British Troops, Colonists, Indians, and Slaves in Southeastern
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BRITISH TROOPS, COLONISTS, INDIANS, AND SLAVES IN SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA, 1756-1763 A Dissertation by HYUN WU LEE Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, April Hatfield Committee Members, Cynthia Bouton Angela Hudson Jonathan Smith Head of Department, David Vaught May 2014 Major Subject: History Copyright 2014 Hyun Wu Lee ABSTRACT This work recasts the world of the North American Southeast during the Seven Years’ War by examining the intersecting stories of British soldiers, colonists, Indians, and enslaved and free Africans. Populated with diverse Indians, Europeans, and enslaved and free Africans, the Southeast remained a vibrant and fiercely contested space that can be viewed as a slice of the Atlantic world in which the larger, external forces of imperialism and market capitalism collided throughout the eighteenth century. It also argues that the political, social, and intercultural dimensions of the Seven Years’ War relations between British soldiers and colonists cannot be fully understood without examining the experiences of Indians and enslaved Africans—especially in the Southeast. While British soldiers often judged the inhabitants of the Southeast based on their notions of race, class, and gender to maintain their identity as King’s Troops, these differences did not preclude them from pursuing economic interests with the local planters or share social, physical spaces together with the Indians and enslaved Africans. ii DEDICATION To my parents iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee chair, Dr. Hatfield, and my committee members, Dr. Hudson, Dr. Bouton, and Dr. Smith, for their guidance and support throughout the course of this research. I also thank my former advisers Peter Field at the University of Canterbury and Dan Thorp at Virginia Tech for their moral support. Thanks also go to my friends and colleagues and the department faculty and staff for making my time at Texas A&M University a great experience. I want to extend my gratitude to the Merlbern G. Glasscock Center and Carol and Boe W. Martin for their generous funding which allowed me to travel to numerous archives in the United States and the United Kingdom. I wish to give special thanks to William L. Clements Library and the David Library of the American Revolution for granting me fellowships to access their archives on site. Finally, thanks to my parents for their encouragement, patience, and love during all those years I spent in graduate schools. iv NOMENCLATURE Add. MS. Additional Manuscripts CO Colonial Office GD Gift and Deposits LO Loudoun Papers SCDAH South Carolina Department of Archives and History SCHS South Carolina Historical Society WO War Office v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv NOMENCLATURE ........................................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER I BRITISH TROOPS AND SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA IN THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR ............................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER II THE SOUTHEAST AND SOLDIERS ..................................................... 20 British Colonial Southeast as a Historical and Geographical Unit .............................. 21 South Carolina and Charles Town ............................................................................... 26 Forts and Garrison Forces ............................................................................................ 28 The Emergence of British Defense Strategy of the Southeast ..................................... 35 CHAPTER III ROYAL AMERICANS AND SCOTTISH HIGHLANDERS IN CHARLES TOWN, 1757-1758 ....................................................................................... 44 Insecurity and Fear ....................................................................................................... 47 Henry Bouquet in Charles Town .................................................................................. 49 Quartering Dispute: Bouquet’s Prejudice and Paranoia ............................................... 52 The Impact on Local Economy and Labor ................................................................... 57 Rank-and-File ............................................................................................................... 64 Slavery, Race, Class and British Soldiers .................................................................... 66 Ethnic Dimensions ....................................................................................................... 68 British Soldiers’ Interactions with Women .................................................................. 73 CHAPTER IV THE CHOICES OF CHEROKEES IN THE FORT DUQUESNE EXPEDITION, 1758 ........................................................................................................ 81 Fort Duquesne Expedition, Cherokees, and Catawbas ................................................ 81 Cherokee Decisions to Join the Expedition ................................................................. 86 William Byrd Meets Attakullakulla ............................................................................. 89 vi Gift Giving Blunders .................................................................................................... 93 British-Colonial Fractures ............................................................................................ 98 The Ineptitude of Forbes and Bouquet and New Gift Giving Policy ......................... 104 Duplicitous Interpreters and Cherokee Dissent .......................................................... 108 Catawbas .................................................................................................................... 112 The End of the Fort Duquesne Expedition ................................................................. 119 CHAPTER V BRITISH TROOPS, CHARLES TOWN, AND THE ANGLO- CHEROKEE WAR, 1760-61 ......................................................................................... 126 Outbreak of the Anglo-Cherokee War ....................................................................... 126 In-between the Fort Duquesne Expedition and the New War .................................... 129 Montgomery’s Highlanders Return to South Carolina .............................................. 130 Quartering without Controversy? ............................................................................... 133 British Officers’ Relations with Women .................................................................... 141 Indian Visitors to Charles Town ................................................................................ 145 British Troops and Enslaved Africans in Charles Town ............................................ 152 British Troops Leave Charles Town .......................................................................... 158 CHAPTER VI DAILY INTERACTIONS IN THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY ............ 160 Disagreements over the Cherokee Expedition ........................................................... 160 British Officers’ Attitude toward Indian Warriors ..................................................... 164 Silver Heels Incident .................................................................................................. 168 Understanding Indians? .............................................................................................. 171 Hunting ....................................................................................................................... 176 African Pioneers in Grant’s Expedition ..................................................................... 178 Charles Town without British Troops ........................................................................ 180 CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION: BRITISH TROOPS, EMPIRE, AND THE SOUTHEAST ................................................................................................................. 185 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 202 vii CHAPTER I BRITISH TROOPS AND SOUTHEASTERN NORTH AMERICA IN THE SEVEN YEARS’ WAR “There is no Danger that we shall fall in Love wth. South Carolina, if we had any Inclination that Way, their genteel Proceeding with us would soon cure us of it.”1 — Henry Bouquet to John Stanwix, 1757 No British officer castigated South Carolina more than Colonel Henry Bouquet. His bitter disputes with the colonists over the quartering of his troops have led scholars to characterize relations between the British army and South Carolina’s Anglo-American civilian populations as confrontational and antagonistic. This is a grossly incomplete picture, however. British troops daily engaged in various exchanges with the diverse inhabitants of the Southeast—colonists, Indians, as well as both free and enslaved Africans—and collaborated with them to pursue common economic