter 8 Flush’d with Success: Cherokee Victory and the Fall of Fort Loudoun 117 chapter 9 Destroying Their Towns, and Cutting Up Their Settlements: The Grant Campaign 139 chapter 10 To Bury the Hatchet, and Make a Firm Peace: Terms and Tensions 155 chapter 11 The Turbulent Spirit of Gadsden: The Origins of In de pen dence 169 Conclusion: Revolutionary Implications 186 Notes 195 Bibliography 237 Index 253 Maps & images maps . Cherokee Villages in the Mid-Eighteenth Century 12 . Eastern North America during the French and Indian War Era 27 . South Carolina during the French and Indian War Era 77 . South Carolina’s Backcountry Forts, 1760 114 images . Cherokee Embassy, 1730, engraved by Isaac Basire after painting by Markham 18 . Portrait of Syacust Ukah, 1762, by Sir Joshua Reynolds 31 . William Henry Lyttelton, by Benjamin Wilson, ca. 1755–60 35 . The Little Tennessee Valley of 1757, by Chester Martin 38 . “View of Fort Prince George [in 1761] & part of the Country about it.” 71 . Cherokee Town house at Chota, by Thomas Whyte, ca. 1982 91 . Gravestone of Catherine Calhoun, killed in 1760 106 . A view of the reconstructed Fort Loudoun, at Fort Loudoun State Historic Area, Tenn. 125 . William Byrd III, by unknown artist, mid- eighteenth century 131 . A military commission given to Oconostota by the French governor of Louisiana, 1761 140 . James Grant, by Allan Ramsay, ca. 1760s 143 . A Cherokee view of the 1761 battlefi eld 150 . The site of the Cowee town house 153 . Christopher Gadsden, by Jeremiah Theus, 1760–70 161 . Peter Manigault and His Friends, by George Roupell, 1757–60 171 . “A Draught of the Cherokee Country,” by Henry Timberlake, 1762, printed 1765 173 . The Three Cherokee Chiefs, 1762 179 This page intentionally left blank acknowledgments his book is the product of several years of reading, research, on- the- ground investigations, group tours, pre sen ta tions and dis- cussions, and many solitary moments of pondering, writing, and rewriting. I am grateful for the assistance and enthusiasm I have met with along the way. TNumerous people off ered research leads, suggestions, and opportuni- ties: Tyler Boulware, Greg Brooking, Al Bullman, Ashley Chapman, Jeff er- son Chapman, Doug Cubbison, Scott Douglas, Graham Duncan, Debra Dylan, George Frizzell, Charlie Gray, Fritz Hamer, Eric Hughey, Buck Kahler, Angie King, Will Kinton, Clayton Lewis, Christopher Lyttelton, 12th Viscount Cobham, John Maass, Ronan MacGregor, Doug MacIntyre, Jim Moore, David Neilan, Lon Outen, Freeman Owle, Lisa Parrish, Jim Piecuch, Walt Powell, Tom Powers, David Preston, Joyce Purnell, Robert Rambo, John Robertson, Tammy Sarver, Cheney Schopieray, Lynn Shirley, Robert Shook, Bullet Standingdeer, Tim Stone, Wade Stoner, Steve Tuttle, Greg Urwin, Jeff Wells, Martin West, Scott Withrow, and Doug Wood. This book is better for the patient and thorough attention of Mark Simpson-Vos and others at the University of North Carolina Press. I also appreciate the aid of the staff s at the Beinecke Library at Yale Uni- versity, Camden Archives & Museum, Charleston Library Society, Colby College Libraries, David Library of the American Revolution, Duke Univer- sity Libraries, the East Tennessee Historical Society, Gilcrease Museum, Hunter Library at Western Carolina University, the Museum of the Chero- kee Indian, the Scottish Tartans Museum, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, the South Carolina Historical Society, South Carolin- iana Library, and the William L. Clements Library. My several visits to Fort Loudoun State Historic Area in Tennessee proved awe- inspiring as well as helpful. I also thank the many others who helped me locate documents and images at libraries and archives in Great Britain and the United States. The following people and organizations invited me to present my work in progress: Bruce Venter and his tour group at America’s History LLC, the Backcountry Revolutionary War Roundtable at Woff ord College, the Brad- dock Road Preservation Association, Duke University Department of History, Fort Loudoun State Historic Area, the Kershaw County Historical Society, ix Ninety Six National Historic Site, the Society for Military History, the South Carolina State Museum, and Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution. Generous support from the following sources enabled extensive travel and research: Colby College and its Wiswell Research Fund, David Library of the American Revolution, Duke University Graduate School, the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina, and the North Car- oliniana Society’s Archie Davis Fellowship. People at Duke University and in North Carolina helped in the making of this book, especially Ted Brooks, David Brown, Barry Gaspar, Doug James, Max Krochmal, Wayne Lee, David Long, Jacob Remes, John Thompson, Susan Thorne, and Peter Wood. I owe much to Elizabeth Fenn. In reviewing countless drafts and helping me sharpen my work, she made my journey through graduate school fun. I’m grateful for the friendship and intellect of this outstanding bunch. Many of my favorite memories associated with this project come from times spent in South Carolina with John Allison, Lisa Cheeks, Don Doyle, Walter Edgar, Dean Hunt, Elena Martínez-Vidal, Marjorie Spruill, and John Tompkins. Luke Reuwer, David Reuwer, George and Carole Summers, Charles and Judy Baxley, Matt Stevenson, and Eric Cheezum also provided friendship and cheer. Colleagues at Colby and friends in Maine sustained me in the later stages of this project, particularly Sherry Berard, Jim Flem- ing, Elizabeth Leonard, Dave and Sharon Page, Jim Webb, Robin Wiggin, and my students. I thank my family most of all, especially Mike and Annie, Ted and Wanda, Ruth, Mike, Brian, Bill, and Diane. It is their humor and endless support that has meant the most. x : Acknowledgments carolina in crisis This page intentionally left blank introduction “ he Concerns of this Country are . closely connected and inter- woven with Indian Aff airs,” Governor James Glen informed the South Carolina Council in 1746. Three years later, in his report to Britain’s Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations (the Board of Trade), Glen elaborated, writing that “not only a great Branch of our Trade, but even the Safety of this Province, do so much de- T pend upon our continuing in Friendship with the Indians.” South Carolina, he concluded, was deeply “connected in Interest” to its Indian neighbors. The future of the American colonies, and their divergence from Great Brit- ain, was deeply linked to the West and to the Indians who lived there. For South Carolina, those Indians were Cherokees. “Their Country is the Key of Carolina,” Glen wrote. The most authoritative eighteenth- century trader and ethnographer in the Southeast, James Adair, summed up the South Carolina– Cherokee relation- ship during the mid- eighteenth century: “In brief, we forced the Cheerake to become our bitter enemies, by a long train of wrong mea sures, the conse- quences of which were severely felt by a number of high assessed, ruined, and bleeding innocents.” This book chronicles how the mid- eighteenth century was an unmitigated disaster for the Cherokee people, a watershed moment for them. The British had long recognized and coveted Cherokee military and economic power. But from 1758 to 1761, in a series of clashes known as the Anglo-Cherokee War, Cherokees went from British allies to enemies to neglected nuisances. The pro cess was devastating and disruptive. According to North Carolina’s gov- ernor, Arthur Dobbs, “upon account of the War Sickness and famine,” the Cherokee population declined by a third from 1758 to 1761. In the Anglo-Cher- okee War, Cherokees lost the position of strength that they had once enjoyed. In addition, this book shows that Indians greatly destabilized the South Carolina colony in a way that threatened the livelihoods of coastal elites and raised their social and po liti cal anxieties to a fever pitch. South Carolina shared in the burdens and trials of empire to a considerable degree.