Brothers and Friends: Kinship in Early America

185 Pages·2017·1.738 MB·English

by  Natalie Inman

Brothers and Friends
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Early American Places is a collaborative project of the
University of Georgia Press, New York University Press,
Northern Illinois University Press, and the University of
Nebraska Press. The series is supported by the Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation. For more information, please visit
www.earlyamericanplaces.org.
Advisory Board
Vincent Brown, Duke University
Andrew Cayton, Miami University
Cornelia Hughes Dayton, University of Connecticut
Nicole Eustace, New York University
Amy S. Greenberg, Pennsylvania State University
Ramón A. Gutiérrez, University of Chicago
Peter Charles Hoffer, University of Georgia
Karen Ordahl Kupperman, New York University
Joshua Piker, College of William & Mary
Mark M. Smith, University of South Carolina
Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University
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Brothers and Friends
Kinship in Early America
natalie r. inman
The University of Georgia Press
athens
© 2017 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
All rights reserved
Most University of Georgia Press titles are available from popular e- book vendors.
Printed digitally
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Inman, Natalie Rishay. author.
Title: Brothers and friends : kinship in early America / Natalie R. Inman.
Other titles: Early American places.
Description: Athens, Georgia : The University of Georgia Press, [2017] | Series: Early
American places | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016055415 | ISBN 9780820351094 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780820351100 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Kinship—United States—History—18th century. | Kinship—United
States—History—19th century. | Families—United States—History—18th century.
| Families—United States—History—19th century. | Cherokee Indians—Kinship.
| Chickasaw Indians—Kinship. | Donaldson family. | Social networks—United
States—History.
Classification: LCC HQ535 .I56 2017 | DDC 306.850973—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055415
Contents
Introduction: Comparing Families in Cultural
and Political Borderlands 1
1 Founding Networks, 1740– 1765 15
2 Militant Families: Kinship in the American Revolution 35
3 Ongoing Warfare: Indian Resistance and Accommodation 55
4 The Donelsons: Social, Political, and Economic
Expansion on the Frontier 76
5 Family Strategies and “Civilization” 90
6 Creek War Family Networks 107
7 Kinship Networks and Evolving Concepts of Nationhood 118
Conclusion: Piecing Together a New Society from the
Remnants of the Old 135
Notes 143
Index 169
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Introduction: Comparing Families
in Cultural and Political Borderlands
In 1853, eighty- year- old Joseph Brown, a resident of Tennessee, gave
several interviews telling of his experiences as a teenager. Brown told
audiences that he had been traveling with his family on flatboats in 1788
when his boat was boarded by Chickamauga Cherokee Indians, a faction
of Cherokees that had declared war on those moving into their hunting
grounds in the region that would become Tennessee. During the raid,
Brown’s father was killed in front of him. He recalled that when a “dirty,
black looking Indian” robbing their boat was “about to kill” him, his
father saved him, but at the cost of his own life:
The Indian then let me go, but as soon as my father’s back was
turned, he struck him with the sword, and cut his head nearly half
off. Another Indian then caught my father, and threw him over-
board. I saw him go overboard, but did not know that he was struck
with the sword; it astonished me, therefore, to see him sink down,
as I knew him to be a good swimmer. As this took place in the
stern, and my brothers and the other young men were with Vann
[the Chickamauga man who translated for the group of Indians] in
the bow, I went to them, and told them that an Indian had thrown
our father overboard, and he was drowned.1
Joseph Brown, then fifteen years old, was led, along with several other
children and women, to a nearby village to spend the night. The captive
men stayed on board to travel farther downstream to another village.
After a few minutes, Brown heard gunfire that signaled to him the end