Zamumo’s Gifts
EARLY AMERICAN STUDIES
Series editors: Daniel K. Richter, Kathleen M. Brown, and David Waldstreicher
Exploring neglected aspects of our colonial, revolutionary, and early national history and culture, Early American Studies reinterprets familiar themes and events in fresh ways. Interdisciplinary in character, and with a special emphasis on the period from about 1600 to 1850, the series is published in partnership with the McNeil Center for Early American Studies.
A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher.
Zamumo’s Gifts
Indian-European Exchange in the Colonial Southeast
JOSEPH M. HALL JR.
Copyright © 2009 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher.
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hall, Joseph M., Jr.
Zamumo’s gifts : Indian-European exchange in the colonial Southeast / Joseph M. Hall, Jr.
p. cm. — (Early American studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8122-4179-2 (alk. paper)
1. Indians of North America—Southern States—History—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775. 2. Indians of North America—First contact with Europeans—Southern States. 3. Indians of North America—Commerce—Southern States—History—17th century. 4. Indians of North America—Commerce—Southern States—History—18th century. 5. Europeans—Commerce—Southern States—History—17th century. 6. Europeans—Commerce—Southern States—History—18th century. 7. Southern States—History—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775. I. Title.
E78.S65H35 2009
973.2—dc22
2009001011
For Melissa
Contents
1. The Spirit of a Feather: The Politics of Mississippian Exchange
2. Floods and Feathers: From the Mississippian to the Floridian
3. Seeking the Atlantic: The Growth of Trade
4. Following the White Path: Migration and the Muskogees’ Quest for Security
5. Creating White Hearts: Anxious Alliances amid the Slave Trade
6. The Yamasee War: Trade Reformed, a Region Reoriented
7. Cries of “Euchee!”: Imperial Trade in a Creek Southeast
Conclusion: Gifts and Trade, Towns and Empires
Glossary of Native Place Names
Abbreviations
AC Archives des Colonies, Archives Nationales, Paris, France, collected on microfilm at the Howard-Tilton Library Special Collections, Tulane University, New Orleans, La.
AGI Archivo General de Indias, Sevilla, Spain.
BPROSC Records in the British Public Record Office Relating to South Carolina, 1663–1710. Edited by Noel Sainsbury. 5 vols. Columbia, S.C., 1928–47.
CO 5 Colonial Office Series 5, Public Record Office, Kew, United Kingdom, reprinted in Public Record Office microfilm series, LOC.
CRSC The Colonial Records of South Carolina: The Journal of the Commons House of Assembly 1736-. Edited by J. H. Easterby et al. 14 vols. Columbia: Historical Commission of South Carolina, 1951–.
EC Sección de Escribanía de Cámara.
IPH Indian-Pioneer History of Oklahoma. Edited by Grant D. Foreman. 120 vols. OHS.
JCHA Journal of the Commons House of Assembly, 1692–1726. Edited by Alexander S. Salley Jr. Columbia: The State Company for the Historical Commission of South Carolina, 1907–46.
JCIT Journals of the Commissioners of the Indian Trade, September 20, 1710-August 29, 1718. Edited by William L. McDowell Jr. Columbia: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 1955.
LOC Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
México Sección de Gobierno, Audiencia de México.
MPAFD Mississippi Provincial Archives, French Dominion. Edited and translated by Dunbar Rowland, A. G. Sanders, and Patricia Galloway. 5 vols. Jackson: Press of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1927–32; Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984.
OHS Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Okla.
SCDAH South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Columbia, S.C.
SD Sección de Gobierno, Audiencia de Santo Domingo. (Note that all correspondence is dated from St. Augustine unless otherwise indicated.)
TJCHA Transcripts of the Journal of the Commons House of Assembly. Edited by John S. Green. 5 vols. SCDAH.
TJGC Transcripts of the Journals of the Grand Council and Proprietors’ Council. Edited by John S. Green. 3 vols. SCDAH.
TRBPROSC Transcripts of Records in the British Public Records Office Relating to South Carolina. Edited by Noel Sainsbury. 36 vols. SCDAH.
Introduction
Zamumo, the chief of Altamaha, had to think carefully in the early spring of 1540. Hundreds of unknown men were apparently a two-day journey to the southwest, and they were headed toward his town in the Oconee Valley of today’s central Georgia. Although the intruders did not seem violent, their strange metal weapons and the paucity of women in their party suggested a disturbing aversion to peace. Of course, Zamumo was not without power of his own. From the summit of the flattopped pyramid of earth that his townspeople had constructed, he had close ties with the