Little Carpenter gets around
Always amazing how the Indians covered vast distances often quickly. Like a motorcycle gang swooping in to dominate from afar. Little Carpenter travels to the Mississippi in late 1757 from the Smoky Mountains, his homeland. He comes back to his home in Jan 1758. and hangs there through March 1758. Then he travels to Charleston SC April 1758. That's a lot of frequent flyer miles racked up there.
Little Carpenter (Attakullakulla), a Cherokee leader, goes to the Mississippi near the remains of French Fort De L'Assomption (built in 1739 but fell apart 1740) to take prisoners and scalps in Fall 1757.
He returns to his nation homelands in January 1758.
Stays there to calm down those Cherokee threatening war against the British and the colonials through March 1758.
And even more than calming down Anti-English sentiment, he encourages support for the English war against the French and their Indian allies.
Before he leaves there, 2 war parties launch to help that goal.
The first one is launched towards the French Fort Massac on the western Ohio to fight the French and their Indian allies.
The 2nd war party is of 60 warriors to join Colonel William Byrd III of the 2nd VA Regiment created 12 April 1758 to head up to Fort Loudoun in Winchester VA to organize there for the Forbes Expedition to reduce the French Fort Duquesne.
Colonel Byrd wanted more warriors but the Cherokee nation was still divided about how far to help.
Issues such as supplying their families and debt owed to White Traders along with colonial insults and attacks to their warriors dominated the talk of the Cherokee towns.
Little Carpenter arrives in Charleston SC 10 April 1758 to show Gov William Henry Lyttelton of SC proof of his fighting the French with the scalps he took on the Mississippi.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer, researched April 2022, updated 5/7/2022
Read about Little Carpenter,
his activities and the politics:
Blue text from Pages 143-144 of The Cherokee Frontier, Conflict and Survival 1740-1762, by David H Corkran, published by University of Oklahoma Press 1962, paperback published 2016
Fort Assumption on the Mississippi:
End of 1757, "Little Carpenter [Attakullakulla, a Cherokee warrior and statesman—known to the English as The Little Carpenter] of the Cherokee took some prisoners and scalps near the remains of Fort L'Assomption ( built in 1739 but fell apart 1740).
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Little Carpenter also "visited the Chickasaws to prevent a threatened break arising from Cherokee murders of a few Chickasaws. . "
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Back to homelands then to Charleston
". . . Little Carpenter returned to the nation [Cherokee lands] in January [1758] to find that his fences needed mending."
This map
is from page 12, 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.
Little Carpenter "determined to take his triumphs directly to Charlestown [Charleston SC]. "
"At Joree
in the Middle Settlements he hushed anti-English talk generated by the Edisto murders and by James May's unwillingness to see his Indian customers leave off hunting and go to Virginia [to help on the Forbes Expedition against French Fort Duquesne]."
"At Keowee
he frowned on the black beads sent to [Governor of SC] Lyttelton and quieted bad talk."
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"But the Little Carpenter was to find that in Charlestown times had changed. "
"Lyttelton had accepted the asendandancy of Superintendent Atkin in Indian Affairs and regarded his own role as secondary. The Superintendent had commissioned Colonel William Byrd III of Virginia [Colonel of the 2nd Virginia Regiment created April 1758] to treat with the Cherokees for auxiliaries."
The Politics of Trade and Debt:
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"The Carolina trading interest had ceased opposing Cherokee participation in the Virginia campaigns:
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. . . for the Carolina Assembly had voted 20,000 lbs to underwrite rewards to Cherokee returning from service in Virginia, the goods to be purchased from the traders and their suppliers." Footnote for that statement refers to March 21, 1758 Amherst papers.
We are still looking for that expenditure authorized by the South Carolina Assembly.
What we found so far is the one enacted 19 May 1758, agreed to by William Henry Lyttelton, Gov of SC.
The act shows expenditures to pay for Fort Loudoun (in today's Tennessee) and for the traders and for soldiers.
But nothing is earmarked to directly pay any individual Cherokee.
Look at page 53 (95) to page 73 (115), in VOLUME 4, 1752 to 1786 Statues of South Carolina.
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This statesmanlike measure relieved the credit difficulties of important traders and mitigated the hardships Cherokee families experienced when their men were too long at war to do much hunting.
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Though the policy appears to have grown from his proposals of the year before, the Little Carpenter himself was not wanted in Charlestown [Charleston SC].
60 Warriors to join Colonel Byrd
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Colonel Byrd, going tardily up the path to commence his in the nation, met the Second Man on his way down and attempted to convince him that he would be much more useful to the English if he return to the nation or went to Virginia, but the Indian would not be convinced."
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However, to show Byrd his good will he promised to go to Virginia on his return and detached 60 of his warriors to accompany the colonel to Keowee. Then he continued his way to the colony's capital [arriving in Charleston SC 10 April 1758]."
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Sources:
Blue text from Pages 143-144 of The Cherokee Frontier, Conflict and Survival 1740-1762, by David H Corkran, published by University of Oklahoma Press 1962, paperback published 2016
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This map is from page 12, 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.
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Compiled by Jim Moyer, researched April 2022, updated 5/7/2022
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