From Chicaza to Chickasaw: The European Invasion and the Transformation of the Mississippian World, 1540-1715

8 The Emergence of the Colonial South, ca. 1710–1715

C hapter 8 TheEmergenceoftheColonialSouth, ca.1710–1715 By 1708, the year of Thomas Nairne’s journey into the interior, the Chickasaws and other Southern Indians were feeling the strains of their participation in the slave trade. Certainly, the trade was lucrative and enticing and opened new opportunities to young and ambitious men and women. The trade, though, was generated from a new global economy largely predicated on the sale of armaments, the use of debt and credit, and an overwhelming tendency to deplete resources. Then, between 1702 and 1713, the years of Queen Anne’s War, the Indian trade system became linked to the imperial aims of England in the scramble for colonies. By 1715 virtually all Indian societies in the American South were ensnared in an economic matrix of debt, slaving, militarization, and warfare. At this point, Southern Indians could not extricate themselves from the trade system even if they tried— ​and they did try in the Yamasee War of 1715. Scholars have examined the Yamasee War from many angles, and most of them agree that at its root is the Indian slave trade and the inauguration of the Atlantic trade system in the South. With historical hindsight, one can see that the Yamasee War was the outcome of not only the slave trade but also the logic of capitalist extraction, which entails an overexploitation of resources. In short, the Yamasee War occurred for a complex of reasons, not least of which is the fact that the Indian slave trade was crumbling under its own brutal weight. The “frenzy of slaving” could only last so long before population numbers fell below a sustainable margin and slaving victims began to take the offensive. 233  Emergence of the Colonial South As we have seen, one of the reasons why slaving spread so far and wide throughout the South was the conjoining of the slave trade and English imperialism in Queen Anne’s War. Nairne’s scheme to manipulate and use Indian allies to secure the American South for England was but the most ambitious of many such efforts taking place throughout the South at this time. Nairne, Welch, and twenty-­five Apalachee burden bearers departed Charlestown at the beginning of 1708, and by January 20 they had reached the Tallapoosas. By April 12 Nairne was writing from the Chickasaw towns. As we have seen, Nairne spent much time conferring with the Chickasaw War Chief. He had set out for Chickasaw country in 1708 with 100 pounds in local currency worth of trade goods, and he made generous gifts and offers of good trade alliances to Oboystabee and his warriors. He also took a great risk in going to Choctaw country, given the seething enmity that existed between the Chickasaws and Choctaws. Bienville later heard that Nairne had gone to the Great Village of the Choctaws, where he proposed that they aid the English in destroying all the Indians near Mobile— ​the Tohomés, Apalachees, Mobilians, Tawasas, Chacatos, Pascagoulas, and Pensacolas. Meanwhile, Welch continued on to the Yazoo towns on the upper Yazoo River, where he met with representatives of the Quapaws, Taensas, Koroas, Natchez, and Tunicas.1 Nairne later bragged that he was successful in enlisting the Choctaws, but Bienville was of the opinion that the Choctaws only took the Englishman’s presents and listened to his talks. According to Bienville, the Choctaw micos relayed to him that they had told Nairne that they would do all they could to oppose any such expedition passing through Choctaw territory. Apparently , the Indians assembled in the Yazoo town made no reply to Welch one way or the other. However, the Yazoos, Koroas, Natchez, and Taensas must have favorably received Welch’s invitation since they were already harboring many misgivings about the French. The Quapaws used the play-­off strategy, claiming friendships to both the French and the English and continuing to entertain offers and trade goods from both.2 In fact, Bienville’s confidence in all of his Indian allies, including the Choctaws, and in the power of France in general, was severely challenged by Nairne’s journey. Upon receiving the news of Nairne’s and Welch’s intrigues , Bienville had immediately asked Chakchiuma warriors to capture the Englishmen. The Chakchiumas instead only pillaged their packhorse train. Bienville once again sent an urgent request to France for funds for an interior  234 Emergence of the Colonial South fort, as well as...