The Divided Paths: Cherokees and South Carolinians through the Era of Revolution

By Tom Hatley

320 pages, hardcover, $45.00

Reviewed by Chuck Hamsa

      The distance between Charleston, in the heart of the so-called Low Country of South Carolina, and the Up Country, marked by the fall line, might as well be a million miles.  In colonial history these two areas often did not see things the same way.  Indeed the period before the Revolutionary War was an unsettling time for all areas concerned.

    Focusing upon a detailed analysis of the Cherokee Indians in Up Country areas and the Colonial South Carolina settlers, Hatley succeeds in acquainting his readers with basic differences between these two factions.  Addressing cultural differences, he relates that most contemporary accounts of the Cherokees were written by males who, in accordance with Colonial-European mores of the time, usually fail to give proper acknowledgment to the status of women among the Cherokee. Cherokee society was matriarchal, based on kinship through the mother.  Child rearing and instruction became the responsibility for the mother and her kin.  While some early writers attached an anti-moral attitude toward those times where females within the tribal structure would change partners, they failed to comprehend the matriarchal structure underlying this freedom.  Within the tribal sphere, both male and female elders generally decreed what conduct was acceptable.

    Generally the male was the hunter, with the woman assigned to both child rearing and other domestic duties, which would include agricultural pursuits.  The trade in deerskins and other peltry became the man's domain.  If early trade with the Low Country did not include much food stuffs, it was simply a matter of the Cherokee women deciding to refrain from such activity at that time.

    While the Cherokee woman did indeed occupy a responsible position within the tribal structure, her fortunes at the hands of various writers suffered.  By the time of the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, many writers began to concentrate upon the barbaric characteristics of the Indian woman, while the British press and public placed her male counterpart on an exalted level.  It was a strange turn of events.

    The Cherokee Indians occupied a geographical place that was of strategic importance to Colonial America and British forces in attempting to keep down both French and Spanish interests. Early South Carolina authorities were intent upon getting Cherokee Indian support, particularly during the French and Indian War.  But at the same time, waves of immigration into the Up Country from both the Low Country of South Carolina as well as Virginia and Pennsylvania strained Indian and white relations.  At the same time, a series of smallpox epidemics devastated the Indian population.  Under Governor Glen efforts were made to get Cherokee Indian support, however, the arrival of Governor Lyttelton in 1756 marked a change in attitude.  During this period south Carolina authorities and militia attempted to force the Cherokee Indians to give them complete support against the French.  This attempt at coercion ushered in the three-stage invasion of the Up Country known as the Cherokee Indian War (1759-1761).

    The overall result of the Cherokee Indian War was the utter destruction of the resources of Up Country areas.  Indian attacks upon areas of established white settlement, such as Long Cane, brought concern for frontier stability to a fever pitch.  At the same time, the lessons learned during the conflict from failures of the South Carolina militia as well as British Regulars, fresh from the Plains of Abraham, under Thomas Middleton provided invaluable lessons for the coming Revolutionary War. 

    As a prelude to the Revolutionary conflict, the period under discussion and attempts to bring stability to the Up Country areas were proving ground for such leaders as Thomas Sumter, Francis Marion and Andrew Pickens.  While Charleston was controlled by British forces some ten years later during that conflict, the Up Country would be the scene for such decisive battles as King's Mountain, marking a  turning point in the Revolutionary War in the South,  and Cowpens, a smashing patriot victory.  Within this conflict the Cherokee Indians generally would remain on the side of the British and Tories.  But their complete removal down the historical road only gave physical reality to the already existing cultural alienation between the Cherokees and whites.

    This alienation did not take place overnight, and Hatley has succeeded in providing a detailed historical backdrop illuminating the reasons for this schism.  Oxford University Press, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, NY  10016.  

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