The Posterity Project: Native American history

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"My thoughts and my heart are for war..."

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is an edited excerpt from John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero supplemented by additional research compiled after the book's original publication.

During the late eighteenth century, the Watauga settlement located in present-day east Tennessee grew rapidly as white settlers arrived from Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina and Virginia. As early as the 1760s, settlers began moving into the southwest frontier, and by 1772, these first pioneers had built about seventy homesteads in the Watauga Valley.

Throughout these formative years of white settlement, the Cherokees offered little resistance to the flood of migrants pouring into the region. Great Britain's Royal Proclamation of 1763 and subsequent treaties and land cessions provided temporary periods of negotiated peace between the Wataugans and the Cherokees. Yet, settlers continued their encroachments. A war with their Chickasaw rivals to the west also distracted the Cherokees for a time, having the added effect of weakening their influence in the region.

"Map of the Watauga Settlements, Showing The Supposed Virginia Line."
Image credit: "A History of Tennessee: The Land and Native People." Tennessee Blue Book.

In short order, the Wataugans sought more land. The frontier settlers formed their own government outside the authority of British rule and negotiated land leases with their Cherokee neighbors. The rapid influx of white settlers in the region, however, made leasing the land impractical. The loss of Cherokee sovereignty over the region created periods of tension between the settlers and their Cherokee counterparts, often resulting in violent conflict. The Wataugans sought to create a buffer between themselves and the Cherokees, and that motivation compelled them to purchase the land outright.

In 1775, land speculator Richard Henderson offered to purchase 20 million acres of land from the Cherokees in return for much-needed supplies. Bounded by the "Kaintucke and Tennessee rivers," the proposed land deal included nearly all of present-day Kentucky and a portion of northeastern Tennessee. Henderson initiated negotiations with the Cherokee despite a ban on the sale or lease of Cherokee lands outlined in the Proclamation of 1763, ignoring Royal claims to portions of this territory.

By late January, more than two thousand Cherokees assembled at Sycamore Shoals to begin the negotiations. The tribe elders--Attakullakulla, Oconostota and Old Tassel--attended the talks. A defiant young Cherokee warrior named Tsiyugunsini, known to the white settlers and his fellow Cherokees as Dragging Canoe, also attended.

Born in 1740, the son of the Cherokee diplomat Attakullakulla, Dragging Canoe traveled a different path. Even as a child, he wanted to become a warrior. According to legend, "Dragging Canoe once asked his father to include him in a war party against the Shawnees, but Attakullakulla refused. Determined to go, the boy hid in a canoe, where the warriors found him. His father gave the boy permission to go--if he could carry the canoe. The vessel was too heavy, but undaunted, the boy dragged the canoe, and from that time thereafter, he was known as Dragging Canoe."

Having waged a number of battles against the white settlers, by the 1770s, Dragging Canoe had earned a reputation as a fierce warrior. Thus, when Henderson extended his offer of guns, ammunition, clothing, blankets, beads, mirrors, bells, tomahawk and hunting knives to the battle-weary Cherokee, Dragging Canoe resisted this bargained truce. While the elder statesmen of the tribe saw their treaty with the white settlers as a way to replenish their supplies, Dragging Canoe believed that any agreement with the white man placed the Cherokee on a path toward extinction. In an emotional speech before the Cherokee council, Dragging Canoe rose up in opposition to the treaty and offered these prophetic words, later chronicled by traditional accounts:

"Whole nations have melted away in our presence like balls of snow before the sun, and have scarcely left their names behind, except as imperfectly recorded by their enemies and destroyers. It was once hoped that your people would not be willing to travel beyond the mountains, so far from the ocean, on which your commerce was carried, and your connections maintained with the nations of Europe. But now that fallacious hope has vanished; you have passed the mountains and settled upon the Cherokee lands, and wish to have your usurpations sanctioned by the confirmation of a treaty."

"When that should be obtained, the same encroaching spirit will lead you upon other lands of the Cherokees. New cessions will be applied for, and finally the country which the Cherokees and our forefathers have so long occupied will be called for; and a small remnant of this nation once so great and formidable, will be compelled to seek a retreat in some far distant wilderness, there we will dwell but a short space of time before we will again behold the advancing banners of the same greedy host; who, not being able to point out any farther retreat for the miserable Cherokees, would then proclaim the extinction of the whole race. Should we not therefore run all risks and incur all consequences, rather than to submit to further laceration of our country?"

Despite Dragging Canoe's protests, Henderson secured his agreement to buy this "little spot of ground" with the signing of the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals on March 17, 1775. Dragging Canoe left the meeting in disgust, lamenting the settlers' increasing presence in the region. "The white men have almost surrounded us," Dragging Canoe remarked, "and it seems to be their intention to destroy us as a Nation."

Dragging Canoe vowed to turn the land "dark and bloody" in his fight against further settlement. "I had nothing to do with making that bargain," he later wrote, "it was made by some of the old men, who are too old to hunt or to fight. As for me, I have a great many of my young warriors around me, and they mean to have their lands." In the years that followed, Dragging Canoe led his separatist Chickamauga Cherokees in several attacks on white settlements throughout the region in a series of conflicts lasting for a decade after the Revolutionary War.

Drawing of Dragging Canoe. He is shown standing and holding a spear. This drawing was created by illustrator Bernie Andrews and originally published in The Overmountain Men by Pat Alderman in 1986.
Image and caption credit: Tennessee State Museum.

History recorded Dragging Canoe's fight to preserve his people's land and culture on the white man's terms. John Haywood described Dragging Canoe as "an obscure warrior of the Overhills" and his speech as "very animated and pathetic." J.G.M. Ramsey called the Chickamaugas "an association of lawless Cherokees and Creeks, implacable, revengeful, bloodthirsty... allies in war and malcontents in peace." These authors of early Tennessee history labeled Dragging Canoe and his tribe of Chickamauga warriors as "savages," a description often repeated in subsequent narratives.

More recent scholarship, however, has cast new light on Dragging Canoe's motives and actions, placing greater emphasis on his skills at building alliances, developing battlefield strategies, and safeguarding his people's culture. Historians later asserted that Dragging Canoe was the greatest Cherokee military leader in the Nation, known to some as "The Red Napoleon."

Dragging Canoe's forces successfully harassed white settlers throughout their conflict and boldly turned back an assault on their Chickamauga towns with a decisive defeat of American army troops at Lookout Mountain in 1788. Yet, despite this, Dragging Canoe's people suffered mightily for their resistance. Militiamen burned Cherokee towns and villages, captured or killed men, women and children indiscriminately and frequently left the Chickamaugas to starve without food, shelter, or supplies.

Dragging Canoe's resolve remained firm. Even after Cherokee elders agreed to peace terms with the new United States government following the end of the Revolutionary War, Dragging Canoe vowed to continue his fight. "My thoughts and my heart are for war," he wrote. He continued, "as long as King George has one enemy in this country. Our hearts are straight to him and all his people, and whoever is at war with us."

Dragging Canoe's fight against the Americans endured even as the Cherokee Nation continued negotiations for peace. Cherokee elders concluded their first treaty with the new nation at Hopewell in South Carolina on Nov. 28, 1785. Almost one hundred Cherokees attended with representatives from all parts of the Nation, except the Chickamauga towns. At Coyatee, Old Tassel and other Overhill Cherokee leaders were forced at gun point to sign another treaty which surrendered all remaining land north of the Little Tennessee River. Old Tassel and several other Cherokee leaders were subsequently murdered under a flag of truce, an atrocity later blamed, by some, on John Sevier, who led many of the expeditions and depredations against Dragging Canoe's resistance.

One might expect a warrior like Dragging Canoe to die on the field of battle. Yet, this man with a heart for war survived and thrived. He ultimately fulfilled his father's legacy as a diplomat in his own right. Dragging Canoe negotiated alliances with Spain in exchange for weaponry and supplies, and he focused his energies late in life on negotiating closer contacts with other Native American tribes, including the Creeks and the Shawnees. Their strong alliances with Dragging Canoe's Chickamaugas fostered an era of peace among The Nations in their shared struggle for sovereignty. Dragging Canoe's diplomatic efforts also created an environment where Cherokee culture flourished. Cherokee customs and practices endured well into the nineteenth century as a result, even as their land diminished.

Although too old to lead his men into battle, Dragging Canoe's organizational talents, strong leadership qualities, and inspired oratory skills led to several victories on the battlefield carried out by his younger warriors. While celebrating his success, Dragging Canoe died at Lookout Town on March 1, 1792. Legend asserts that upon learning of "certain successful Chickamauga depredations near Nashville," Dragging Canoe perished as a result of a "too vigorous celebration."

Dragging Canoe died as he lived--as a fiercely vocal and passionate advocate for his people. His legacy endured for years following his death with the Chickamauga tribe continuing to resist the onslaught of settlement on Cherokee land. Their efforts ultimately led to a negotiated period of peace made possible in part by the respect white settlers had gained for Dragging Canoe's unyielding show of strength.

To this day, Dragging Canoe is remembered. As one Cherokee scholar has noted, his descendants still recall with great pride Dragging Canoe's bold statement to a Native American delegation in 1779. "But we are not yet conquered."

SELECTED SOURCES:

Albert Bender. "Dragging Canoe: A true American Indian hero." The Tennessean, March 13, 2016.

Richard Blackmon. Dark and Bloody Ground: The American Revolution Along the Southern Frontier. Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2012.

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

R. S. Cotterill. The Southern Indians: The Story of The Civilized Tribes Before Removal. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1954.

Nadia Dean. A Demand of Blood: The Cherokee War of 1776. Cherokee, NC: Valley River Press, 2012.

Max Dixon. The Wataugans. Johnson City, Tenn.: The Overmountain Press, 1999.

E. Raymond Evans. "Notable Persons in Cherokee History: Dragging Canoe," Journal of Cherokee Studies, Winter 1977.

Patricia Bernard Ezzell. "Dragging Canoe." Tennessee Encyclopedia. Tennessee Historical Society, 2017.

Gordon Belt is a 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.

Fort Nashborough reopens to visitors

On July 13, 2017, I had the opportunity to attend a "ribbon hacking" ceremony (a clever historical spin on the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony) for the reopening of Nashville's Fort Nashborough historic fort.

Nashville's Mayor and selected dignitaries gather to hear opening remarks to the assembled crowd before the ribbon cutting ceremony at Fort Nashborough.
Author photo

According to The Tennessean...

"The new Fort Nashborough, which is the third replica of the original Nashville settlers' fort on the Cumberland River, reopens with a ribbon cutting and dedication and an invitation to the entire community to explore the new fort grounds.

Metro Parks Assistant Director Tim Netsch explained that this week's opening of the $1.7 million phase one of the riverfront fort in downtown Nashville will give visitors a more comprehensive look at the lives of the early settlers than previous fort replicas offered.

The new fort and interpretive center, which will be free to visit and will be operated by Metro Parks, showcase how the settlers lived and worked, and allow people to see the exterior of the fort's log cabins and block houses that were built with historically accurate construction...

...One important addition is an interpretive plaza area on the south end that focuses on Nashville's Native American history and includes an 8-foot-tall feather sculpture as well as interpretive signage detailing the various tribes and their roles in early Nashville history."

On January 1, 1780, James Robertson founded Nashville when he led his group of pioneers across the frozen Cumberland river to a place called The Cedar Bluffs. These men built a fort called Nashborough, which is replicated here.

I'm happy to see this important period of early Tennessee history back on display in a prominent location in Nashville's growing skyline. I'm particularly pleased to see that the story of Nashville's Native American settlers--here long before Robertson and Donelson--have a place of honor in this plaza. Hopefully, with the opening of this new interpretive center, more people will learn about the deep and diverse history of Nashville.

The eagle feather honors the heritage of Nashville's indigenous peoples.
Author photo

"The First Peoples" interpretive panel at Fort Nashborough.
Author photo

Fort Nashborough History Center is now open to visitors.
Author photo

I took a few more photographs of the fort and the ceremonies and posted them on Twitter. I invite you to click the preceding link for a sampling.

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.

Polygamy on the Early Tennessee Frontier

Last week, I had the opportunity to listen to Cumberland University professor Dr. Natalie Inman as she delivered a thought-provoking lecture to members of the Tennessee Historical Society at the Fort Negley Visitor's Center. Her presentation, "Polygamy in the Early Republic: The Case of Indian Agent Joseph Martin," not only covered Martin's wildly fascinating married life -- he had 23 children with four different wives, white and Cherokee -- but also examined the polygamist culture that existed on the Tennessee frontier.

According to Dr. Inman, intermarriage between white settlers and Native Americans became a necessary survival tactic on America's new frontier. Inman argued that white men needed Cherokee wives to conduct business on the frontier as a means of cross-cultural cooperation. Cherokee culture embraced a maternally-focused family structure, unlike Euro-American cultures which were inherently paternalistic. Within the Cherokee family structure women held far more power than men. Recognizing this, white men often married Cherokee wives not for love, but rather in order to acquire land or negotiate trade routes. Inman argued that Indian Agents, like Martin, used marriage as a negotiating tactic in diplomatic relations, and though frowned upon in America's Euro-centric culture, both intermarriage and adultery were accepted norms on America's early frontier.

The acquisition of land was a frequent ambition of white settlers of "THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY," and white men often relinquished control to women in the maternalistic Cherokee culture in order to obtain land rights and diplomatic leverage in trade negotiations.
Image credit: The Project Gutenberg eBook of Myths of the Cherokee, by James Mooney, 1900.

Inman also discussed the rivalry that existed between Martin and John Sevier, a topic I briefly explored on The Posterity Project a few months ago. Martin's position as an agent and superintendent of Cherokee Indian affairs put him squarely at odds with Sevier, who saw the Cherokees as a threat to establishing sovereignty for his fragile State of Franklin movement. During her talk, Inman described Martin as a "warrior" who protected his Cherokee family against Sevier's unnecessary aggression, while he simultaneously sought protection for his white family during the State of Franklin conflict. According to Inman, hard times created more complex household structures, and on the American frontier, complex families, like Martin's, were more common than one might expect.

Questions about John Sevier's own married past...

As a public historian, I make my living, in part, by seeking the truth about our collective past. In my ongoing blog series about John Sevier, and in my book, John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero, I have frequently challenged long-held traditions and beliefs in search for the truth. Sometimes, this quest for truth leads me down elusive paths.

One of the unanswered questions that I occasionally receive from readers concerns Sevier's descendants -- more specifically his relationship with the indigenous Cherokee population of Tennessee, and rumors of an alleged affair Sevier had with an unknown Cherokee woman. Whispers of this rumor can be found on various online publications and genealogy forums, but finding credible primary and secondary published sources to back up those online claims has proved challenging.

One article published online and shared widely among family history researchers asserted, "several families claim a lineage to John Sevier and an unknown Cherokee Indian woman. Their daughter, Winney Alice Sevier, was left by her mother in Russell County, Virginia, at the Henry Campbell farm. Winney later fell in love with Campbell’s son, Abraham, whom she married and lived with in a home on the adjacent farm." The article, no longer available online, borrowed liberally from previously published narratives of Sevier's life without attribution, and so I hesitate to give much weight to this assertion.

A more credible source shared by a reader of this blog recalled the story of "Ann Eliza Carter." Anna Eliza was born Nov. 17, 1825, the daughter of William Carter and Lucindia Sevier. In her book, Notable Southern Families, Volume IV: The Sevier Family, buried in a reference to Lucindia Sevier's lineage, Zella Armstrong wrote that as a young girl Ann Eliza recalled that "she knew very little of her ancestry, but was told she was a grand-daughter of Governor John Sevier." Armstrong chronicled young Ann Eliza's memories of her family history stating, "She remembers that in her childhood, an old lady lived at her home who was called Aunt Winnie Sevier. She does not know whether this was her deceased mother's sister or aunt." No mention of Cherokee ancestry here, but with only vague recollections about Winnie(ey) Sevier's lineage the speculation persists.

Another name recently surfaced in my email correspondence with Sevier descendants. Obedience Hillard Sevier is a name cited on genealogy message boards as someone with a familial connection to Sevier. Some allege that Sevier fathered Obedience with a Cherokee mistress, while others state that Obedience was an indentured servant to the Sevier family who took on her master's name. Still others claim there was likely no relation to Sevier whatsoever, and the connection is based purely on myth and misinformation. The latter claim seems more plausible to me, but after hearing Dr. Inman's lecture, I do wonder... Did Sevier engage in his own "diplomatic" relations with the Cherokees in the same ways as his enemy, Joseph Martin? It's not an unreasonable question given the long history of this practice on the early frontier, but a lack of definitive historical evidence in this case makes proving the connection difficult, if not impossible. It's a question we may never fully answer.

A thought-provoking question...

I want to clearly state that I am not a professional genealogist, and my book is not a genealogy of the Sevier family. John Sevier: Tennessee's First Hero examines Sevier's life within the context of history and memory. It is not a Sevier family history. Still, I have extensively researched Sevier's life, with particular attention to his military campaigns against the Cherokees.

I have yet to encounter a credible source that definitively proves a familial link to Sevier and the mysterious Cherokee children sharing his surname, and I certainly cannot project the actions of those like Martin onto Sevier. Yet questions about Sevier's alleged affair with a Cherokee mistress remain unanswered. This is a topic that I'm sure some will find provoking, but one that I hope will challenge us all to examine the past, "warts and all."

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.

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.

John Sevier: Pioneer Boy and Son of Tennessee

While John Sevier's exploits on the frontier, on the field of battle, and in the halls of government are legendary, the historical facts concerning his early years are a relative mystery. In his book, John Sevier: Pioneer of the Old Southwest, historian Carl Driver wrote only one solitary paragraph describing Sevier's childhood, briefly noting his date of birth, his siblings, and where he attended school, but little else. And in the preface of the 1910 book, Life of General John Sevier, Francis Marion Turner laments:

John Sevier's Birthplace Marker.
Image credit: Historical Marker Database

"When a boy reads the biography of a great man, he is especially interested in the hero's boyhood days -- his joys and sorrows, struggles and victories; and he is always disappointed if nothing has been said about that period of his life. The fact that the youthful period of Sevier's life had been neglected, led me to write this little volume. During my school days, when I read about the wonderful battles which General Sevier fought with the dusky warriors of the forest, and about the terrible clash with the British at King's Mountain, I wondered about his boyhood days. Later I was disappointed to find that the biography of an American hero, a man who had been instrumental in turning the tide of the Revolution at King's Mountain, had been sadly neglected. In all my investigations I could not find a book that furnished the information I was seeking."

Turner would go on to devote a generous portion of the first chapter of Life of General John Sevier to John Sevier's early years, remarking on young Sevier's fondness of living on the frontier, his hunting prowess, his education in Staunton, Virginia, and his work as a clerk in his father's mercantile store. Turner also commented on Sevier's encounters with the Native American population, stating, "A great many wild tales are told of Sevier's fights with the Indians in his youth; and, while we cannot rely upon them all as true, we do know that he grappled with the dusky fellows while yet in his teens."

This language -- "dusky warriors" and "dusky fellows" -- was written at a time when history was most concerned with the accomplishments of great men -- great white men -- and the narrative in almost every account of Sevier's life as an Indian fighter elevated the white settlers who he defended, and marginalized the Native American population. Most of John Sevier's biographers described Indians as "savages" constantly on the warpath, and wrote about Native Americans as if they were a singularly evil scourge on the untamed frontier.

William O. Steele
Image credit: "Past Perfect: A Writer's Blog"
by Lori Benton.

   The lines between truth and legend begin to blur as you read these accounts of John Sevier's childhood, leaving fertile ground for fiction writers and novelists to fill the void of scholarship. Among them was a man named William O. Steele.

   William O. Steele (1917-1979) was an award-winning author of historical fiction for children, particularly fiction set in the 18th century frontier of Tennessee. He was born in Franklin, Tennessee, and wrote most of his thirty-nine books in his home on Signal Mountain, Tennessee.

   Steele's book, John Sevier: Pioneer Boy, was part of The Childhood of Famous Americans series, published from the 1940's through the 1960's. Each book in the series had a story about a boy or girl who grew up to be famous as an inventor, statesman, nurse, doctor, explorer, or some other worthy occupation. Many of these titles are out-of-print, but were reprinted by Patria Press as the Young Patriots series.

   The series is currently published by Simon & Schuster, which claims it is "One of the most popular series ever published for young Americans, these classics have been praised alike by parents, teachers, and librarians. With these lively, inspiring, fictionalized biographies -- easily read by children of eight and up -- today's youngster is swept right into history."

   Published in 1953, Steele's John Sevier: Pioneer Boy envisions young John Sevier as a brave adventurer, and his ambitions to conquer the frontier and become a leader of men are on full display. In the chapter, "John Is A Good Talker," John tells his brother Val:

"When I get big... I'm going to be a bear hunter. I'm going to kill all the bears in Virginia. Then I'm going to the frontier and fight Indians... I'm going to be a great fighter and win a hundred Indian battles. I'll make all the Indians run far, far away. Then white people can come in here and settle. Pretty soon this country will have many farms and towns."

In this chapter, we also learn that John's father is considering leaving his merchant store on the frontier for Fredericksburg because too many supplies have been stolen in the night. Young John overhears this conversation and defiantly approaches his father, telling him:

"This is the first land you've ever owned, Father. You said so once. You've got to keep it. It's good rich land. When more people come here to the frontier, you could sell it for a big price... They come by your store all the time. Hunters. Men with their families. You said you see new people every day heading south through our valley. And frontiers need stores. Folks have got to have a place to trade. What will they do if you run off and leave them now?"

"John stood straight and looked very serious as he made his speech. Mr. Sevier pursed his lips to keep from smiling. Why, he thought, the lad looks and talks like a boy twelve or fourteen years old, instead of six and a half!"

William O. Steele's fictionalized account of John Sevier drew upon every frontier legend and exploit ever written about him. He used the stories of John Sevier's frontier adventures as an adult as literary inspiration, and painted a portrait of words which described the youthful Sevier as a brave and adventurous boy eager to claim his birthright as "Tennessee's First Hero."

Other fictionalized accounts of John Sevier's youth also drew on legendary tales and embellished historical accounts. In the first chapter of Katharine Wilkie's book, John Sevier: Son of Tennessee, the author admiringly described John Sevier as a boy with an adventurous spirit. In one scene, Wilkie wrote lovingly of John Sevier through the eyes of his mother, Joanna, who daydreams of her son's greatness while gazing at her children at the dinner table:

"All their sons were strong and handsome, but there was something special about John, their first-born. She could not name it, but it was there. A joie de vivre that would not be denied. He always led his brothers and sisters, and yet they felt no jealousy. In every situation he was a few steps ahead of them. She pictured him, a grown man, as he would have been nearly two centuries ago at the court of Henry of Navarre, whom her husband's ancestors had served. No other nobleman could match blades with him."

In another scene, the Sevier family receives a warning of Indians on the warpath nearby, and soon father Valentine gathers his brood and tells them that they must temporarily abandon their home for the safety of the town of Fredericksburg. John Sevier is beside himself, exclaiming, "Father! We can't leave the tavern and the store unprotected... I don't want to run away. I'd like to stay right here, Indians or no Indians."

Despite his protests, Valentine Sevier ushers his family to Fredericksburg, where John Sevier quickly becomes bored with the drudgery of town life. The routine of school also bored him. "The wilderness is my world," John said stubbornly. "The bear and the elk - or the Indians - won't ask me if I can read Latin and Greek."

John Sevier's reputation as a daring adventurer inspired yet another fiction writer. In Nolichucky Jack: A Thrilling Tale of John Sevier -- originally published in 1927, and later republished by Overmountain Press in 1999 -- John T. Faris writes a fantastic tale in the first chapter, "A Pioneer Boy at School." After a warning of an imminent attack from Indians, the Sevier family takes refuge in a nearby fort. A nine-year-old John Sevier encounters one of the Indians trying to enter the fort, and instinctively reaches for a pile of sharpened stakes, stabbing the intruder in the head and killing him instantly. Young Sevier dragged the body into a cellar, where his father exclaimed, "Look at his head-dress! The boy has bagged a chief!"

In his introduction, while Faris states that "in all important particulars, the main incidents of Nolichucky Jack's life were as they are pictured in this volume," he also admits to taking "slight liberties" with some historical facts, including an encounter with a young surveyor named George Washington which was "made up entirely of extracts" of Washington's Diary. But Faris dismisses anyone who might doubt this story with an assertion that would never fly in any survey level course in history...

"It is possible that some extreme literalist will say that there is no proof that the young man Washington visited Staunton at the period indicated. Can they prove that he did not do so?"

Based on historical narrative, these fictionalized accounts of John Sevier's early life served to cement his reputation as an Indian fighter and a fearless leader of men, further embellishing and magnifying his image in popular literature as a frontier hero. Faris noted that "the Indians held [John Sevier] in wholesome dread, but the hardy frontiersmen loved him." John Sevier was loved so much that Faris proclaimed him to be "the greatest Indian fighter of pioneer days, hero of thirty-five victorious battles with the savages." This number was far short of the "hundred Indian battles" that the fictionalized John Sevier dreamed of having as a young boy. Nonetheless, his legend became known far and wide, beyond the pages of history. Many years after his death in 1815, a monument built upon his final resting place on the grounds of the old Knox County Courthouse declared John Sevier's fighting prowess over the Indian...

"35 Battles - 35 Victories. His Indian war cry 'Here they are, come on boys, come on'" is etched in stone on John Sevier's grave marker at the Knox County Courthouse in Knoxville, Tennessee. Author's photo.

While tales of John Sevier's youthful frontier exploits were first penned on paper by antiquarians and admirers, and later embellished in the fictionalized accounts of Faris, Wilkie, and Steele, his Indian war cry was etched in stone for posterity. Few of Sevier's chroniclers, however, listened to the Indian's war cry, especially those writers of fiction.

35 Battles, 35 Victories...

35 Battles - 35 Victories
His Indian War Cry:
"Here They Are Come On Boys, Come On"

John Sevier's monument and grave site
at the Old Knox County Courthouse,
Knoxville, Tennessee.
Author photo.

   To this day, John Sevier's relationship with the Native American tribes of the Overmountain region remains a remarkably complex topic clouded in hagiography and embellishment. As a well-known Indian fighter with "35 Battles and 35 Victories" to his credit, Sevier led a tenacious assault upon the Cherokees, rapidly moving from village to village destroying everything in sight. Sevier usually employed a small but well-trained army of frontiersmen to penetrate the contested Native American territory, destroying villages and supplies, and capturing or killing adversaries. At times these skirmishes devolved into bloody confrontations of hand-to-hand combat between white settlers who sought to defend their newly acquired land, and Native Americans who saw the white man's ever increasing encroachment on their territory as a threat.

   Sevier's relationship with these noble warriors, however, could never be characterized simply as a fight between adversaries. Sevier had a deeply complicated military and diplomatic relationship with the Cherokees and other Native American tribes of the region--a relationship that has eluded scholarly examination in most of the narratives of John Sevier's life.

   By most historical accounts--albeit from the white man's perspective--the Cherokees both feared and respected Sevier for his leadership, diplomacy and fighting prowess. As a diplomat on the frontier, Sevier engaged in many negotiations with the Cherokees in order to avoid bloodshed. In one particular letter written on July 28, 1781, Sevier wrote to the "Warriors and Chiefs, Friends and Brothers" of the Cherokee Nation and proclaimed:

"I never hated you as a People, nor warred with you on that account. I fought with you, but it was for our own safety & not from any delight I had in hurting you. I am not afraid to fight with men, but I never hurt women & children, they are innocent human beings. It is true I took some of them prisoner, but it was only with a view to exchange for our People you have as prisoner. I have fed them well, kept them at my own home, and treated them as my own children; and you shall have them every one as soon as you bring in our People."

In the same letter Sevier later expressed his feelings of adoration for the Cherokee Nation. "I am now pleased with you of your Nation," Sevier wrote. "I love for you. I shall always... You may believe me, I speak from my heart." However, as a soldier of the frontier and later as governor of Tennessee, Sevier never hesitated to bring "fire and sword" to the Cherokee people whenever he believed his fellow frontiersmen were under threat of imminent danger.

In the last engagement of his military career, through his own account, Sevier cemented his reputation as an Indian fighter and frontier hero in the town of Etowah located in the present-day city of Rome, Georgia at the Battle of Hightower. In September of 1793, General Sevier and his 800 men descended on Etowah from Tennessee, in retaliation for an earlier attack by Cherokees who had scalped and killed thirteen people at Cavett's Station near Knoxville. Sevier and his men caught up to the Cherokees and their chief, King Fisher, at present day Myrtle Hill and a battle ensued. Sevier's men emerged victorious after Chief King Fisher died in battle when a minie ball pierced his chest, and soon afterward the Cherokee warriors retreated. Sevier pursued them to Etowah where he ultimately defeated the remaining Cherokees.

In the only written account of this battle, in his official report to Tennessee's territorial governor, William Blount, on October 25, 1793, Sevier documented his troop movements through the mountains, rivers and valleys of the Hiwassee, Estanaula, and Coosa Rivers, his engagement with the Creek and Cherokee Indians, his destruction of villages and supplies, and his capture of Native American prisoners. On this last point, the General goes out of his way to suggest that he was benevolent toward his Native American adversaries:

"Many women and children might have been taken, but from motives of humanity I did not encourage it to be done, and several taken were suffered to make their escape. Your Excellency knows the disposition of many that were out on this expedition, and can readily account for this conduct."

Was John Sevier a benevolent adversary or brutal antagonist? The answer to that question remains unclear. In his diary entry of October 14, 1793, Sevier quotes the following order to his men:

"It is ordered that from this time forward no person presume to set fire on any Indian hut or town in which there is corn or provision without there are orders from me to do the same. No firing of guns in or out of camp except leave from me or a field officer be first obtained, and as the officers of every rank are sensible of the baneful consequences of such unwarrantable conduct, it is earnestly requested that they will use their utmost exertion to prevent the same."

Yet despite these orders, on October 20, 1793, Sevier warned the Cherokees with the following proclamation:

Camp Head of Amutekah Creek, 25 miles from Last Encampment, 20 Octo. 1793.

To the Cherokees and their Warriors, if they have any:

Your murders and savage barbarities have caused me to come into your country expecting you would fight like men, but you are like the bears and wolves.
The face of a white man makes you run fast into the woods and hide. I pity your women and children, for I am sure they must suffer and live like dogs, but you are the cause of it. You will make war and then are afraid to fight. Our people whipped you mightily two nights ago crossing the river and made your people run very fast.

“John Sevier”

As governor of the fledgling state of Tennessee, Sevier had to walk a more delicate line with his rhetoric, balancing his concern for the safety of his fellow citizens against the federal government's desire to limit their encroachments on Indian lands. In a letter dated July 20, 1796, Sevier wrote:

"I shall always be desirous of preserving and supporting peace between the frontiers and our Indian neighbors, by restraining, as much as possible, the former from intrusion and encroachments of every kind; at the same time hope the latter will be suffered to pass off with impunity, and any violences and depredations they may unprovokedly and wantonly commit. It is a well known fact and shamefully obvious, that all the erratic tribes are accustomed and habituated to licentiousness; and educated to a vagrant, lawless, debauched and immoral life, and nothing but a sufficient conviction of being chastised will ever deter those itinerant nations from their common desperate and rapacious practices.

It is to be lamented measures so harsh and cruel in the operation must inevitably be inflicted on any part of the human race; but in case of self preservation, and the enjoyment of tranquility, a nation is not only warranted to punish unjustifiable attacks; but may put the aggressors in such a condition as will prevent them in future from being guilty of like offenses."

Later in his political career, as a member of Congress, Sevier's rhetoric toward the Indians became more forceful and direct as the United States prepared for war. In the moments leading up to the War of 1812, Sevier joined seventy-eight of his congressional colleagues and voted for a formal declaration of war against Great Britain. In a letter to Tennessee governor Willie Blount, Sevier expressed his contempt for the British and their Creek Indian allies. "Fire and sword must be carried into that country before those wretches will be reduced to reason or become peaceable neighbors," Sevier raged. He continued, "There can be no reliance or trust placed in them. No doubt British emissaries are among them."

Creek war scene with Indians defending their village against American soldiers. (Photo Credit: American Heritage Picture Collection). Scene also featured in Museum of the Cherokee Indian Exhibit.

Several decades following his death, writers and antiquarians of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries attempted to place Sevier's Indian campaigns in a broader historical context, using the rhetoric of patriotism to cast Sevier in the role of savior of the Republic. Within the pages of history, scholars and storytellers amplified incidents of Indian depredations against white settlers with words laced with suspicion, fear and hatred. These chroniclers of early Tennessee history reenforced Sevier's justification of the use of force against the Cherokee population, no matter the costs. In their view, Native Americans existed as mere obstacles to Manifest Destiny.

Efforts to document Sevier's battles with the Native Americans began in earnest in the aftermath of the Civil War at a time when the nation sought healing through the stories of heroism of our past. For example, in his 1889 book, History of Tennessee, James Phelan wrote:

"If his mode of warfare was barbarous, he was waging war against barbarians, brave, cruel, relentless, and treacherous, without any of the things which civilization gave except its engines of destruction. Sevier was not the man to trifle with his task. Indian incursions could only be stopped by exterminating the Indians. Hence he tried to exterminate them. General Sheridan in the valley of Virginia was not more thorough. Every grain of corn was destroyed. Everything which could be used was burned, broken, or carried away. Every wigwam received the torch. Every boat was sunk. Nothing was spared except a few helpless human lives."

In another example, Oliver Temple Perry's biographical sketch, John Sevier: Citizen, Soldier, Legislator, Governor, Statesman -- written in 1893 and eventually published in 1910 specifically to honor Sevier following the re-internment of his remains in 1889 -- equated Sevier's "35 Battles and 35 Victories" with the battles fought by the patriots of the Revolutionary War. He wrote:

"The far-reaching importance of this Indian fighting has not been, and is not now, half appreciated. Few men ever think that when Sevier and Robertson, Boone and Logan were repelling Indian attacks, or invading the Indian country, they were doing anything more than protecting the white settlements. Whereas, in fact, they were unconsciously fighting the battles of the Revolution. The same great power which put in motion the armies of Clinton and Cornwallis, for the subjugation of the colonies along the Atlantic, and encircled them with a line of fire, also set in motion the fierce savage nations from Canada to Florida, bent on the destruction of all the infant settlements west of the Alleghenies and the Blue Ridge."

History's chroniclers later carved John Sevier's legend into stone on the grand obelisk marking his final resting place on the grounds of the Old Knox County Courthouse in Knoxville, Tennessee. The words inscribed on that monument -- "35 Battles, 35 Victories" -- left little doubt how posterity chose to remember "Tennessee's First Hero."

George Magruder Battey, Jr., "Chapter II: John Sevier, John Floyd and the Indians," A History of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, United States of America, Including Numerous Incidents of More Than Local Interest, 1540-1922. Volume I, Atlanta, GA: 1922, pages 22-25.

Carl S. Driver, John Sevier: Pioneer of the Old Southwest. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1932, pages 33-38.

Col. John Sevier, "Talk to the Cherokee warriors and chiefs," July 28, 1781, Tennessee Papers, Lyman C. Draper Manuscripts. Wisconsin Historical Society.

Samuel Gordon Heiskell, Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History, Tennessee: Ambrose Printing Co., Volume 1, Second Edition, 1920, Chapter 19, pages 328-330.

Oliver Temple Perry, John Sevier: Citizen, Soldier, Legislator, Governor, Statesman,, Knoxville, Tenn., The Zi-Po Press, Printers, 1910.

J.G.M. Ramsey. Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century. (Electronic ed.). Rockwood, TN: EagleRidge Technologies. (Original work published 1853).

Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, Part IV. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1906, pages 217-219.

Samuel C. Williams, ed., "Executive Journal of Gov. John Sevier," East Tennessee Historical Society Publications, No. 1 (1929), 113.

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

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