The progress of the human mind from rudeness to refinement : exemplified in an account of the method pursued by Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, under the authority of the government of the United States, to civilize certain tribes of savages within their territory / drawn up by Samuel L. Mitchill

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PROGRESS OF THE HUMAN MIND EXEMPLIFIED IN THE METHODS PURSUED BY COL. BENJAMIN HAWKINS TO CIVILIZE CERTAIN TRIBES OF SAVAGES.
By Samuel L. Mitchill, M.D.
Am. Mon. Mag. [American Monthly Magazine]

Sept. 1818.






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From:
The American monthly magazine and critical review. Vol III. No.5;
Sept. 1818.



The Progress of the Human Mind from Rudeness to Refinement; exemplified in an Account of the Method pursued by Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, under the Authority of the Government of the United States, to civilize certain Tribes of Savages within their Territory; drawn up by Samuel L. Mitchill, M.D. LL.D. &c. [et cetera] &c. [et cetera]


The war which in
1814 led the inhabitants of Tennessee and Georgia, to destroy, in their own defence, a considerable part of the Creek nation, has been interpreted by some persons as proving the inutility of attempts to civilize savages. This conclusion is incorrect. The Cherokees have been initiated into the arts of improved life as well as the Creeks; and yet the Creeks only have engaged in hostility against the United States. There must therefore have been some other cause than the lessons they have learned from our agents. And this was probably the instigation of our secret and avowed enemies.
Until this extirminating [exterminating] warfare arose, the great problem of civilizing the aborigines was believed by many to have been in a fair way of being solved, or rather that it was already solved in the United States. The subjects of this philanthropic and instructive experiment were the Creeks and Cherokees. The former of these nations of Indians came from the west of the Mississippi. There is a tradition among them, that there are in the fork of Red-River, two mounds of earth, and that at that place the Cussatuhs, Cowetuhs and Chickasaws found themselves; that being distressed by wars with red-men, their forefathers crossed the Mississippi and travelling eastward, they passed the falls of Tallapoosa above Tookaubatche, and settled below the rapids of Chatapooche. Hence they spread out to Ocmulgee, Oconee, Savannah, and down the sea coast towards Charleston, where they first saw white people. By those they were resisted and compelled to retreat to their present settlements.
This nation possessed a tract of country about three hundred miles square. It is for soil and climate, as well as natural advantages in general, not surpassed perhaps by any spot of equal extent, upon the face of the earth. The number of warriors at the last enumeration amounted to about four thousand Their settlements have been surrounded for many years by the Americans, the French, Spaniards and English. They were tempted in various ways to be concerned in the leagues and stratagems of their neighbours [neighbors], who wished to get possession of their lands. They, however, generally conducted themselves with remarkable prudence, and avoided such alliances as might implicate them in depopulating wars. Accordingly, they preserved their national existence, and at the commencement of our federative government, attracted a large and early attention.
The greatness of their numbers, the value of their lands, and their contiguity to the colonies of the enterprising nations of Europe, made it necessary to have a seasonable and full explanation with them. At that time George Washington was President of the United States; and the Creeks were in an hostile mood. Congress was sitting in the city of New York; and the principal subject then under consideration was, whether they should be treated by forcible and warlike operations, or by gentle and pacific means. The considerate statesman of the United States were divided in opinion on these points. Some were in favour [favor] of the exterminating, and others of the conciliatory plan. Among the latter was Benjamin Hawkins, then a Senator in Congress from North Carolina, who dissuaded in strong terms the project of hostile operations against the Creeks. By his interference a military expedition was withheld until a negotiator could be sent


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into the nation, and invite them to a peaceful parley. The man selected for this service was Marinus Willet. He was employed in preference to a clergyman whom it was originally intended to send. Willet penetrated their country, obtained a hearing, and brought with him M'Gillivray, and a deputation of the nation to New-York. Here a treaty was held, and a peace established in the year
1794.
The meditated war having thus failed, the next thing to be done was to regulate trade and intercourse between the red men and the white. For this purpose Congress passed a law directing the manner of dealing with them, delineated the boundaries, and appointed an agent to superintend the department of Indian affairs south of the river Ohio. This was during the administration of Mr. Adams. Mr. Hawkins was appointed the manager of this business. He had previously acted a distinguished part in several negotiations with the natives, and had acquired much knowledge of their situation, their wants, and the mode of doing business with them. Accepting the commission, this gentleman left the Senate, quitted polished society, and entered upon the arduous work of protecting and civilizing the Indians.
An undertaking of this sort has of late been deemed chimerical or impossible. The labours [labors] of the zealous Jesuits and the industrious Moravians had so frequently proved abortive, that few even of the well wishers of the experiment entertained much expectation of its success. The agent however was sanguine in the cause, and the government seconded his views. In the course of about ten years, he succeeded in advancing some of these people from the state of hunters to those of herdsmen, cultivators of the soil, and manufacturers; and the changes in their moral, intellectual and social disposition, have been effected without the assistance of other missionaries, and of scholastic or collegiate education. Indeed Mr. Hawkins entertained an opinion that an introduction to the mysteries of religion, and an acquaintance with the intricacies of literature, ought to follow, and not precede, an initiation into the more useful and necessary arts, such, for example, as those of procuring food and clothes.
This active reformer did not commence his undertakings by teaching his pupils the shapes and sounds of letters in the alphabet, nor the dogmas and doctrines in the catechism. He omitted these things altogether; or rather he studiously forbade their introduction. He adhered to a rule of interdiction against all preachers of every sect, from holding converse with the Creeks, but treated members of the church with great politeness, in other respects, whenever they visited the agent at the factory; and for several years, the alarms of the natives were not excited by the discipline and lessons of shoolmasters. When Mr. H. first presented himself among the Indians, and talked to the assembled chiefs on his project of civilizing them, they replied to him in the most insulting terms, reprobated his scheme with great bitterness; and concluded by uttering sounds of the most contemptuous signification around the circle.
After their disgust and merriment had in some measure subsided, he told them in a mild and frank discourse, that he was now done with the men ; but that, as he was by no means discouraged, he should quit them, and address himself to the other sex. This he soon found means to accomplish; and by soothing arts, by kind treatment, and by assuring them that he could teach them how to procure plenty of provisions and clothes with their own hands, he gained the confidence of several girls and women. To them he imparted the arts of carding, spinning and weaving ; and to these they became soon attached, because petticoats, jackets and other articles of dress could thereby by easily procured.
But it was not possible to make all the females spinsters. Some for want of inclination or opportunity, and others through lack of machinery, could not practise those domestic employments. They still laboured [labored], after the manner of Indian women; and among other occupations tended a little patch of maize for subsistence. Finding that sometimes, the women had a surplus of corn, the agent's next point was to teach them to exchange it for something to make petticoats, and other raiment. With this view he instructed them in the use of measures, and these he reduced to an intelligible value in money. A bushel of corn, for example, was valued at a quarter of a dollar; and where this precise coin was not at hand, the sign of it was a single white mark, called a chalk . This word thence became a nominal coin, or rate of value; and as a chalk of corn denoted a "bushel," so a chalk of calico, tobacco, or any thing else would signify as much of either of these articles as could be bought by a quarter of a dollar, the estimated value of a bushel of corn.
While this agent was proceeding by these means to improve and enlarge the


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minds of the Creeks, he was not neglectful of the use and application of weights . He made figures to illustrate the construction of steelyards, on a piece of paper. He explained this to one woman, and after making her comprehend it, handed it to another. And by ascertaining the weight of hogs, and other things, which used always to be sold by tale, and reducing them to chalks or quarter dollars, he made his learners understand that a heavy hog was worth more than a light one; and by actually paying them in proportion to the weight, demonstrated to them the difference in value between things heretofore rated alike. This gave them great satisfaction, and made them more careful to fat their hogs. The like happened in respect to corn. This was formerly sold by the varying quantity of a basket full, till Mr. H. instructed them in the use of an established and unvarying measure, the half bushel; taught them to reduce such a measure to a certain weight by the steelyard; and then again to calculate this weight in chalks or quarter dollars.
At the same time, as much pains was taken as possible to instruct the boys and girls about the agent's house, and in his family, in the practice of the English tongue. In like manner the Indian children who lived with his negroes, were taught to speak our tongue. But all this was accomplished by rote, and without the sight or mention of a book.
Progressing in these ways, the spinning and weaving of cotton increased rapidly. There were in
1805, twenty looms in the lower, and ten among the upper towns. Of the former, twelve were wrought by Indians, and eight of them were constructed by Indians. Of the latter, three were worked by natives, and three were built by them. Three of the looms in the upper towns were kept agoing by white women for a toll which was fixed at every fifth yard. The women on the Flint river had then applied for fifty additional spinning wheels. And such was the power of example prompted by interest, that some old men and boys learned to spin and seemed to take pleasure in the exercise. In the upper towns there was at that time a demand for five more looms and one hundred and fifty more spinning wheels. Several men of the half breed, had both constructed looms and wove cloth in them, with their own hands.
Encouraged by these prospects and successes, the women appointed a time and solicited a talk with the agent. They appointed one of their venerable matrons to deliver the talk to him in their behalf. He met them, and in the assembly of the women, was thus addressed: "Father, we women are poor and foolish; but you, as our great father, will excuse our poverty, and pardon our folly. When white men have come into our nation, they have never studied the good of the women, nor endeavoured to better their oppressed condition. All they have hitherto done is to make our situation more wretched. They have employed every art to raise and shorten our petticoats, and have thereby left us more exposed and naked than they found us. But you, father, commiserate our condition; you pity our nakedness and weakness; you say you will instruct us to cover ourselves, and be decent and warm; you will enable us to support ourselves, so that we and our children shall be in no danger of starving in the swamps. You come to lengthen our petticoats, and extend them over us from the hips to the ankles. Father, we will follow your advice: speak and we will obey."
He by degrees encouraged then to split rails, to make fences of them, to inclose their fields, and to till them with their own hands; himself showing them how, and by his example, convincing them that it was at once respectable and useful. Among the Creeks there was a peculiar difficulty in overcoming the aversion of the men to labour [labor] . Inured alternately to hunting, indolence and war, they threw all the toil of domestic affairs, the carrying of burthens and the drudgery of life upon their females. It was therefore a hard lesson to make the men work at all; an particularly to assist the women in their laborious occupations. The men, however, had learned by this time, that as game grew scarce in the forests, the employments of the women and girls turned to much better account than their own, and that with their pigs, maize and cotton, the females had already rendered themselves in a good degree independent of the men. It was now that the agent advised the young women to refuse favors to their sweethearts, and the married women to repel the caresses of their husbands, unless they would associate with them, and assist them in their daily labours [labors] . This expedient though perhaps not rigidly enforced, nor in all cases adhered to, was however not without its effect in breaking the ferocity of the masculine temper, and reducing it to a milder and softer tone.
To enforce the necessity of industry, Mr. H. availed himself of the scantiness


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of provisions to give them an exhortation. Some instances had been reported of children dying of hunger, and particularly, of two little girls, as he was on his way to a conference with the chiefs. At the conference, the subject was mentioned by Mr. Cornells the interpreter, and after some observations made by the chiefs, Mr. H. stated that these events had made a serious impression upon his mind, and on the way to the conference he had put the question to himself, who killed these little girls? This answer immediately obtruded itself; "You Mr. Hawkins, you murdered these little girls. You Efau Haiyo, Oche Haiyo, and Tushunmeggee Tellico, you murdered these little girls. You chiefs and rulers of the nation, you murdered these little girls. In all countries it is the business of the rulers to direct the labour [labor] of the community so as to support the people, and if they neglect to do it, they are answerable for the consequences. If a bear, or any man, red or white, had attempted to murder these little girls you would have risked your lives individually or collectively to save theirs. And yet you would not exert yourselves to destroy this enemy called hunger Preparent to this they had in
1804, committed to the earth one hundred and seventy-six bushels of seed; this afforded an excellent crop, and was instrumental in saving several lives. The agent furnished the seed from his own stock. The wheat crop is ripe in May. And the corn crop, which in favourable [favorable] seasons is also exceedingly good, comes to maturity in June."
The speaker of the nation has his farm in good fence, staked and ridered. He cultivates his whole crop with the plough. Last year he planted about one hundred and fifty peach trees, and sower three bushels of wheat. He had also begun the culture of cotton, and had a fine field of it; likewise a promising show of corn, potatoes, pumpkins, ground peas and beans. He had nine females of his family employed in spinning, and a loom in his house with a spring shuttle. The like was done by several other of the most considerable men, who employed the plough in agriculture, and clothed themselves in homespun.
Neat cattle were owned in large numbers by the Indians. Several of them have herds amounting to 100, 500, 1000, and even 2000 heads. They had become very much attached to this kind of stock, and took great pains to procure them. These creatures are computed to double their numbers every three years. Their owners exchange them with the Georgians for cloths. Butter and cheese have been made at more than an hundred places. In
1804, these arts were rapidly increasing. The men had also become acquainted with the tanning of hides into leather; and the making of the latter into saddles.
They also had negro slaves to work for them. The African temperament which bends to servitude under the dominion of the black and white man, submits also to the sovereignty of the red-man. Several of the more wealthy Indians hold a number of such domestics. They were rapidly acquiring a knowledge of real estates, and of the utility of holding their lands and improvements in severalty. In evidence of which, it may be mentioned that a number of them were growing solicitous about deeds and titles.
One remarkable fact concerning their progress in calculation is well worthy of notice. In teaching them the use of the steelyard, they necessarily became acquainted with arithmetical cyphers. By a little practice, not more than other persons are obliged to take, they learned the use of these signs in adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing numbers, and became ready and correct calculators. And this they accomplished without being able to read a single letter. The symbols of numbers being signs of ideas, were acquired with equal ease by persons of all languages, while letters or alphabetical characters being signs of simple sounds, can be comprehended by the persons only who are conversant in the tongue which they are intended to explain. A Muskagee Indian therefore, is exactly in this state of advancement; he can sum up an invoice, or bill of parcels, by virtue of his knowledge of figures, but he cannot read a word nor line of the writing on account of his total ignorance of letters .
Thus they begin to find the usefulness, and suffer the want of literature. The inconveniences and disadvantages of this situation rendered the older class, and especially those who had property, desirous of procuring a better education for their children. And under the operation of this conviction, they begun to admit schoolmasters, to make their idle and vagrant boys submit to restraint, and to receive regular instruction in reading and writing the English language.


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Great solicitude however, was expressed on this subject by the chiefs. Several of their young men had been educated from home, among and by the white people, and had returned into the nation, completely ruined for all the purposes of usefulness at home. They had acquired such a contempt for the Indian life and manners, that they violated the customs of their forefathers, and disobeyed the rulers. Losing public confidence in this manner, they were suffered to wander and prowl through the nation, without being taken notice of, or suffered to have a share in its government. There was no small analogy between these youths, and those of our own nation who go to Europe for instruction. They but too often acquire foreign manners and habits, conceive a dislike for their country, its inhabitants and institutions, and oftentimes mar their own happiness, and turn out useless to the public. So an Indian lad, educated among white people, has never in any instance been known to say one word in recommendation of the wheel, the loom or the plough, of useful arts, or domestic manufactures, or, in short, of any thing conducive to the general welfare. On the contrary, their discourse principally turns on the extravagance in which they lived, and the dissipations in which they shared; but they utter not a sentence on the condition of the greater part of their species, and of the human race who are doomed to live by labour [labor] . But education in their own country, of the kind which their state of society requires, and to the degree called for by their actual need, will gradually creep in and be followed by the most salutary changes in their situation.
In many of the villages, particularly of the Lower Creeks, the natives had already made considerable progress in the silver-smith's business. Ornaments of silver, such as spurs, broaches, rings, silver beads, ornaments for the ears and nose, armbands and wristbands were manufactured to a considerable extent.
Considerable steps had also been taken in the gun-smith's art, particularly in stocking the pieces, and doing some of the work about the locks.
These are some of the leading features of Mr. Hawkins' mode of treating these uncivilized tribes, and leading them on from rudeness toward refinement. Indeed, the business of civilizing Indians, however problematical it may once have seemed, was deemed to have been in a train of successful progress. There came in
1805 a deputation of eighteen Cherokees to the seat of the national government; they were all men of property, and lived, when at home, on enclosed and cultivated farms. They were clad after our manner, in homespun cloth of their own spinning, dyeing and weaving. And several of them speak our tongue. I have seen letters written by Cherokee girls of the half-breed, as well expressed, and in as good a hand as our young females write.
I might relate to you what other measures had been adopted to instill into the minds of these people more correct notions and practises of civil and criminal law, than the barbarous and bloody policy they formerly pursued. The agent had progressed so far as to take punishment out of the hands of the irritated individual, and inflict it upon the offender by the public arm. And he had instituted a court of law, where substantial justice was speedily obtained by a trial upon the naked merits of the case.
The influence of music was tried with remarkable benefit among the Cherokees. The young women had clothed themselves handsomely, after our manner, in cotton fabrics of their own manufacture. They then were qualified to dance to the times of the violin. Care was taken to teach the steps, figures and gestures of the white people. They soon became active and graceful dancers. This had a surprising effect upon the young men. For they were excluded from the company, unless they would dress themselves in a decent manner. The attire and the occasion obliged them to behave themselves properly. And thus were their manners softened and refined.
On surveying the efforts of theological missionaries ever since the settlement of our country, it is truly lamentable that they have done so little. Generally speaking, their labours [labors], even those of the early and zealous Jesuits, have been lost or misapplied. Many of our considerate and contemplative men have altogether despaired of either civilizing or christianizing the savages. It now appears what is the cause of so many and such lamentable failures. We discern wherefore, with such mighty efforts, so small an amount of good has been done.
Missionary individuals and societies have begun the work at the wrong end. They have attempted to instil the doctrines of a sublime religion, before they introduced arts and manufactures, and before they tamed man, and made him a settled and domestic animal. And while they proceeded in this way, they either


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totally failed, or made but trifling progress -- whereas, if they would employ the same amount of capital, and zeal, and talent in humanizing the wild hunters of the forest, their condition would instantly improve; their tribes be preserved from extinction; by degrees the useful arts of agriculture and manufacture would gain an establishment; and upon this foundation every kind of improvement might be erected.