Appalachian Summit

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20. Labor of the Earth

 

 

 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Cherokee were virtually surrounded by the encroaching white settlers.   From the east, North Carolinians were pushing across the French Broad River toward the Little Tennessee, the very heart of the traditional Cherokee villages.  To the north, the east Tennessee settlements were expanding southward as were those on the Cumberland River in what would become middle Tennessee.   Georgia, on their  southeastern border, completed the near encirclement.  Southward were the Creeks and to the west the Chickasaws.

Under these pressures the Cherokee villages had shifted to the southwest in an effort to create some distance between the two cultures.  Of the original villages only the Valley Towns along the Hiawassee River in the southwestern corner of North Carolina remained.  The Middle and Overhill Towns along the Little Tennessee River, as well as the Lower Towns in upper South Carolina, had relocated to northwestern Georgia.  Together these villages became known as the Upper Towns.

The Chickamauga towns on the lower Tennessee River, originally settled in 1777 when Dragging Canoe led his followers to the area around present day Chattanooga in protest against land cessions, expanded southward into northern Alabama.  These settlements became known collectively as the Lower Towns.

The Federal Government, which had jurisdiction in Indian affairs, acted, if reluctantly, as a buffer between the Cherokees and the demands of the surrounding states.  With their old communal life style no longer viable, the Cherokees had little choice other than trying to adopt that of the whites – single family farming.

 

 

 

Journal of Bishop Francis Asbury

 

Thursday, 6 [November 1800].  Crossed Nolachucky at Cureton's ferry and came to Major Craig’s, eighteen miles.  I next day pursued my journey and arrived at Warm Springs, not however without an ugly accident.  After we had crossed the Small and Great Paint mountains, and had passed about thirty yards beyond the Paint Rock, my roan horse, led by Mr. O'Haver reeled and fell over, taking the chaise with him; I was called back, when I beheld the poor beast and carriage, bottom up, lodged and wedged against a sapling which alone prevented them both being precipitated into the river.  After a pretty heavy lift all was righted again, and we were pleased to find there was little damage done.  Our feelings were excited more for others than ourselves.  Not far off we saw clothing spread out, part of the loading of household furniture of a wagon which had overset was thrown into the stream, and bedclothes, bedding &c., were so wet that the poor people found it necessary to dry them on the spot.  We passed the side fords of French Broad, and came to Mr. William Nelson's; our mountain march of twelve miles calmed us down for this day.  My company was not agreeable here - there were too many subjects of the two great potentates of this western world - whisky, brandy.  My mind was greatly distressed.

 

Saturday, 8.  We started away. The cold was severe upon the fingers.  We crossed the ferry, curiously contrived with a rope and poles, for half a mile along the banks of the river, to guide the boat by.  And O, the rocks! the rocks!  Coming to Laurel River, we followed a wagon ahead of us - the wagon stuck fast.  Brother O’Haver mounted Old Gray – the horse fell about midway, but recovered, rose, and went safely through with his burden.  We pursued our way rapidly to Ivy Creek, suffering much from heat and the roughness of the roads, and stopped at William Hunter’s.

 

Sabbath day, 9.  We came to Thomas Foster’s and held a small meeting at his house.  We must bid farewell to the chaise; this mode of conveyance by no means suits the roads of this wilderness; we are obliged to keep one behind the carriage with a strip to hold by and prevent accidents almost continually.  I have health and hard labour, and a constant sense of the favour of God.

Tobais Gibson had given notice to some of my being at Buncombe court house, and the society of Killian’s in consequence of this, made an appointment for me on Tuesday, 11.  We were strongly importuned to stay, which brother Whatcoat felt inclined to do.  In the meantime we had our horses shod by Philip Smith: this man, as is not unfrequently the case in this country, makes wagons and works at carpentry, makes shoes for men and for horses; to which he adds, occasionally, the manufacture of saddles and hats.

 

Friday, 14.  We took our leave of French Broad - the lands flat and good, but rather cold.  I have had an opportunity of making a tolerably correct survey of this river.  It rises in the south-west, and winds along in many meanders, fifty miles north-east, receiving a number of tributary streams in its course; it then inclines westward, passing through Buncombe in North Carolina, and Green and Dandridge counties in Tennessee, in which last it is augmented into the waters of Nolachucky; four miles above Knoxville it forms a junction with the Holston, and their united waters flow along under the name of Tennessee, giving a name to the State.  [1]

 

 

 

F. A. Michaux’s Travels

 

On the 11^th of September [1802] we went from Fort Blount to the house of a Mr. Blackborn, whose plantation, situated fifteen miles from this fortress, is the last that the whites possess on this side the line, that separates the territory of the United States from that of the Indian Cherokees.  This line presents, as far as West Point upon the Clinch, a country uninhabited upward of eighty miles in breath, to which they give the name of the Wilderness, and of which the mountains Cumberland occupy a great part.

 

Notwithstanding the harmony that at present subsists between the whites and these Indians, it is always more prudent to travel five or six in a party. Nevertheless as we were at a considerable distance from the usual place of rendezvous, where the travellers put up, we resolved to set out alone, and we arrived happily at West Point. This country is exceedingly mountain­ous, we could not make above forty-five miles the first day, although we travelled till midnight. We encamped near a small river, where there was an abundance of grass; and after having made a fire we slept in our rugs, keeping watch alternately in order to guard our horses, and make them feed close by us for fear of the natives, who some­times steal them in spite of all the precaution a traveller can take, as their dexterity in that point exceeds all that a person can imagine. During this day’s journey we saw nothing but wild turkies, thirty or forty in a flight.

The second day after our departure we met a party of eight or ten Indians, who were searching for grapes and chinquapins, a species of small chesnuts, superior in taste to those in Europe. As we had only twenty miles to go before we reached West Point, we gave them the remainder of our provisions, with which they were highly delighted.  Bread is a great treat for them, their usual food consisting of nothing but venison and wild fowl.

 

In this part of Tennessea the mass of the forests is composed of all the species of trees that belong more particularly to the mountainous regions of North America, such as oaks, maples, and nut trees. Pines abound in those parts where the soil is the worst. What appeared to me very extraordinary was, to find some parts of the woods, for the space of several miles, where all the pines that formed at least one fifth part of the other trees were dead since the preceding year, and still kept all their withered foliage. I was not able to learn the causes that produced this singular phenomenon. I only heard that the same thing happens every fifteen or twenty years.

 

The following trait will give an idea of the ferocious disposition of some of these Americans on the frontiers. One of them belonging to the environs of Fort Blount, had lost one of his horses, which had strayed from his plantation and penetrated some distance into the Indian territory. About a fortnight after it was brought to him by two Cherokees; they were scarcely fifty yards from the house when the owner perceiving them, killed one upon the spot with his carabine; the other fled and car­ried the news to his fellow-countrymen. The murderer was thrown into prison; but was afterwards released for the want of evidence, although he stood convicted in the eyes of every one. During the time he was in prison the Indians suspended their resentment, in hopes that the death of their fellow-countryman would be re­venged; but scarcely were they informed that he was set at liberty when they killed a white, at more than a hundred and fifty miles from the place where the first murder had been committed. To the present moment we have never been able to make the Indians comprehend that punish­ment should only fall upon the guilty; they conceive that the murder of one or more of their people ought to be avenged by the death of an equal number of individuals belonging to the nation of that person who committed the deed. This is a custom they will not renounce, more especially if the person so murdered belongs to a distin­guished family, as among the Creeks and Cherokees there exists a superior class to the common of the nation. These Indians are above the middling stature, well pro­portioned, and healthy in appearance, notwithstanding the long fasting they frequently endure in pursuit of animals, the flesh of which forms their chief subsistence. The carabine is the only weapon they make use of; they are very dexterous with it, and kill at a very great dis­tance. The usual dress of the men consists of a shirt, a l’Europeene, which hangs loose, and of a slip of blue cloth about half a yard in length, which serves them as breeches; they put it between their thighs, and fasten the two ends, before and behind, to a sort of girdle. They wear long gaiters, and shoes of stag skins prepared. When full dressed they wear a coat, waistcoat, and hat, but never any breeches. The natives of North America have never been able to adopt that part of our dress. They have only on the top of their heads a tuft of hair, of which they make several tresses, that hang down the sides of the face; and very frequently they attach quills or little silver tubes to the extremities. A great number of them pierce their noses, in order to put rings through, and cut holes in their ears, that hang down two or three inches, by the means of pieces of lead that they fasten to them when they are quite young. They paint their faces red, blue, or black.

A man’s shirt and a short petticoat form the dress of the women, who wear also gaiters like the men; they let their hair grow, which is always of a jet black, to its natural length, but they never pierce their noses, nor disfigure their ears. In winter, the men and women, in order to guard against the cold, wrap themselves in a blue rug, which they always carry with them, and which forms an essential part of their luggage.

Near the fort is established a kind of warehouse where the Cherokees carry ginseng and furs, consisting chiefly of bear, stag, and otter skins. They give them in ex­change for coarse stuffs, knives, hatchets, and other articles that they stand in need of.

I learnt at West Point, of several persons who make frequent journies among the Cherokees that within these few years they take to the cultivating of their possessions, and that they make a rapid progress.  Some of them have good plantations, and even negro slaves. Several of the women spin and manufacture cotton stuffs. The federal government devotes annually a sum to supply them with instruments necessary for agriculture and different trades. Being pressed for time I could not penetrate farther into the interior of the country, as I had intended, . . . 

 

 

Knoxville, the seat of government belonging to the state of Tennessea, is situate upon the river Holston, in this part nearly a hundred and fifty fathoms broad. The houses that compose it are about two hundred in number, and chiefly built of wood. Although founded eighteen or twenty years ago, this little town does not yet possess any kind of establishment or manufactory, except two or three tan yards. Trade, notwithstanding, is brisker here than at Nasheville. The shops, though very few in number, are in general better stocked. The trades­people get their provisions by land from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Richmond in Virginia; and they send in return, by the same way, the produce of the country, which they buy of the cultivators, or take in barter for their goods. Baltimore and Richmond are the towns with which this part of the country does most business. The price of conveyance from Baltimore is six or seven dollars per hundred weight. They reckon seven hundred miles from this town to Knoxville, six hundred and forty from Philadelphia, and four hundred and twenty from Richmond.

They send flour, cotton and lime to New Orleans by the river Tennessea; but this way is not so much fre­quented by the trade, the navigation of this river being very much encumbered in two different places by shal­lows interspersed with rocks. They reckon about six hundred miles from Knoxville to the embouchure of the Tennessea in the Ohio, and thirty-eight miles thence to that of the Ohio in the Mississippi.

We alighted at Knoxville at the house of one Haynes, the sign of the General Washington, the best inn in the town. Travellers and their horses are accom­modated there at the rate of five shillings per day; though this is rather dear for a country where the situation is by no means favourable to the sale of provisions, which they are obliged to send to more remote parts. The reason of things being so dear proceeds from the desire of growing rich in a short time, a general desire in the United States, where every man who exercises a profession or art wishes to get a great deal by it, and does not content him­self with a moderate profit, as they do in Europe.

There is a newspaper printed at Knoxville which comes out twice a week, and written and published by Mr. Roulstone, a fellow-countryman and friend of my travelling companion, Mr. Fisk.  It is very remarkable that most of the emigrants from New England have an ascendancy over the others in point of morals, industry, and knowledge.

On the 17th of September I took leave of Mr. Fisk, and proceeded towards Jonesborough, about a hundred miles from Knoxville, and situate at the foot of the lofty mountains that separate North Carolina from the state of Tennessea.

 

On the 21st I arrived at Greenville, which contains scarcely forty houses, constructed with square beams something like the log-houses. They reckon twenty-five miles from this place to Jonesborough. In this space the country is slightly mountainous, the soil more adapted to the culture of corn than that of Indian wheat, and the plantations are situated upon the road, two or three miles distant from each other.

Jonesborough, the last town in Tennessea, is composed of about a hundred and fifty houses, built of wood, and disposed on both sides of the road. Four or five respectable shops are established there, and the tradespeople who keep them have their goods from Richmond and Baltimore. All kinds of English-manufactured goods are as dear here as at Knoxville. A newspaper in folio is published at this town twice a week. Periodical sheets are the only works that have ever been printed in the towns or villages situate west of the Alleghanies.

 

East Tennessea, or Holston, is situated between the loftiest of the Alleghany and Cumberland Mountains. It comprises, in length, an extent of nearly a hundred and forty miles, and differs chiefly from West Tennessea in point of the earth’s being not so chalky, and better wa­tered by the small rivers issuing from the adjacent moun­tains, which cross it in every part. The best land is upon their borders. The remainder of the territory, almost everywhere interspersed with hills, is of a middling quality, and produces nothing but white, red, black, chincapin, and mountain oaks, &c. intermixed with pines; and, as we have before observed, except the quercus mczcrocarpa, the rest never grow, even in the most fertile places.

 

To consume the superfluity of their corn the inhabitants rear a great number of cattle, which they take four or five hundred miles to the seaports belonging to the southern states. They lose very few of these animals by the way, although they have to cross several rivers, and travel through an uninterrupted forest, with this disadvantage, of the cattle being extremely wild.

This part of Tennessea began to be inhabited in 1775, and the population is so much increased, that there is now computed to be about seventy thousand inhabitants, including three or four thousand negro slaves. In 1787 they attempted to form themselves into an independent state, under the name of the Franklin State; but this project was abandoned.  It is still very probable, and has already been in question, that East and West Ten­nessea will ultimately form two distinct states, which will each enlarge itself by a new addition of part of the terri­tory belonging to the Cherokee Indians. The natives, it is true, will not hear the least mention of a cession being made, objecting that their tract of country is barely sufficient to furnish, by hunting, a subsistence for their families. However, sooner or later they will be obliged to yield.  

 

On the 21st of September 1802 I set out from Jones­borough to cross the Alleghanies for North Carolina. About nine miles from Jonesborough the road divides into two branches, which unite again fifty-six miles beyond the mountains. The left, which is principally for carriages, cuts through Yellow Mountain, and the other through Iron Mountain. I took the latter, as I had been informed it was much the shortest. I only made nineteen miles that day, and put up at one Cayerd’s at the Limestone Cove, where I arrived benumbed with cold by the thick fog that reigns almost habitually in the vallies of these enormous mountains. 

Seven miles on this side Cayerd’s plantation, the road, or rather the path, begins to be so little cut that one can scarce discern the track for plants of all kinds that cover the superficies of it; it is also encumbered by forests of rhododendrum, shrubs from eighteen to twenty feet in height, the branches of which, twisting and interwoven with each other, impede the traveller every moment, insomuch that he is obliged to use an axe to clear his way. The torrents that we had continually to cross added to the difficulty and danger of the journey, the horses being exposed to fall on account of the loose round flints, concealed by the ebullition of the waters with which the bottom of these torrents are filled.

I had the day following twenty-three miles to make without meeting with the least kind of a plantation.  After having made the most minute inquiry with regard to the path I had to take, I set out about eight o’clock in the morning from the Limestone Cove, and after a journey of three hours I reached the summit of the mountain, which I recognized by several trees with “the road” marked on each, and in the same direction to indicate the line of demarcation that separates the state of Ten­nessea from that of North Carolina. The distance from the Limestone Cove to the summit of the mountain is computed to be about two miles and a half, and three miles thence to the other side. The declivity of the two sides is very steep, insomuch that it is with great difficulty a person can sit upon his horse, and that half the time he is obliged to go on foot. Arrived at the bottom of the mountain, I had again, as the evening before, to cross through forests of rhododendrum, and a large torrent called Rocky Creek, the winding course of which cut the path in twelve or fifteen directions; every time I was obliged to alight, or go up the torrent by walking into the middle for the space of ten or fifteen fathoms, in order to regain on the other bank the continuation of the path, which is very rarely opposite, and of which the entrance was frequently concealed by tufts of grass or branches of trees, which have time to grow and extend their foliage, since whole months elapse without its being passed by travellers.  At length I happily arrived at the end of my journey.  I then perceived the imprudence I had committed in having exposed myself without a guide in a road so little frequented, and where a person every moment runs the risk of losing himself on account of the sub-divisions of the road, that ultimately disappear, and which it would be impossible to find again, unless by being perfectly acquainted with the localities and dispo­sition of the country, where obstacle upon obstacle oppose the journey of the traveller, and whose situation would in a short time become very critical from the want of pro­visions.

On the 23d I made twenty-two miles through a country bestrewed with mountains, but not so lofty as that which I had just passed over, and arrived at the house of one Davenport, the owner of a charming planta­tion upon Doe river, a torrent about forty feet in breadth, and which empties itself into the Nolachuky.  I had learnt the evening before, of the person with whom I had lodged, that it was at Davenport’s my father had resided, and that it was this man who served him as a guide across the mountains when on his travels to discover their pro­ductions.  I was at that time very far from thinking that at the same time when this worthy man was entertaining me about his old travelling companion, I lost a beloved father, who died a victim of his zeal for the progress of nat­ural history upon the coast of the island of Madagascar!

I staid a week at Davenport’s, in order to rest myself after a journey of six hundred miles that I had just made, and during this interval I travelled over the Blue Ridges that encompass his plantation. On the 2d of October 1802 I set out on my journey again, and proceeded towards Morganton, a distance of thirty-five miles. About four miles from Doe river I re-passed the chain of the Blue Ridges.  Its summit is obtained by a gentle declivity, which is much longer and more rapid on the eastern side, without being impracticable for carriages. The journey over this mountain is computed to be about four miles and a half.

About five miles from the Blue Ridges are the Linne­ville Mountains, not quite so lofty as the latter, but steeper, and more difficult to ascend. The road that cuts through them is encumbered westward with large, flat stones, which impede the traveller on his route. From the sum­mit of these mountains, which is not overstocked with trees, we discovered an immense extent of mountainous country covered with forests, and at their base only three small places cleared, which form as many plantations, three or four miles distant from each other.

From the Linneville Mountains to Morganton it is computed to be twenty-five miles, where I arrived on the 5th of October.

 

On the confines of North Carolina and Tennessea the Alleghanies are, on the contrary, isolated mountains, and only contiguous by their base; they embrace also in diameter an extent of country less considerable, and which is not computed to be more than seventy miles. The furrow that bears more particularly the name of the Alle­ghany Ridge in Pennsylvania, and that of Blue Ridge in North Carolina, is the only one that, continuing uninter­ruptedly, divides the rivers that run into the Atlantic Ocean from those that swell the current of the Ohio. The height of this chain is still infinitely less than that of the neighbouring mountains. It is here that the Alle­ghanies, which cross the United States for the space of nine hundred miles, have the highest elevation. This is the opinion of most of the inhabitants, who, from the mountainous part of Pennsylvania and Virginia, have emigrated on the confines of North Carolina, and who know the respective heights of all these mountains. That of the first rank is called Grandfather Mountain, the next Iron Mountain, and thus in succession Yellow Mountain, Black Mountain, and Table Mountain, which are all situate upon the western flyers. On the top of Yellow Mountain, the only one that is not stocked with trees, all the above mentioned may be seen.

 

The inhabitants of these mountains are famed for being excellent hunters. Towards the middle of autumn most of them go in pursuit of bears, of which they sell the skins, and the flesh, which is very good, serves them in a great measure for food during that season. They prefer it to all other kinds of meat, and look upon it as the only thing they can eat without being indisposed by it. They make also of their hind legs the most delicious hams. In autumn and winter the bears grow excessively fat; some of them weigh upward of four hundred weight. Their grease is consumed in the country instead of oil. They hunt them with great dogs, which, without going near them, bark, teaze, and oblige them to climb up a tree, when the hunter kills them with a carabine. A beautiful skin sells for a dollar and a half or two dollars. The black bear of North America lives chiefly on roots, acorns and chesnuts. In order to procure a greater quantity of them, he gets up into the trees, and as his weight does not permit him to climb to any height, he breaks off the branch where he has observed the most fruit by hugging it with one of his fore paws. I have seen branches of such a diameter that these animals must be endowed with an uncommon strength to have been able to break them by setting about it in this manner. In the summer, when they are most exposed to want victuals, they fall upon pigs, and sometimes even upon men.  [2]

 

 

 

The Ridge -

 

The hunting is almost done & we must now live by farming, raising corn & cotton & cattle & horses & hogs & sheep.  We see that those Cherokees who do this live well.  The men & women & children are well cloathed: But there is some who will not work & take care of the land.  They are poor themselves.  Their wives & children are not well cloathed & have nothing to eat, they then straggle about . . . to the house of those who work and eat up the provisions which they had provided for themselves.  I now look around this assembly & see a great many who work & take care of their farms, they live well, we can see the good to be derived from industry.  [3]

 

Return J. Meigs, Cherokee agent -

The raising of Cattle and the making of Cloth are their principle objects; they are not fond of expanding their tillage, but it must increase for their hunting is fast failing them.

 

The applications for wheels, cards and looms, ect. are numerous . . . they raise considerable quantities of Cotton for their own use.  I have not hitherto been able to supply half the number who apply; they say they have Cotton and cannot work it for want of wheels, cards, ect.

 

The raising and manufacturing of Cotton is all done by Indian Women; they find their condition so much bettered by this improvement that they apply for wheels, cards, ect. with great earnestness.  [4]

 

Secretary of War Henry Dearborn to Meigs –

If a sober, orderly Carpenter can be produced to reside in their country for about Six months to make the wood work for ploughs, &c, & instruct the young men I request you to engage one.

One hundred pairs of Cotton Cards will be sent to you to be distributed in presents to the industrious as occasion may require; a like number will be forwarded to the Tellico Factory to be sold to the Indians. [5]

 

Little Turkey to Meigs - 

I am under necessity of acquainting you that my family is at great loss for the want of knowing how to spin and weave.  There is a certain Absolom Harriby lives in Pine Log which is a wheel maker by trade and his wife learns the Indians to weave.  I can assure you that we are in great want of them in this part to instruct us, and I shall take it as a singular favor if you will send him into these parts . . . . For my part I want . . .two shovel-plough molds, twelve sheep, six mattocks, two pair of Cliveses, single coatler, twelve weeding hoes, six club axes.  Be so good as to send these to me . . . as I wish to goe by the directions of the President and likewise yourself and take up farming.  [6]

 

Meigs to Dearborn -

The number of horses carried thro' and into this country is almost incredible - from Georgia, both the Carolinas, and Kentucky.  . . .  A considerable part of the land purchased in this country [the white frontier] is paid for in horses; they serve as a kind of currency for this purpose all over this western country and hence arises the facility with which they are stolen by Indians and others.

 

The Indians steal horses from the white people and the white people steal their land; this is their way of expressing it. [7]

 

Meigs -

. . . a small party of Indians watched the House of the Whiteman who had killed the Indian, with a view to kill him, but not finding him, they killed his son, a young man about sixteen years old.  It has been with difficulty the white people in that quarter were restrained from going against the Indians.  Gov. Roane has exerted himself to keep the peace. [8]

 

James Vann -

. . . an Indian happening to come into the Settlements . . . in a drunken frolic, came to a Plantation where he behaved shockingly.  In his rage he threw a child into the fire but happily the Child crawled out and is likely to do well.  A young woman, who happened in his way, he killed with a Mattuck, splitting therewith her face from the forehead to the chin . . . . the Man of the House . . . took his Gun, loaded her with Nails, for wants of Bullets, and shot the Indian dead.  [9]

 

Meigs -

What they allege in respect to the Indians killing some of their Stock may be true but as the Law Guarantees satisfaction in such cases, they should have ascertained the facts & made some complaints to the Agent - An attempt to obtain private Satisfaction by Violent measures deprive them of recovery damages, & has a tendency to induce retaliation without end . . . .  [10]

 

 

Sir, 

When I saw you at the Green Corn Dance - you Desired me to come & see you and get some goods from you - My intention is to come and trade with you - But I am so Engaged in Hunting and gathering my Beef Cattle that I expect that it will be a moone or two before I can come   I . . . have now one Request to ask of you - that is to have me a boat Built - I want a good Keal Boat some 30 to 35 feet in length and 7 feet wide - I want her for the purpose of Descending the River to Orlians & back - I want her to be lite & well calculated to stem the Stream - I am determined to b[u]y the Produce of this place & then Return back by Water . . . . I shall want two of your big guns to mount on the Boat - I am Determined for to see up the White & Red Rivers in my Route & open a trade with the western wild Indians - Let me here from you soon -

I am Ser Your Reale

friend & brother

DOUBLEHEAD

Wrote by J. D. Chisholm who presents his Compliments  [11]

 

 

Megis to Dearborn -

I have mentioned the need of more Wheels and cards than I have done an any other Quarter of the years because the Indians have, almost all of them, Cotton in hand . . . . It appears to me from the present temper of the Indians that the raising of Cotton and sheep and manufacturing of these articles may be easily carried to a very considerable extent and thereby civilization even amongst those who have been strongly attached to the hunting life. [12]

 

. . . the money & goods which they will receive for the lands, more especially that part which will be paid annually will be of more real benefit to the nation under their improved state than the lands can be: that they will be enabled to make still greater progress in the useful arts, & will more & more rely on agriculture and domestic manufactories for their support & of course become a happy people.  [13]

 

Doublehead -

. . . we are like to perish for Bread.  We have by Industrey failed the Last year to make Bread, not owing to Indolence but owing to the hand of the great Spirit above - not sending us Rain - to witt, the Droth. We are all in this place working hard and Inlarging our farms and we stands in great Kneed of plows and mattocks to grub our ground. [14]

 

Meigs -

To fix the precise point where Barbarity terminates and when Civilization begins is perhaps impossible.  But without the knowledge of tillers civilization can hardly be said to exist. [15]

 

It can not be expected that the adult real Indian will alter his habits, the real Indians still hug the manners and habits of their ancestors and are unwilling to give up the pleasure of the shade and idleness.  The mixed bloods are almost without exception in favor of improvements and have very much thrown off savage habits. [16]

 

Many of the Cherokees think that they are not derived from the same stock as whites, that they are favorites of the great spirit, and that he never intended that they should live the laborious lives of the whites.

That land is of no use to them; there is not a single family living on it and the hunting is poor.  Yet those of an idle disposition spend much time rambling there and often return with a stolen horse.  In fact their old hunting ground is only a nursery of savage habits and operates against civilization which is much impeded by their holding such immense tracts of wilderness.  [17]

 

The Cherokees are extremely jealous of their Customs which have descended down to them from their ancestors from time immemorial.

I would hope to do away with every custom inconsistent with civilized life.  I hope that time will come when they will look back with wonder that they had so long continued in their irrational, backward ways.[18]

 

 

Vans villey febuwerey 7 1807

 

freind and brother

we intend to pay u a viset the third of Next month and have the pleasur of Convering with you Likewise we beg that you will pervid one plow and one whele apese for us . . . . Fore of each

 

Big halfbreid X

Jobber Sam

Bird Eye

George Miller 

 

 

The Glass -

I want you to Lay by for my town fore plows and for widen hos and fore Axes and fore gruben hose and I want you to Lit John Lowery the Same quanty of the Same arttickels for the pore people abot him . . . .  [19]

 

Richard Brown to Meigs -

We have found a horse belonging to an Indian near Dittoes Landing or near Huntsville.  We cannot recover him without aid.  The oath of an Indian is not known by your laws.  Decide in some way to give us our right.  We are considered as negroes who cannot support our claims.  [20]

 

 

Thomas Jefferson to an Assembly of Indians

Washington, 1808

 

Let me entreat you, therefore, on the lands now given you to begin to give every man a farm; let him enclose it, cultivate it, build a warm house on it, and when he dies, let it belong to his wife and children after him. 

Nothing is so easy as to learn to cultivate the earth; all your women understand it, and to make it easier, we are always ready to teach you how to make plows, hoes, and necessary utensils.  If the men will take the labor of the earth from the women, they will learn to spin and weave and to clothe their families. . . .

When once you have property, you will want laws and magistrates to protect your property and person . . . . You will find that our laws are good for this purpose; you will wish to live under them, you will unite yourselves with us, join in our great councils and form one people with us, and we shall all be Americans; you will mix with us by marriage, your blood will run in our veins, and will spread with us over this great continent.  [21]

 

Meigs -

From the soil they derived a scanty supply of corn, barely enough to furnish them with gah-no-ha-nah, and this was obtained by the labor of women and grey-headed men, for custom would have it that it is disgraceful for a young man to be seen with a hoe in his hand.  Plowing in the fields is painful, and in the idea of most of them, dishonorable. [22]

 

I encouraged marriages between whitemen and Cherokee women, I always have and I always will . . . because I conceive that by this measure civilization is faster advanced than in any other way - having considered the whole human race as brothers.  [23]

 

The state of the Indians is a deplorable one . . . We arraign them as moral agents, charge them with crimes that cannot be committed without including an idea that they are, like ourselves morally responsible, at the same time, we exclude them from all the advantages of being capable of moral or religious conceptions; their testimony on oath is not admissible.

 

It is a fact that they cannot have justice done to them in the courts of law.  The judges are just and liberal . . . as far as related to distributive justice, and would deal out rewards and punishments to all men without being influenced by the accidental difference in the color of the skin, but a jury impaneled in the frontier Countries dare not bring in a Verdict to take the life of a citizen for Killing an Indian.  The Indians are . . . condemned and executed on the testimony of any white citizen of common character and understanding when at the same time a white man can kill an Indian in the presence of 100 Indians and the testimony of these hundred Indians to the facts amount to nothing and the man will be acquitted.  [24]