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From: "Elizabeth Shown Mills" <>
Subject: Re: [APG] Georgia court case question/ Removal of Indiandisabilities
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:12:12 -0500
In-Reply-To: <E1Hb7ED-0004Ip-00@pop-borzoi.atl.sa.earthlink.net>


Carolyn asked:
>Why would the
general assembly free these particular individuals from "all legal
disabilities" of being Indian?

Carolyn, when it came to color, green was the best color of all :). Recall
for a moment that notable S.C. Supreme Court decision, State v. Cantey, 1835
(2 Hill 614, S.C.) in which justice William Harper decreed that being Negro
or mulatto was not just a matter of being brown. Rather, a "man of worth
[could] have the rank of a white man, while a vagabond of the same degree of
blood should be confined to the inferior caste."

The same held true for those of Native American descent also. In at least
several of the Southeastern states (if not all) you'll find acts similar to
the one Paul cited for the Tuckers of Georgia.

>And secondly, weren't there many people of Indian descent who avoided
removal, but who did NOT have such a legal act promulgated in their
name?

Yes, indeed.

>Was it common knowledge (at the time) that some Indians
remained despite the law,

Which takes us back to the mindset expressed by Harper in State v. Cantey.

As a not-uncommon example, I'll quote a passage here from Rachal Lennon, CG,
_Tracing Ancestors among the Five Civilized Tribes: Southeastern Indians
Prior to Removal_ (Baltimore: GPC, 2002), 18-19

"David Moniac Jr., an antebellum sheriff of Baldwin County, Alabama, offers
a useful example of the stages of 'acceptance' into society through which a
mixed line might progress. [David's genealogy is outlined here.] David's
father, David Sr., ... was appointed to West Point Academy from Alabama and
was breveted a second-lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Resigning in 1822, he
married Mary Powell (... cousin of the Seminole chief Osceola) and became a
cotton planter on ancestral homelands in Baldwin County, Alabama. When the
Florida Wars erupted in 1836, David was commissioned by the U.S. Army to
lead a Creek company against the Seminoles; he died a major in that
conflict. Although considered 'Indian,' David enjoyed quasi-acceptance by
whites, who respected his education, intelligence, and prosperity. By the
next generation, the stigma of the family's Indian origins had been
effectively shed: David Moniac Jr. was a two-term sheriff of Baldwin
County---a post strictly reserved for whites." [Sources are cited; I won't
copy them here.]

>and, if so, is there any literature you
might recommend to shed some light on this for me?

Carolyn, most sources (published and original) relating to Native Americans
in the Southeast prior to removal (or those that did not remove) are cited
in Lennon's bibliography.


Elizabeth

-----------------------------------------------------
Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FASG
APG Member, Tuscaloosa, Alabama



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