Alabama’s deep black soil and the growing entrenchment of slave labor fueled cotton production in the settled portions of the territorial wilderness. It is remarkable to note the level of development and ever-increasing crop yields produced, given the increasing threats from hostile Creeks and deteriorating relations with Great Britain. Cotton prices steeled the nerves of wary white settlers and pushed expansion forward. Many whites hoped, and some Creeks feared, that American “civilization” would soon follow their lead. Gristmills, sawmills, liveries, metal smithies, churches, stores, saloons, and brothels were just a few of the hobgoblins, in the eyes of many Creeks, that attended white “progress.” Yet not all Creeks agreed. Among the Creek Indians of the Mississippi Territory, the National Council and the Lower Creeks saw a variety of opportunities for profit and peaceful coexistence with white settlers. However, for Upper Creeks, accommodating white settlement was nothing less than the prostitution of their history, culture, and society for short-term gains. They argued that the National Council’s stance would ensure that Creeks served whites and leave their traditional lands a desolate wasteland in the face of American greed.
While Tecumseh raged against white intrusion and the Creeks debated war, settlers continued to pour into the Mississippi Territory. What drove so many people to continue to risk the perils of travel to this volatile region? Commercial opportunity. In the first two decades after the Constitution’s ratification, the population of the seaboard states was growing at a ponderous rate. The best land was long since settled, forcing those who hoped to buy choice, inexpensive land to consider the trans-Appalachian West. The venture often proved rewarding. As an observer in New Orleans in early 1812 points out, the Mississippi Territory was brimming with profit. “Since my temporary residence in this place,” he wrote back to Washington, D.C., “I have taken some pains to ascertain the quantity of cotton raised in, and of course exported from, the Mississippi Territory, and I think I am safe in fixing it at about thirty thousand bales [per year], averaging 375 lbs. per bale, which at ten cents per pound amounts to at least the round sum of one million of dollars.” Indeed, “it is no uncommon thing to count the arrival, at this time, of from fifteen to twenty wagon loads per day, each carrying upon an average five bales.”
Alabama’s deep black soil and the growing entrenchment of slave labor fueled cotton production in the settled portions of the territorial wilderness. It is remarkable to note the level of development and ever-increasing crop yields produced, given the increasing threats from hostile Creeks and deteriorating relations with Great Britain. Cotton prices steeled the nerves of wary white settlers and pushed expansion forward. Many whites hoped, and some Creeks feared, that American “civilization” would soon follow their lead. Gristmills, sawmills, liveries, metal smithies, churches, stores, saloons, and brothels were just a few of the hobgoblins, in the eyes of many Creeks, that attended white “progress.” Yet not all Creeks agreed. Among the Creek Indians of the Mississippi Territory, the National Council and the Lower Creeks saw a variety of opportunities for profit and peaceful coexistence with white settlers. However, for Upper Creeks, accommodating white settlement was nothing less than the prostitution of their history, culture, and society for short-term gains. They argued that the National Council’s stance would ensure that Creeks served whites and leave their traditional lands a desolate wasteland in the face of American greed. Comments are closed.
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Becoming Alabama:
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