Benjamin Hawkins

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Benjamin Hawkins
United States Senator
from North Carolina
In office
November 27, 1789 – March 4, 1795
Preceded byNone
Succeeded byTimothy Bloodworth
Member of the Congress of the Confederation
In office
1781 – 1783
1787
Member of the North Carolina House of Representatives
In office
1778 – 1779
1784
Personal details
Born(1754-08-15)August 15, 1754
Anti-Administration (1791–1795)
RelationsPhilemon Hawkins II (father)
Micajah T. Hawkins (nephew)
William Hawkins (nephew)
Alma materCollege of New Jersey

Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754 – June 6, 1816

Creek Indians
.

Hawkins established the

African slave labor
, including mills, and raised a considerable quantity of cattle and hogs.

Early life and education

Benjamin Hawkins was born to Philemon Hawkins and Delia (Martin) Hawkins on August 15, 1754, the third of four sons. The family owned a slave plantation in what was then Granville County, North Carolina, but is now Warren County. He attended the county schools, then at the College of New Jersey (later to become Princeton University). He was "apt at multiple languages",[3] a linguistic competence that would later enable him to learn Indian languages. When the College (which he never graduated from) temporarily closed due to the outbreak of war, Hawkins was commissioned a Colonel and served for several years on George Washington's staff as his main interpreter of French.[3]

Career

Hawkins was released from federal service late in 1777, as Washington learned to rely on Lafayette for dealing with the French. He returned home, where he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1778. He served there until 1779, and again in 1784. The North Carolina General Assembly sent him to the Continental Congress as their delegate from 1781 to 1783, and again in 1787.

In 1789, Hawkins was a delegate to the

Anti-Administration
Party.

U.S. Indian agent

Benjamin Hawkins, portrayed on his plantation, teaches Creek people to use European technology. Painted in 1805.
Bust on display at Fort Benjamin Hawkins

In 1785, Hawkins had served as a representative for the Congress in negotiations over land with the Creek Indians of the Southeast. He was generally successful, and convinced the tribe to lessen their raids for several years, although he could not conclude a formal treaty. The Creek wanted to deal with the 'head man'. They finally signed the Treaty of New York (1790) after Hawkins convinced George Washington to become involved.[4]

In 1786, Hawkins and fellow Indian agents Andrew Pickens and Joseph Martin concluded a treaty with the Choctaw nation at Seneca Old Town, also known as Hopewell, the plantation of Andrew Pickens, near Clemson, South Carolina. They set out the boundaries for the Choctaw lands as well as provisions for relations between the tribe and the U.S. government.[5]

In 1789, conditions among the Creeks seemed to indicate an urgency for his return to the Creek country. Accordingly, he left Tennessee early in September for Fort Wilkinson on the

Tugalo River over Currahee Mountain to the main south branch of the Oconee River. Though about sixteen families of Georgians were found on the Creek lands in the area known as Wofford's Settlement, McHenry was told "...I am happy in being able to assure you that there was no diversity of opinion among us, and that the line was closed in perfect harmony.[6]" This line became known as the Hawkins Line.[7]

In 1796, Washington appointed Benjamin Hawkins as

Creek tribe, Hawkins soon moved to present-day Crawford County in Georgia where he established his home and the Creek Agency. He studied the language and was adopted[further explanation needed
] by the Creek. He wrote extensively about them and the other southeast tribes.

Georgia

Hawkins' plans for the Indians was a "civilization plan",

Flint River. He brought his enslaved Black workers from North Carolina,[9] and eventually purchased others. He hired other workers to assist them in clearing several hundred acres for his plantation. They built a sawmill, gristmill, and a trading post for the agency. Hawkins expanded his operation to include more than 1,000 head of cattle and a large number of hogs, and raised "immense crops" of corn and other provisions.[9] For years, he met with chiefs on his porch and discussed matters there. His personal hard work and open-handed generosity won him such respect that reports say that he never lost an animal to Indian raiders. He became a respected and trusted man among the community, and bore the title as “The Beloved Man of the Four Nations.”[10] Cherokee women told Hawkins "that, of the several Indian agents who visited them, he was the first who thought it worth while to examine into the situation of the women".[11]
: 153 

He contributed to the 19 years of peace between settlers and the tribe, the longest such period during European-American settlement.[citation needed] When in 1806 the government built a fort at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, to protect expanding settlements just east of modern Macon, Georgia, the government named it Fort Benjamin Hawkins in his honor.

Hawkins saw much of his work to preserve peace destroyed in 1812. A group of Creek rebels, known as Red Sticks, were working to revive traditional ways and halt encroachment by European Americans. The ensuing civil war among the Creeks coincided with the War of 1812.

During the

Battle of Horseshoe Bend, in present-day Alabama. Hawkins was unable to attend negotiations of the Treaty of Fort Jackson in August 1814, which required the Creeks to cede most of their territory and give up their way of life. Hawkins later organized "friendly" Creek warriors to oppose a British force on the Apalachicola River
that threatened to rally the scattered Red Sticks and reignite the war on the Georgia frontier. After the British withdrew in 1815, Hawkins was organizing another force when he died of a sudden illness on June 6, 1816.

Hawkins tried more than once to resign his post and return from the Georgia frontier, but no President would accept his resignation. (Dale Cox says that

matrilineal
kinship system. The children gained status from their mother's clan and people, and their mother's eldest brother was usually more important in their lives than their biological father.

Benjamin Hawkins was buried at the Creek Agency near the Flint River and Roberta, Georgia. He was succeeded as Indian agent by David Mitchell, former Governor of Georgia.

Fort Hawkins was built overlooking the ancient site since designated as the

Ocmulgee National Monument. Revealing 17,000 years of human habitation, it is a National Historic Landmark and has been sacred for centuries to the Creek.[citation needed] It has massive earthwork mounds built nearly 1,000 years ago as expressions of the religious and political world of the Mississippian culture
, the ancestors to the Creek.

Hawkins and slavery

Hawkins' plantation was farmed by enslaved labor, but beyond that his unhappy record on slavery has been overlooked. He transformed the Creek Agency and

i.e., he encouraged slavery among the Creeks.[13]
: 27–28 

It was Hawkins who first used the term negro fort to refer to the British Post on the Apalachicola River, at that time in Spanish Florida.[13]: 76  Hawkins started the call for its capture or destruction.

Personal life

He married Susan Lavinia Downs, who some[who?] believe was a Creek Indian woman (the Creeks wanted him to take a Creek wife), whereas other evidence indicates that she was a white woman.[citation needed] They had a total of six daughters: Georgia, Muscogee, Cherokee, Carolina, Virginia, and Jeffersonia, and one son, James Madison Hawkins. In 1812, thinking he was on his death bed, Hawkins remarried his wife Susan Lavinia Downs to make sure their children were legitimate in U.S. society.[citation needed] Jeffersonia was born after this marriage.

Hawkins was close to his nephew William Hawkins, whom he made a co-executor of his estate along with his wife; he bequeathed to William a share of his estate, reputed to be quite large. This bequest became a source of contention among his heirs, especially as he had not altered his will to include his youngest daughter Jeffersonia.

Archival material

Legacy and honors

References

  1. ^ Foster II, H. Thomas (2013). "Benjamin Hawkins". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Auburn University.
  2. ISBN 0807128678
    .
  3. ^ a b "Benjamin Hawkins". Encyclopedia of Georgia. Archived from the original on October 8, 2008. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
  4. ^ Kokomoor, Kevin (2015). "Creeks, Federalists, and the Idea of Coexistence in the Early Republic". Journal of Southern History. 81 (4): 803–842. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  5. ^ Horatio Bardwell Cushman, History of Choctaw, Chickasaw and Natchez Indians, Greenville, Texas: Headlight Printing House, 1899
  6. ISBN 9780820334516
    . Retrieved May 14, 2016.
  7. ^ "Hawkins Line". GeorgiaInfo: an Online Georgia Almanac. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
  8. ^
    ISBN 9780692379363
    .
  9. ^ a b Weeks, Stephen B. (1916). "Life of Benjamin Hawkins". Letters of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1806. Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, 9. Savannah, Georgia: Georgia Historical Society. p. 10.
  10. ^ [1] "Heard County Historical Marker for Benjamin Hawkins"
  11. ISBN 0521660432
    .
  12. ^ Ethridge, Robbie. "Benjamin Hawkins (1754-1816)". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 14, 2016.
  13. ^
    ISBN 9781479811106
    .
  14. ^ "Benjamin Hawkins papers". Georgia Historical Society. Archived from the original on January 15, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  15. ^ Hawkins, Benjamin (1916). "Letters of Benjamin Hawkins 1796–1806". Collections of the Georgia Historical Society. 9.
  16. ^ "Hawkinsville". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Georgia Humanities Council. Archived from the original on October 18, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  17. ^ Gannett, Henry (1905). The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States. Govt. Print. Off. pp. 152.
  18. ^ American Antiquarian Society Members Directory

Further reading (most recent first)

External links

U.S. Senate
Preceded by
None
 U.S. senator (Class 3) from North Carolina
1789–1795
Served alongside: Samuel Johnston, Alexander Martin 		Succeeded by
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