George Galphin's intimate empire : the Creek Indians, family, and colonialism in early America

293 Pages·2019·3.755 MB·English

by  Bryan C. Rindfleisch

George
Galphin’s
Intimate
Empire
INDIANS AND SOUTH ERN HISTORY
Series Editors
Andrew K. Frank
Angela Pulley Hudson
Kristofer Ray
Editorial Advisory Board
Kathryn H. Braund
Melanie Benson- Taylor
Robbie Ethridge
Julie Reed
Rose Stremlau
Daniel Usner
Gregory A. Waselkov
George
Galphin’s
Intimate
Empire
The Creek Indians,
Family, and Colonialism
in Early America
Bryan C. Rindfleisch
The University of Ala bama Press
Tuscaloosa
The University of Ala bama Press
Tuscaloosa, Ala bama 35487- 0380
uapress.ua.edu
Copyright © 2019 by the University of Ala bama Press
All rights reserved.
Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should be
addressed to the University of Ala bama Press.
Typeface: Minion
Cover image: Map of the boundary line between South Carolina and
Georgia; courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
University of Georgia Libraries
Cover design: David Nees
Names: Rindfleisch, Bryan C., author.
Title: George Galphin's intimate empire : the Creek Indians, family, and
colonialism in early America / Bryan C. Rindfleisch.
Description: Tuscaloosa, Alabama : The University of Alabama Press,
[2019] | Series: Indians and southern history | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018059618| ISBN 9780817320270 (cloth) |
ISBN 9780817392413 (e book)
Subjects: LCSH: Galphin, George, –1780—Family. | Galphin, George,
–1780. | Families—South Carolina—History—18th century. | Whites—
Relations with Indians—History—18th century. | Creek Indians—
History—18th century. | Slavery—South Carolina—History—18th
century. | Interpersonal relations—South Carolina—History—18th
century. | South Carolina—Commerce—History—18th century. | Silver
Bluff (S.C.)—History—18th century. | Imperialism.
Classification: LCC HQ555.S6 R56 2019 | DDC 306.8509757090/33—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018059618
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Series Editors’ Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xv
Introduction 1
Part I. George Galphin’s Intimate Empire, Silver Bluff c. 1764
1. “In Whom He Placed the Greatest Confidence”: The Familial World of
Silver Bluff 21
2. “The Intimate Connection . . . between His Interest and Mine in the Indian
Trade”: Networks of Intimacy, Trade, and Empire at Silver Bluff 43
3. “His People,” “His Slaves,” and “His Children”: Patriarchy and
Interdependency at Silver Bluff 69
Part II. Foundations of George Galphin’s Intimate Empire, 1707–1763
4. “We Have Suffered Many Hardships to Acquire a Small Competency”:
Family, Patriarchy, and Empire in Ulster, 1700–1737 93
5. “He Was Looked Upon as an Indian”: Family, Matriarchy, and Empire in
Coweta, 1741–1763 105
6. A “Principal,” “Considerable,” and “Sensible” Trader: Networks of Intimacy,
Trade, and Empire in the Transoceanic World, 1741–1763 126
Part III: Violence in George Galphin’s Intimate Empire, 1764–1780
7. “I Thought To Be Easey the Remainder of my Life . . . but I Have Had More
Tro[u]ble than Ever”: Empire and Violence in the South, 1764–1776 149
8. “I Am Sorry an Independence Is Declared”: Empire and Violence in the
Ameri can Revolution, 1776–1780 170
Conclusion 189
Notes 193
Bibliography 243
Index 265
Illustrations
1. The Galphin–Metawney Family (Creek Indian) matrilineal
kinship tree xviii
2. Map of the boundary line between South Carolina and Georgia 22
3. Map of Silver Bluff and the Savannah River 23
4. Map of the Silver Bluff area along the Savannah River 25
5. Map of Silver Bluff and the Creek Path that connected Creek country
to Augusta 26
6. Map of the Creek Path from Creek country to the colonies 26
7. Map of Galphin family in Ulster (Counties Armagh, Down, Antrim,
and Fermanagh) 99
8. Map of the Creek Path between British North America and
Creek country 114
9. Cover design for William Bonar’s 1757 A Draught of the
Creek Nation 115
10. Map of the Ogeechee region, with Queensborough and Galphin’s
Old Town plantation 155

Series Editors’ Preface
Through a global network of family and business relationships, George
Galphin situated himself as a major economic and po liti cal intermediary in
the eighteenth-c entury South. His personal and professional connections ex-
tended from his Silver Bluff home in present-d ay South Carolina to towns
in the interior of Creek country and beyond. His sphere of influence fur-
ther extended to important communities outside the Native South, in clud-
ing Ulster, Charleston, Philadelphia, and Havana. The Native South, in other
words, was intricately interconnected with the Atlantic world, a crucial but
his tori cally overlooked reality that Bryan Rindfleisch’s important new work
illuminates. His analys is lays bare the world of a patriarch whose power
rested largely on his relationship to Creek, European, and Af ri can women;
of a diplomat whose negotiations served his intimate empire as much as any
geopo liti cal one; and of a businessman whose transoceanic ties sometimes
bound him as much as they enriched him. Through it all Rindfleisch makes
clear that indigenous peoples are not static polities or marginal players in a
European hustler’s story, as historians of the South too of en portray them.
George Galphin’s intimate empire depended on personal and professional
decisions that were themselves profoundly shaped by both global forces and
local interests, with the needs and desires of his Creek family never far from
his mind. Over time, Galphin manipulated his intimate connections to be-
come the centerpiece of the Anglo–Creek world, a position that empowered
him to act as both a subject and an agent of empire.
In short, Bryan Rindfleisch’s volume is perfectly suited to launch the In dians
and South ern History series. We are delighted to include it and look forward
to seeing how it and the series help rewrite the history of the region.
Andrew K. Frank
Angela Pulley Hudson
Kristofer Ray