James Pierson Beckwourth

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. And also the said woman Judith and her children above named with full liberty to act and manage for themselves and to enjoy all the benefits of their labour according to the laws and customs of the State of Indiana —In witness whereof I the said David White hath to these

2. If you are able to supply more information about the circumstances of this transaction freeing a total of 26 persons, or the genealogy or general history of the families involved, please do get in touch with Mr. David Diamond at [email protected]. He is hoping to discover whether Henderson Lewelling’s father Mesheck Lewelling freed some slaves on his arrival in Indiana about 1822. He has been able to explain that most of the Quakers of this county in Piedmont Carolina moved to Indiana, settling mainly in Wayne and Henry counties. Althea Coffin, one of this group, recorded 400 Quaker families who left that part of North Carolina for that part of Indiana between 1820 and 1840, which means that literally thousands of people were on the move. Before and during this exodus some of the Monthly Meetings purchased slaves from their Quaker owners pending such transportation to a free state. Friend David White was acting as an agent of the North Carolina Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. It seems very likely that Friend David’s stated personal purchase of Willis Perry and Job Felton, the heads of two of the families, was accomplished with Quaker Yearly Meeting funds. Friend Levi Coffin, one of the witnesses, is now regarded as having been generally connected with the Underground Railroad project:

The documents here recorded at the courthouse had been executed on the 3rd and the 11th of October, 1835. It seems likely that the group of 25 persons of color (one baby was born after arrival in Indiana) had been accompanied northward as a unit by White. The records, although they consist of five transactions, actually reunited three families that had in North Carolina been split apart by sales to different whites. Indiana would turn out not to be such a fine place for free persons of color, for the state had passed a law requiring they each post a $500 bond on entry. Other such unfriendly laws would be passed, and local Quaker meetings would petition the Indiana legislature against them. Henderson Lewelling would in 1837 move on from Indiana to the part of Wisconsin Territory that is now Iowa and become a public antislavery activist, assisting a branch of the Underground Railroad that assisted new freemen to come north out of Missouri. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH HDT WHAT? INDEX

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presents set my hand and seal the 3rd day of the 10th month of 1835— Signed and delivered } In presence of } [signed] David White ((Seal)) Josiah White State of Indiana } Wayne County } Before me the undersigned an acting Justice of the peace of the County aforesaid personally appeared David White the within named and acknowledged the within instrument of mansipuission [sic] and freedom from Slavery to be his voluntary act and deed by and under the authority therein described for the uses and purposes therein described. In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 9th day of October A.D. 1835— [signed] William Cox J.P. ((Seal)) Nov. 13th 1835 To All people to whom these presents may come, Know ye that I David White of Perquimmans [sic] County North Carolina (being at present in Wayne County Indiana) Through and by the power & authority vested in me by the Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends in North Carolina and by Jeptha White of Perquimans County North Carolina I have removed to the County of Wayne & State of Indiana certain Negroes or persons of colour (to wit.) James, commonly called James White and his wife Mary and their six children-—Nancy, Betty, Jane, Anderson, Phereba, all of whom are now in the said County of Wayne & State of Indiana, the said James, Nancy and Betty, belonged to the said Yearly Meeting of Friend [sic] in North Carolina, and Mary, Elenor, Jane, Anderson and Phereba, belonged to the said Jeptha White. Now I, David White by the power & authority as above stated doth by these presents manumit and set free from Slavery, them the said James White and Mary his wife and their children Nancy, Betty, Elenor, Jane, Anderson & Phereba, with full liberty to act and manage for themselves and to enjoy all the benefits of their labor according to the laws and customs of the State of Indiana —In witness whereof I the said David White have to these presents set my hand and seal this the 3rd day of the 10th month 1835. Sealed and delivered } In the presence of } [signed] David White ((Seal)) Josiah White State of Indiana } Wayne County } Before me the undersigned an acting Justice of the peace within and for the County aforesaid personally came David White the within named and acknowledged the within instrument of mancemition [sic] and freedom from Slavery to be his voluntary act and deed by and under the authority therein described for the uses and purposes therein contained—In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 9th day of October A.C. 1835 [signed] William Cox J.P.((Seal)) Nov. 13th 1835 To all people to whom these presents may come, Know ye that I David White of Perquimans County North Carolina (being at present in Wayne County Indiana) through and by the power and authority in me vested by the Yearly [sic] of the Society of Friends in North Carolina, I have removed from thence to the County of Wayne & State of Indiana a certain Man of colour named Douglass, commonly called Douglass White who formely [sic] belonged to Miles White & Anthony B. Albertson & by them transfered [sic] to the said Society of Friends, said Douglass being about twenty nine years of age and of yellow complexion— And also by the power and authority given me by Sampson Lawrence a Man of couler [sic] of Perquimens [sic] County North Carolina I have removed to the County of Wayne and State of Indiana a coulered [sic] woman named Mary the daughter of and the property of the said Sampson and wife of the said Douglass. Also her three children, Grizilla, Margaret, & Eliza—Now I, the said David White by and with the Power and authority above stated doth by these presents Manumit & set free from Slavery them the said Douglass White and Mary his wife and their three children, Grizella, Margaret, & Eliza, with full liberty to act and manage for themselves and to enjoy all the benefits of their labour according to the laws and customs of the State of Indiana —In Witness whereof I HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

the said David White hath to these presents set my hand and Seal this the 3rd day of the 10th month 1835— Signed and delivered } In presence of } [signed] David White ((Seal)) Josiah White State of Indiana } Wayne County } Before me the undersigned an acting Justice of the peace with and for said County came personally David White the within named and acknowledged the within Instrument of Manumission and freedom Slavery to be his voluntary act and deed by and under the authority therein described for the uses and purposes therein contained—In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this 9th day of October A.D. 1835- [signed] William Cox J.P. ((Seal)) Nov 13th 1835 To All People to whom these presents may come Know ye [sic] that I, David White at present in Wayne County State of Indiana do hereby by these presents release and set free from Slavery a certain Negro man named Willis, commonally [sic] called Willis Perry of very dark complexion of middle sise [sic], and about thirty five years of age, He being the same that I purchased of James Perry Esq. of Pasquetank [sic] County North Carolina the 27th day of the 7th month last —In witness whereof I the said David White hath to these presents set my hand and seal this the 11th day of the 9th month 1835— Sealed and delivered } In presence of } [signed] David White ((Seal)) Levi Coffin John Fellow State of Indiana } Wayne County } Before me the undersigned an acting Justice of the peace in and for the county aforesaid this day personally came David White the within grantor and acknowledged the within deed of manumission to be his voluntary act and deed for the purposes therein specified—In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, September 11th 1835 [signed] Joseph Morrow J.P. ((Seal)) Nov. 13th 1835 To All People to whom these present may come Know ye that I David White at present in Wayne County and State of Indiana do hereby by these present release manumit and set free from Slavery a certain Negro Man named Job, commonally [sic] Job Felton, tolerably dark complexion of large sise [sic] and about thirty five years of age, he being the same that I purchased of Reder Felton, of Perquimans County North Carolina the 3rd day of last month he the said Job being now in the said county of Wayne Indiana. In witness whereof I the said David White hath by these present set my hand and seal this the 11th day of the 9th month 1835— Signed sealed and delivered } In presence of } [signed] David White ((Seal)) Levi Coffin John Fellow State of Indiana } Wayne County } before me the undersigned an acting Justice of the peace in and for the County aforesaid this day personally came David White the within named grantor and acknowledged the within deed of Manumission to be his voluntary act and deed for the purposes therein specified— In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal September 11th 1835— [signed] Joseph Morrow J. P. ((Seal)) HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

aÉäA DFà{ DKFH gÉ TÄÄ ÑxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá Åtç vÉÅx? ^ÇÉã çx à{tà \ Wtä|w j{|àx Éy cxÜÖâ|ÅÅtÇá [sic] VÉâÇàç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt ;ux|Çz tà ÑÜxáxÇà |Ç jtçÇx VÉâÇàç \Çw|tÇt< g{ÜÉâz{ tÇw uç à{x ÑÉãxÜ 9 tâà{ÉÜ|àç äxáàxw |Ç Åx uç à{x lxtÜÄç `xxà|Çz Éy à{x fÉv|xàç Éy YÜ|xÇwá |Ç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt tÇw uç ]xÑà{t j{|àx Éy cxÜÖâ|ÅtÇá VÉâÇàç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt \ {täx ÜxÅÉäxw àÉ à{x VÉâÇàç Éy jtçÇx 9 fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt vxÜàt|Ç axzÜÉxá ÉÜ ÑxÜáÉÇá Éy vÉÄÉâÜ ;àÉ ã|àA< ]tÅxá? vÉÅÅÉÇÄç vtÄÄxw ]tÅxá j{|àx tÇw {|á ã|yx `tÜç tÇw à{x|Ü á|å v{|ÄwÜxÇ@‰atÇvç? Uxààç? ]tÇx? TÇwxÜáÉÇ? c{xÜxut? tÄÄ Éy ã{ÉÅ tÜx ÇÉã |Ç à{x át|w VÉâÇàç Éy jtçÇx 9 fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt? à{x át|w ]tÅxá? atÇvç tÇw Uxààç? uxÄÉÇzxw àÉ à{x át|w lxtÜÄç `xxà|Çz Éy YÜ|xÇw [sic] |Ç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt? tÇw `tÜç? XÄxÇÉÜ? ]tÇx? TÇwxÜáÉÇ tÇw c{xÜxut? uxÄÉÇzxw àÉ à{x át|w ]xÑà{t j{|àxA aÉã \? Wtä|w j{|àx uç à{x ÑÉãxÜ 9 tâà{ÉÜ|àç tá tuÉäx áàtàxw wÉà{ uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá ÅtÇâÅ|à tÇw áxà yÜxx yÜÉÅ fÄtäxÜç? à{xÅ à{x át|w ]tÅxá j{|àx tÇw `tÜç {|á ã|yx tÇw à{x|Ü v{|ÄwÜxÇ atÇvç? Uxààç? XÄxÇÉÜ? ]tÇx? TÇwxÜáÉÇ 9 c{xÜxut? ã|à{ yâÄÄ Ä|uxÜàç àÉ tvà tÇw ÅtÇtzx yÉÜ à{xÅáxÄäxá tÇw àÉ xÇ}Éç tÄÄ à{x uxÇxy|àá Éy à{x|Ü ÄtuÉÜ tvvÉÜw|Çz àÉ à{x Ätãá tÇw vâáàÉÅá Éy à{x fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt ‰\Ç ã|àÇxáá ã{xÜxÉy \ à{x át|w Wtä|w j{|àx{täx àÉ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw áxtÄ à{|á à{x FÜw wtç Éy à{x DCà{ ÅÉÇà{ DKFHA fxtÄxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw \Ç à{x ÑÜxáxÇvx Éy [signed]Wtä|w j{|àx ((Seal)) ]Éá|t{ j{|àx}

fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt UxyÉÜx Åx à{x âÇwxÜá|zÇxw tÇ tvà|Çz ]âáà|vx jtçÇx VÉâÇàç } Éy à{x Ñxtvx ã|à{|Ç tÇw yÉÜ à{x VÉâÇàç tyÉÜxát|w ÑxÜáÉÇtÄÄç vtÅx Wtä|w j{|àx à{x ã|à{|Ç ÇtÅxw tÇw tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{x ã|à{|Ç |ÇáàÜâÅxÇà Éy ÅtÇvxÅ|à|ÉÇ [sic] tÇw yÜxxwÉÅ yÜÉÅ fÄtäxÜç àÉ ux {|á äÉÄâÇàtÜç tvà tÇw wxxw uç tÇw âÇwxÜ à{x tâà{ÉÜ|àç à{xÜx|Ç wxávÜ|uxw yÉÜ à{x âáxá tÇw ÑâÜÑÉáxá à{xÜx|Ç vÉÇàt|Çxw‰\Ç ã|àÇxáá ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw áxtÄ à{|á Là{ wtç Éy bvàÉuxÜ TAVA DKFH jV HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

aÉäA DFà{ DKFH gÉ tÄÄ ÑxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá Åtç vÉÅx? ^ÇÉã çx à{tà \ Wtä|w j{|àx Éy cxÜÖâ|ÅtÇá VÉâÇàç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt ;ux|Çz tà ÑÜxáxÇà |Ç jtçÇx VÉâÇàç \Çw|tÇt< à{ÜÉâz{ tÇw uç à{x ÑÉãxÜ tÇw tâà{ÉÜ|àç |Ç Åx äxáàxw uç à{x lxtÜÄç [sic] Éy à{x fÉv|xàç Éy YÜ|xÇwá |Ç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt? \ {täx ÜxÅÉäxw yÜÉÅ à{xÇvx àÉ à{x VÉâÇàç Éy jtçÇx 9 fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt t vxÜàt|Ç `tÇ Éy vÉÄÉâÜ ÇtÅxw WÉâzÄtáá? vÉÅÅÉÇÄç vtÄÄxw WÉâzÄtáá j{|àx ã{É yÉÜÅxÄç [sic] uxÄÉÇzxw àÉ `|Äxá j{|àx 9 TÇà{ÉÇç UA TÄuxÜàáÉÇ 9 uç à{xÅ àÜtÇáyxÜxw [sic] àÉ à{x át|w fÉv|xàç Éy YÜ|xÇwá? át|w WÉâzÄtáá ux|Çz tuÉâà àãxÇàç Ç|Çx çxtÜá Éy tzx tÇw Éy çxÄÄÉã vÉÅÑÄxå|ÉÇ‰ TÇw tÄáÉ uç à{x ÑÉãxÜ tÇw tâà{ÉÜ|àç z|äxÇ Åx uç ftÅÑáÉÇ _tãÜxÇvx t `tÇ Éy vÉâÄxÜ [sic] Éy cxÜÖâ|ÅxÇá [sic] VÉâÇàç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt \ {täx ÜxÅÉäxw àÉ à{x VÉâÇàç Éy jtçÇx tÇw fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt t vÉâÄxÜxw [sic] ãÉÅtÇ ÇtÅxw `tÜç à{x wtâz{àxÜ Éy tÇw à{x ÑÜÉÑxÜàç Éy à{x át|w ftÅÑáÉÇ tÇw ã|yx Éy à{x át|w WÉâzÄtááA TÄáÉ {xÜ à{Üxx v{|ÄwÜxÇ? ZÜ|é|ÄÄt? `tÜztÜxà? 9 XÄ|ét‰aÉã \? à{x át|w Wtä|w j{|àx uç tÇw ã|à{ à{x cÉãxÜ tÇw tâà{ÉÜ|àç tuÉäx áàtàxw wÉà{ uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá `tÇâÅ|à 9 áxà yÜxx yÜÉÅ fÄtäxÜç à{xÅ à{x át|w WÉâzÄtáá j{|àx tÇw `tÜç {|á ã|yx tÇw à{x|Ü à{Üxx v{|ÄwÜxÇ? ZÜ|éxÄÄt? `tÜztÜxà? 9 XÄ|ét? ã|à{ yâÄÄ Ä|uxÜàç àÉ tvà tÇw ÅtÇtzx yÉÜ à{xÅáxÄäxá tÇw àÉ xÇ}Éç tÄÄ à{x uxÇxy|àá Éy à{x|Ü ÄtuÉâÜ tvvÉÜw|Çz àÉ à{x Ätãá tÇw vâáàÉÅá Éy à{x fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt ‰\Ç j|àÇxáá ã{xÜxÉy \ à{x át|w Wtä|w j{|àx {tà{ àÉ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw fxtÄ à{|á à{x FÜw wtç Éy à{x DCà{ ÅÉÇà{ DKFH‰ f|zÇxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw \Ç ÑÜxáxÇvx Éy ]Éá|t{ j{|àx } [signed]Wtä|w j{|àx ((Seal))

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JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

aÉäA DFà{ DKFH gÉ TÄÄ cxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇà Åtç vÉÅx ^ÇÉã çx à{tà \ Wtä|w j{|àx tà ÑÜxáxÇà |Ç jtçÇx VÉâÇàç tÇw fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt wÉ {xÜxuç uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇà ÜxÄxtáx ÅtÇâÅ|à tÇw áxà yÜxx yÜÉÅ fÄtäxÜç t vxÜàt|Ç axzÜÉ `tÇ ÇtÅxw ]Éu? vÉÅÅÉÇtÄÄç [sic] ]Éu YxÄàÉÇ? àÉÄxÜtuÄç wtÜ~ vÉÅÑÄxå|ÉÇ Éy ÄtÜzx á|áx [sic] tÇw tuÉâà à{|Üàç y|äx çxtÜá Éy tzx? {x ux|Çz à{x átÅx à{tà \ ÑâÜv{táxw Éy exwxÜ YxÄàÉÇ? Éy cxÜÖâ|ÅtÇá VÉâÇàç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt à{x FÜw wtç Éy Ätáà ÅÉÇà{ {x à{x át|w ]Éu ux|Çz ÇÉã |Ç à{x át|w vÉâÇàç Éy jtçÇx \Çw|tÇtA \Ç ã|àÇxáá ã{xÜxÉy \ à{x át|w Wtä|w j{|àx {tà{ uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇà áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw áxtÄ à{|á à{x DDà{ wtç Éy à{x Là{ ÅÉÇà{ DKFH‰ f|zÇxw áxtÄxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw \Ç ÑÜxáxÇvx Éy _xä| VÉyy|Ç [signed]Wtä|w j{|àx ((Seal)) ]É{Ç YxÄÄÉã }

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JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

aÉä DFà{ DKFH gÉ TÄÄ cxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá Åtç vÉÅx‰ ^ÇÉã çx à{tà \? Wtä|w j{|àx Éy cxÜÖâ|ÅtÇá VÉâÇàç tÇw à{x fàtàx Éy aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt ;uâà tà à{|á à|Åx |Ç à{x VÉâÇàç Éy jtçÇx tÇw fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt< à{ÜÉâz{ tÇw uç à{x ÑÉãxÜ tÇw tâà{ÉÜ|àç äxáàxw |Ç Åx tá ÉÇx Éy à{x tzxÇàá ÉÜ àÜâáàxxá Éy à{x çxtÜÄç `xxà|Çz Éy à{x fÉv|xàç Éy YÜ|xÇwá |Ç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt \ {täx ÜxÅÉäxw àÉ à{x VÉâÇàç Éy jtçÇx tÇw fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt vxÜàt|Ç ÑxÜáÉÇá Éy vÉÄÉâÜ ÇtÅxÄç? atÇÇç? ÉÜ atÇvç? tzx tuÉâà à{|Üàç çxtÜá ã|yx Éy j|ÄÄ|á cxÜÜç ;Éy vÉÄÉâÜ< tÇw à{x|Ü át|w V{|ÄwÜxÇ? gtu|à{t atÇvç? _xtÜç? etv{xÄ? a|vxç tÇw j|ÄÄ|á tÇw ÉÇx V{|Äw uÉÜÇ |Ç à{|á vÉâÇàç ‰TÄáÉ ]âw|à{ tzxw tuÉâà àãxÇàç á|å çxtÜá à{x ã|yx Éy ]ÉuYxÄàÉÇ ;Éy vÉÄÉâÜ< tÇw à{x|Ü à{Üxx áÉÇá ÇtÅxw? j|ÄÄ|á? [tÜäxç tÇw etÇwÉÄÑ{‰tÄÄ Éy ã{ÉÅ uxÄÉÇzxw àÉ à{x lxtÜÄç `xxà|Çz Éy à{x fÉv|xàç Éy YÜ|xÇwá |Ç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt‰ aÉã \ à{x át|w Wtä|w j{|àx uç tÇw à{ÜÉâz{ à{x ÑÉãxÜ tÇw tâà{ÉÜ|àç tyÉÜxát|w wÉà{ uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá XÅtÇv|Ñtàx tÇw áxà yÜxx yÜÉÅ áÄtäxÜç à{xÅ à{x át|w atÇvç tÇw {xÜ v{|ÄwÜxÇ tá tuÉäx ÇtÅxwA TÇw tÄáÉ à{x át|w ãÉÅtÇ ]âw|à{ tÇw {xÜ v{|ÄwÜxÇ tuÉäx ÇtÅxw ã|à{ yâÄÄ Ä|uxÜàç àÉ tvà tÇw ÅtÇtzx yÉÜ à{xÅáxÄäxá tÇw àÉ xÇ}Éç tÄÄ à{x uxÇxy|àá Éy à{x|Ü ÄtuÉâÜ tvvÉÜw|Çz àÉ à{x Ätãá tÇw vâáàÉÅá Éy à{x fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt ‰\Ç ã|àÇxáá ã{xÜxÉy \ à{x át|w Wtä|w j{|àx {tà{ àÉ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw áxtÄ à{x FÜw wtç Éy à{x DCà{ ÅÉÇà{ Éy DKFH‰ f|zÇxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw \Ç ÑÜxáxÇvx Éy [signed]Wtä|w j{|àx ((Seal)) ]Éá|t{ j{|àx }

fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt UxyÉÜx Åx à{x âÇwxÜá|zÇxw tÇ tvà|Çz ]âáà|vx jtçÇx VÉâÇàç } Éy à{x Ñxtvx Éy à{x VÉâÇàç tyÉÜxát|w ÑxÜáÉÇtÄÄç tÑÑxtÜxw Wtä|w j{|àx à{x ã|à{|Ç ÇtÅxw tÇw tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{x ã|à{|Ç |ÇáàÜâÅxÇà Éy ÅtÇá|Ñâ|áá|ÉÇ [sic] tÇw yÜxxwÉÅ yÜÉÅ fÄtäxÜç àÉ ux {|á äÉÄâÇàtÜç tvà tÇw wxxw uç tÇw âÇwxÜ à{x tâà{ÉÜ|àç à{xÜx|Ç wxávÜ|uxw yÉÜ à{x âáxá tÇw ÑâÜÑÉáxá à{xÜx|Ç wxávÜ|uxwA \Ç àxáà|ÅÉÇç ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw áxtÄ à{|á Là{ wtç Éy bvàÉuxÜ TAWA DKFH‰ jV HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

aÉä DFà{ DKFH gÉ TÄÄ cxÉÑÄx àÉ ã{ÉÅ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá Åtç vÉÅx ^ÇÉã çx [sic] à{tà \? Wtä|w j{|àx tà ÑÜxáxÇà |Ç jtçÇx VÉâÇàç fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt wÉ {xÜxuç uç à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá ÜxÄxtáx tÇw áxà yÜxx yÜÉÅ fÄtäxÜç t vxÜàt|Ç axzÜÉ ÅtÇ ÇtÅxw j|ÄÄ|á? vÉÅÅÉÇtÄÄç [sic] vtÄÄxw j|ÄÄ|á cxÜÜç Éy äxÜç wtÜ~ vÉÅÑÄxå|ÉÇ Éy Å|wwÄx á|áx [sic]? tÇw tuÉâà à{|Üàç y|äx çxtÜá Éy tzx? [x ux|Çz à{x átÅx à{tà \ ÑâÜv{táxw Éy ]tÅxá cxÜÜç XáÖA Éy ctáÖâxàtÇ~ [sic] VÉâÇàç aÉÜà{ VtÜÉÄ|Çt à{x EJà{ wtç Éy à{x Jà{ ÅÉÇà{ Ätáà ‰\Ç ã|àÇxáá ã{xÜxÉy \ à{x át|w Wtä|w j{|àx {tà{ àÉ à{xáx ÑÜxáxÇàá áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw áxtÄ à{|á à{x DDà{ wtç Éy à{x Là{ ÅÉÇà{ DKFH‰ fxtÄxw tÇw wxÄ|äxÜxw \Ç ÑÜxáxÇvx Éy _xä| VÉyy|Ç [signed]Wtä|w j{|àx ((Seal)) ]É{Ç YxÄÄÉã }

fàtàx Éy \Çw|tÇt } UxyÉÜx Åx à{x âÇwxÜá|zÇxw tÇ tvà|Çz ]âáà|vx jtçÇx VÉâÇàç Éy à{x Ñxtvx |Ç tÇw yÉÜ à{x vÉâÇàç tyÉÜxát|w à{|á wtç ÑxÜáÉÇtÄÄç vtÅx Wtä|w j{|àx à{x ã|à{|Ç zÜtÇàÉÜ tÇw tv~ÇÉãÄxwzxw à{x ã|à{|Ç wxxw Éy ÅtÇâÅ|áá|ÉÇ àÉ ux {|á äÉÄâÇàtÜç tvà tÇw wxxw yÉÜ à{x ÑâÜÑÉáxá à{xÜx|Ç áÑxv|y|xw‰\Ç àxáà|ÅÉÇç ã{xÜxÉy \ {täx {xÜxâÇàÉ áxà Åç {tÇw tÇw áxtÄ? fxÑàxÅuxÜ DDà{ DKFH [signed] ]ÉáxÑ{ `ÉÜÜÉã ]AcA ((Seal)) HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

1837

The birth of Kit Carson’s and Singing Grass’s 1st child, a daughter whom they named Adeline. Beaver had begun to get scarce and anyway the hat industry had been moving away from beaver fur in the direction of silk — this frontier couple’s trapping days would therefore soon be over.

The American Fur Company discontinued doing business through James Pierson Beckwourth, so he returned to St. Louis and became a civilian wagon master handling baggage for the 2d expedition against the Seminole of Florida. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

January 27, Friday: Yet another episode in yet another of America’s race wars:

Black Native Warriors? Where Had That Come From? December 1835 The destruction of sugar plantations along the St. Johns River south of St. Augustine, Florida

December 18, 1835 The battle of Black Point, west of the town of Micanopy in the Florida Territory

December 28, 1835 Massacre of Major Francis Dade’s troops heading for Fort King

December 31, 1835 The 1st battle on the Withlacoochee River of Florida (Clinch’s Battle)

February-March 1836 The siege of Camp Izard

October 12, 1836 The 2d battle on the Withlacoochee River of Florida (Call’s Battle)

November 21, 1836 An action in the Wahoo Swamp on the Withlacoochee River

January 27, 1837 The battle of Hatcheelustee Creek at the head of the Kissimmee River

December 25, 1837 The battle of Lake Okeechobee

January 15, 1838 An action at Jupiter Inlet, on the east coast of Florida

January 24, 1838 The battle of Lockahatchee

SEMINOLES WHITE ON RED, RED ON WHITE SWAMP WHITE ON RED, RED ON WHITE FLORIDA HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

October 21, Saturday: General Thomas Jesup, by violating a flag of truce, managed to take headman Osceola (Black Drink) alive. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

The accepted conventions of war did not need to be observed by the civilized when dealing with savages. Shame on this primitive for supposing he could get away with such a thing as a flag of truce. Although healthy and unwounded when the slave shackles were put on him, in the prisoner of war camp he would soon die — but you can take it for granted that we didn’t murder him because, as we all know, these simple souls have the capability to die entirely on their own initiative.

December 25, Saturday: Harvard College was on recess, for Christ was born! There were events in Concord, and events in Florida, and first for our amusement I’ll provide you with the rather nice events in Concord as recorded for us later by John Shepard Keyes: This first vacation beginning the Wednesday before Decr 25th. as the catalogue had it to avoid any mention of Chirstmas [sic], was as I found when I came across recently a journal that I kept of my college vacations, one continuous spree. Dancing 5 or 6 nights in the week and a sing the others, sleighing skating or coasting by day. Father away at court my brothers too small to interfere with my amusements and Mother to proud of her college lad to control him at the least. What fun what flirtations and frivolity, it was all spent with the Concord girls and their charms in my eyes were only equalled by their numbers. What a lingering regret it was to go back and how tame seemed the college sprees after the Concord ones. Luckily for me Lizzie Shattuck my nearest neighbor went to the Dana Hill school then kept by Mr Mack in the only house on Dana Hill between the college yard and the park proper, and as Caroline Brooks and Lizzie Prichard my nearest in age were at school in Boston I had with my other acquaintances about Cambridge in Malden Waltham Watertown &c some little female society in term time and this HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

helped away the winter term— J.S. KEYES AUTOBIOGRAPHY Somehow, down in Florida, we found the time and energy for yet another episode in yet another of America’s race wars (James Pierson Beckwourth took part in this one):

Black Native Warriors? Where Had That Come From? December 1835 The destruction of sugar plantations along the St. Johns River south of St. Augustine, Florida

December 18, 1835 The battle of Black Point, west of the town of Micanopy in the Florida Territory

December 28, 1835 Massacre of Major Francis Dade’s troops heading for Fort King

December 31, 1835 The 1st battle on the Withlacoochee River of Florida (Clinch’s Battle)

February-March 1836 The siege of Camp Izard

October 12, 1836 The 2d battle on the Withlacoochee River of Florida (Call’s Battle)

November 21, 1836 An action in the Wahoo Swamp on the Withlacoochee River

January 27, 1837 The battle of Hatcheelustee Creek at the head of the Kissimmee River

December 25, 1837 The battle of Lake Okeechobee

January 15, 1838 An action at Jupiter Inlet, on the east coast of Florida

January 24, 1838 The battle of Lockahatchee

SEMINOLES WHITE ON RED, RED ON WHITE SWAMP HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

On the basis of the above contemporary illustration, one might be tempted to infer that the battle had been the usual success for the white people. Actually, what happened was that the Seminole lured a force that outnumbered them three to one into a foolhardy frontal assault across a carefully prepared killing field, killed a whole bunch of them while they were attempting to extricate themselves from this trap — and then vanished into the swamp. As a direct result of this inanity the commander of the whites would come to be popularly known as “Old Rough and Ready.” He eventually would become President of the United States of America, and would do about as good a good job in the White House as he had done on this Christmas day. WHITE ON RED, RED ON WHITE FLORIDA HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

The Battlefield HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

1838

Singing Grass, the “squaw” of Kit Carson, gave birth to a 2d daughter but developed a fever shortly after the birth, and would die a some point within the following couple of years.

James Pierson Beckwourth was an Indian trader on the Arkansas River, working out of Fort Vasquez, Colorado, near Platteville, Colorado with the Cheyennes. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

January 26, Friday: The former leader of the Seminoles, Osceola, died in an Army prison at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina. The attending physician, a white man, cut off his head and absconded with it.

(The above is not the actual head, but a plaster death mask made from the head by this physician.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

1840

When Kit Carson appeared at the last mountain man rendezvous during this summer, held again at Ft. Bridger near the Green River, he was no longer accompanied by Singing Grass — because at some point she had succumbed to the fever that had come with the birth of their 2d daughter. Kit would be moving on, to Bent’s Fort, where he would find employment as a hunter.

James Pierson Beckwourth was hired by the Bent & St. Vrain Company and then set up as an independent trader, building a trading post on the Arkansas River in Colorado that eventually would become the city of Pueblo.

Evidently he had with him at that time a Mexican woman he had picked up in Taos, New Mexico. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

1843

James Pierson Beckwourth left Pueblo, Colorado with a trading party of 15 and headed for southern California, then a part of Mexico.

During the summer John Charles Frémont and Kit Carson explored the Great Basin, along the Great Salt Lake into Oregon. Their agenda was to map and describe the 2d half of the Oregon Trail, from South Pass to the Columbia River. They found all the land in the Great Basin, centering on modern-day Nevada, to be in fact landlocked, a factoid which contributed greatly to our appreciation of the geography of the North American continent. They sighted Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens, and Mount Hood. One objective of this expedition had been to locate a fabulous “Buenaventura River,” which had been imagined as a major east-west conduit between the Great Lakes and the Pacific Ocean. Such a river was nowhere to be located. That winter the expedition became snowbound in the Sierra Nevadas and Carson’s experience averted their starvation — sustenance became so hard to come by that their mules were nibbling at each other’s tails “and the leather of the pack saddles.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

1844

James Pierson Beckwourth traded on the Old Spanish Trail between the Arkansas River and Mexican California.

January: James Pierson Beckwourth and his trading party of 15 arrived in Los Angeles, California, then a part of Mexico. He would be one of the 1st non-Indian and non-Spanish persons to reside in that locale. (The valley was being referred to as the “Plain of Smokes,” and the white settlement there was being referred to as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de la Porciúncula.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

1845

February 20, Thursday: When the local Californios rebelled against the Mexican officials of Governor Manuel Micheltorena, James Pierson Beckwourth joined their side for the Battle of Cahuenga. The battle really didn’t amount to much. The Mexicans had three cannon and the Californios, under Pio Pico, two, and these deadly distance weapons were brought just about within range of each other in the hills above what has since become Hollywood and beautiful downtown Burbank. It seems a horse got its head blown off, and a mule was injured, but since all the people involved, like our Jim Beckwourth, were sheltering themselves against the banks of the Los Angeles River and keeping their heads well down, there don’t seem to have been human injuries. On the following day when the cannonading resumed, Governor Micheltorena would find that he needed to stick up a white flag — because most of his soldiers had during the night sneaked off and joined the other side. (For many years it would be possible to find cannon balls in the dirt in the vicinity of Warner Brothers Studio.)

Documentation of the international slave trade, per W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: President John Tyler sent the US Congress information about the violation of Brazilian slave-trade laws by American nationals (HOUSE JOURNAL, 28th Congress, 2d session, pages 425, 463; HOUSE DOCUMENT, 28th Congress, 2d session, IV. No. 148; cf. HOUSE DOCUMENT, 29th Congress, 1st session, III. No. 43). W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: A somewhat more sincere and determined effort to enforce the slave-trade laws now followed; and yet it is a significant fact that not until Lincoln’s administration did a slave-trader suffer death for violating the laws of the United States. The participation of Americans in the trade continued, declining somewhat between 1825 and 1830, and then reviving, until it reached its highest activity between 1840 and 1860. The development of a vast internal slave-trade, and the consequent rise in the South of vested interests strongly opposed to slave smuggling, led to a falling off in the illicit introduction of Negroes after 1825, until the fifties; nevertheless, smuggling never entirely ceased, and large numbers were thus added to the plantations of the Gulf States. Monroe had various constitutional scruples as to the execution of the Act of 1819;3 but, as Congress took no action, he at last put a fair interpretation on his powers, and appointed Samuel Bacon as an agent in Africa to form a settlement for recaptured Africans. Gradually the agency thus formed became merged with that of the Colonization Society on Cape Mesurado; and from this union Liberia was finally evolved.4 Meantime, during the years 1818 to 1820, the activity of the slave-traders was prodigious. General James Tallmadge declared in the House, February 15, 1819: “Our laws are already highly penal against their introduction, and yet, it is a well known fact, that about fourteen thousand slaves have been brought into our country this last year.”5 In the same year Middleton of South 3. Attorney-General Wirt advised him, October, 1819, that no part of the appropriation could be used to purchase land in Africa or tools for the Negroes, or as salary for the agent: OPINIONS OF ATTORNEYS-GENERAL, I. 314-7. Monroe laid the case before Congress in a special message Dec. 20, 1819 (HOUSE JOURNAL, 16th Congress 1st session, page 57); but no action was taken there. 4. Cf. Kendall’s Report, August, 1830: SENATE DOCUMENT, 21st Congress 2d session, I. No. 1, pages 211-8; also see below, Chapter X. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

Carolina and Wright of Virginia estimated illicit introduction at 13,000 and 15,000 respectively.6 Judge Story, in charging a jury, took occasion to say: “We have but too many proofs from unquestionable sources, that it [the slave-trade] is still carried on with all the implacable rapacity of former times. Avarice has grown more subtle in its evasions, and watches and seizes its prey with an appetite quickened rather than suppressed by its guilty vigils. American citizens are steeped to their very mouths (I can hardly use too bold a figure) in this stream of iniquity.”7 The following year, 1820, brought some significant statements from various members of Congress. Said Smith of South Carolina: “Pharaoh was, for his temerity, drowned in the Red Sea, in pursuing them [the Israelites] contrary to God’s express will; but our Northern friends have not been afraid even of that, in their zeal to furnish the Southern States with Africans. They are better seamen than Pharaoh, and calculate by that means to elude the vigilance of Heaven; which they seem to disregard, if they can but elude the violated laws of their country.”8 As late as May he saw little hope of suppressing the traffic.9 Sergeant of Pennsylvania declared: “It is notorious that, in spite of the utmost vigilance that can be employed, African negroes are clandestinely brought in and sold as slaves.”10 Plumer of New Hampshire stated that “of the unhappy beings, thus in violation of all laws transported to our shores, and thrown by force into the mass of our black population, scarcely one in a hundred is ever detected by the officers of the General Government, in a part of the country, where, if we are to believe the statement of Governor Rabun, ‘an officer who would perform his duty, by attempting to enforce the law [against the slave trade] is, by many, considered as an officious meddler, and treated with derision and contempt;’ ... I have been told by a gentleman, who has attended particularly to this subject, that ten thousand slaves were in one year smuggled into the United States; and that, even for the last year, we must count the number not by hundreds, but by thousands.”11 In 1821 a committee of Congress characterized prevailing methods as those “of the grossest fraud that could be practised to deceive the officers of government.”12 Another committee, in 1822, after a careful examination of the subject, declare that they “find it impossible to measure with precision the effect produced upon the American branch of the slave trade by the laws above mentioned, and the seizures under them. They are unable to state, whether those American merchants, the American capital and seamen which heretofore aided in this traffic, have abandoned it altogether, or have 5. Speech in the House of Representatives, Feb. 15, 1819, page 18; published in Boston, 1849. 6. Jay, INQUIRY INTO AMERICAN COLONIZATION (1838), page 59, note. 7. Quoted in Friends’ FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SLAVE TRADE (ed. 1841), pages 7-8. 8. ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 16th Congress 1st session, pages 270-1. 9. ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 16th Congress 1st session, page 698. 10. ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 16th Congress 1st session, page 1207. 11. ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 16th Congress 1st session, page 1433. 12. Referring particularly to the case of the slaver “Plattsburg.” Cf. HOUSE REPORTS, 17th Congress 1st session, II. No. 92, page 10. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

sought shelter under the flags of other nations.” They then state the suspicious circumstance that, with the disappearance of the American flag from the traffic, “the trade, notwithstanding, increases annually, under the flags of other nations.” They complain of the spasmodic efforts of the executive. They say that the first United States cruiser arrived on the African coast in March, 1820, and remained a “few weeks;” that since then four others had in two years made five visits in all; but “since the middle of last November, the commencement of the healthy season on that coast, no vessel has been, nor, as your committee is informed, is, under orders for that service.”13 The United States African agent, Ayres, reported in 1823: “I was informed by an American officer who had been on the coast in 1820, that he had boarded 20 American vessels in one morning, lying in the port of Gallinas, and fitted for the reception of slaves. It is a lamentable fact, that most of the harbours, between the Senegal and the line, were visited by an equal number of American vessels, and for the sole purpose of carrying away slaves. Although for some years the coast had been occasionally visited by our cruizers, their short stay and seldom appearance had made but slight impression on those traders, rendered hardy by repetition of crime, and avaricious by excessive gain. They were enabled by a regular system to gain intelligence of any cruizer being on the coast.”14 Even such spasmodic efforts bore abundant fruit, and indicated what vigorous measures might have accomplished. Between May, 1818, and November, 1821, nearly six hundred Africans were recaptured and eleven American slavers taken.15 Such measures gradually changed the character of the trade, and opened the international phase of the question. American slavers cleared for foreign ports, there took a foreign flag and papers, and then sailed boldly past American cruisers, although their real character was often well known. More stringent clearance laws and consular instructions might have greatly reduced this practice; but nothing was ever done, and gradually the laws became in large measure powerless to deal with the bulk of the illicit trade. In 1820, September 16, a British officer, in his official report, declares that, in spite of United States laws, “American vessels, American subjects, and American capital, are unquestionably engaged in the trade, though under other colours and in disguise.”16 The United States ship “Cyane” at one time reported ten captures within a few days, adding: “Although they are evidently owned by Americans, they are so completely covered 13. HOUSE REPORTS, 17th Congress 1st session, II. No. 92, page 2. The President had in his message spoken in exhilarating tones of the success of the government in suppressing the trade. The House Committee appointed in pursuance of this passage made the above report. Their conclusions are confirmed by British reports: PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS, 1822, Vol. XXII., SLAVE TRADE, Further Papers, III. page 44. So, too, in 1823, Ashmun, the African agent, reports that thousands of slaves are being abducted. 14. Ayres to the Secretary of the Navy, Feb. 24, 1823; reprinted in FRIENDS’ VIEW OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE (1824), page 31. 15. HOUSE REPORTS, 17th Congress 1st session, II. No. 92, pages 5-6. The slavers were the “Ramirez,” “Endymion,” “Esperanza,” “Plattsburg,” “Science,” “Alexander,” “Eugene,” “Mathilde,” “Daphne,” “Eliza,” and “La Pensée.” In these 573 Africans were taken. The naval officers were greatly handicapped by the size of the ships, etc. (cf. FRIENDS’ VIEW OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE (1824), pages 33-41). They nevertheless acted with great zeal. 16. PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS, 1821, Vol. XXIII., SLAVE TRADE, Further Papers, A, page 76. The names and description of a dozen or more American slavers are given: PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS, 1821, Vol. XXIII., SLAVE TRADE, Further Papers, A, pages 18-21. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

by Spanish papers that it is impossible to condemn them.”17 The governor of Sierra Leone reported the rivers Nunez and Pongas full of renegade European and American slave-traders;18 the trade was said to be carried on “to an extent that almost staggers belief.”19 Down to 1824 or 1825, reports from all quarters prove this activity in slave-trading. The execution of the laws within the country exhibits grave defects and even criminal negligence. Attorney-General Wirt finds it necessary to assure collectors, in 1819, that “it is against public policy to dispense with prosecutions for violation of the law to prohibit the Slave trade.”20 One district attorney writes: “It appears to be almost impossible to enforce the laws of the United States against offenders after the negroes have been landed in the state.”21 Again, it is asserted that “when vessels engaged in the slave trade have been detained by the American cruizers, and sent into the slave-holding states, there appears at once a difficulty in securing the freedom to these captives which the laws of the United States have decreed for them.”22 In some cases, one man would smuggle in the Africans and hide them in the woods; then his partner would “rob” him, and so all trace be lost.23 Perhaps 350 Africans were officially reported as brought in contrary to law from 1818 to 1820: the absurdity of this figure is apparent.24 A circular letter to the marshals, in 1821, brought reports of only a few well-known cases, like that of the “General Ramirez;” the marshal of Louisiana had “no information.”25 There appears to be little positive evidence of a large illicit importation into the country for a decade after 1825. It is hardly possible, however, considering the activity in the trade, that slaves were not largely imported. Indeed, when we note how the laws were continually broken in other respects, absence of evidence of petty smuggling becomes presumptive evidence that collusive or tacit understanding of officers and citizens allowed the trade to some extent.26 Finally, it must be noted that during all this time scarcely a man suffered for participating in the trade, beyond the loss of the Africans and, more rarely, of his ship. Red-handed slavers, caught in the act and convicted, were too often, like La Coste of South Carolina, the subjects of executive clemency.27 In certain cases there were those who even had the effrontery to ask Congress to cancel their own laws. For instance, in 1819 a Venezuelan privateer, secretly fitted out and manned by Americans in Baltimore, succeeded in 17. HOUSE REPORTS, 17th Congress 1st session, II. No. 92, pages 15-20. 18. HOUSE DOCUMENT, 18th Congress 1st session, VI. No. 119, page 13. 19. PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS, 1823, Vol. XVIII., SLAVE TRADE, Further Papers, A, pages 10-11. 20. OPINIONS OF ATTORNEYS-GENERAL, V. 717. 21. R.W. Habersham to the Secretary of the Navy, August, 1821; reprinted in FRIENDS’ VIEW OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE (1824), page 47. 22. FRIENDS’ VIEW OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE (1824), page 42. 23. FRIENDS’ VIEW OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE (1824), page 43. 24. Cf. above, pages 126-7. 25. FRIENDS’ VIEW OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE (1824), page 42. 26. A few accounts of captures here and there would make the matter less suspicious; these, however, do not occur. How large this suspected illicit traffic was, it is of course impossible to say; there is no reason why it may not have reached many hundreds per year. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

capturing several American, Portuguese, and Spanish slavers, and appropriating the slaves; being finally wrecked herself, she transferred her crew and slaves to one of her prizes, the “Antelope,” which was eventually captured by a United States cruiser and the 280 Africans sent to Georgia. After much litigation, the United States Supreme Court ordered those captured from Spaniards to be surrendered, and the others to be returned to Africa. By some mysterious process, only 139 Africans now remained, 100 of whom were sent to Africa. The Spanish claimants of the remaining thirty-nine sold them to a certain Mr. Wilde, who gave bond to transport them out of the country. Finally, in December, 1827, there came an innocent petition to Congress to cancel this bond.28 A bill to that effect passed and was approved, May 2, 1828,29 and in consequence these Africans remained as slaves in Georgia. On the whole, it is plain that, although in the period from 1807 to 1820 Congress laid down broad lines of legislation sufficient, save in some details, to suppress the African slave trade to America, yet the execution of these laws was criminally lax. Moreover, by the facility with which slavers could disguise their identity, it was possible for them to escape even a vigorous enforcement of our laws. This situation could properly be met only by energetic and sincere international co- operation....30

27. Cf. editorial in Niles’s Register, XXII. 114. Cf. also the following instances of pardons: — PRESIDENT JEFFERSON: March 1, 1808, Phillip M. Topham, convicted for “carrying on an illegal slave-trade” (pardoned twice). PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, I. 146, 148-9. PRESIDENT MADISON: July 29, 1809, fifteen vessels arrived at New Orleans from Cuba, with 666 white persons and 683 negroes. Every penalty incurred under the Act of 1807 was remitted. (Note: “Several other pardons of this nature were granted.”) PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, I. 179. Nov. 8, 1809, John Hopkins and Lewis Le Roy, convicted for importing a slave. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, I. 184-5. Feb. 12, 1810, William Sewall, convicted for importing slaves. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, I. 194, 235, 240. May 5, 1812, William Babbit, convicted for importing slaves. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, I. 248. PRESIDENT MONROE: June 11, 1822, Thomas Shields, convicted for bringing slaves into New Orleans. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 15. Aug. 24, 1822, J.F. Smith, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and $3000 fine; served twenty-five months and was then pardoned. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 22. July 23, 1823, certain parties liable to penalties for introducing slaves into Alabama. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 63. Aug. 15, 1823, owners of schooner “Mary,” convicted of importing slaves. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 66. PRESIDENT J.Q. ADAMS: March 4, 1826, Robert Perry; his ship was forfeited for slave-trading. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 140. Jan. 17, 1827, Jesse Perry; forfeited ship, and was convicted for introducing slaves. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 158. Feb. 13, 1827, Zenas Winston; incurred penalties for slave-trading. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 161. The four following cases are similar to that of Winston: — Feb. 24, 1827, John Tucker and William Morbon. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 162. March 25, 1828, Joseph Badger. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 192. Feb. 19, 1829, L.R. Wallace. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 215. PRESIDENT JACKSON: Five cases. PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, IV. 225, 270, 301, 393, 440. The above cases were taken from manuscript copies of the Washington records, made by Mr. W.C. Endicott, Jr., and kindly loaned me. 28. See SENATE JOURNAL, 20th Congress 1st session, pages 60, 66, 340, 341, 343, 348, 352, 355; HOUSE JOURNAL, 20th Congress 1st session, pages 59, 76, 123, 134, 156, 169, 173, 279, 634, 641, 646, 647, 688, 692. 29. STATUTES AT LARGE, VI. 376. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

1847

January 19, Tuesday: When the American war upon Mexico had begun, James Pierson Beckwourth had returned to the United States, herding with him nearly 1,800 Mexican horses as spoils of war. He had signed up as a courier with the US Army. On this day a Hispanic man, Pablo Montoya, and a Taos Indian, Tomás Romero, known as Tomasito, at Don Fernando de Taos (this is now Taos, New Mexico) began a Hispanic/Pueblo revolt against the dominant Americanos. Tomasito led his braves to the home of Governor Charles Bent, where they killed him and took his scalp in front of his wife and children. Stephen Lee, the acting county sheriff, Cornelio Vigil, a prefect and probate judge, and J.W. Leal, a circuit attorney, were likewise dealt with.

On this evening Henry Thoreau was delivering a lecture, probably “A History of Myself,” in the Brick or Centre School House of Lincoln, Massachusetts.

January 20, Wednesday: Outside Taos, New Mexico, in Arroyo Hondo, some 500 Mexicans and native Americans laid siege to the mill of Simeon Turley, defended by some eight to ten mountain men. Only two of the mountain men, John David Albert and Thomas Tate Tobin, survived the day to escape separately on foot during the night. The same day 7 American traders traveling toward Missouri were killed by a group of some 200 insurgents while they were passing through the village of Mora. James Pierson Beckwourth was at this point serving as a courier with the US Army in this vicinity.

30. Among interesting minor proceedings in this period were two Senate bills to register slaves so as to prevent illegal importation. They were both dropped in the House; a House proposition to the same effect also came to nothing: SENATE JOURNAL, 15th Congress 1st session, pages 147, 152, 157, 165, 170, 188, 201, 203, 232, 237; 15th Congress 2d session, pages 63, 74, 77, 202, 207, 285, 291, 297; HOUSE JOURNAL, 15th Congress 1st session, page 332; 15th Congress 2d session, pages 303, 305, 316; 16th Congress 1st session, page 150. Another proposition was contained in the Meigs resolution presented to the House, Feb. 5, 1820, which proposed to devote the public lands to the suppression of the slave-trade. This was ruled out of order. It was presented again and laid on the table in 1821: HOUSE JOURNAL, 16th Congress 1st session, pages 196, 200, 227; 16th Congress 2d session, page 238. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

January 24, Sunday: On the Donner summit, Louis Keseberg, Jr., died in the Keseberg’s lean-to.

Captain Israel R. Hendley led some 80 US soldiers to the village of Mora outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. When Captain Hendley was killed as he led a charge toward the fort there, and three of the troops wounded, they retreated to the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico to await reinforcements.

February 1, Monday: Captain Jesse I. Morin led some 200 US soldiers back to the village of Mora outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico, this time taking along a couple of army howitzers. The insurgents having vanished into the surrounding mountains, Captain Morin set about destroying the village homes and burning the surrounding wheat fields. It would appear that James Pierson Beckwourth was not part of this attack force, but instead part of another force of more than 300 US soldiers and some 65 volunteers under Colonel Sterling Price. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

February 3, Wednesday: The citizens of San Francisco held a meeting to raise funds for a Donner-summit rescue party. A force of more than 300 US soldiers and some 65 volunteers under Colonel Sterling Price surrounded and assaulted a Catholic church in Taos Pueblo the thick adobe walls of which insurgents had transformed into a fortress. After 150 were killed, 400 surrendered. It would appear that James Pierson Beckwourth was part of this attack force.

Henry Thoreau may or may not have delivered a WALDEN; OR, LIFE IN THE WOODS lecture, and this may or may not have been in Concord.31 TIMELINE OF WALDEN NOTE: The only mention of such a lecture is in Franklin Benjamin Sanborn’s typescript titled “Thoreau at Concord Lyceum” at the Abernethy Collection at VtMiM. Sanborn alleged that Prudence Ward’s diary indicated that Thoreau was to lecture in Concord on this evening; however, according to Concord Lyceum records 31. From Bradley P. Dean and Ronald Wesley Hoag’s “Thoreau’s Lectures before WALDEN: An Annotated Calendar.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

(THE MASSACHUSETTS LYCEUM DURING THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE, page 162) the Concord lecture was delivered by C.C. Hazewell of Concord and the Lincoln Lyceum did not offer a lecture on this date (THE MASSACHUSETTS LYCEUM DURING THE AMERICAN RENAISSANCE, page 213). Thoreau did lecture on February 10th and again on February 17th, so most likely the Ward/Sanborn report is a misunderstanding although it may indicate that a Thoreau lecture was rescheduled to accommodate Hazewell.

DATE PLACE TOPIC

January 19, Tuesday, 1847, at 7PM Lincoln MA; Brick or Centre School House “A History of Myself” (?) February 3, Wednesday, 1847 Concord (?) February 10, Wednesday, 1847, at 7PM Concord; Unitarian Church, Vestry “A History of Myself” (I) HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

1848

August: James Pierson Beckwourth was hired as a guide by an official of the US War Department, and their party struck out crosscountry for Los Angeles, California.

Henry I. Simpson of the New York Volunteers’s THREE WEEKS IN THE GOLD MINES, OR,ADVENTURES WITH THE GOLD DIGGERS OF CALIFORNIA IN AUGUST, 1848: TOGETHER WITH ADVICE TO EMIGRANTS, WITH FULL INSTRUCTIONS UPON THE BEST METHOD OF GETTING THERE, LIVING, EXPENSES, ETC., ETC., AND A COMPLETE HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.... (NY: Joyce and Company). HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

October 25, Wednesday: James Russell Lowell’s “A Fable for Critics” was published on Broadway in Manhattan by G.P. Putnam (bearing the date October 21st).

A FABLE FOR CRITICS

He had farted our nation’s first attempt at literary self-examination!32

In this curious piece he satirized the Margaret Fuller who had had the temerity to remark on how “stereotyped” Lowell’s attempts at poetry were, and who had predicted (accurately enough, it now seems!) that “posterity would not remember him” for his literary endeavors. In this curious piece Lowell also satirized Henry Thoreau

32. His was a busy pen in this year of 1848: in one year appeared his POEMS: SECOND SERIES, his THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL, and the first series of THE BIGELOW PAPERS. It really is too bad that none of this work has survived the test of time by remaining highly regarded! HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

and Ellery Channing, depicting them as Waldo Emerson impersonators:33 • His dismissal of Bronson Alcott as a writer who does follow the first rule of writing –that to learn to write one must write and write and write– but who will never be able to write intelligibly because he lives on some other planet:

Yonder, calm as a cloud, Alcott stalks in a dream, And fancies himself in thy groves, Academe, With the Parthenon nigh, and the olive-trees o’er him, And never a fact to perplex him or bore him, With a snug room at Plato’s, when night comes, to walk to, And people from morning till midnight to talk to, And from midnight till morning, nor snore in their listening; So he muses, his face with the joy of it glistening, For his highest conceit of a happiest state is Where they’d live upon acorns, and hear him talk gratis; And indeed, I believe, no man ever talked better — Each sentence hangs perfectly poised to a letter He seems piling words, but there‘s royal dust hid In the heart of each sky-piercing pyramid. While he talks he is great, but goes out like a taper, If you shut him up closely with pen, ink, and paper; Yet his fingers itch for ’em from morning till night, And he thinks he does wrong if he don’t always write; In this, as in all things, a lamb among men, He goes to sure death when he goes to his pen.

• His uncritical adulation of Nathaniel Hawthorne: There is Hawthorne, with genius so shrinking and rare That you hardly at first see the strength that is there; A frame so robust, with a nature so sweet, So earnest, so graceful, so lithe and so fleet, Is worth a descent from Olympus to meet; ’Tis as if a rough oak that for ages had stood, With his gnarled bony branches like ribs of the wood, Should bloom, after cycles of struggle and scathe, With a single anemone trembly and rathe; His strength is so tender, his wildness so meek, That a suitable parallel sets one to seek— He’s a John Bunyan Fouqué, a Puritan Tieck; When Nature was shaping him, clay was not granted For making so full-sized a man as she wanted, So, to fill out her model, a little she spared From some finer-grained stuff for a woman prepared, And she could not have hit a more excellent plan For making him fully and perfectly man.

• His dismissal of Edgar Allan Poe as a man whose intellect has overruled his affect:1 There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, Three fifths of him genius and two fifths sheer fudge, Who talks like a book of iambs and pentameters, In a way to make people of common-sense damn metres, Who has written some things quite the best of their kind, But the heart somehow seems all squeezed out by the mind,... HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

• His abrupt categorical trashing of “Miranda” (Margaret Fuller): But here comes Miranda. Zeus! where shall I flee to? She has such a penchant for bothering me, too! She always keeps asking if I don't observe a Particular likeness 'twixt her and Minerva. ... She will take an old notion and make it her own, By saying it o'er in her sibylline tone; Or persuade you 't is something tremendously deep, By repeating it so as to put you to sleep; And she may well defy any mortal to see through it, When once she has mixed up her infinite me through it. ... Here Miranda came up and said: Phœbus, you know That the infinite soul has its infinite woe, As I ought to know, having lived cheek by jowl, Since the day I was born, with the infinite soul. • His dismissal of Waldo Emerson as a man who worships himself in place of God: All admire, and yet scarcely six converts he’s got To I don’t (nor do they either) exactly know what; For though he builds glorious temples, ’t is odd He leaves never a doorway to get in a god. ’T is refreshing to old-fashioned people like me To meet such a primitive Pagan as he, In whose mind all creation is duly respected As parts of himself — just a little projected; And who’s willing to worship the stars and the sun, A convert to — nothing but Emerson. • His dismissal of Henry Thoreau as a low-rent Waldo clone: There comes [Thoreau], for instance; to see him’s rare sport, Tread in Emerson’s tracks with legs painfully short; How he jumps, how he strains, and gets red in the face, To keep step with the mystagogue’s natural pace! He follows as close as a stick to a rocket, His fingers exploring the prophet’s each pocket. Fie, for shame, brother bard; with good fruit of your own, Can’t you let neighbor Emerson’s orchards alone? Besides ’t is no use, you’ll not find e’en a core,— ______has picked up all the windfalls before.

33.The year 1848 was to be, according to his biographers, his annus mirabilis, for in the course of the year a total of four volumes would see publication: not only his A FABLE FOR CRITICS but also his POEMS: SECOND SERIES, his THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL, and the first series of THE BIGELOW PAPERS. In one of these volumes he managed to accurately anticipate, some 14 years in advance, what would be Emerson’s attitude toward the Civil War: Ez fer the war, I go agin it,— I mean to say I kind o’ du,— Thet is, I mean thet, bein’ in it, The best way wuz to fight it thru; Not but wut abstract war is horrid, I sign to thet with all my heart,— But civlyzation doos git forrid Sometimes upon a powder-cart. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH

READER! walk up at once (it will soon be too late) and buy at a perfectly ruinous rate A FABLE FOR CRITICS: OR, BETTER,

(I like, as a thing that the reader’s first fancy may strike, an old-fashioned title-page, such as presents a tabular view of the volume’s contents)

A GLANCE

AT A FEW OF OUR LITERARY PROGENIES (Mrs. Malaprop’s word)

FROM THE TUB OF DIOGENES; A VOCAL AND MUSICAL MEDLEY, THAT IS, A SERIES OF JOKES BY A WONDERFUL QUIZ

who accompanies himself with a rub-a-dub-dub, full of spirit and grace, on the top of the tub. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

“There comes Emerson first, whose rich words, every one, Are like gold nails in temples to hang trophies on, Whose prose is grand verse, while his verse the Lord knows, Is some of it pr— No, ’t is not even prose; I’m speaking of metres; some poems have welled From those rare depths of soul that have ne’er been excelled; They‘re not epics, but that does n’t matter a pin, In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; A grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak, If you‘ve once found the way, you‘ve achieved the grand stroke; In the worst of his poems are mines of rich matter, But thrown in a heap with a crush and a clatter; Now it is not one thing nor another alone Makes a poem, but rather the general tone, The something pervading, uniting the whole, The before unconceived, unconceivable soul, So that just in removing this trifle or that, you Take away, as it were, a chief limb of the statue; Roots, wood, bark, and leaves, singly perfect may be, But, clapt hodge-podge together, they don’t make a tree. “But, to come back to Emerson, (whom by the way, I believe we left waiting,) — his is, we may say, A Greek head on right Yankee shoulders, whose range Has Olympus for one pole, for t’ other the Exchange; He seems, to my thinking, (although I‘m afraid The comparison must, long ere this, have been made,) A Plotinus-Montaigne, where the Egyptian’s gold mist And the Gascon’s shrewd wit cheek-by-jowl coexist; All admire, and yet scarcely six converts he’s got To I don’t (nor they either) exactly know what; For though he builds glorious temples, ’t is odd He leaves never a doorway to get in a god. ’T is refreshing to old-fashioned people like me, To meet such a primitive Pagan as he, In whose mind all creation is duly respected As parts of himself — just a little projected; And who’s willing to worship the stars and the sun, A convert to — nothing but Emerson. So perfect a balance there is in his head, That he talks of things sometimes as if they were dead; Life, nature, love, God, and affairs of that sort, He looks at as merely ideas; in short, As if they were fossils stuck round in a cabinet, Of such vast extent that our earth’s a mere dab in it; Composed just as he is inclined to conjecture her, Namely, one part pure earth, ninety-nine parts pure lecturer; You are filled with delight at his clear demonstration, Each figure, word, gesture, just fits the occasion, With the quiet precision of science he‘ll sort ’em, But you can’t help suspecting the whole a post mortem. “There are persons, mole-blind to the soul’s make and style, Who insist on a likeness ’twixt him and Carlyle; To compare him with Plato would be vastly fairer, Carlyle’s the more burly, but E. is the rarer; He sees fewer objects, but clearlier, truelier, If C.’s as original, E.’s more peculiar; That he’s more of a man you might say of the one, Of the other he’s more of an Emerson; C.’s the Titan, as shaggy of mind as of limb, — E. the clear-eyed Olympian, rapid and slim; HDT WHAT? INDEX

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The one’s two-thirds Norseman, the other half Greek, Where the one’s most abounding, the other’s to seek; C.’s generals require to be seen in the mass, — E.’s specialties gain if enlarged by the glass; C. gives nature and God his own fits of the blues, And rims common-sense things with mystical hues, — E. sits in a mystery calm and intense, And looks coolly around him with sharp common sense; C. shows you how every-day matters unite With the dim transdiurnal recesses of night, — While E., in a plain, preternatural way, Makes mysteries matters of mere every day; C. draws all his characters quite à la Fuseli, — Not sketching their bundles of muscles and thews illy, He paints with a brush so untamed and profuse They seem nothing but bundles of muscles and thews; E. is rather like Flaxman, lines strait and severe, And a colorless outline, but full, round, and clear; — To the men he thinks worthy he frankly accords The design of a white marble statue in words. C. labors to get at the centre, and then Take a reckoning from there of his actions and men; E. calmly assumes the said centre as granted, And, given himself, has whatever is wanted. “He has imitators in scores, who omit No part of the man but his wisdom and wit, — Who go carefully o’er the sky-blue of his brain, And when he has skimmed it once, skim it again; If at all they resemble him, you may be sure it is Because their shoals mirror his mists and obscurities, As a mud-puddle seems deep as heaven for a minute, While a cloud that floats o’er is reflected within it. “There comes, for instance; to see him’s rare sport, Tread in Emerson’s tracks with legs painfully short; How he jumps, how he strains, and gets red in the face, To keep step with the mystagogue’s natural pace He follows as close as a stick to a rocket, His fingers exploring the prophet’s each pocket. Fie, for shame, brother bard; with good fruit of your own, Can’t you let neighbor Emerson’s orchards alone? Besides, ’t is no use, you’ll not find e’en a core, — E. has picked up all the windfalls before. They might strip every tree, and E. never would catch ’em, His Hesperides have no rude dragon to watch ’em When they send him a dishfull, and ask him to try ’em, He never suspects how the sly rogues came by ’em; He wonders why ’t is there are none such his trees on, And thinks ’em the best he has tasted this season. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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The famous “Water Celebration” on Boston Common, as the first of Loammi Baldwin III’s upland water reached the Boston metropolitan area from the new Cochituate System. A jet of Lake Cochituate water rose from the fountain in Boston’s Frog Pond. For the next two generations Boston would have an adequate supply of clean water.34

James Pierson Beckwourth and his party of travelers arrived at Los Angeles, California. From there they would continue north to Monterey, which at the time was the capital of California. Jim would take on a job as a courier for a ranch near the present-day city of Santa Maria, north of Los Angeles. On his way there he would come across the remains of a massacre, of the Reed family who had been living in the old Mission of San Miguel, and would lead a posse that would apprehend the murderers.

Niles’ Register published an account of the Women’s Rights Convention that had occurred in Rochester, New York:

WOMAN'S RIGHTS CONVENTION. A Convention appointed to be held in Rochester, (N.Y.) to advocate Women's Rights, was organized some weeks ago, in that city in the Unitarian Church. There was quite a respectable attendance, the body of the church being pretty well filled, mostly with females, some of whom seemed to have deeply at heart the professed objects of the meeting, but many more seemed to be drawn thither by motives of curiosity. Soon after the appointed hour the committee (all ladies) reported the following list of officers, who were duly appointed Mrs. ABIGAIL BUSH, President. Mrs. LAURA MURRAY, Vice President. Mrs. CATHARINE A. T. STEBBENS, } Mrs. SARAH L. HALLOWELL, }Sec’taries. 34. These Framingham MA reservoirs have not been tapped by Boston since 1931. Pollution forced the metropolis to turn first to the Wachusett Reservoir, and then to the Quabban Reservoir some 65 miles inland. The Sudbury Reservoirs are, however, on a standby basis to be utilized in times of emergency, after heavy chlorination. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Mrs. MARY H. HALLOWELL, }

The officers being appointed, Mr. William C. Nell proposed to read an essay upon Woman's Rights, but the President said it was not then in order to do so, and one of the Secretaries commenced reading the minutes of the preliminary meeting, but in so low a tone that she could not be heard by only a few {sic}, when a gentleman in a remote part of the house said the proceedings, to be made interesting, should be understood by all. After one or two more interruptions, Lucretia Mott, who was present, said it was not a fitting excuse for a woman to make that her voice could not be heard. The call for the Secretary to read louder was right, and, with sufficient practice, women could and would make themselves heard in a public assembly. Finally, Mrs. Burtis read the minutes, and they were adopted. The President then called upon Mr. Nell to read his essay, which he did. After the reading, Lucretia Mott stated her objections to a portion of the paper read. She did not believe in holding up woman as a superior to man, because it was untrue -- she was only an equal. When invested with power woman as well as man was tyrannical. Mr. Nell briefly replied. A letter was read from Gerritt Smith, assigning his bodily infirmities and private business as reasons for his non- attendance, but concurring in the objects sought to be accomplished. Mrs. Elizabeth Stanton {Elizabeth Cady Stanton}, of Seneca Falls, read the declaration adopted at the meeting held in that village, and the discussion of this document appeared to be the principal business of the forenoon session. The President having called for remarks for and against the sentiments it embodied, one gentleman said his objection was that there was too much truth in it! Mr. Burtis approved of the declaration, and was glad to see the women asserting their rights. Mr. Colton, of New Haven, briefly stated his objections, which appeared to be of a general nature. Lucretia Mott wished to know what the speaker considered the proper sphere of woman. It was not strange that he thought she should not be in the pulpit, he having been educated in New Haven, Connecticut. He should read his Bible again, as he may have pinned his faith upon the sleeve of some minister. W.C. Bloss, Esq. made some very humorous remarks, which were received with much applause. He then went on to show the different tastes of male and female children, and inquired whether these were not in accordance with the instincts of nature. Mrs. Sanford, of Michigan, made a forcible and eloquent address, in which she contended for the right of women to exercise the elective franchise, and their eligibility to office. It might, she said, be for women to break the bands of slavery, and she urged them to nerve for the effort. One of the consequences of the proposed enfranchisement of women would be less extravagance and waste in dress — fashion would be neglected. They could be HDT WHAT? INDEX

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as daughters, as wives, and as mothers, dutiful, gentle, and submissive, even if we hang the domestic wreath upon the eagle's talons! Her remarks called forth considerable applause. At the suggestion of Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth McClintock read a poetical composition, by Mrs. Chapman, of Boston. Mr. Cutting objected to that part of the declaration which held out the idea that voting was the first right of women. He regarded education as the first right, and it was the peculiar province of women to teach. If mothers teach their sons, wives their husbands, and sisters their brothers, how to vote, it was all the same as though they voted themselves. Mr. Sanford deprecated the occupation of so much time by the men. He hoped the ladies would assert their rights. Frederick Douglass went for equal rights of all classes, without regard to sex. After he had finished, the Convention adjourned till two o'clock P.M. When we went in at the afternoon session the house was crowded, and Mrs. Owen was reading a report. Several resolutions were adopted, of which the following was one “That, as obedience and submission to the husband is taught and enjoined in the marriage service, we will hereafter use our endeavors to have such a law entirely abrogated.” Lucretia Mott objected to them, as being too milk and water. She was not only for declaring, but for taking and maintaining her rights, and something more than these tame resolutions was necessary. In the course of her remarks, Lucretia said she was not a theologian, but yet she believed that people were as much inspired now as in former times. Mrs. Roberts made a report in relation to the condition of females who are employed as seamstresses in the city, setting forth the hardships under which they labor, &c. She said they were compelled to work fourteen or fifteen hours a day to earn from thirty-one to thirty-eight cents; that they seldom earned fifty cents, or, if they did, it was by the most extreme exertion. It appeared that those who can endure the most are only able to save some fifty cents per week beyond their board. Mrs. Stanton offered another resolution, asserting that it is duty of those who believe females are oppressed in their wages to pay them better prices. Lucretia Mott thought little good would be done by efforts to improve the physical condition of woman. The axe must be laid to the root of the corrupt tree. A radical change must be effected in her civil condition before much improvement would be visible. “Overturn, overture {sic}, overturn,” must be the motto, until these changes are effected, until all classes are levelled to the same common platform of equality. A slave, however treated, cannot be materially bettered until made free. It is the nature of slavery to debase. Just so it is with women; and, so long as the present usages of society prevailed, nothing would be done by passing resolutions. Mrs. Stanton offered another resolution, asserting that it is the duty of women, whatever their complexion, to assume as soon HDT WHAT? INDEX

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as possible their true position of equality, in the social circle, in church and in State. Other resolutions were also offered, when Mrs. Owen proposed the appointment of a committee to form a society for redressing the wrongs and hardships of laboring females, but Lucretia Mott thought this was foreign to the objects of the Convention. This has been a remarkable Convention. It was composed of those holding to some one of the various “isms” of the day, and some, we should think, who embraced them all. The only practical good proposed -- the adoption of measures for the relief and amelioration of females -- was almost scouted by the leading ones composing the meeting. The great effort seemed to be to bring out some few, impracticable, absurd, and ridiculous propositions, and the greater their absurdity the better. In short, it was a regular “emeute” of a congregation of females, gathered from various quarters, who seem to be really in earnest in their aim at revolution, and who evince entire confidence that “the day of their deliverance” is at hand. Verily, this is a “progressive” era. -- “Rochester Democrat.”

Winter: Moses Ely Ring departed with other men of Rhinebeck, New York in a joint overland expedition to the gold fields of California.

Edgar Allan Poe chose to be offended, or appear to be offended, by James Russell Lowell’s A FABLE FOR CRITICS: There comes Poe, with his raven, like Barnaby Rudge, Three fifths of him genius and two fifths sheer fudge, Who talks like a book of iambs and pentameters, In a way to make people of common-sense damn metres, Who has written some things quite the best of their kind, But the heart somehow seems all squeezed out by the mind,...

James Pierson Beckwourth near Los Angeles had also been unable to resist temptation (he seems never to have been able to resist temptation!), and had gone off to open a store in Sonoma. He would soon sell out, however, and relocate to Sacramento to get his living on the gold dust bags of the panners, as a professional gambler. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1850

At the age of 24, John Manjiro determined to return from Fairhaven, Massachusetts to Japan, despite the good likelihood that as a Japanese who had made contact with foreigners, he would simply be beheaded by the officials of the Shogunate under what had been the national policy for several centuries. He traveled across the USA to California and would work in a gold mine there for a year, accumulating $600, and then go on to the Hawaiian Islands to rejoin his fellow shipwrecked fishermen.

JOHN MANJIRO

James Pierson Beckwourth discovered the lowest mountain pass through the Sierra Nevada toward California, now known as the Beckwourth Pass.35

35. State Route 70 now crosses the Sierras along the Feather River route east of Portola, California at an elevation of 5,221 feet, making it one of the lowest crossings of the Sierra Nevadas. This was the route that the Western Pacific Railroad track would follow (a track now owned by Union Pacific). HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1851

Eugene Ring got back from the gold fields of California to New-York, to settle in a suburb called Morrisania which would subsequently be incorporated into the city, and find work as a bookkeeper. He would work at this for several years before, in the 1860s, himself entering the banking business.

By agreement with the white businessmen of various towns in California, James Pierson Beckwourth created a wagon route through the Sierra Nevada pass he had discovered, through Plumas, Butte and Yuba counties, to be known as the Beckwourth Trail. This began near Pyramid Lake and the Truckee Meadows to the east and followed a ridge between two forks of Feather River down to Marysville. His route was not only about 150 miles shorter than the route across the Donner summit, but also had fewer steep grades and dangerous elevations.36 On the Google map below, “B” is the Beckwourth Pass and “E” is Marysville:

However, there had been a couple of large fires at Marysville, impacting the merchants, and since they did not regard Beckwourth as a white man anyway, they felt no obligation to honor their promises to him — so he would be unable to secure payment for his accomplishment. Beckwourth would begin ranching in the Sierra, and his ranch, trading post, and hotel in Sierra Valley would become the basis for the nothing town of Beckwourth, California.

36. State Route 70 now crosses the Sierras along the Feather River route east of Portola, California at an elevation of 5,221 feet, making it one of the lowest crossings of the Sierra Nevadas. This was the route that the Western Pacific Railroad track would follow (a track now owned by Union Pacific). HDT WHAT? INDEX

JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH JIM BECKWOURTH HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

August: The treaty of Mendota. Between this treaty and the treaty of Traverse des Sioux that had been entered into in July of this year, the Dakota territories of Minnesota had been reduced by 24,000,000 acres. The bands had remaining only a ten-mile strip of reservation land on each side of the Minnesota River (and soon would lose first half that, then all of it).

James Pierson Beckwourth led the 1st intact wagon train to pass over the Sierra Nevada into Marysville, California (a town named in honor of Mary Murphy, a survivor of the Donner Party disaster of Winter 1846/ 1847). On the Google map below, “B” is the Beckwourth Pass and “E” is Marysville:

He then discovered that since he was not considered to be a white man, he had no standing to file a lawsuit in HDT WHAT? INDEX

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a California court and could not oblige the merchants of the town to honor the agreement into which they had entered. During the following decade an estimated 10,000 people would use the trail he had created to Marysville in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1854

Winter: Thomas D. Bonner, a guest at the hotel created by James Pierson Beckwourth in Sierra Valley, California, hearing in this hotel keeper’s log cabin (it still exists, radically renovated) on the premises the story of his

active life, wrote it up and in the following year would offer it to Harper & Brothers in New York as a potential crowd-pleaser. A contract was created, in accordance with which Beckwourth was to receive half the royalties, and THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES P. B ECKWOURTH, MOUNTAINEER, SCOUT, AND PIONEER, AND CHIEF OF THE CROW NATION OF INDIANS. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. WRITTEN FROM HIS OWN DICTATION, BY T.D. BONNER would appear in 1856. Beckwourth would never receive a cent.

LIFE AND ADVENTURES HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1856

Thomas D. Bonner, a guest at the hotel created by James Pierson Beckwourth in Sierra Valley, California, having heard the story of Beckwourth’s life, had written it up and obtained a publishing contract from Harper & Brothers in New York. Beckwourth was to receive half the royalties for THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF JAMES P. B ECKWOURTH, MOUNTAINEER, SCOUT, AND PIONEER, AND CHIEF OF THE CROW NATION OF INDIANS. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. WRITTEN FROM HIS OWN DICTATION, BY T.D. BONNER (he would receive not a cent).

5 1/4 inches, $30, on the internet LIFE AND ADVENTURES

(Henry Thoreau would read this new book, making entries in his Indian Notebook #10 and in his Fact Book for the year 1856.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1859

James Pierson Beckwourth returned from California to Missouri. Late in the year he would settle at Denver, Colorado as a storekeeper and agent for Indian affairs. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1864

The Reverend John Milton Chivington obligated James Pierson Beckwourth to serve as a scout for his 3d

Colorado Volunteers, for which he was the Colonel, in its campaign against the Cheyenne and Arapaho. After the Reverend’s Sand Creek Massacre the Cheyenne would refuse to have anything more to do with Beckwourth and, no longer able to serve as an agent for Indian affairs, he would need to return to trapping for a living. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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November 29, dawn-November 30: On Sand Creek just outside Denver, a reservation encampment of Cheyenne under the leadership of the accommodationist Black Kettle was attacked without warning or provocation by the 3d Colorado Volunteers and more than 200 were massacred.

The rule that obtained was that, to solve this American race problem forever, it would be necessary to exterminate not only the adult males but also the women and children of color: “nits breed lice.”37 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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37. This is not the first time that such an exterminationist race/gender attitude has surfaced in white America. See the record for August 6, 1676: As a comparison situation to the unmarked Mt. Misery site of atrocity near Concord MA, consider this site of a reservation massacre on Sand Creek in which again it was mostly women and children who were being exterminated by a white volunteer militia. The Colorado site wouldn’t be marked at all until 1986, and then when the state finally did put up a marker, on a rise of scrub above the dry creek bed, it would characterize the site of this extermination as, quote unquote, a “battleground.” “Denial is an integral part of atrocity, and it’s a natural part after a society has committed genocide. First you kill, and then the memory of killing is killed.” — Iris Chang, author of THE RAPE OF NANKING (1997), when the Japanese translation of her work was cancelled by Basic Books due to threats from Japan, on May 20, 1999.

“Historical amnesia has always been with us: we just keep forgetting we have it.” — Russell Shorto HDT WHAT? INDEX

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It was not that Black Kettle38 and the Reverend Chivington were unknown to each other. On a following screen, for instance, they pose for a convivial group snapshot at their Camp Weld meeting (which, obviously, must have been prior to this present event).

“...the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.” — Declaration of Independence

In a few days Colonel John Milton Chivington’s39 cowboy irregulars would ride back into their capital city, known as Denver, with dripping red pudendas pressed over their saddle horns. –White was right again!40 Damn any man who would sympathize with Indians! I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians.

38. On November 27, 1868 this native American leader, living in a reservation teepee with a white flag atop it, would be killed and scalped during an unprovoked assault by the 7th Cavalry of Colonel George Armstrong Custer. HDT WHAT? INDEX

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Of course, James Pierson Beckwourth was a participant in this, even though we do not have evidence that he was one of the cowboys who cut up the women and rode through Denver with their genitalia jammed down over their saddlehorns. So, he now has his own postage stamp, which is only fair:

The Reverend Chivington would be heard to boast that since he had surpassed Kit Carson he would soon be reputed as the greatest Indian killer of them all. When Carson heard of this Sand Creek massacre, he openly denounced the Reverend Chivington.

39. Chivington was a Methodist lay preacher, and upon his return with his victorious 1st Colorado Cavalry he would be honored not only by his government but also by his Methodist church. This violated one of the white man’s rules of atrocity, the rule whereby when anything necessarily brutal gets done no-one is to be suspected to be enjoying it, and so on April 22, 1996 in Denver, the General Conference of the United Methodist church would vote with but little opposition that they should issue a somewhat belated but fulsome apology for this genocide. 40. On July 22, 1998, the federal government, in accordance with the provisions of Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) 43 CFR 10.9, would seize from the Colorado Historical Society one native American scalp. The scalp in question seems to have been one of those taken by Major Jacob Downing as its provenance was that in 1911 it had been donated to the Society by a Mrs. Jacob Downing. (There is no record that any of the severed female pudenda were ever donated to the Colorado Historical Society by the surviving widows of these cowboy irregulars.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

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The Reverend Chivington now has a town named for him (A), and Colorado Governor Evans, who had

sanctioned this sort of conduct, was able to live out his life in luxury in one of our finest neighborhoods, with a street and a mountain named after him. Here is a newswriter’s retrospective synopsis as of September 2000: SENATOR RELEASES MASSACRE LETTERS By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) Nearly 136 years after Colorado Militia troops ambushed and massacred more than 150 American Indians on the banks of Sand Creek, a senator related to a survivor of the attack is sponsoring a plan to create a memorial at the site. At a hearing on the proposal Thursday, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell read from two recently discovered letters written by soldiers who objected to the 1864 atrocity. One, Capt. Silas Soule, detailed the gruesome scene where troops slaughtered Cheyenne and Arapaho women, children and elderly men. “It was hard to see little children on their knees have their brains beat out by men professing to be civilized,” wrote Soule, who was murdered in Denver shortly after testifying at a congressional inquiry. Campbell, a Northern Cheyenne whose great- grandfather’s second wife survived the attack, said the descriptions brought tears to his eyes. The Colorado Republican is backing a bill to create a national historic site on more than 12,000 acres of “killing fields” on the plains of southeastern Colorado. “Can you imagine cutting open a pregnant woman and taking out the baby and then scalping the baby? My God!” Campbell said. “It’s the worst atrocity I’ve ever heard of.” The HDT WHAT? INDEX

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National Park Service supports Campbell’s proposal to create the Sand Creek historic site, which would help protect the area from artifact poachers and allow Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal members to create a burial ground there for the remains of victims. Rancher Bill Dawson, on whose land much of the killing ground lies, and other area landowners are willing to sell their property to create the memorial. Campbell said he guessed the bill had a “50-50” chance of passing Congress before lawmakers adjourn for the year, which is scheduled for early October. Steve Brady, president of the Northern Cheyenne Sand Creek Descendants, said the historic site would commemorate “the unspeakable horrors of ethnic cleansing.” The massacre began at dawn on Nov. 29, 1864, when nearly 1,000 men under the command of Col. John M. Chivington surrounded hundreds of Indians camped on the banks of the creek. Soule and other witnesses said Chivington wanted to kill Indians and did not care that this group was peaceful and had been promised by other U.S. troops that they would be left alone if they flew an American flag. The troops opened fire on the mostly unarmed Indians with guns and howitzers, then chased down many who tried to flee. The soldiers mutilated the bodies, taking away scalps, ears, fingers and genitals as trophies. Although the congressional probe sparked by Soule and Lt. Joe Cramer condemned the massacre, those involved were never punished and the reparations promised in a treaty were never paid. Chivington has a town in the area named after him. Brady and other Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders said they are still trying to get remains of Sand Creek victims returned to tribes. The Colorado Historical Society has at least one scalp from a Sand Creek victim, and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln has the cranium of another, they said. Having a final resting place for those remains is important to the descendants of massacre victims, said Joe Big Medicine, who works to reclaim remains for the Southern Cheyenne tribe. “It’s important for us to have it remembered by the American people,” Big Medicine said. “It’s important to remember what they did to our people. They killed our people.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1866

October 29, Monday: The army had employed James Pierson Beckwourth as a scout in Fort Laramie and Fort Phil Kearny, but while guiding a military column toward contact with a Crow tribe in Montana he had experienced severe headaches and nosebleeds. On this day he died in the Crow encampment. (William Byers, creator of the Rocky Mountain News, would invent a just-so story that had him poisoned by the Crow who were attending him during his final illness.) HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1943

Bernard DeVoto wrote, on page 65 of THE YEAR OF DECISION: 1846 (Boston: Little, Brown), that “Jim Beckwith, who knew, said that though the Indian could never become a white man, the white man lapsed easily into an Indian.” HDT WHAT? INDEX

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1996

At the urging of promoters of Beckwourth Frontier Days, a living history festival, the city of Marysville, California’s largest park was renamed as the Beckwourth Riverfront Park.

“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING: HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY

“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Jim Beckwourth HDT WHAT? INDEX

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: August 31, 2014 HDT WHAT? INDEX

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX

JIM BECKWOURTH JAMES PIERSON BECKWOURTH

Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.