CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

The Forgotten Brits Who Lived Among the Cherokee

A Delegation of the Creek tribe meets with the Trustees of Georgia by William Verelst. Public domain.

It took a single sentence in Ken Burns’ documentary series The American Revolution to change the way I thought about the American Revolution.

It was a passing reference to British agents living among the Cherokee.

The documentary quickly moved on, but I couldn’t. Who were they? Were they soldiers, diplomats, or traders? Did they wear uniforms? Did they speak Cherokee?

What I found showed me an often overlooked side of the Revolution. Away from the famous battlefields, it seems Britain’s war was also fought through secretive Indigenous alliances, intelligence networks, and frontier agents who looked more grizzled than polished.

These men carried influence into parts of a continent where red coats rarely ventured as readily as a drawstring purse of gold.

Throughout, these frontier agents waged a conflict that stretched all the way from the Great Lakes to the southern Appalachians and into Georgia. Nor were they the over-romanticised characters imagined later by James Fenimore Cooper, such as Natty Bumppo. They were more mysterious than that.

A traveller approaching a Cherokee town in 1776 might notice a stranger among the warriors. At first glance he hardly looks British at all. No bright red coat. No polished gorget. Instead, a hunting shirt, buckskin leggings, moccasins stained from weeks of travel, and a hat pulled low against the summer sun.

Yet this man represents the British Crown.

Before anyone talks war, gifts are laid out: blankets, powder, lead, vermilion, kettles. Each is accepted with formal thanks before the council begins. The exchange is more than generosity. It shows respect, friendship, and Britain’s willingness to honour a relationship that both sides know carries obligations.

But the gifts are only the beginning. The man carries letters from distant officials, promises of detailed support, and intelligence. Behind him stands a packhorse—one can almost hear it snort—laden with gunpowder, lead, muskets, blankets, and other trade goods for the next undeclared port of call.

Alexander Cameron was one such man, an intrepid Scot who emigrated to Georgia and spent years among the Cherokee. Cameron showed us more than anyone an aspect of the Revolution that........

© CounterPunch