W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2007 Trading lives: Mapping the pathways and peoples of the southeastern deerskin trade, 1732-1775 Robert Edward Paulett College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Paulett, Robert Edward, "Trading lives: Mapping the pathways and peoples of the southeastern deerskin trade, 1732-1775" (2007). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623517. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-c5z6-tt51 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TRADING LIVES Mapping the Pathways and Peoples of the Southeastern Deerskin Trade, 1732-1775 A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Robert Edward Paulett 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy c.. ... Robert Edward Paulett Approved by the Committee, March 2007 7 7 / -------* * 7 --------- Xj' "Ur- • --------------- / James P. Whittenburg, Chair -1 x James. L. Axtell Kris E. Lane HarveyJHL Jas&son Jacksonville State Urmte it Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To my mother, Millie Paulett, who bravely got me out of bed all those years iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements v List of Figures vii Abstract viii Introduction 2 Chapter I. Strung Together: Mapping the Colonial Southeast 19 Chapter II. The Savannah River Boatmen and the Indian Trade 64 Chapter III. Keeping Company, Keeping Store: the Shaping of Colonial Augusta 102 Chapter IV. To Make the Path White and Clear: Possibilities and Problems in Southeastern Travel 156 Chapter V. Breaking Houses: Trading Posts and Power in the Colonial Southeast 204 Conclusion 240 Bibliography 266 Vita 278 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is somewhat odd to sit here and actually begin writing the acknowledgements that I had many times composed in my head. Frequently during the years of research and writing, I would distract myself with thoughts of the final product, whom I would thank, and in what order. Each time, the list grew a little longer, as I accumulated large favors and small on the path from abstract idea to finished product. In no ways is this list complete, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who most directly made this work possible and enjoyable. In so few things do graduate students come first that I would like to give them pride of placement here. The College of William and Mary is home to a remarkably creative and supportive community of graduate students who have learned to adapt to living in an eighteenth-century town. I cannot hope to list all those who made my Williamsburg years worthwhile, but a few require special mention. Dave Corlett proved a reliable tag team partner throughout classes and beyond, and I probably would not have made it past my comprehensive exams without his help. Seth Bruggeman, Nathan Michaud, Mike Shumann, James Spady, and a thrift store drum kit provided a steady supply of brilliant and ridiculous inspiration. Gordon Barker, Evan Bennett, Ryan Booth, Catharine Dann, Phil Levy, and Emily Moore all deserve thanks for their regrettable inclination to take me seriously and make me think that I could actually accomplish a doctorate. Special mention also needs to be made of Betty Flanigan and Roz Steams, who so patiently fixed every problem and answered every question. While a student, I benefited from the guidance and instruction of a remarkable series of teachers. At James Madison University, Michael Galgano first taught me what it meant to be a professional and dedicated historian and his example has served me well ever since. At William and Mary, James Axtell taught me the historian’s art and patiently corrected every written error. I owe him a tremendous debt as a scholar and a writer. Kris Lane has provided a constant example of what it means to truly love history and his perspective will always be appreciated. Ed Crapol, Bob Gross, Leisa Meyer, and Carol Sheriff have all shaped my work more than they know and I would like to at last thank them. Finally, to James Whittenburg I owe my deepest gratitude. “Thank you” seems too small a repayment for all of his advice, his assistance, and his unwavering faith in me, but it is offered here with the greatest sincerity. My lengthy tenure in Williamsburg has also indebted me to the town’s two main institutions. The College of William and Mary has obviously provided the bulk of my v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. support. The staff at Earl Gregg Swem Library alone deserves their own page of acknowledgements. I would like to thank the Lyon G. Tyler Department of History at the College of William and Mary for funding my research through its generous offers of stipends, writing preceptorships, summer travel grants, conference funding, fellowships and awards. I would also like to thank Louise Kale, Director of the Historic Campus, and Edward Chappell of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for a research assistantship given in 2005. I am also greatly indebted to the other cornerstone of Williamsburg life, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. Their Department of Archaeological Research has provided me a second degree’s-worth of education and much-appreciated employment over the past nine years. Marley Brown deserves special recognition for giving a historian the chance to work as an archaeologist and providing me with an array of questions about past landscapes that I have brought to bear on the colonial Southeast. Andy Edwards, Dave Muraca, Bill Pittman, and Meredith Poole also deserve thanks for their guidance and instruction during my days in the field. I also want to thank the Colonial Williamsburg Department of Historical Research and Kevin Kelly in particular for their generous offer of a research assistantship during the 2005-2006 academic year. This work would not have been possible without the help of numerous other institutions. I would like to thank the Newberry Library and Sara Austin in particular for their award of a short-term fellowship and a month among their wonderful map collection. It was there that both the first chapter and the outline of the whole dissertation were born. I would also like to thank the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for their award of a Jacob Price Fellowship that proved crucial for the writing of the fourth and fifth chapters. For everything in between, I owe a debt of gratitude to the staff of the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; the Georgia Historical Society; and the Special Collections staff at the Reese Library at Augusta State University. This dissertation could not have been written without their assistance. I would also like to thank Christopher Newport University, Old Dominion University, and the University of Mary Washington for the teaching opportunities they have provided me. Two more personal debts must here be acknowledged. Bridget Reddick has lived with this dissertation almost as long as I have. She knew this work would be finished when even I had doubts. It will take a lifetime of nice dinners to repay her patience. Finally, I owe my mother, Millie Paulett, my greatest thanks. It is to her that I dedicate this work and promise that I will not go back to school anymore now that this is over. VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Thomas Naime’s 1708 Map of the Southeast 251 2. Bamwell-Hammerton Manuscript Map, ca. 1721 252 3. Herman Moll, “A New Map of the North Parts of America Claimed by France,” 1720 253 4. Mingo Ouma-Alexandre de Batz, “Nations Amies et Enemies des Tchikachas,” 1737 254 5. Details of Henry Popple, “A Map of the British Empire in America,” 1733 255 6. Detail of John Mitchell, “Map of the British and French Dominions in America,” 1755 256 7. Cartouche from Popple, 1733 257 8. Cartouche from Mitchell, 1755 258 9. William de Brahm, “Map of Carolina and Part of Georgia,” 1757 259 10. Stuart-Purcell Manuscript Map, 1775 260 11. Map of Anglo-Creek Trading Paths 261 12. A Savannah River Trading Boat 262 13. Detail of Archibald Campbell, “Sketch of the Northern Frontiers of Georgia,” 1780 263 14. 1780 Town Plan of Augusta 264 15. Telfair manuscript map, December 1794. 265 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Deerskins formed an important trade in the southern half of British North America. From the last decades of the seventeenth century until the American Revolution, European traders and Indian hunters crossed the Southeast, exchanging European manufactures for American leather. During the same time period, the Indian trade intersected with the rising plantation culture of the southern colonies of South Carolina and Georgia. Throughout its existence, the traffic in deerskins brought together peoples from Europe, America, and Africa.