Little Carpenter doesn't quit. Against all Odds.
Little Carpenter is indefatiguable. He does not weaken under insult. This man keeps his head straight. Everybody else feels compelled to lose their heads.
As we cover this year of 1759 in 2023, we run into Little Carpenter again. The Executive Council records in its journal 17 April 1759, a letter datelined 15 March 1759 from Fort Prince George (yep it is at the bottom of a lake now) , in the the Keowee area of the Cherokee nation, 250 miles northeast of Charleston SC.
The letter is from Lttle Carpenter.
The Executive Council who reads this letter is a sort of upper house to the House of Burgesses. It also serves as advisory council to the Governor. And it is the highest court before going to London.
This letter from Little Carpenter, has his name spelled this way: Ottocullocullo.
His name is normally spelled Attakullakulla or Attacullaculla. This letter is optimistic.
The Governor (Lt Gov Francis Fauquier) communicated to the Board the Talk he had just received from Ottocullocullo, or the Little Carpenter, dated Fort Prince George , March 15th signifying his People are well pleased to hear that all Quarrels were amicably made up , between them and Virginia - promising they shall do no more Mischief on the Frontiers — inclosing a String of white Wampum , to remind his Honor of the Trade promised to them — and desiring that Mr. Smith may be sent to let him know what Time the Goods may be expected.
Whereupon it was the Advice of the Council to send Smith the Interpreter to acquaint the Cherokees that the Goods would be sent out as soon as Horses could be purchased , which it was expected , would be about the latter End of June . See source.
But all hell is breaking loose.
Little Carpenter's promise is going to look like a lie.
On April 25-26, 1759 the Overhill town Settico warriors of the Cherokee nation scalp 19 whites on the Yadkin River. And why? This is payback to the Whites. Many Setticos on their way back in 1758 from the Forbes Campaign through Virginia were attacked and killed. And that was payback by the Whites for Cherokee stealing horses. And the stealing of horses?
That promise of stealing horses if they don't get paid gifts was said in Winchester VA.
This eye for an eye is a gift of blindness that will keep giving.
Blind mad, the ages are, on top of all the blind spots every age has of itself.
Little Carpenter had just gone through insult himself, while still espousing peace. He knows annihlation is in their future.
Little Carpenter's group was the last Cherokee group to leave the Forbes Campaign in 1758. Little Carpenter informed Forbes the Shawnee were going to be leaving the French anyway so there is no need to help. Forbes is incensed. He want's the muskets he gave them back. He gets them back. Now Little Carpenter and his men have to walk through White Land. Unarmed. They hang out in Winchester VA waiting for a secure escort to Williamsburg. Abraham Smith is their interpreter escort. They meet with Lt Gov Fauquier in Jan and Feb of 1759. When they leave, his group is threatened in North Carolina.
Now Little Carpenter is at Fort Prince George in today's South Carolina. That fort sits now at the bottom of a damned lake. It is in the area of the Keowee group of the Cherokee. Only in Dec 1758 to Feb 1759, did the Keowee just tell missionary William Richardson of a criminal white trader, John Elliott, who "not only steals our horses and bells (bells are put on horses left out to graze so when you want to retrieve your horse you can find them hearing the bell) but also our skins by his false stilyards (scales). This is said by both Tistoe of Keowee and The Wolf to this missionary, who visited the same area where Little Carpenter is now.
It is going to be one damn thing after another.
More revenge attacks.
And it won't be between strangers. They know each other.
Annihlation of Cherokee towns is in their near future. 20 years from now, so too will be annihlation of Iroquois towns from the Sullivan March. Then the Ohio Country will be taken from the Miami and Wyandott.
And on and on:
It's in our DNA. The sense of difference in the Other is our lizard sense of danger.
No age escapes this.
And even Freud discovers a need to have the Other to fight. It may not seem small. But he called it the Narcissim of Small Differences.
There's always more
Table of Contents
Compiled and Authored by Jim Moyer researched through March and April 2023, updated 4/29/23, 4/30/2023, 5/1/23
Cherokee Books:
Pages 164-168 Chapter 12, "A Divided Nation" of the book, The Cherokee Frontier, Conflict and Survival 1740-1762, by David H Corkran, published by University of Oklahoma Press 1962, paperback published 2016
Pages 60-66, Chapter 4, "Till SatisfactionShou'd be given, The Crises of 1759 and the Lyttleton Expedition," of the book, Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees. Colonists and Slaves in the American Southeast 1756 - 1763 by Daniel J Tortora, published by University of North Carolina Press in 2015.
At a Council held Septemr . 3d 1759
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A Letter from Governor Lyttelton dated Charles Town [now known as Charleston SC] June 7th signifying he had received Advices that Nineteen Persons had been scalped on the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers by a Party of the Cherokee Indians ; that he had sent Remonstrances thereon to the Head - Men of that Nation , but has not yet received their Answer .
Also a Letter from Lieutenant Coytmore , Commanding Officer at Fort Prince George in the lower Cherokee Nation , informing that two Days after Rd . Smith's Arrival there with his Honor's Talk to those Indians , which was on the 2d of that Month , there was a Meeting of all the lower Towns , when , at Mr. Smith's desire , he read the above Talk to them ; that they did not plead being innocent of the Murders they were charg'd with , or mention giving any Satisfaction ; that fair Promises of future Amendment , was all he could get from them ; but that from their daily Behaviour , and the Informations he has privately received , he is far from thinking they intend to pay the least Regard to those Promises .
Also another Letter from Governor Lyttelton , dated Augt . 15th acquainting his Honor with the Measures he had taken in Conse quence of a Letter from Lieutt . Coytmore , dated Augt . 3d ( an End of page
#163 (p.145) Executive Journals , Council of Colonial Virginia 145
Extract whereof he inclosed , advising , “ that at a late Meeting between the Heads of the Cherokees , and four Creeks , two of which were Headmen , but of different Towns , who came on the 28th of July , with a Messenger sent to renew their Friendship and Alliance , the Cherokees being persuaded by the Creeks that the French had a Regard for them , and could amply supply them with every Neces sary , came to a Resolution to join with them against the English , ” ) and recommending it to him to stop the Trade intended from hence with the Cherokees , until it appears what Turn our Affairs will take with those People .
Whereupon it was the Advice of the Council that his Honor would direct Mr. Charles Turnbull who is intrusted with the Care of the Goods intended for the Cherokees , not to forward them till further Orders ; And to require Major Peachy to fortify the Posts on the South Western Frontiers , and to keep the Rest of his Men ready to join them , if it should be judged necessary to give him Orders for that Purpose ; as the Disposition of the Southern Indians is very doubtful , and there is Reason to suspect their Fidelity ; en joining him at the same time to be cautious of alarming the Inhab itants in those Parts .
Source
Executive Council journals
At a Council held April 17th 1759
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The Governor communicated to the Board the Talk he had just received from Ottocullocullo , 52 or the Little Carpenter , dated Fort Prince George , March 15th signifying his People are well pleased to hear that all Quarrels were amicably made up , between them
#153 (p.135)
and Virginia - promising they shall do no more Mischief on the Frontiers — inclosing a String of white Wampum , to remind his Honor of the Trade promised to them — and desiring that Mr. Smith may be sent to let him know what Time the Goods may
be expected .
Whereupon it was the Advice of the Council to send Smith the Interpreter to acquaint the Cherokees that the Goods would be sent out as soon as Horses could be purchased , which it was expected , would be about the latter End of June .
#154 (p.136)
Footnote 51.
The Minutes for April 10 , 1759 have the additional entries : “ Governor communicated two letters from Mr. Secretary Pitt , 5th of February and 230 Jan uary , two letters from General Amherst , dated 18th and 28th of March , New York . A Letter from Brigadier General Stanwix , Philadelphia April 2d . Also a Letter from Colonel Byrd dated March 25th . And a Letter from Mr. Pownal dated January 19th with a copy of the Proceedings of the Council in Relation to the merchant's memorial , which was dated January 11th 59. "
Footnote 52.
The Little Carpenter's name is most commonly spelled Attacullaculla or Attakullakulla .
#153 (p.135)
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.Little Carpenter Stories
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Compiled and authored by Jim Moyer 5/1/2022
most research done before in
5/4/2017, 5/5/17, 5/7/17, 5/9/2017, 1/22/2019, 2/8/2019, 3/13/2019, 3/19/2019, 9/15/2019
Fairs before Apple Blossom
Compiled by Jim Moyer, researched April 2022, updated 5/7/2022
Compiled and authored by Jim Moyer 10/30/2022, updated 10/31/2022, 1/31/2023
Compiled and authored by Jim Moyer 2/4/2023, updated last 1013am, 1143am 2/5/2023
The Promise Made in Winchester VA is broken
Fauquier Stories
june 2022
march 2023
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