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BOB — University of Nebraska Press / Page 1 / / Creeks and Southerners / Andrew K. Frank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [First Page] [1], (1) Lines: 0 to 17 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [1], (1) Introduction The Problem of Identity in the Early American Southeast In 1783 a belief in the connection between race, culture, and identity nearly resulted in hostilities between Spanish Floridians and Creek Indians. The problem began in early February, when an English-born and English-speaking man named Andrew Brissert entered the Gulf Coast town of Pensacola hoping to sell two African American slaves. Soon after he and his Creek wife arrived, the trader purchased some coffee, sugar, and hardtack and found a place to spend the night. That evening Brissert’s host offered the guests some rum before the married couple fell asleep. The following morning, soon after Brissert awoke, Spanish officials arrested him. His crime was not that of slave trading—for selling African Americans was a legal and common occurrence in the Spanish colony and port town. Nor was he arrested for his drunkenness or for purchasing rum. Brissert’s offense was that in being“dressed and painted as an Indian,” he broke an ordinance that prohibited men from wearing disguises in the city. The local magistrates arrested him on their “Suspicion of his being a Spy.”1 Brissert’s wife and Indian family did not passively watch events transpire. The well-known Creek diplomat and trader Alexander McGillivray voiced his disapproval of the capture of his faithful assistant and tried to get the Spanish officials to explain their actions. Brissert’s wife and several members of her clan similarly objected to the arrest,claiming that this was a case of mistaken identity. These initial protests hardly impressed the Spanish officials,who chose to ignore “the supplications and threats of his Tallapoosa Creek wife”and to ship Brissert off to receive punishment in New Orleans “with other English prisoners.” This stranger,they claimed,was not a Creek man and definitely not an Indian; he was an English slave trader and spy who cleverly used Indian paints and clothes to conceal his true English identity. After all, when stripped of the elaborate paints and his Native costume,Brissert looked,acted,and sounded like an Englishman. While Brissert sailed to New Orleans, where he would have been detained until a suitable punishment could be determined, the threats from Fus-hatchee villagers and Wind clan Creeks became more explicit.2 They vowed to cut off trade relations and hinted that their warriors might take immediate retribution if the Spaniards did not promptly return Brissert to his home. The seizure of their trusted neighbor, they claimed, was tantamount to a declaration of war. BOB — University of Nebraska Press / Page 2 / / Creeks and Southerners / Andrew K. Frank 2 | Introduction 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 [2], (2) Lines: 17 to 21 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [2], (2) Commandant of Pensacola Arturo O’Neill took these new threats seriously and shared them with Luis de Unzaga, his superior. After some deliberation O’Neill and Unzaga concluded that they had no choice but to return Brissert to his village. If the Creeks claimed that Brissert was one of their own, the Spaniards were in no position to disagree. Race, culture, and language, they reluctantly conceded, had deceived them.3 Men like Brissert, his Creek children, his Creek wife, and her family form the core of this study. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries hundreds of European American men entered Creek villages, married and cohabitated with Native women, and fathered an unknown number of Creek children. 4 These European American men often embraced the customs and behaviors of their hosts, at least enough to live relatively inconspicuously, and adhered to the expectations of their new families and communities. In these instances they became known as “Indian countrymen.”At the same time, these newcomers to Indian life, at least in the eyes of many European American colonists, did not always blend into their communities. In villages located...

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