Indians and British Outposts in Eighteenth-Century America

1. The Key to Carolina: Old Hop, Little Carpenter, and the Making of Fort Loudoun, 1756–1759

1 The Key to Carolina Old Hop, Little Carpenter, and the Making of Fort Loudoun, 1756–1759 In July 1753, South Carolina governor James Glen met with Cherokee and Creek emissaries to prevent further fighting between the two nations and to establish a firm alliance between his colony and prominent Cherokee leaders based in the important Overhill town of Chota. This was the governor ’s first meeting with Little Carpenter, nephew and deputy of Overhill leader Old Hop, and their short conversation exemplified English-Cherokee parlance in the 1750s. Little Carpenter opened by reminding Glen that he had met personally with King George II in London in 1730 and that the monarch had promised to supply the Cherokees with guns and ammunition to avenge themselves against their enemies. If they were to quit fighting the Creeks, Little Carpenter insisted, the order must come from the king himself.1 Glen suggested that Little Carpenter had forgotten the particulars of the 1730 treaty and that the Cherokee leader should agree to accept his words as “the great King’s Talk.” Little Carpenter refused and asked to be allowed to travel to England and reaffirm the treaty with the king in person. Glen claimed that the Cherokees could not spare such a great sachem in those dangerous times. “There are other Countries and Places to go to England from besides this,” warned Little Carpenter. Glen held firm, insisting that the king would never meet with the Cherokee emissary without the royal governor’s authorization. Little Carpenter immediately shut down the talk, telling Glen, “We can not do any Thing without the 28 · Indians and British Outposts in Eighteenth-Century America Consent of Old Hop.” This came as a surprise to Glen, who had organized the conference months before and had assumed that Little Carpenter’s delegation had been given full authority to negotiate peace. Glaring at the Cherokee leader, Glen fumed to his own delegation, “I have been 10 Years here and never saw this Man before.” But, despite the flaring tempers, the tension had already passed. Little Carpenter had established his status with the governor and, handing Glen a pipe sent by Old Hop, smoked with the South Carolinian delegation and continued the talks.2 Little Carpenter’s meeting with Glen anticipated the style of negotiations that would dominate Cherokee-British relations throughout the mid-1750s. From the colonists’ perspective, the Cherokees were valuable allies, necessary to the vital deerskin trade and protectors of the exposed Virginia-Carolina backcountry. But Cherokee leaders did not intend to provide their friendship for free. Dependent on European trade goods by the middle of the eighteenth century, they needed British protection of trade routes and regulation of traders and prices. At the same time, they fought to preserve their status among their own people and their influence and dignity in the face of British allies and European and Native American enemies. Little Carpenter pointed out to Glen that he was the governor’s equal. He had met and treated with King George II, walked London’s streets and parks, and wished to be acknowledged as the king’s good servant. He reminded the governor that other colonies and countries desired the Cherokees’ favor as trading partners and military protectors . Finally, as an additional stalling tactic, he demonstrated the fractious and, to Britons, confusing nature of Cherokee village politics by feigning his insufficient authority to conclude diplomatic agreements. After establishing his power and status, he and Glen continued to discuss trade from a position of strength and equanimity. Cherokees dominated the Carolina backcountry in the mid-eighteenth century, and despite their numbers and importance in the region their existence was fraught with anxiety. Already allied with the British and immersed in the European deerskin trade for three decades by the 1750s, the westernmost group of Cherokees in the Overhill region still felt isolated and threatened by the French and their Indian allies to the north and south. Cherokee leaders such as Little Carpenter and Old Hop knew that colonial governments desired backcountry forts to protect settler communities and trade, and they hoped that British forts in Cherokee country might also answer many of their own needs. Forts brought status and Old Hop, Little Carpenter, and the Making of Fort Loudoun, 1756–1759 · 29 respect in the eyes of their French-allied enemies and other Cherokees living in the Lower and Middle regions. British garrisons could...