Separate Peoples, One Land: The Minds of Cherokees, Blacks, and Whites on the Tennessee Frontier

337 Pages·2007·4.19 MB·English

by  Cynthia Cumfer

separate peoples, one land
separate peoples,
one land
The Minds
of Cherokees,
Blacks, and Whites
on the
Tennessee Frontier
cynthia cumfer
The University of
North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
∫ 2007 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by Jacquline Johnson
Set in Minion
by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the
Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cumfer, Cynthia.
Separate peoples, one land : the minds of Cherokees, Blacks, and Whites on the Tennessee frontier /
Cynthia Cumfer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8078-3151-9 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-8078-5844-8 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Tennessee—Race relations—History—18th century. 2. Tennessee—Race relations—History—19th
century. 3. Frontier and pioneer life—Tennessee. 4. Acculturation—Tennessee—History.
5. Nationalism—Tennessee—History. 6. Cherokee Indians—Tennessee—History. 7. Slaves—
Tennessee—History. 8. Free African Americans—Tennessee—History. 9. Whites—Tennessee—
History. 10. European Americans—Tennessee—History. I. Title.
f445.a1c86 2007
305.8009768%09033—dc22
2007015298
Portions of this work appeared earlier,
in somewhat di√erent form, as
‘‘Local Origins of National Indian Policy:
Cherokee and Tennessean Ideas about
Sovereignty and Nationhood, 1790–1811,’’
Journal of the Early Republic 23 (Spring 2003):
21–46, ∫ 2003 Society for Historians of the
Early Republic, and are reprinted here with
permission of the Universiy of Pennsylvania Press.
cloth 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
paper 11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
To
valerie lyon
contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Cherokee Names xi
Introduction 1
part one
Diplomatic Relations
chapter one
Kinship and Nationhood:
The Construction of Relationship between
Cherokees and Settlers, 1768–1788 23
chapter two
Ungrateful Brothers and an Uncivilized Nation:
The Cherokees and Settlers Reconceive
Their Relationship, 1776–1796 51
chapter three
Fictive Father and Federalism: Cherokees,
Tennesseans, and the United States, 1796–1810 77
part two
Intracommunal Relations
chapter four
‘‘The Name of My Nation Is Cherokee’’:
The Reformulation of Cherokee Identity 101
chapter five
‘‘The Nigger-Trader Bought Me’’:
African American Community 125
chapter six
‘‘A Never-Failing Resource in the Benevolence of Society’’:
Sociability and Family in the Euro-American Community 155
chapter seven
‘‘The Protection of Civil Government’’:
Governance in the Euro-American Community 179
chapter eight
‘‘The Best Security of Rising Greatness’’:
Economic Relations in the
Euro-American Community 205
Conclusion 231
Notes 237
Index 311
illustration and maps
illustration
Escaped slave notice placed by
Andrew Jackson, 1804 140
maps
Tennessee, ca. 1799 12
Tennessee, 1810 13
acknowledgments
The Buddhist philosopher Thich Nhat Hanh illustrates the interdependent
nature of reality by considering the table. The table, he explains, can only
exist because the entire non-table world—the forest, the carpenter, the car-
penter’s ancestors, the iron ore of the nails, the sun and rain, and all other
aspects of the universe—made it possible. He could have been talking about
the production of a book. It is a pleasure to be able to thank some of the
people who have been most instrumental in creating this book.
One true reward I reaped in writing this book has been the discovery of how
helpful the academic community can be. Joyce Appleby, Stephen Aron, and
Andrew Cayton read entire drafts of this manuscript and o√ered invaluable
comments and wonderful support. They are the sun and rain for this book.
Many other scholars read parts of this manuscript, directed me to sources, or
contributed ideas. For these courtesies I thank Eric Altice, Robert Baker, Tom
Belt, Greg Beyrer, Ruth Bloch, Seth Cotlar, Ellen DuBois, Laura Edwards, Lisa
Ford, Chris Gantner, Tim Garrison, Tom Hatley, Lanita Jacobs-Huey, Tony
Iaccarino, Kenneth Karst, Naomi Lamoreaux, Muriel McClendon, Sandy
Moats, Eric Monkkonen, Melissa Meyers, David Nichols, Richard Nisbett,
Nathaniel Sheidley, Nancy Shoemaker, Wendy St. Jean, Brenda Stevenson,
Amy Sturgis, Greg Vanderbilt, and Kariann Yokota. Dan Opatoshu, I appreci-
ate the timely advice on Eighty Ways to Cure Writer’s Block. Reed College
o√ered me the opportunity to deepen my thinking by teaching courses in my
field. I also benefited greatly from comments on my conference papers at the
American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians,
the Western Historical Association, the Society for Historians of the Early
American Republic, and the American Society of Legal Historians. For their
generous financial support, I am indebted to the Reed College Professors’
Summer Research Fund, the National Society Daughters of Colonial Wars,
and the Institute for Humane Studies.
My journey into Tennessee history brought me to some truly wonderful
archivists and librarians. I spent months bothering the saints at the Tennessee