JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Jim Beckwourth HDT WHAT? INDEX JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH 1798 April 6, Friday: The New York Legislature called for the surveying of a mile-long reservation along the Niagara River, to be set aside for the Alleghany Indians. James Pierson Beckwourth was born in Frederick County, Virginia either on this day or more likely on April 6, 1800 (as an adult he would sport a silver dollar coined in 1800 on a string around his neck), sired by Sir Jennings Beckwith upon a mulatto woman known to us only as “Miss Kill.” (Please note that this was not a short-term or casual relationship but a caring one, and it seems there would eventually be some 13 biracial children of this couple’s enduring union.) Some things need to be said about the white preponderance of this lad’s ancestry. He might not exactly be what this American society regards as lily-white and worthy, but Elizabeth Jennings Beckwith, grand-daughter of Peter Jennings, had been the sister of Edmund Jennings, who was Attorney General of the Virginia colony in 1684, Secretary of State in 1701, and President of the Council and Acting Governor in 1710. The Beckwiths of Virginia allege that their ancestor was Sir Hugh de Malebisse, a knight serving Duke William at the Battle of Hastings. In the Year of Our Lord 1226 a descendant of this knight, Sir Hercules de Malebisse, acquired the name “Beckworth” by marriage to Lady Beckwith Bruce, heiress to the Beckwith estate. Elizabeth Jennings Beckwith’s son Sir Marmaduke Beckwith would establish his home “Belvoin” a few miles north of Warsaw, Virginia, and would beget as his 2d son Sir Jonathan Beckwith, and then Sir Jonathan would beget Sir Jennings Beckwith, and then Sir Jennings of Richmond County, Virginia would beget, upon a mulatto or quadroon known to us only as “Miss Kill” (such a name might have originated as a misreading of a handwritten record), James Pierson Beckwith, AKA James P. Beckwourth. This “Miss Kill,” if that was indeed her monicker, had presumably the status of a slave, since her son’s father would need to appear repeatedly in court to assert that indeed there existed papers in his boy’s manumission. One might suppose that on some planet other than our own, this fine lady Elizabeth Jennings Beckwith pictured above would have been considered to be, therefore, Jim Beckwourth’s great-great-grandma. HDT WHAT? INDEX JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT Jim Beckwourth “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH 1800 April 6, Sunday: Austrian forces began a major drive towards Savona to split the French forces. Despite what is asserted in THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES P. B ECKWOURTH, MOUNTAINEER, SCOUT, AND PIONEER, AND CHIEF OF THE CROW NATION OF INDIANS, it appears likely that this was the birth date of James Pierson Beckwourth in Frederick County, Virginia. (For instance, as an adult Jim would sport a silver dollar coined in 1800 on a string around his neck.) HDT WHAT? INDEX JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH 1809 In about this year the family of James Pierson Beckwourth, perhaps 9 (or 11) years old, relocated from Virginia to Missouri. One of his early experiences would be to come upon the bodies of some playmates of his, and their parents, who had just been slaughtered and scalped by Indians. He would be able to go to school in St. Louis, for four years, before becoming apprenticed to a blacksmith. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Jim Beckwourth HDT WHAT? INDEX JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH 1810 August: Jennings Beckwith purchased land near Portage des Sioux, between the Mississippi River and the Missouri River below St. Charles, Missouri. This would be the area in which James Pierson Beckwourth would grow to his maturity. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Jim Beckwourth HDT WHAT? INDEX JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH 1817 At the age of 19, James Pierson Beckwourth had completed his apprenticeship as a blacksmith. On three separate occasions his father Jennings Beckwith had “personally appeared in open court and acknowledged the execution of a Deed of Emancipation from him to James, a mulatto boy.”1 THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Jim Beckwourth 1. At some point the lad, who had no more difficulty with spelling than anyone else in the Wild West, would begin to spell his family name not as “Beckwith” but as “Beckwourth.” –We have no idea of the reason for this, except that it is very clear that Jim was the sort of guy who vastly enjoyed messing with other folk’s heads. HDT WHAT? INDEX JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH 1824 James Pierson Beckwourth joined General William Henry Ashley’s Rocky Mountain Fur Company, as a wrangler on its expedition of exploration. DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. Jim Beckwourth “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH HDT WHAT? INDEX JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH 1826 At this year’s rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain fur trappers, Caleb Greenwood spun a yarn in which James Pierson Beckwourth figured as the child of a Crow chief, stolen by raiding Cheyennes and sold to the whites. Later in that year, when Beckwourth was captured by Crow Indians while trapping in a border area between the Crow, Cheyennes, and Blackfoots, as it turned out they had heard and credited this story. Instead of killing him they admitted him to their nation, and so he was able to take a Crow squaw and live in their villages for 8 or 9 years, rising to leadership of the Dog clan. According to his own telling of his story he became the highest ranking war chief of the Crow Nation. After negotiations, he no longer sold furs to the Rocky Mountain Fur Company of General Ashley, but instead to the American Fur Company. Kit Carson spent the winter of 1826/1827 at the home of Matthew Kinkead in Taos. This fur trader had been a friend of Kit’s father in the Missouri territory. Carson began to acquire an ability to communicate in the HDT WHAT? INDEX JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH numerous languages an enterprising man would need in order to function in this primitive region: Spanish, Navajo, Apache, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Paiute, Shoshone, and Ute. WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF Jim Beckwourth “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH 1827 James Pierson Beckwourth took a Blackfoot woman as his squaw. (Later we will find him bragging that while living among the Crow he had had a sequence of eight of them.) CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT Jim Beckwourth “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH 1835 November 13, Friday: Jennings Beckwith had returned from Missouri to Virginia before he died: Sir Jennings Beckwith. Died at Mount Airy, Richmond County, on the 13th of November, Sir Jennings Beckwith, son of Jonathan and grandson of Sir Marmaduke Beckwith, Baronet, aged 72 years. Sir Jennings was the Leather Stockings of the Northern Neck. Much of his life had been spent wandering in the Far West on hunting excursions with the Indians and of late years he would live with men as would fish with him in summer or fox hunt in winter. Within the last twelve months he had slept on the river shore in the sturgeon season and had been in at the death in search of sport, and had insuperable objections to spending time profitably — consequently he lived poor but respectable and esteemed by many friends, who regret and sincerely mourn his death. Since manumission was technically not legally possible in North Carolina, the tactic employed by the Religious Society of Friends had been to “sell” the chattel property of individual Quakers to their Yearly Meeting. Such a sale was, in its net effect, a manumission. When Quakers moved from North Carolina to Indiana, where manumission was legally an option, such actions could be more formally and accurately registered, as can be seen in the documents on the following screens.2 [view the documents] Although such actions could be more formally and accurately registered in Indiana, we happen to discover these records in the middle of a book titled “Apprentices Indentures I,” where they almost certainly were positioned intentionally to keep them away from general view and knowledge. Note that although the clerk of the county does not follow the Quaker usage of numbered months, the manumitter, Friend David White, does follow this usage: HDT WHAT? INDEX JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH Nov 13th 1835 To All People to whom these presents may come— Know ye that I, David White of Perquimans County and the State of North Carolina (but at this time in the County of Wayne and State of Indiana) through and by the power and authority vested in me as one of the agents or trustees of the yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends in North Carolina I have removed to the County of Wayne and State of Indiana certain persons of colour namely, Nanny, or Nancy, age about thirty years wife of Willis Perry (of colour) and their said Children, Tabitha Nancy, Leary, Rachel, Nicey and Willis and one Child born in this county —Also Judith aged about twenty six years the wife of Job Felton (of colour) and their three sons named, Willis, Harvey and Randolph—all of whom belonged to the Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends in North Carolina— Now I the said David White by and through the power and authority aforesaid doth by these presents Emancipate and set free from slavery them the said Nancy and her children as above named.