Josiah Francis (Hillis Hadjo)

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Josiah Francis
Hillis Hadjo
Creek
leader
In office
1813–1818
Preceded byNone
Succeeded byNone
Traveled to England as representative of the Indian Nations (Creek and three other local tribes)
Personal details
Born
Hillis Hadjo

1770 (1770)
near
Battle of Horseshoe Bend (1814)
An ally of his was Neamathla.

Josiah Francis, also called Francis the Prophet, native name Hillis Hadjo ("crazy-brave medicine")

Creek Indians. According to the historian Frank Owsley, he became "the most ardent advocate of war against the white man, as he believed in the supremacy of the Creek culture over that of the whites".[5]: 273  He traveled to London as a representative of several related tribal groups, unsuccessfully seeking British support against the expansionism of the United States, then was captured and hanged by General Andrew Jackson shortly after his return to Spanish Florida
.

Name

His native name has been written with a variety of spellings in English: Hilis,[6] Hildis,[5]: 273  and Hidlis.[5]: 285  His last name is found as Hadgo, Hadsho, and Haya.[7]: 399  There are also combined forms found, such as Hillishago[7]: 399 [6] and Hillishager.[8][6] "The English always referred to him as Hidlis Hadjo."[5]: 289  In a letter, Andrew Jackson called him "Hillishageer".[8]

In traditional Creek orthography, his name would be Heles-haco /hilis-hatʃo/ “Crazy Medicine” composed of the medicinal prefix heles- and the war title haco “crazy”.[9]

Parents and early life

Francis was the son of a Muscogee Creek mother and a father of European descent. Since Muscogee Creeks were matrilineal and matrilocal, Francise inherited his clan from his mother and was a citizen of the Muscogee Confederacy.[10]: 253–254  Francis and others like him became military leaders, passionate defenders of the Creek cause, apparently to demonstrate their legitimacy to the full-blooded Creek. Francis refused to wear white man's clothing during his visit to New Orleans.[5]: 283  He was a trader and metal artisan, the latter skill learned from his father, David Francis,[6] a South Carolina frontier blacksmith and silversmith.[3] He "lived among the Alabama and Coushatta people near the point where the Cousa and Tallapoosa Rivers joined to form the Alabama",[4]: 5  near modern Montgomery, Alabama. Little is known about his mother or his childhood.[5]: 273 

Francis married Hannah Moniac (Muscogee), half-sister of

U. S. Military Academy at West Point. David's father and Hannah's half-brother was "the prosperous and well-known Creek businessman Samuel Moniac. She was a relative of Muscogee leader Alexander McGillivray,"[4]
: 5  who led the faction of "southern" Muscogee Creeks that were more receptive to assimilation into American society as a survival technique.

Influence of Tecumseh and Seekaboo

New Madrid earthquakes and the Great Comet of 1811.[5]: 277  Among the Creeks, his greatest influence was on Francis.[3] Although Tecumseh's visit was brief, and he was widely credited later with incendiary speeches now believed to be forgeries by whites, he left behind his partner the prophet Seekaboo (also spelled Sukaboo). One source says that he was a Shawnee,[6] another that he was probably a Creek.[5]: 277  Francis had extensive conversations with him.[4]: 8  "The first recorded public fact of his life is being created a prophet, which was about the latter part of 1812. It took Sukaboo, the great Shawnee prophet, ten days' work to endow Francis with prophetic powers. When that was completed, Francis was considered the greatest prophet in the Creek Nation. He himself now assumed the role of prophet-maker, [and] made many prophets."[6]

Red Stick leader

Francis, as Prophet, was a leader of the

Seminoles.[3] At the center of the wilderness was the strong new fort at Prospect Bluff, where Francis and Peter McQueen both wore British uniforms.[15]: 49  It was built by the British after their defeats at the Battle of New Orleans and the Battle of Pensacola (1814) and intended as a base for operations against the southern United States. There were so many Creek refugees there ("virtually the entire surviving population of Redsticks"[10]: 276 ) that famine was a real concern; the British were unprepared for that number of refugees.[16]
: 42  No food was available for purchase, and crops couldn't be raised without months of delay. Food had to be brought in from other British posts.

Trip to England

When Colonel

Fernando Po. Bathurst gave Francis "a brace of pistols",[7] a commission as a brigadier general,[14]
: 401  and sent him home but not without Francis meeting several prominent people, the story of which has not been written. A hint of it is in this report in the American press:

We see a pompous account of a ball given on board a Russian frigate lying off Woolwich, (Eng.) on the anniversary of the emperor's birth-— we notice it on account of the following paragraph: "The double sound of a trumpet announced the arrival of the patriot Francis, who fought so gloriously in our cause in America: he was dressed in a most splendid suit of red and gold, and by his side he wore a tomahawk, mounted in gold, presented to him by the prince regent; he appeared much delighted with the appearance of the frigate." We suppose this "patriot Francis" is a savage.

moccasins, leggings and a belt".[2]: 3  The following spring he received £200 of "clothing and agricultural implements" of which a list has survived.[16]: 94–95 [7]
: 404 

Hanging by Andrew Jackson

Francis arrived at

San Marcos de Apalache (modern St. Marks, Florida). His daughter Milly Francis in 1818 famously rescued a U.S. soldier, Douglas McCrimmon, who had been captured by the Indians, a story that received national newspaper publicity. After his release, McCrimmon told General Andrew Jackson in person (Jackson was on a ship off St. Marks) that Francis, the leader of the Sinquefield massacre, was nearby. Jackson lured Francis aboard the U.S. schooner Thomas Shields by falsely flying a British flag.[1] He was placed in irons and immediately hanged at St. Marks by Jackson, without a court-martial or any other legal proceeding,[7]: 408  in sharp contrast with the "court of inquiry" he set up in the Arbuthnot and Ambrister incident.[16]: 242 [19][14]
: 402  His daughter witnessed his hanging, and later turned down McCrimmon's offer of marriage, possibly as a result of the capture.

References

  1. ^ a b Jackson, Andrew (June 13, 1818). "Letter to an unknown recipient, April 9, 1818". Niles Weekly Register. p. 270.
  2. ^
    ISBN 9780615894058
    . Retrieved April 15, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d National Park Service. "Josiah Francis". Archived from the original on March 30, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  4. ^
    ISBN 9780692977880
    .
  5. ^
    JSTOR 1183830
    .
  6. ^ a b c d e f Owen, Thomas McAdory (1921). History of Alabama and Dictionary of Alabama Biography. Vol. 2. Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company. p. 744.
  7. ^
    S2CID 143526328
    .
  8. ^ a b Hodge, Frederick Webb (1912). Handbook of American Indians north of Mexico. Vol. 1. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology. p. 118. Archived from the original on 2018-05-11. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
  9. ^ Martin, Jack. Creek Dictionary p. 46, 49
  10. ^
    ISBN 0521660432
    .
  11. ^ Ramsey, Sharman Burson (2013). "People of the Creek War". Archived from the original on April 1, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  12. ISBN 978-0-313-38127-0. Archived
    from the original on 17 June 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2018.
  13. ISBN 978-0-8173-0775-2
    .
  14. ^ a b c Frost, John (1860). Pictorial History of Andrew Jackson. Belknap and Hamersley. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
  15. ISBN 0807128678
    .
  16. ^
    ISBN 9780813044545
    .
  17. ^ Warriner, Solomon (March 15, 1816). "Foreign Articles". Niles' Weekly Register. Vol. 12. p. 46.
  18. ^ Johnson, Michael G. (September–October 2010). "Beaded cloth shoulder bags: bandoliers of the Southeast". Whispering Wind. 39 (4): 4+.
  19. S2CID 144237286
    . Retrieved March 29, 2018.
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