Alexander McGillivray
Alexander McGillivray, also known as Hoboi-Hili-Miko (December 15, 1750 – February 17, 1793), was a Muscogee (Creek) leader. The son of a Muscogee mother and a Scottish father, he was literate and educated, and understood the "white" European world and merchandise trading well. These gave him prestige, especially with European Americans, who were glad to finally find a Creek leader they could talk to and deal with. (Prior to contact with Europeans, the Creek did not have leaders or rulers in the European sense.) He used his role as link between the two worlds to his advantage, not always fairly, and became the richest Creek of his time.
McGillivray was literate and his "voluminous" correspondence has survived.[1]: 68 In many cases his letters are the only source for events in his life, and they naturally present him in a very good light. Recent historians have taken issue with the heroic status he had in earlier histories.
McGillivray's status among the Creeks, who did not customarily have a single leader, was controversial and sometimes resented. His chief asset to ensure he was seen as a leader was his ability to hand out gifts to the Creek from both Britain and Spain. He was the most "Anglicized" of the Creek, and built solid houses, planted orchards, and ran a plantation (and owned about 60 slaves), which made him suspect. That he knew English well, was literate, and was experienced in the trading world also gave him influence, if not prestige. Yet as the illiterate Creek gradually became aware of his duplicity in the Treaty of New York and other matters, there "began a process that would culminate in the Redstick War."[1]: 83 "Not surprisingly, the struggle began in the era of Alexander McGillivray."[1]: 188
Early life
Alexander was born Hoboi-Hili-Miko (Good Child King) in the
As a child, Alexander briefly lived in
While he was accepted as a Creek because of his mother, he "was deeply alienated from most Creek traditions and from the vast majority of the Creek people"[1]: 69 When he ascended to leadership, Alexander relied on the help of his sister Sophia Durant, who often assisted him as a translator, interpreter, and as his spokesperson. (Alexander did so because either he had difficulty with the varying Native dialects or because he wished to adhere to a diplomatic practice common among the Creek at the time).[5]: 419 [6]: 83 [7]: 237 He had more book learning than any other Creek, and later in life had a substantial library on natural history.[1]: 72
Career
A skillful diplomat – an early writer called him "
In 1783, McGillivray became the principal chief of the Upper Creek towns, or as Saunt put it, "established himself as spokesman for a Creek nation that seemed far more unified on paper than it was in reality".[1]: 189 His predecessor, Chief Emistigo, died while leading a war party to relieve the British garrison at Savannah, which was besieged by the Continental Army under General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. At one time, McGillivray claimed that he had 5,000 to 10,000 warriors, to arrive at which figure he included the Cherokee, Seminoles, and Chickamauga he came in contact with (but did not rule).[8][9] However, he did not live a Creek lifestyle, as he built a plantation on the Little River, and a second one on the Coosa River, just above modern Montgomery, Alabama.[1]: 70 He built a log house with dormer windows and a stone chimney, both all but unknown in the Creek nation.[1]: 71 He was not only literate, he was by far the wealthiest Creek of his time.[1]: 71–72
McGillivray opposed the 1783
McGillivray sought Creek independence after the
A Loyalist like his father, McGillivray resented the developing United States Indian policy; however, he did not wish to leave Creek territory. McGillivray became a leading spokesman (self-appointed) for all the tribes along the Florida-Georgia border areas.
Georgia's
McGillivray and 29 other chiefs signed the Treaty of New York on behalf of the 'Upper, Middle and Lower Creek and Seminole composing the Creek nation of Indians'. McGillivray was the only one who could sign his name,[1]: 196 and Lower Creeks were soon to complain that they had no representative present (none was invited), and that the Creek signers had no right to give away their lands. The first treaty negotiated after ratification of the U.S. Constitution, it established the Altamaha and Oconee rivers as the boundary between Creek lands and the United States. The U.S. government promised to remove illegal white settlers from the area, and the Muscogee agreed to return fugitive black slaves who sought refuge with the tribe. This provision angered the Seminoles of Florida, who had provided refuge to numerous escaped slaves, and had intermarried with some. The Black Seminoles by this time had communities allied with the Seminole. The Creeks "soon concluded that McGillivray had deceived them".[1]: 196–197
Under secret provisions in the treaty, McGillivray was commissioned as a brigadier general of the U.S., with an annual salary of $1,200. He was also granted permission to import goods via Pensacola without paying duties, and paid $100,000 for his father's confiscated properties.[9] With this money, he acquired three plantations and 60 African American slaves.[13] The treaty temporarily pacified the Southern frontier, but the U.S. failed to honor its obligation and did not eject white settlers who were illegally on Creek lands.
In addition, he was a "secret partner" of the trading firm
Later years
In 1792, McGillivray repudiated the Treaty of New York. He negotiated another with Spanish officials, who ruled
McGillivray moved to
References
- ^ ISBN 0521660432.
- ^ Andrew Frank, "Alexander McGillivray." New Georgia Encyclopedia (2020). https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/alexander-mcgillivray-ca-1750-1793/ online]
- ^ ISBN 978-1-60306-014-1.
- ISBN 0820340936.
- OCLC 1838277.
- ISBN 978-1-61703-344-5.
- OCLC 5544075024. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
- ^ Fleming, Walter Lynwood (1911). . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 231.
- ^ a b Gilmore, James Roberts (1900). Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J. (eds.). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. . In
- ^ "Treaty of Augusta". 001-01-025, Indian Claims (Treaties and Spoliations), Governor, RG 1-1-25, Georgia Archives. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 13 May 2016.
- ^ a b Frank, Andrew K. (2009). "Alexander McGillivray". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Alabama Humanities Foundation.
- ^ Stock, Melissa A. (2008). "Sovereign or Suzerain: Alexander McGillivray's Argument for Creek Independence after the Treaty of Paris of 1783". Georgia Historical Quarterly. 92 (2): 149–176. Retrieved 14 February 2018.
- ^ "Alexander McGillivray", Native News Online, September 2005
- ^ Hodge, Frederick Webb (2002). "Alexander McGillivray, 1739?-1793". www.celebratedquotes.org. Pierian Press. Archived from the original on 25 July 2011. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
This entry is adapted from Frederick Webb Hodge, HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN INDIANS NORTH OF MEXICO (2 vols., 1912), which was published as volume 30, pts. 1 and 2, of the BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. The entry has been re-edited and updated for inclusion in the Fulltext eBooks database.
- ISBN 0395669219. Archived from the originalon 2005-03-24.
Further reading
- Berry, Jane M. "The Indian Policy of Spain in the Southwest 1783-1795" Mississippi Valley Historical Review (1917) 3#4 pp. 462–477 online
- Caughey, John Walton (2007). McGillivray of the Creeks. ISBN 978-1570036927.
Originally published: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 1938. With new introd.
- Ellis, Joseph J. (2008). "The Treaty". American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies in the Founding of the Republic. New York: ISBN 978-0307276452.
- Forman, Carolyn Thomas (March 1929). "Alexander McGillivray, Emperor of the Creeks". Chronicles of Oklahoma. 7 (1): 106–120. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
- Frank, Andrew. "Alexander McGillivray." New Georgia Encyclopedia (2020) online
- Frank, Andrew K. (2005). Creeks and Southerners: Biculturalism on the Early American Frontier. ISBN 0803268416.
- Green, Michael D. (1980). "Alexander McGillivray". In Edmunds, R. David (ed.). American Indian Leaders: Studies in Diversity. ISBN 0803218001.
- Wright, J. L., Jr. “Creek-American Treaty of 1790: Alexander McGillivray and the Diplomacy of the Old Southwest.” Georgia Historical Quarterly 51 (December 1967): 381-400.