Captives of the Dark and Bloody Ground: Identity, Race, and Power in the Contested American South
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CAPTIVES OF THE DARK AND BLOODY GROUND: IDENTITY, RACE, AND POWER IN THE CONTESTED AMERICAN SOUTH Christina Nicole Snyder A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2007 Approved by: Michael D. Green Theda Perdue Kathleen A. DuVal Vincas P. Steponaitis Harry L. Watson ©2007 Christina Nicole Snyder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Christina Snyder, “Captives of the Dark and Bloody Ground: Identity, Race, and Power in the Contested American South” (Under the direction of Michael Green and Theda Perdue) In this dissertation, I use the lens of captivity to explore how Native Southerners defined themselves and the other. Before they encountered one another in the colonial era, the peoples of Africa, Europe, and North America considered enslavement a legitimate fate for captured enemy peoples, though their attitudes about the status and roles of captives differed. In the South during the colonial and early national periods, violent conflict often erupted as Indian nations labored to maintain their territorial integrity and political autonomy, Euro-Americans desired to control Indian land and African labor, and Africans sought freedom. During such episodes, Native groups took enemies—white, black, and Indian—as captives. Victors then subjected their captives to a variety of fates: they ritually killed some to satisfy the demands of clan vengeance; they adopted others to replace deceased family members; they made chattel slaves out of the remainder. Throughout the colonial period, Native Southerners largely determined a captive’s fate based on his or her sex and age. By the late eighteenth century, however, race became a captive’s most salient characteristic, and African-American captives were overwhelmingly targeted in warfare and then sold or held in transgenerational bondage. This study, in part, explores why that shift toward racialization occurred, and how it reflected Native Southerners’ changing sense of identity. More broadly, “Captives of the Dark and Bloody Ground” addresses the iii construction of race and racism in America and contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the diversity of enslavement in North America. This dissertation traces the dynamic institution of captivity from the precolonial past, when Native chiefdoms competed for regional power, through the conclusion of the Second Seminole War in 1842, which marks the final captive-taking episode in the contested American South. It draws upon a wide variety of English- and Spanish-language sources including legal documents, personal and official correspondence, journals, ethnographies, and the archaeological record. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have assisted me in this project. My advisors, Mike Green and Theda Perdue, have helped me define, shape, and complete this dissertation. Kathleen DuVal gave very generously of her time and afforded me invaluable advice. Thanks to my other committee members, Harry Watson and Vin Steponaitis, for their guidance in the fields of Southern history and Southeastern archaeology, respectively. My thanks to Charles Hudson, Wayne Lee, Willoughby Anderson, and Meg Devlin for reading portions of this dissertation. My undergraduate mentors at the University of Georgia, Dr. Hudson, David Hally, and Claudio Saunt, helped me understand the South’s Native past. The Center for the Study of the American South, the Filson Historical Institute, the Tennessee Historical Society, and the American Philosophical Society provided research funding. I especially thank the Royster Society and its donors for giving me the support I needed to complete this project. For their help in with research, I thank all the staff at the Southern Historical Collection, the Georgia Archives, the Filson Historical Society, the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, the South Carolina Historical Society, the St. Augustine Historical Society, and Special Collections at the University of Florida Libraries, and especially Bruce Chappell, James Cusick, Steve Engerrand, and Charles Tingley. Christie Cabe, Jack Davis, Sonya Rudenstine, and Nachel and Jeannie Wilkins helped out with research trips. I am especially v grateful to my parents, Dan and Janice, for supporting my endeavors in higher education. My brothers, Danny and Matthew, have always been great friends and good listeners. Finally, thanks to Aidan for his love and tech support. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………..viii ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………………………ix Chapters Introduction…………………………………………………………………….1 PART I: THE EARLY SOUTH: BODIES FOR POWER, BODIES FOR SALE………………………………..18 I. Human Prestige Goods: The Captives of Chiefs………………………18 II. The Chickasaws and the Indian Slave Trade…………………………..53 PART II: THE NATIVE SOUTH: CRYING BLOOD………………………...87 III. Death…………………………………………………………………....87 IV. Adoption……………………………………………………………….113 V. Slavery…………………………………………………………………136 PART III: THE MAKING OF THE PLANTATION SOUTH: CAPTIVITY AND RACE……………………………………………………..157 VI. Violent Intimacy: Warfare on the Southern Frontier………………….157 VII. Race in Creek Country………………………………………………...191 VIII. A People Apart: Seminoles and their African American Tributaries….219 IX. Allies in War: The Fight for the Seminole Homeland………………...238 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..281 References……………………………………………………………………..285 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Guillame Delisle’s 1718 map…………………………………………...9 2. Warriors planting arrows………………………………………………24 3. Attack on an enemy village……………………………………………36 4. Chief Satouriona’s ceremonial preparation for battle…………………38 5. Joseph Brown………………………………………………...............160 6. Bowlegs’ towns……………………………………………................255 viii ABBREVIATIONS ASP:IA American State Papers, Class II: Indian Affairs. 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: Gales and Seaton, 1832. DRIA Documents Relating to Indian Affairs, Colonial Records of South Carolina Documents Relating to Indian Affairs, May 21, 1750-August 7, 1754. Columbia: South Carolina Archives Dept., 1958. EFP East Florida Papers. Microfilm copy at PKY. FHS Filson Historical Society. Louisville, Kentucky. GA Georgia Archives, Morrow. HRB Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. University of Georgia Libraries, Athens. JRP James Robertson Papers, TSLA. LC Joseph Byrne Lockey Collection of Documents Related to the History of Florida, PKY. MDAH Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Jackson. MPA:FD Mississippi Provincial Archives: French Dominion. Vols. 1-3 edited by Dunbar Rowland and A.G. Sanders. Jackson: Press of the Mississippi Dept. of Archives and History, 1927-32. Vols. 4-5 edited by Dunbar Rowland, A.G. Sanders, Patricia Galloway. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984. PC Papeles procedentes de Cuba. Microfilm copy at PKY. PKY P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History. Department of Special & Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville. SCDAH South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia. SCHS South Carolina Historical Society, Charleston. ix SHC Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. TSLA Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. x INTRODUCTION In the early nineteenth century, Mrs. William Boyles managed a wayside tavern in Monroe County, Alabama. Among her frequent customers was William Weatherford. Locally regarded as a Southern gentleman, Weatherford owned three hundred slaves, managed a large plantation, and bred horses. One day, as Weatherford dined in Mrs. Boyles’ tavern, four strangers entered and sat at Weatherford’s table. As they ate, these- out-of-towners struck up a conversation: They “wanted to know where that bloody- handed savage, Billy Weatherford, lived.”1 When the strangers looked at William Weatherford they thought they saw a white Southern planter—according to a descendant he “was fair, with light brown hair and mild black eyes”—but Weatherford had a more complicated past.2 Although his father, Charles Weatherford, had been a wealthy Anglo-American trader, Weatherford’s mother Sehoy was a Creek Indian. Because the Creeks reckoned descent through the maternal line, they counted William as one of them. As a member of a prestigious Creek family, William enjoyed a comfortable youth. During the summer of 1813, however, the Creek Nation erupted in war. Militants called “Redsticks” vowed to fight the expansion of the United States and to purge polluting elements of American culture from their own 1 Extract from a letter from Charles Weatherford to authors, October 17, 1890, in H.S. Halbert and T.H. Ball, The Creek War of 1813 and 1814, ed. Frank L. Owsley, Jr. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1969), 175-76. Quotation on 176. 2 Ibid., 176. society. When approached by Redstick leaders, Weatherford agreed to join them. Reportedly, Weatherford had his misgivings but decided that “they were his people—he was raised with them, and he would share their fate.” A talented equestrian and natural athlete, Weatherford became renowned in battle. His war name, Red Eagle, had powerful connotations in Creek culture: Creeks associated red with blood and war; they believed that eagles were martial birds and that they belonged to the spiritually charged Upper World. If stories of his wartime exploits are