- Collection:
- Southeastern Native American Documents, 1730-1842
- Title:
- [Excerpt from the Memoirs] of Lieut[enant] General Scott, 1864 / written by himself
- Creator:
- Scott, Winfield, 1786-1866
- Publisher:
- Manuscript held by the The Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, TN, State Library Cherokee Collection, box 19, folder 10, document ch098.
- Date of Original:
- 1864
- Subject:
- Cherokee Indians--Social conditions
- Location:
- United States, Southern States, 33.346678, -84.119434
- Medium:
- autobiographies (literary works)
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- text/html
image/jpeg - Description:
- This document is a typed excerpt from vol.1 of the Memoirs of Lieut.- General Scott, published in 1864. Scott was one of the primary officials involved in the military operations related to the removal of the Cherokees (1838-39) to a territory west of the Mississippi River. Scott's autobiography contains observations on the relations between the Cherokees and the white settlers in the surrounding states, primarily Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. This excerpt contains several minor typographical variations from Scott's memoirs.
Digital image and encoded transcription of an original manuscript, scanned, transcribed and encoded by the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries in 2000, as part of GALILEO, funded in part by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. - Local Identifier:
- ch098
- External Identifiers:
- Metadata URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlna_ch098
- Digital Object URL:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlna_ch098#item
- IIIF manifest:
- https://dlg.usg.edu/record/dlg_zlna_ch098/presentation/manifest.json
- Language:
- eng
- Bibliographic Citation (Cite As):
- Cite as: [title of item], State Library Cherokee Collection, The Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, TN, presented in the Digital Library of Georgia
- Extent:
- 1 page/leaf
- Holding Institution:
- Tennessee State Library and Archives
- Rights:
-
Page: [1]
Civilization of the Cherokees.
Autobiography of Lieut.-General Scott, written by Himself. New York,
1864. Vol. 1, p. 318.
"The Cherokees were an interesting people - the greater number Christians, an [and] many as civilized as their neighbors of the white race. Between the two colors intermarriages had been frequent. They occupied a contiguous territory - healthy mountains, valleys, and plains lying in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. Most of their leading men had received good educations, and possessed much ability. Some were quite wealthy in cultivated farms, good houses, cattle of every kind, and negro slaves . Gardens and orchards were seen everywhere and the women graceful, with, in many cases, added beauty. Of course the mixed races are here particularly alluded to. The mountaineers were still wild men, but little on this side of their primordial condition.
The North Carolinians and the Tennesseans were kindly disposed towards their red brethren. The Alabamians were much less so. The great difficulty was with the Georgians (more than Half the army), between whom and the Cherokees there had been feuds and wars for many generations. The reciprocal hatred of these two races was probably never surpassed. Almost every Georgian, on leaving home, as well as after their arrival at New Echota, - the centre [center] of the most populous district of the Indian territory - vowed never to return without having killed at least one Indian. This ferocious language was the more remarkable as the great body of these citizens - perhaps, seven in ten - were professors of religion. The Methodists, Baptist, and other ministers of the Gospel of Mercy, had been extensively abroad among them; but the hereditary animosity alluded to caused the Georgians to forget, or, at least, to deny that a Cherokee was a human being."