Revolutionary America, 1763-1815

A Sourcebook

Francis D. Cogliano, Kirsten E. Phimister, Francis D. Cogliano, Kirsten E. Phimister

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781136979897
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Weltgeschichte

Revolutionary America, 1763–1815: ASourcebook is a collection of dynamic primary sources intended to accompany the second edition of Revolutionary America, 1763-1815: A Political History. While the structure of the collection parallels the textbook, either can be used independently as well. Each chaptercontains excerpts of crucial documents from the Revolutionary period, and begins with a brief introduction. A companion website holds the full text of all excerpted documents, as well as links to other valuable online resources. This Sourcebook helps give students a sense of the human experience of that turbulent time, bringing life to the struggle to found the United States.

For additional information and classroom resources please visit the Revolutionary America companion website at www.routledge.com/textbooks/revolutionaryamerica.

CHAPTER 1
Native Americans and the American Revolution

Introduction

At the end of the Seven Years’ War native power in eastern North America, as measured by population and land, was still substantial. James Glen’s 1761 account (document 1) of South Carolina’s relations with Indian tribes in the southeast, particularly the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, and Cherokees is testimony to the strength and autonomy of those tribes. Glen’s report, nonetheless, presages future challenges confronting Native Americans. These challenges became acute at the end of the Seven Years’ War as numerous British American settlers pushed westward, encroaching on Indian lands. The grievances of the Paxton Boys (document 2) arising, in part, from anti-Indian animus resulted in violent conflict which the British found difficult to contain. When racial conflict occurred it was difficult to distinguish friend from foe—the Paxton Boys massacred peaceful Christian Indians who had been taken into protective custody. Similarly when Dunmore’s War (1774–75) broke out in the Ohio-Pennsylvania-Virginia borderland, settlers slaughtered the family of the Mingo war chief Tachnedorus (known to whites as Logan) despite the fact that Logan had been friendly to settlers (document 3).

Tensions between European settlers and Native Americans were subsumed by the subsequent conflict between the British and their North American colonists. When the War of Independence began, Native Americans found themselves in a position of relative (and temporary) power as both the British and the American rebels sought to cultivate their support (documents 4, 5, and 7). Mediators and leaders like Joseph Brant (documents 5 and 6) emerged as important players in the complex dynamic of power relations between and among Native Americans, the rebels, and the British. Although many tribes sympathized with the British, concluding that a British victory would be less threatening to them than a rebel triumph, many were compelled by necessity to conclude agreements with the United States (documents 7 and 8). With the rebel victory in the war, Native Americans were confronted by a new, more dangerous situation. The United States, which had secured capacious boundaries at the Peace of Paris, and, possessed of a growing and population determined to settle western lands, posed a mortal threat to the Native Americans, who could no longer count on the support of Britain (document 9). The United States government compelled tribes to make land and trade concessions. Native Americans resisted these encroachments by force in the 1790s and through religious and cultural revival movements in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Western Indians attempted to unite under Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa and to offer military resistance (with British backing) during the War of 1812 (document 10). At the war’s end, the United States used this resistance to justify and force still more land concessions (document 11). By 1815 the power and autonomy of Native Americans east of the Mississippi, described by James Glen in 1761, had vanished. Within a generation many thousands would be forcibly removed from their land and forced to move west.

1. Southern Indians during the Seven Years’ War1

James Glen (1701–1777) served as governor of South Carolina from 1743 to 1756. Based on his lengthy service, he wrote a lengthy descriptive analysis of the colony which includes his observations of Native American tribes in the region. Glen emphasizes the political, economic, and diplomatic significance of Native Americans to the government of the colony during the Seven Years’ War.

The concerns of this country are so closely connected and interwoven with Indian affairs, and not only a great Branch of our Trade, but even the Safety of this Province, do so much depend upon our continuing in Friendship with the Indians, that I thought it highly necessary to gain all the Knowledge I could of them; and I hope that the Accounts which I have from Time to Time transmitted of Indian Affairs will shew, that I am pretty well acquainted with the Subject.

However, I think it expedient upon the present Occasion to give a general Account of the several Tribes and Nations of Indians with whom the Inhabitants of this Province are or may be connected in Interest; which is the more necessary, as all we have to apprehend from the French in this Part of the World, will much more depend upon the Indians than upon any Strength of their own; for that is so inconsiderable in itself, and so far distant from us, that without Indian Assistance, it cannot, if exerted, do us much Harm.

There are among our Settlements several small Tribes of Indians, consisting only of some few Families each; but those Tribes of Indians which we, on Account of their being numerous and having Lands of their own, call Nations, are all of them situated on the western Side of this Province, and at various Distances, as I have already mentioned.

The Catawbaw Nations of Indians hath about Three Hundred fighting Men; brave Fellows as any on the Continent of America, and our firm Friends; their Country is about Two Hundred Miles from Charles-Town.

The Cherokees live at the Distance of about Three Hundred Miles from Charles-Town, though indeed their hunting Grounds stretch much nearer to us; they have about Three Thousand Gun-Men, and are in Alliance with this Government.

I lately made a considerable Purchase from that Indian Nation, of some of those hunting Grounds, which are now become the Property of the British Crown, at the Charge of this Province; I had the Deeds of Conveyance formally executed in their own Country, by their head Men, in the Name of the whole People, and with their universal Approbation and good Will.

They inhabit a Tract of Country about Two Hundred Miles in Extent, and form a good Barrier, which is naturally strengthened by a Country hilly and mountainous; but said to be interspersed with pleasant and fruitful Vallies, and watered by many limpid and wholesome Brooks and Rivulets, which run among the Hills, and give those real Pleasures which we in the lower lands have only in Imagination.

The Creek Indians are situated about Five Hundred Miles from Charles-Town; their Number of fighting Men is about Two Thousand Five Hundred, and they are in Friendship with us.

The Chickesaws live at the Distance of near Eight Hundred Miles from Charles-Town; they have bravely stood their Ground against the repeated Attacks of the French and their Indians; but are now reduced to Two or Three Hundred Men.

The Chactaw Nation of Indians is situated at a somewhat greater Distance from us, and have till within this Year or Two been in the Interest of the French; by whom they were reckoned to be the most numerous of any Nation of Indians in America, and said to consist of many Thousand Men.

The People of most Experience in the Affairs of this Country, have always dreaded a French War, from an Apprehension that an Indian War would be the Consequence of it, for which Reasons I have, ever since the first breaking out of War with France, redoubled my Attention to Indian Affairs; and, I hope, not without Success.

For notwithstanding all the Intrigues of the French, they have not been able to get the least Footing among our Nations of Indians; as very plainly appears by those Nations still continuing to give fresh Proofs of their Attachment to us; and I have had the Happiness to bring over and fix the Friendship of the Chactaw Nation of Indians in the British Interest.

This powerful Engine, which the French, for many years past, played against us and our Indians, even in Times of Peace, is now happily turned against themselves, and I believe they feel the Force of it…

I shall be particularly cautious of doing any Thing inconsistent with the Peace so lately concluded; but I think it incumbent on me to say, that it will be impossible to retain those Indians, or any other, in His Majesty’s Interest, unless we continue to trade with them.

And since War and Hunting are the Business of their Lives, both Arms and Ammunition, as well as Cloaths and other Necessaries, are the Goods for which there is the greatest Demand among them; I therefore hope to receive Instructions in this particular, as a Rule for my Conduct.

There are a pretty many Indians among the Kays, about the Cape of Florida, who might be easily secured to the British Interest; but as they have little Communication with any others on the main Land, and have nor any Goods to trade for, they could not be of any Advantage either in Peace of War: There are also a few Yamasees, about Twenty Men, near St. Augustine; and these are all the Indians in this Part of the World that are in the Interest of the Crown of Spain.

The French have the Friendship of some few of the Creek Indians, such as inhabit near the Holbama Fort; and some of the Chactaw Indians have not as yet declared against them; They have also some Tribes upon Mississippi River and Ouabash, and in other Parts; but most of these, and all other Indians whatsoever, inhabit above a Thousand Miles from Charles-Town; and yet it may be proper to give Attention even to what happens among those who are so far from us; for to an Indian, a Thousand Miles is as One Mile, their Provisions being in the Woods, and they are never out of the Way; they are slow, saying the Sun will rise again to morrow, but they are steddy…

If ever the French Settlements on the Mississippi grow great, they may have pernicious Effects upon South Carolina, because they produced the same Sorts of Commodities as are produced there, viz. Rice and Indigo; but hitherto, the only Inconvenience that I know of, is, their attempting to withdraw our Indians from us, and attacking those who are most attached to our Interest.

I beg Leave to assure you, that I shall never do any thing inconsistent with that good Faith which is the Basis of all His Majesty’s Measures; but it is easy for me at present to divert the French in their own Way, and to find them Business for double the Number of Men they have in that Country.

However, this, and even the Tranquillity of South Carolina, will depend upon preserving our Interest with the Indians, which it will be very difficult to do, unless the Presents are continued to them, and those Forts built which I have formerly proposed, or at least, one of them, and that to be in the Country of the Cherokees.

2. Petition from the Paxton Boys, 1764²

At the end of the Seven Years’ War tensions increased along the frontier. Native Americans took up arms in Pontiac’s Rebellion to resist encroachment on their lands by white settlers whose numbers increased steadily following the British victory in the war. In December 1763 a group of Scots-Irish vigilantes from Paxton Township, Pennsylvania, murdered six peaceful Conestoga Indians whom they suspected of supporting the hostile tribes. The so-called Paxton Boys then marched on Philadelphia to demand greater protection from Indians. This petition from two of the Paxton Boys to the government of Pennsylvania enumerates their grievances and reveals the depth and virulence of anti-Indian sentiment among some settlers as well as their hostility toward the government.

…During the late and present Indian Wars, the Frontiers of this Province have been repeatedly attacked and ravaged by Skulking parties of the Indians, who have with the most savage Cruelty, murdered Men, Women and Children, without distinction; and have reduced near a Thousand Families to the most extream Distress. It grieves us to the very Heart, to see such of our Frontier Inhabitants as have escaped from savage Fury, with the loss of their Parents, their Children, their Husbands, Wives, or Relatives, left destitute by the Public, and exposed to the most cruel Poverty and Wretchedness; while upwards of One Hundred and Twenty of the Savages, who are with great Reason suspected of being guilty of these horrid Barbarities under the Mask of Friendship, have procured themselves to be taken under the Protection of the Government, with a view to elude the Fury of the brave Relatives of the Murdered; and are now maintained at the public Expence: Some of these Indians now in the Barracks of Philadelphia are confessedly a part of the Wyalusing Indians, which Tribe is now at War with us; and the others are the Moravian Indians, who living among us under the Cloak of Friendship, carried on a Correspondence with our known Enemies on the Great-Island. We cannot but observe with Sorrow and Indignation, that some Persons in this Province are at pains to extenuate the barbarous Cruelties practiced by these savages on our Murdered Brethern and Relatives, which are shocking to human Nature, and must pierce every Heart but those of the hardened Perpetrators or th...