Robbins: Livingood writes about the Chattanooga area before the American Revolution

(Editor's note: Third in a series)

Dr. James Livingood, professor of history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, wrote about events before the American Revolution in "Chattanooga Country, An Illustrated History." Below are excerpts.

"By the eve of the American Revolution, matters in the Tennessee country took on an entirely new dimension. Pioneers built their cabins to the west of the mountains; ambitious speculative interests schemed to acquire huge chunks of Indian land. Although the British in 1763 closed the western territory to white settlement and exploration, they had no possible way of enforcing this policy or of retarding the frontiersmen's tenacious quest for more land. Locally, jurisdiction over the region had passed to the colony of North Carolina when the original Carolina colony divided, and the Tarheels were now ready to utilize its unknown wealth.

"Although British policy favored the Indians, all was not well within the inner circle of the Cherokee. Harsh retaliation following the fall of Fort Loudoun turned many braves to bitterness. They felt degraded, deceived, and now confused by the trouble between the English and their American colonists.

"A provocation in March of 1775 brought the American struggle for independence directly to the Chattanooga country. In violation of British policy and law a North Carolina land investor, Judge Richard Henderson, headed a group called the Transylvania Company which planned to buy some 20 million acres from the Cherokee. Amid the colorful procedures accompanying the 'big talk,' the older chieftains agreed to this sale of much of their ancient territorial claim. But in this crumbling world of the Cherokee Nation, one warrior stepped forward to condemn the agreement.

"Dragging Canoe of Great Island of Little Tennessee River, strong and muscular, entered the speaker's circle. He voiced the ancestral passion of his people for the earth and spoke of the continuous encroachment of the whites. He denounced the transaction with Henderson as a violation of the birthright of the Nation and warned the purchaser that its price would be high. Dragging Canoe would sacrifice every pleasure and even his life to preserve the lands of his people. In disgust he turned his back on the senior members of the tribe.

"In 1777 Dragging Canoe and his adherents broke all ties with the Cherokee. From their Overhill towns they journeyed by trail and river some 100 miles southwest to the valley of South Chickamauga Creek, now within Chattanooga's city limits. Known as the Chickamaugas, they built villages, planted crops, and sallied forth to burn and kill along the extensive East Tennessee and Virginia frontier. In their new home they had the counsel of a Scottish trader, John McDonald, who held a commission to act as a British deputy agent.

"This young tradesman, the first to do business in the local area, arrived in America in 1776 and became a Carolina representative with the Cherokee. In the Overhill towns he married the mixed-blood Anna Shorey, daughter of another Scot. In 1770 the McDonalds left the populated part of the Cherokee country and settled on South Chickamauga Creek along the Great Warpath. Although pelts were plentiful at the trail junction, the trading post assumed a new significance with the coming of the Chickamaugas.

"Dragging Canoe's defiance attracted malcontents from many tribes as well as Tory supporters of the British cause. Long caravans delivered guns and ammunition from Charles Town, and after the fall of that city, from Florida ports of entry. The Chickamuagas soon numbered 1,000 or more braves and Canoe ranked as the most vigorous Indian ally of the Redcoats in the South. With firebrand, tomahawk, and rifle, he and his followers stormed the frontier, where a strong current of migration flowed in spite of the war. Black clouds hung over these outlying settlements; contempt and cruelty were mutually expressed.

"The governor of the new state of Virginia understood the problem. Patrick Henry, radical political leader with a special forensic gift, planned an offensive into the Chickamaugas' lair. He sought aid from North Carolina's governor, telling that leader, 'Justice and necessity demand that proper measures be taken to chastise these people, and by doing that, to anticipate the evils they meditate against us.' He not only called attention to the bloody Indian forays but also to the 'navigation of Tennessee River, in which your state, as well as ours, seems deeply interested, which is rendered unsafe and impracticable so long as these banditti go unpunished.' With this call the 'War of the Revolution in the West' came to the Chattanooga region."

Frank "Mickey" Robbins is an investment adviser at Patten and Patten. For more, visit chattahistoricalassoc.org.