The Life and Times of Mary Musgrove

1. Creek Beginnings

9 1 • Creek Beginnings Your memorialist was born at the Cowetaw Town on the Oakmulgee River, which is a branch of the Altamaha and the Chief Town of the Creek Indian Nation. Mary Bosomworth, 1747 How it Came to Pass that Mary could claim such a beginning is something of a story in itself. The infant girl who would one day become Mary Musgrove first drew breath in the Creek Indian town of Coweta, and like most Indians she was never exactly sure when she was born, at least as the English reckoned it on their calendars. But given what we know of Mary and the Cowetas, the year 1700 seems, to most historians, a reasonable guess.Although we have come to know her as “Mary,” Creek relatives likely addressed her using kinship terms, later bestowing upon her a name expressive of her temper , physical appearance, or the circumstances of her birth. As she never revealed that name in writing, it is unknowable to us, and we will address her as most others did in her lifetime, as Mary. Mary probably came into the world like any Creek newborn. Her mother, feeling the first pangs of childbirth, would have first isolated herself in a special hut built outside of town. There, she endured labor alone or with the help of a few female relatives, who brought victuals and water and served as midwives. Such behavior was rooted not only in practical considerations,but also reflected the Creeks’deeply beliefs about the order of their universe and the respective roles men and women played in it. The Creek Indians regarded men and women as complementary but distinct halves of human creation,an order that was reflected in their speech,dress, spiritual beliefs, and ceremonies. Right living demanded constant attendance to the purity of those gender distinctions, a purity they achieved by 10 · The Life and Times of Mary Musgrove ritually separating men from women. This ritual separation was particularly observed at those moments in life when masculine and feminine traits were most prominently on display. Menstruation and childbirth constituted two such special occasions for Creek women.1 As Creek women traditionally remained secluded after childbirth for a period ranging from four days to four months, Mary’s mother would have been primarily, if not solely, responsible for introducing her daughter to the sensations of the world outside the womb. Creek women were known to bathe their children shortly after birth, and we might imagine Mary’s mother trudging down to a nearby stream to wash the amniotic fluid and colostrum off of her. Cleanliness, though, was only one consideration, as there was a ritual quality to bathing among the Creeks,who believed that a daily (usually morning) plunge into the cold waters promoted hardiness in lives young and old. A hard lesson in hardiness, perhaps, but one thought necessary in a world that required physical fortitude.2 Lessons in fortitude only complemented the tender care that Creek women provided their newborns. Creek women typically breastfed their babies in excess of one year, which delayed the onset of ovulation and enabled them to space the birth of their children two to three years apart. Creek women sometimes prepared their newborns for suckling by dipping a finger or twig in water, and then sprinkling it on the infant’s tongue. Mothers used a similar technique to feed their newborns a watery concoction of herbs and roots to make the newborn strong. Between feedings, Mary’s mother probably laid her down on the soft skin of a fawn or a buffalo calf, a way of invoking those animals’ shy behavior, which the Creeks regarded as proper for young females. As, by the turn of the eighteenth century, Creek women had begun using English cloth, chances are that the infant girl became accustomed to the feel of wool or linen against her tender skin.3 Eventually, Mary’s mother would have decided that enough time had passed to allow her new baby to be seen in public.To eradicate any lingering traces of the pollution of childbirth,she would have bathed in the river, washing her clothes,dishes,and other personal effects as thoroughly as her body. The pair would then have left the birthing hut, finally giving the new mother the opportunity to introduce her baby girl to the people known as Cowetas. Creek Beginnings · 11 Coweta-on-the-Ocmulgee If in...