British–Native American Relations in the Colonial Southeast
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Brothers Born of One Mother Brothers Born of One Mother British– Native American Relations in the Colonial Southeast Michelle LeMaster University of Virginia Press Charlottesville and London University of Virginia Press © 2012 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper First published 2012 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data LeMaster, Michelle, 1970- Brothers born of one mother : British Native American relations in the colonial Southeast / Michelle LeMaster. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8139-3241-5 (cloth : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-8139-3242-2 (e- book) 1. Masculinity—Southern States—History. 2. Femininity—Southern States—History. 3. Indians, Treatment of—Southern States—History. 4. British—Southern States— History. I. Title. bf692.5.l457 2012 305.30975′09033—dc23 2011035010 For my parents Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. A “Friend” and a “Brother”: Gender, Family, and Diplomacy 15 2. “ I Am a Man and a Warrior”: Native and British Rhetorics of Manhood and Warfare 51 3. “ To Protect Th em and Th eir Wives and Children”: Women and War 84 4. Guns and Garters: Men, Women, and the Trade 118 5. “ To Stay amongst Th em by a Marriage”: Th e Politics and Domestics of Intermarriage 149 Conclusion 185 Appendix: Maps Th e Southeast circa 1715 194 Th e Southeast in the 1740s 195 Th e Southeast on the eve of the American Revolution 196 Cherokee settlements, mid- eighteenth century 197 Creek settlements, mid- eighteenth century 198 Notes 199 Bibliography 253 Index 285 Acknowledgments In the course of any research project, one incurs a signifi cant number of debts. Although my thanks seem inadequate, I wish to acknowledge those who have helped me so substantially along the way. Th is work could not have been com- pleted without the direction and support of Jack P. Greene. He gave me the freedom to pursue my own passions while also setting high standards for scholarship. I am also grateful for the guidance I received at the Johns Hopkins University from Michael Johnson, Toby Ditz, A. J. R. Russell- Wood, Ron Wal- ters, and Phil Morgan. Th e members of the Colonial American History Semi- nar at Hopkins provided both penetrating critiques and collegial camaraderie, and I value the continued support that I receive from many of the former mem- bers, especially Ellen Holmes Pearson and Bradford Wood. Numerous institutions provided fi nancial assistance for this project, with- out which it would have been impossible for me to complete it. Research and teaching fellowships along with a Southern History Research Grant from Th e Johns Hopkins University helped fund the initial research. Two unfunded fel- lowships from the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina helped me to obtain temporary housing and library privileges at the university during my stay in Columbia. A Council on Faculty Research Grant from Eastern Illinois University and a Paul J. Franz Jr. and Class of 1968 Junior Faculty Fellowship from Lehigh University allowed me to complete the archi- val research and to conduct interviews in the Choctaw Nation. Many scholars have given generously of their time, reading portions of the manuscript. I am particularly grateful to James Merrell, James Saeger, and Amy Turner- Bushnell, who read the entire book. Many others read chapters, includ- ing Alan Gallay, Monica Najar, and John Pettegrew. Th eir insightful comments helped me to reconsider important ideas and reshape the argument in critical ways. Faculty colloquia at Eastern Illinois University and Lehigh University x Acknowledgments supplied additional feedback, as did a women’s reading group at Eastern Illi- nois University (which included Sace Elder, Lynnea Magnuson, and Debra Reed). Anne Little and the anonymous readers for the University of Virginia Press provided a rigorous critique that helped me to hone key points. Th e Newberry Seminar in Early American History and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture provided a stimulating forum for me to present chapters and work out my ideas. Several scholars commented on portions of the project presented at conferences, including Nancy Shoemaker and Clara Sue Kidwell. Th e staff at the many repositories I visited gave of their time and expertise, helping me to fi nd sources and generally making the task of completing re- search pleasant and fruitful. I wish to thank the North Carolina Department of History and Archives in Raleigh; the South Caroliniana Library at the Uni- versity of South Carolina in Columbia; the South Carolina Historical Society in Charleston; the Georgia Department of Archives and History in Atlanta; the Georgia Historical Society in Savannah; and the Library of Congress. Very special thanks go to the South Carolina Department of Archives and History in Columbia. Th e wonderful staff put up with me for several months, pulling volume after volume of Council Journals and Miscellaneous Records. Th eir humor and fl exibility were greatly appreciated. I especially wish to thank the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma for the gen- erous hospitality that I received when I visited in 2004 and 2007. I am par- ticularly grateful to Olin Williams, Cultural Preservation Specialist, who gra- ciously introduced me to many people in the nation and to his nation’s history. Chief Greg Pyle was very welcoming as well. I also wish to acknowledge the in- valuable assistance of Teresa Billy, Clive Billy, and Hannah Bryan of the Choc- taw Language Department, as well as the committee working to produce a new Choctaw dictionary, in helping me with translations of eighteenth- century transcriptions of Choctaw words. I received very useful insights from talking with Nancy Southerland- Holmes of the Choctaw National Capitol Museum and Sandra Stroud of Chi Hullo Li. I also wish to thank Terry Cole, Barbara Grant, Tom Williams, and Burt Holt for generously sharing their time. I am sure that this work has been greatly improved because of their input. Any and all errors that remain are entirely my own. Brothers Born of One Mother Introduction n April 12, 1715, a Yamasee Indian approached the wife of prominent OPort Royal planter and sometime trader William Bray “and told her he had a great Matter to tell her, which was that the Creek Indians had a De- sign to cut of[f ] the Traders fi rst and then to fall on the Settlement, and that itt was very neare, but that he had a great Love for her and her two Sisters and when itt was very near he would come again and when he came next they must goe immediately to their Town.”¹ After years of corrupt trading prac- tices, abuse and enslavement of their women and children, and encroachment on their lands, Yamasee and Ochese (soon to be known as the Lower Creek) Indians were nearing the breaking point in their alliance with Charles Town. Although Carolina offi cials responded promptly to this and similar warnings and sent representatives to Pocotaligo (the chief Yamasee town) to try to ease the tensions, the situation was already spiraling dangerously out of control. Th e emissaries—including Bray; the former Indian agent John Wright; and the current agent to the Yamasee, Th omas Nairne; along with several others— met with Yamasee headmen on April 14, 1715. Accounts of the meeting that fol- lowed diff er substantially. According to one contemporary account, the British ambassadors delivered a peaceful message: they promised redress of grievances and reminded the Yamasee of the benefi ts of the alliance between Pocotaligo and Charles Town. After the Carolinians had gone to sleep that night, how- ever, a Yamasee woman who spoke English arrived in the town square of Po- cotaligo and reported that the Englishmen had not come to make peace but rather to spy. In the already- tense atmosphere of the council house that night, this rumor ignited a confl agration.² Th e Yamasee, however, provided a dif- ferent account of the origins of the war. Th e Huspaw king claimed that “Mr. Wright said that the white men would come and [fetch] [illegible] the Yama- sees in one night, and that they would hang four of their head men and take all 2 Introduction the rest of them for Slaves, and that he would send them all off the Country, for he said that the men of the Yamasees were like women, and shew’d his hands one to the other, and what he said vex’d the great Warrier’s, and this made them begin the war.”³ Regardless of which scenario was closer to the truth, only two British ambassadors survived the night. Colleton County militia captain Sey- mour Burroughs was shot twice before escaping by plunging into the Pocota- ligo River, while another unnamed man hid in the woods.⁴ What followed was one of the most devastating Indian wars in British colonial history. Th e Yamasee fell on the settlement of Port Royal. Panicked men, women, and children, warned by Burroughs, had already fl ed to a ship in the harbor. A second war party attacked Saint Bartholomew’s Parish with greater success, killing more than one hundred settlers without regard to age or sex.⁵ Other tribes quickly joined in, convincing the British that they were fac- ing a general conspiracy among their Indian neighbors. Over the next several months, Charles Town offi cials scrambled to build fortifi cations “for the recep- tion of the women and children, and to secure provisions for them and others in distress.”⁶ Th e Yamasee also scrambled to build a fort for similar purposes, but they were overrun before its construction was complete.⁷ Active fi ghting between the British and Yamasee lasted only a few months.