Quote, unquote...

Spurious quotes are the bane of every historian's existence. We confront them almost on a daily basis, especially on social media and on the Internet. The onslaught of misinformation circulating online is overwhelming, and debunking these quotes can seem like a losing battle in the face of acceptance by the so called "wisdom of the crowd."

As a writer and public historian, I'm am often called upon to research the validity and accuracy of quotes attributed to historic figures. At times, this can present a challenge, particularly when researching quotations from the men who made their mark on America's first frontier in Tennessee.

I found this problem particularly challenging while researching my latest book, John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero. Direct quotes from the patriots and pioneers of the "Old Southwest" are rare since many did not bother to commit their thoughts to paper at the moment of their individual experiences. These men and their families were more interested in survival than posterity.

Letter addressed to the warriors and chiefs
of the Cherokee Nation, written by
Tennessee Gov. John Sevier on March 28, 1797.
Tennessee State Library and Archives.
Digitized by the Digital Library of Georgia.

Fortunately, a few records of this important time and place in Tennessee history do exist. Prominent men in positions of authority, men like John Sevier, wrote letters as part of their military and governmental duties. Years later, antiquarians like John Haywood, J.G.M. Ramsey, and Lyman Draper "rescued from oblivion" the papers and manuscripts of these frontiersmen and sought recollections from the aging pioneers and their descendants. Additionally, long after the Revolutionary War, when the veterans of the patriot cause sought pension benefits, a record of the thoughts and actions of the common soldier finally came to light through vividly descriptive pension applications.

There are, however, many gaps in the historical record, and over the years writers and storytellers eagerly filled the void with literary embellishments. Some quotes attributed to Sevier and his contemporaries were manufactured from the memories of the elderly veterans who once served under his command, or from these veterans' descendants who remembered stories told to them by their ancestors and recalled them for the antiquarians of the period. Writers of the mid- to late-nineteenth century attempted to reconstruct the narrative of their lives from these recollections, and their memories were not always accurate.

During my research, I occasionally encountered a quote attributed to Sevier and wondered to myself, "Did he really say that?" One particularly troubling and disturbing quote continues to vex me to this day.
 
In Grace Steele Woodward's 1963 book, The Cherokees, Woodward stated that Sevier once referred to the children of the Cherokees as "nits that make lice," and while conducting military raids against the Cherokees, Woodward claimed that Sevier instructed his men to kill the Cherokee children along with their elders in their assault upon the villages. Woodward asserted that Sevier's men understood this order to mean that Cherokee children (nits) would eventually grow up to be adults (lice) and thus represented a threat that must be exterminated.

This is a terribly derogatory quote and brutal characterization of Sevier's attitude towards the Cherokees. Further, to my knowledge, no direct reference to Sevier ever having said this exists. Tracing the origins of this quote, I tried in vain to find a letter or diary entry that could confirm Sevier actually made these remarks. Woodward failed to cite her source in her book, yet, I have seen more than one secondary source place these very words in Sevier's mouth, citing Woodward's quote as if it were the documented truth.

Frontiersmen apparently made frequent use of this cruel expression. According to a footnote cited in John P. Brown's Old Frontiers, the phrase "was adopted by the Americans from a remark made by Henry Hamilton," who in the Spring of 1782 addressing a council of Indians at Detroit, "instructed his red allies that King George expected them to take up the hatchet and 'Kill all the Long Knife (Americans), and that supplies would be withheld from those who failed to heed his command.'" According to Brown, when the Delaware Chief Half King questioned the command, asking, "Father, only men in arms--not women and children?" Hamilton replied "All, all, kill all! Nits make lice!" While Brown noted that "Even the Indians revolted at such tactics," this attitude permeated both sides of the conflict between the frontiersmen and the Indians, making the warfare between the two especially brutal.

Both Brown and another Cherokee scholar named E. Raymond Evans actually credited one of Sevier's militiamen, a man named Thomas Christian, with making the remark. In June of 1788, Sevier led an assault on Cherokee towns located on the banks of the Hiwassee River. According to Evans, militiamen killed five Cherokees and captured one young boy in the surprise attack. "Sevier burned the town and pursued the Cherokees to the mouth of the Valley River, where several of his men narrowly escaped an ambush," Evans wrote. He continued, "The delay caused by the ambush gave the Cherokees enough time to reach safety, but during the excitement the little boy who had been captured by the whites was brutally murdered by one of Sevier's men, Thomas Christian, who made the callous remark, 'Nits make lice.'"

A three-dimensional visualization of a typical Cherokee village.
Image courtesy of the Virtual Hampson Museum.

Brown and Evans cited the Draper Manuscripts as their source for the quote credited to Thomas Christian. Between 1841 and 1844, Lyman Draper interviewed many of the principal participants of Sevier's campaigns against the Cherokees and took copious notes of his conversations. Draper also corresponded with Sevier's son, George Washington Sevier, who according to Brown, supplied the antiquarian with the quote during an interview in February of 1844. There's just one problem... My own careful examination of Draper's handwritten account of this interview yielded no reference to the offending quote.

In fact, George Washington Sevier told Draper that his father "always regretted" any harm that came against the Cherokee women and children "by way of retaliation for their late depredations among his people." However, General Sevier showed little mercy for the remainder of the Cherokee tribe. During Draper's interview, George Washington Sevier further added that if the Cherokee warriors fired upon his father's men, Sevier "would return and destroy every town in the Nation." As a distant voice called out to the general to ask if he really intended to burn their villages, according to Sevier's own son the general replied, "Yes, I'll be damned if I don't!"

Further complicating matters, Evans cited a letter from George Washington Sevier to Lyman Draper dated February 16, 1844 as the source of the now infamous "nits make lice" quote. Again, turning to the Draper Manuscripts, I found no reference to the offending quote attributed to either Sevier or Christian. Is this a case of one scholar repeating the mistakes of another and thus creating a truth that never really existed?

Needless to say, I did not use this particular quote in my book because I could not confirm Sevier actually said this, but I did locate plenty of evidence from writings in Sevier's own hand and within the Draper Manuscripts to give one a compelling view of Sevier's attitude towards the Cherokees. Still, Sevier's deeply complicated relationship with the Cherokees has remained wrapped up in folklore and patriotic rhetoric for generations. It is a subject that I wrote about at length in a previous blog post on The Posterity Project, and it continues to be a topic that elicits emotional reactions from a few of Sevier's most ardent admirers.

While it is entirely fair to analyze Sevier's motives based on historical evidence and scholarship, we cannot fully measure Sevier's character based purely on second-hand information, undocumented quotes, and the hagiographic narratives written by Sevier's admirers. One must look at Sevier's actions throughout the course of his life through well-documented evidence to gain a proper historical perspective. It is impossible to ignore history's painful past, "warts and all," but we must be careful in passing judgement on a man of the past based on present-day values and sensibilities. A true measure of Sevier's character, especially where it concerns the Native Americans, has eluded antiquarians, scholars and historians for decades, and by my estimation, still does so to this day.


 
Gordon Belt is an information professional, archives advocate, public historian, and author of The History Press book, John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero, which examines the life of Tennessee's first governor, John Sevier, through the lens of history and memory. On The Posterity Project, Gordon offers reflections on archives, public history, and memory from his home state of Tennessee.

SELECTED SOURCES

---

John P. Brown. Old Frontiers. Kingsport, Tennessee: Southern Publishers, Inc., 1938.

Draper Manuscripts, Madison: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin (Available on microfilm at the Tennessee State Library and Archives).

E. Raymond Evans. "Notable Persons in Cherokee History: Bob Benge." Journal of Cherokee Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Fall 1976).

Grace Steele Woodward. The Cherokees. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

“A new look at an old Tennessee hero”

Greeting folks at the Barnes & Noble in Johnson City.
Author photo.

Last month, during my visit to Johnson City in support of our book tour for John Sevier: Tennessee’s First Hero, I had the fortuitous opportunity to chat with John Thompson, Elizabethton Bureau Chief of The Johnson City Press. With my book in his hand, Mr. Thompson greeted me with a handshake and asked if I would mind chatting a bit about my book for a review he planned to write for his paper. I happily agreed, and a few short weeks later, The Johnson City Press has published Thompson’s review in its Monday edition:

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/article/117214/john-sevier-book-a-new-look-at-an-old-tennessee-hero

Thompson delivered a fair and thorough review of my book, calling it “a valuable contribution” to the historiography of Sevier’s story. For interested readers, I would encourage you to pick up a copy of The Johnson City Press and read John Thompson’s review of John Sevier: Tennessee’s First Hero. I enjoyed reading it, and I know you will too.




Gordon Belt is an information professional, archives advocate, public historian, and author of The History Press book, John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero, which examines the life of Tennessee's first governor, John Sevier, through the lens of history and memory. On The Posterity Project, Gordon offers reflections on archives, public history, and memory from his home state of Tennessee.

Personal Recollections of Michael Woods Trimble, Part 3

“The revival of memory may be a benevolent compensation to an old man for the loss of hope.” – Michael Woods Trimble, 1860

Throughout the research phase of my current book project, John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero, I encountered many interesting historical anecdotes, stories, and legends recalled by the aged pioneers of the Old Southwest and their descendants. These men knew Sevier, or could at least recall the stories told about his frontier exploits. Although writers augmented many of these narratives with hints of patriotic fervor and nostalgia, often the details surrounding Sevier's life survived literary embellishment.

In 1860, Michael Woods Trimble wrote a memoir of his life, and recalled memories of his father, John Trimble, who served as a Captain of a militia company in the Regiment under Sevier’s command at the Battle of King’s Mountain. Michael Woods Trimble took great pride in his father’s associations with Sevier, and in his memoirs he chronicled the stories of his youth.

I located Trimble's memoir in the Diaries and Memoirs Collection held at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, and quoted from it in my book. This incredibly vivid memoir speaks to how "the revival of memory" played an important role in how writers chronicled Sevier's life. So without further introduction, here are the "Personal Recollections of Michael Woods Trimble."

Part 3 -  How many were destroyed was never ascertained

   My father was appointed by the Governor one of the first Justices of Peace of Blount County, and held the office as long as he lived there. My brother-in-law, William Lackey, was second sheriff of Blount County. My brother, Archibald, and D. W. Brazeale, my mother's cousin, who afterward lived and died near Port Gibson, Miss. built the first court house and jail in Knoxville. Gen. Sevier succeeded Gov. Blount in office, and was the second Governor of Tennessee. [EDITOR'S NOTE: Blount was the Territorial Governor of Tennessee before statehood. In 1796, Sevier became Tennessee's first Governor following the state's admission into the Union.]

   Soon after the counties in East Tennessee were laid off, a dispute was raised about the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee set up a claim to a part of Blount County and the Government wished to conciliate them to peace, ordered all the settlers off until claims could be investigated. My father's land was in the disputed territory and he, with other settlers, was ordered off. He moved to the other side of the Holston River, but left part of the family in the house so as to require the Government to eject them by force. Suit was instituted against the Government for illegal ejectment. At the end of about a year, the dispute about the boundary was settled by restoring the land to the settlers, according to the first settlement.

   My father returned to his land, and the suit for illegal ejectment was never tried. My brother, Robert, was so offended with some of the leading men of the country, who stirred up the suit, but had not the firmness to maintain it, that he resolved to leave the country. In 1798 he moved to the territory of the Mississippi, and two years afterwards he married Mary Gibson, daughter of Samuel Gibson, the first settler of Fort Gibson, after whom the town is named. It was first called Gibsons Fort, from it being the first settlement on the old Natchez Trace, after passing through the Choctaw Nation of Indians. Mr. Gibson settleed there in Spanish times, and received a large grant of land from the Spaniards. In 1798, directly after the dispute about the boundary line of the Cherokee Nation was settled, my father had returned to his land, a man by the name of Lowery commenced trading whiskey to the Indians. He packed it on horses in kegs containing three, four, six and nine gallons. He soon commenced swindling the Indians, by making the kegs so as not to hold half the quantity sold by having wood on the inside of the staves. This made the Indians very mad and they threatened to do mischief. The called him "Scanton" that being the Indian name for keg.

   Immediately they passed a law, prohibiting any person from carrying whiskey in or through Indian Nation, except by a passport from the Indian agent. Jonathan Return J. Meigs was the agent and lived at South West Point, in a garrison at the mouth of Clinch River, forty miles below Maryville. That was long before the temperance reformation commenced, and the traffic and use of ardent spirits was carried on to an extent which is not easily comprehended at this day. It was not considered wrong, and religious people, and even ministers of the Gospel were extensively engaged in it.

   The Rev. Gideon Blackburn and Bartley McGee, a wealthy planter had a quantity of whiskey which they wanted to take to Mobile, but had to go through the Cherokee and Creek Nations. Mr. Blackburn believed that he could not get a passport from Col. Meigs, but Col. Meigs had a son, Timothy, who acted as his agent in his absence. Mr. Blackburn embraced that opportunity to take the whiskey through the Indian Territory. They built small boats twelve miles above my father's home; prepared wagons to haul them, launched their boats, we went down the Tennessee River some hundred miles and up the Hiawassee River eighty or ninety miles, when they had to haul their boats twelve miles across the headwaters of Coosa River, which led into the Tombigbee. They brought their teams across by land. They built a house at the head of navigation in which they put the whiskey while they were cutting roads and hauling their boats. The Indians collected from all quarters--Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Creeks--three or four hundred men, women and children., Two young men, Lowery and McGee, were left to guard the house while the rest were hauling the boats. But the Indians burst open the door, rolled out three or four barrels, broke in the heads and commenced drinking. They filled two bottles and gave them to the young men and told them to leave as soon as possible or the Indians would kill them when they got drunk. The young men watched them for some time at a great distance. They killed and butchered each other with knives and clubs, and crowded around the house. They were all drunk. In the scrap, the house caught fire and the whiskey exploded like a powder magazine. All in and any where near the house were killed, many burned up. How many were destroyed was never ascertained, as it was near the corner of the Nation and some hundred and twenty miles from the white settlement.

   Mr. Blackburn went to Washington City and managed to get paid for his losses. The affair created great prejudice at the time, but his great talent and splendid eloquence bore him through it. He was a most eloquent preacher, and when the temperance movement commenced, he became one of the most zealous of temperance men, and did a great deal to promote that cause. In 1834 or 1836, I heard him preach in Fayette, Jefferson County, Miss. on temperance and a splendid lecture he delivered. Several of my friends joined the Temperance Society that day, to whom I remarked that if any man ought to preach temperance it ought to be Gideon Blackburn. I went to school with his two sons in Maryville.

   In 1800, my father sold his place in the forts of the Holston and Tennessee Rivers and moved to the new purchase, called Muscle Shoals Land, above the Muscle Shoals in the Tennessee River. The government purchased this land from the Cherokee Indians, including the two counties in Alabama of Limestone and Madison. At that time it was part of the territory of Mississippi. It was considered among the richest and best land in the world.

   As soon as it was opened, an immense tide of immigration poured into it. My father was among the first settlers. He built a house on the spot where Cottonport now stands. But the land speculators invented a scheme to get clear of the first settlers; by their intrigues after the Chickasaw Indians set up a claim to it, as having won it from the Cherokees at a Ball play; and in order to investigate the claim, the government ordered all settlers off. By the order probably more than a thousand settlers were removed.

   My father put his family in flatboats, and descended the Tennessee River to Bayou Pierre, he moved to the territory of the Mississippi, where my brother Robert was living.


This entry marks the conclusion in this series published on The Posterity Project. Published previously in this series, Part 1 and Part 2.


 
Gordon Belt is an information professional, archives advocate, public historian, and author of The History Press book, John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero, which examines the life of Tennessee's first governor, John Sevier, through the lens of history and memory. On The Posterity Project, Gordon offers reflections on archives, public history, and memory from his home state of Tennessee.