Early
Alabama History
The first Europeans to reach
the area that is now Southeastern United States were Spanish explorers looking
for gold. Alonso Alvarez de Piñeda and Pánfilo de Narváez explored the coast
early in the 16th century.
In 1528 Panfilo de Narváez led a large expedition
into the area that is now Florida; but after disastrous wanderings, he reached
Apalache without finding any gold in the area. and from there went to the site
of St. Marks. From this point his famished troops embarked for Cuba in
poorly constructed boats and were lost at sea.
The first expedition into the interior was led by Hernando
de Soto, starting in 1539.
In May 1539, De Soto landed at Tampa Bay, with an army
of about one thousand men. Sending out detachments to capture Indians,
from whom he expected to learn something of the country and the location of
the legendary gold, he found the Indians skilful with the bow and were not
easily taken. In one of these expeditions, the soldiers charged a small number
of Indians. A voice cried out, "I am a Christian! I am a Christian! Slay me
not." One of the soldiers withdrew his weapon, and lifting the man
up behind him, returned to his unit. Juan Ortiz, the
person taken prisoner, although he was dressed and looked like an Indian, was a
native of the town of Seville, Spain. As a young man, he had came to America
with some others in search of Narváez, and was captured by the Indians.
Cutting his way from Tampa, De Soto
arrived in the neighborhood of the modern Tallahassee. From the natives
living in the area he obtained enough supplies to last him during the winter.
The area to the Gulf, only thirty miles south, was explored by a detachment. The bones of horses, hewn timbers, and other
evidences of Narváez, were discovered. During the winter all the detachments,
in their various expeditions, were attacked by the Indians, and the main camp
at Apalache was harassed regularly. At length
Captain Maldinado, who had been ordered to sail to the west in some
brigantines in search of a good harbor, returned and reported the discovery
of the bay now called Pensacola, which had a spacious channel, and was
protected from the winds on all sides.
De Soto pillaged, burned and took hostages, to try to get
information about the "golden kingdom", as well as food and supplies. News of
his tactics preceded him, so that he met resistance along most of his route
and had to fight several battles. At Mauvila, a village on the Alabama River,
De Soto’s forces fought and defeated Chief Tascaluza and his warriors. The
Spanish explorers then marched west into Mississippi, but their numbers were
much reduced by battle casualties, disease, and hunger. They were harassed by
sporadic attacks, and were denied food and medicine that might well have been
shared with them if they had come in peace.
In 1559 Don Tristán de Luna, with 500 soldiers
and 1000 Spanish colonists from Mexico, arrived in Mobile Bay to start a
settlement. However, a storm (hurricane?) destroyed many of their supplies,
and starvation forced them to abandon the colony and return to Mexico. The
Spanish made no further effort to settle the area.
The European
explorers brought with them many diseases new to the Indians, and their societies were
drastically changed. Thousands of people became ill and died. Many towns and
villages were abandoned. The survivors merged into larger groups, so that by
the 18th century few of the peoples that de Soto met were still organized
under the same names. Most of the native Alabamians became members of four
major Native American nations: the Cherokee in the north, the Chickasaw in the
northwest, the Choctaw in the southwest, and the Creek Confederacy in the
center and southeast. These nations for many years dealt with the Spanish,
French, British, and Americans, forming alliances according to their own best
interests.
The first successful European
colonizers in Alabama were the French. In 1682 they claimed a huge area they
called Louisiane (Louisiana), which extended from the Gulf Coast to Canada and
included Alabama. The first French settlements were fortified trading posts.
The first one in Alabama was Fort Louis de la Louisiane, commonly called La
Mobile, built in 1702 by Jean-Baptiste de Bienville, on the Mobile River at
Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff. This fort was the seat of French government for
Louisiana until 1711, when Bienville moved the colony downriver to the site of
present-day Mobile. Called Fort Condé, this settlement was the capital until
1719, when the seat of government was moved into present-day Mississippi.
Meanwhile, settlers arrived from France and Canada. African slaves were
introduced to clear the fields after 1719. Through their hard labor, large
areas of land were cleared to raise food for the soldiers and settlers as they
searched for products that could be sold to support the colony.
French traders moved inland,
building Fort Toulouse (1717) at the meeting of the Coosa and Tallapoosa
rivers and Fort de Tombecbé (1736) on the Tombigbee River. Traders from Great
Britain, who were rivals of the French and disputed the boundary of Louisiana,
arrived in Alabama from South Carolina and later from their new colony,
Georgia. The British built Fort Okfuskee on the upper Tallapoosa. French
influence waned as the Native Americans learned that British traders offered
better products than the French and gave more value in exchange for the deer
skins.
Great Britain and France
fought a series of wars in the 18th century that climaxed with the French and
Indian War (1754-1763). Great Britain was the decisive winner and concluded a
peace treaty that removed the French from the area. Mobile was incorporated
into West Florida, a colony that Spain ceded to Great Britain in 1763. All of
Alabama north of West Florida became part of the Lands Reserved for the
Indians, administered by a British superintendent for Native American affairs.
White settlement in this reservation without the permission of the Native
Americans was forbidden by the king’s order. British colonists who lived on
the frontier resented the ban on settlement. They felt this was an arbitrary
infringement on the original colonial grants, most of which had vague or
unlimited western boundaries reaching from the "Atlantic to the Pacific".
Many British sympathizers
left Georgia in 1775 and settled in what is now the State of Alabama. Planters
from Virginia and the Carolinas followed in 1783. France governed the area
from 1710 to 1763 when England gained control. Settlers during this period
came from South Carolina and Georgia, as well as England, France and Spain. In
1783, Britain relinquished the Mobile area to Spain. Georgia then claimed the
remains of present day AL. Three years after setting the southern boundary at
the 31st parallel in 1795, the Alabama region was made part of the Territory
of Mississippi. Scotch-Irish from Tennessee began to settled the rich farmland
of the Tennessee Valley area in the northern part of Alabama in1809.
In the early 1800's emigrants
from the Carolina's and Virginia came to the central and western parts of
Alabama, especially along the Tombigbee and Black Warrior Rivers. During the
War of 1812, American forces captured Mobile from the Spanish and defeated the
Creek Indians. This led to the removal of the Creeks and other Indian tribes
and opened the area to settlement (The Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814 removed
the Creek Indians from Southeast Alabama northward into reservations in what
is now Macon County, opening up a strip of land between the Creek Indians in
the North and the Seminoles to the South for settlement).
During the American
Revolution (1775-1783), the Cherokee and Creek supported the British against
the Americans. The Spanish, who supported the Americans, captured Mobile in
1780 over British and Native American resistance. At the end of the
revolution, West Florida was returned to Spain and interior Alabama was turned
over to the United States. Georgia claimed most of Alabama as part of its
original grant. Settlers from Georgia encroached on the lands of the Native
Americans, who sought Spain’s help to keep them out. Spain, however, was
reluctant to support them against the growing power of the United States.
For several years the United
States and Spain disputed the southern boundary of the United States. Finally,
in 1795, the two countries agreed on a boundary at latitude 31° North. That
line still forms most of the border between Alabama and Florida. Three years
later, the Congress of the United States created Mississippi Territory,
comprising most of present-day Mississippi and Alabama. The Mobile area
remained Spanish until U.S. General James Wilkinson captured it in 1813.
Two Creek Indian Chiefs
played a major role in the history of South Alabama. They were Alexander
McGillivary and his nephew William Weatherford (Red Eagle).
The Creeks---Alexander McGillivary & William Weatherford
Prior to the time of the
American Revolution, traders on the East coast were following the westward
expansion. One of these traders was Lachlan McGillivary, a Scotsman. Lachlan
had extensive dealings with the Creek Indians of Georgia and Alabama. He married Sehoy Marchand
the daughter of Captain Marchand, commander of the French Fort Toulouse and
an Indian maiden of the Wind Clan. He had
plantations in both Alabama and Georgia one of which was in the area of what
is now Wetumpka, Alabama. With the outbreak of the American Revolution his
British sympathies made him very unpopular with the Colonist. He returned to
Scotland leaving behind several children in the Creek Nation. Lachlan’s son,
Alexander McGillivary, whose mother was a member of the powerful Wind Clan,
also married into the Wind Clan and became a Creek Chief who proved to be a
natural diplomat.
Alexander spent his early
days in the Creek Nation but was educated in the schools at Charleston, South
Carolina. Early in adulthood, he yearned to return to the happy place he had
enjoyed as a young boy. In the Nation, he became a leader and chief of the
Creeks. A Frenchman named LeClerc Milfort journeyed into the Creek
Nation and married McGillivary's sister. He was given the title of "Tustenuggee"
(Grand Chief of War).
Although McGillivary was friendly with Americans, he served the interest of the
Creek Nation, the British and Spanish during the American Revolution. He was
commissioned as a colonel in both the British and Spanish military. A friend
in Pensacola, William Panton, was his ally and contact with the Spanish.
William Panton,
a trader, had large establishments at all prominent posts in Florida. His chief stores
were in Pensacola with a usual stock of goods valued up to fifty thousand
dollars and employed fifteen or so clerks to tend the store. He also had skin
houses where valuable skins and rich furs were sorted and packed for shipment
to foreign markets.
Following the close of the
Revolutionary War, there was unrest in the Nation as white settlers moved more
deeply into the Indian lands.
In September 1789, President
Washington assigned General Pickens, David Humphreys, Cyrus Griffin and
Benjamin Lincoln as “commissioners” to deal with McGillivary. These gentlemen
sailed from New York and arrived in Savanah where they obtained sufficient
provisions to feed the Indians while at the treaty grounds. Within a few days,
the delegation reached Rock Landing on the banks of the Oconee River where
McGillivary and a large contingent of warriors had been waiting for more than
a week on the western bank of the river. The delegation camped on the eastern
shore. The delegation from Washington crossed to the western bank and spent
two days in conferences with McGillivary. One of the delegates made a speech
to the Indians promising that the United States would be very liberal.
Following the speech, a copy of the treaty was read to the chiefs. It provided
that the boundary made at Augusta, Shoulderbone and Galphinton would remain;
that the United States would guarantee the territory west of that boundary
would belong to the Creeks forever. In addition free trade would be
established with the Indians from ports on the Altamaha through which the
Indians could import and export upon the same terms as the citizens of the
United States. All Negroes, horses, goods and American citizens taken by the
Indians were to be returned.
That night after the American
delegation retired to their encampment, McGillivary and his chiefs met in
private council. A letter that the terms were unsatisfactory and the Indians
had resolved to break camp and return home was delivered the next morning to
the American delegation.
Washington then considered a
plan to wage war against the Creeks. However he realized the cost of such
action was greater than could be expended considering the debt incurred in the
War of Independence. He instead decided to bring McGillivary to New York (then
the Capitol of the United States) for a conference.
A party was sent to escort
the Creek Chief to New York. McGillivary was accorded celebrity treatment
along the way and after arriving in New York in 1790. Congress honored the
Chief as well. Washington assigned the negotiations to Henry Knox and an
agreement was reached. It was agreed that he, McGillivary, would recognize
United States sovereignty over the Creeks and established a line near the
Altamaha River as the boundary between Georgia and the Creek Nation. In
addition in a secret meeting the title of Brigadier General (the first
general commissioned by congress) with monetary
compensation of $1,200 per annum was conferred on McGillivary as well as other
concessions. Probably the most important for the Americans was that part of
the agreement which provided that all trade with the Indian Nation would be
thru the ports of the East coast of the United States, a benefit to the
Creeks as well.
Two years later he negotiated
another agreement with Spain in which he promised to resist U.S. encroachment.
General McGillivray,
returning from one of his visits with Governor Carondelet of New Orleans in
late summer of 1792 came down with fever and spent some time in Mobile
recuperating. After he was recovered he went to Little Tallase, where he wrote
his last letter to Major Seagrove.
He spent some
time at Little River then traveled to Pensacola where he died on
February 17, 1793.The account of his death was reported by his friend, William Panton, in a letter, dated Pensacola, April 10, 1794, and addressed to Lachlan
McGillivray, the father of the Chieftain, who was, still living
in Scotland.
"Your son, sir, was a man that I esteemed greatly. I was perfectly convinced that our regard for each other was mutual. It so happened that we had an interest in serving each other, which first brought us together, and the longer we were acquainted the stronger was our friendship.
"I found him deserted by the British without pay, without money, without friends and without property, saving a few negroes, and he and his nation threatened with destruction by the Georgians, unless they agreed to cede them the better part of their country. I had the good fortune to point out a mode by which he could save them all, and it succeeded beyond expectation.
“He died on the 17th February, 1793, of complicated disorders, of inflamed lungs and the gout on his stomach. He was taken ill on the path coming from his cow-pen on Little River, where one of his wives, Joseph Curnell 's daughter, resided, and died eight days after his arrival here. No pains, no attention, no cost was spared to save the life of my friend. But fate would have it otherwise, and he breathed his last in my arms.
"He died possessed of sixty negroes, three hundred head of cattle, with a large stock of horses.
"I advised, I supported, I pushed him on, to be the great man. Spaniards and Americans felt his weight, and this enabled him to haul me after him, so as to establish this house with more solid privileges than, without him, I should have attained. This being the case, if he had lived, I meant, besides what he was owing me, to have added considerably to his stock of negroes. What I intended to do for the father I will do for his children. This ought not to operate against your making that ample provision for your grandson and his two sisters, which you have it in your power to make. They have lately lost their mother, so that they have no friends, poor things, but you and me. My heart bleeds for them, and what I can I will do. The boy, Aleck, is old enough to be sent to Scotland to school, which I intend to do next year, and then you will see him."
General McGillivray was
interred with Masonic honors in the estate garden of William Panton, in the
city of Pensacola. He was a great loss to Panton and to the Spanish. His death
was mourned throughout the Creek Nation. The great Chief, who had so long been
their pride, and who had elevated their nation, and sustained it in its
trials, now lay buried in the sands of the Seminoles. (The Pensacola area
would become the place of incarceration for
another great and famous Indian Chief later in the late 1800’s, Chiricahaua
Apache Chief Geronimo. After his capture in Mexico, he was imprisoned at Fort
Pickens on the tip of Santa Rosa Island at the mouth of Pensacola Bay. Later
when released 1876 he was sent to the reservation at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and
died of pneumonia on February 17th 1909 as an old man.)
Alexander McGillivary was a
natural diplomat. When acting as a British colonel, he dressed in the British
uniform, and when in the Spanish service, he wore the military dress of that
country. When Washington appointed him a brigadier-general, he sometimes wore
the uniform of the American army, but never when in the presence of the
Spaniards. His usual dress was a mixture of the Indian and American clothing.
He always traveled with two of his servants, David Francis, a half-breed, and
Paro, a negro, who saved the lives of over a hundred royalists, in 1781. He
had houses at the Hickory Ground and at Little Tallase, where he entertained,
free of charge, distinguished government agents, and persons traveling through
his extensive dominions. He had his faults. He was ambitious, crafty, and
rather unscrupulous; yet was of good heart, polite and
hospitable.
One of Alexander’s sisters, Sehoy, married Charles Weatherford of what is now the Montgomery area.
Their son, Red Eagle (William Weatherford), became a chief of the Creeks and
was not friendly with the white settlers.
During the Creek War of 1812-1814 he
attacked Fort Mims (sketch left) on the Alabama River located
a few miles West of the present day town of Tensaw on the East bank of the
Alabama River killing over 250 settlers. Following the Battle of Fort
Mims, the Indians, led by Red Eagle, returned to a fortified area of
protection (the Holy Ground) secure in their belief than any white soldiers
that dared to enter the area would be met with instant death. The American
Forces located the Indians in the protected area and engaged in battle. The squaws and children were quickly canoed across the Alabama River to
safety in the swamps. With soldiers close in pursuit the warriors and Red
Eagle headed for the river. Red Eagle, astride his horse, approached a steep
bank, fifteen or so feet high. Without hesitation he and his mount plunged
into the river and escaped to fight again at Horseshoe Bend. (As a young boy,
this writer went on fishing trips with his father on the Alabama River. On one
such trip his father pointed out the bluff where Red Eagle and horse plunged
into the river.)
The battle of
the Horseshoe Bend all but ended the war. Many warriors came in and
surrendered, while a large portion escaped into Florida and the land of the
Seminoles. The site of the old French Fort Toulouse had been
cleared, a stockade with blockhouses was built and was re-named Fort Jackson.
Several chiefs including Big
Warrior arrived, and surrendered, in behalf of themselves and their people, to
such terms as General Jackson thought proper to impose. Jackson
had ordered that Weatherford should be captured, if possible, and brought to him,
confined, to receive such punishment as his crimes merited.
Weatherford appeared at the
Fort Jackson voluntarily. Mounting the same gray horse that had taken him
over the bluff at the Holy Ground, he rode within a few miles of Fort Jackson,
when a deer crossed his path he stopped within shooting distance. He fired at
and killed the deer then reloaded his rifle, with two balls (he was ready to
kill Big Warrior, a chief he considered a traitor). He placed the deer behind
his saddle and continued on to the American outposts. Some soldiers, of whom
he inquired for Jackson's whereabouts, gave him some unsatisfactory and rude
replies when a gray-headed man a few steps beyond pointed him to where Jackson
could be found. Weatherford rode up to it, checked his horse and entered. He
gave the deer to Jackson.
Some of the soldiers called
for the death of Weatherford but Jackson intervened saying, "Any man that
would kill such a brave man is less than a coward".
William Weatherford (Red
Eagle) died in Monroe County, Alabama near Little River in 1826 where he had
become a farmer following the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson.
A monument to
William Weatherford is located just South of Little River near its confluence
with the Alabama River. Fort Mims, just south of where the Weatherford monument is located, was
built and run by Weatherford’s great uncle, William Mims. Today the Poarch
Band of the Creek Indians is located on a reservation North of Atmore,
Alabama, extending northward towards Little River.