2.31 America: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 8/20)

At any time, in the last century or through this one, whenever whites destroyed Indian granaries and cut down their corn, the effect was devastating. Survivors fled to the woods, where many starved, as they were not as at home in the woods as their hunting and gathering ancestors had been. The Cherokee Chief Vann was driven from his village during the revolution and was forced to scratch for subsistence in the wild. All of these Indians were basically agriculturists. Although small amounts of wheat and rice were grown, maize remained the staple and was prepared as cornbread and hominy, or after being boiled with oak and hickory ashes, was drunk as a kind of soup, which the Creeks called sof kee . Late in the century sweet potatoes were developed. Fields were fenced and cattle, horses, sheep, goats, hogs and chickens were available. The Upper Creek Chief Wolf owned 200 head of black cattle and Indians in other villages had even larger herds. A few years after the Revolution, William Augustus Bowles brought a large supply of munitions and presents for the Creeks from the Bahamas, but they had to come to the coast to get them. They had no difficulty in assembling more than 100 pack horses outfitted with saddles and halters had led them nearly 400 miles overland to pick up the goods. Of course, horse stealing became as prominent as raising, buying and selling. (Ref. 267 )

Although scalping was a long time custom among Indians, the usage increased after white contact and was more prevalent around the time of the American Revolution than ever. Mississippians were not true cannibals, but for ritualistic purposes at times did eat human flesh. Like the Indians, British colonists also drank yaupon tea and some was even exported to Britain and France. Europeans took over a great many Indian medicines and cures and a considerable portion of southern white and African folk medicine is of aboriginal origin. The Indians were also the source of many new words such as moccasin, matchcoat, terrapin, opossum, raccoon, chinquapin, chum, hominy, pone and tomahawk. The terms for racial hybrids have been confusing. A 1705 Virginia statute says that a mulatto is the offspring of whites and non-whites, that is - the child of an Indian and a white, or the child, grandchild or great-grandchild of a Negro and a white. A South Carolina missionary in 1715 baptized as a mulatto a girl whose mother he reported as an Indian and father as a white trader. At other times "mulatto" seemed to mean Negro-Indian mixture, but finally the term zambo was used for that hybrid. A significant percentage of the Yamasees themselves were zambos and during this 1 8th century that tribe became increasingly noted for its Negroid features. In spite of the statutes, Africans and Indians intermingled, learned each others' languages, intermarried and at times made common cause against whites. Mestizos properly may mean Indian-White, but has also been used for all kinds of combinations. (Ref. 267 )

Regarding slavery, the status of white convicts arriving in Chesapeake Bay whose terms might be up to 14 years or even life did not differ greatly from that of chattel slaves. White, black and Indian slaves were all marketed and employed with little distinction, except for the one difference that most Indian slaves were female. The male Indians would run away and were difficult to manage, so most of the field hands were young, male blacks.