Morse makes it clear that this is a summary of Indian torture of a hypothetical victim, not an actual victim. Most of the types of torture he described unfortunately actually occurred.
The ship Manchester from Philadelphia was captured by the Nootka Indians of Canada around 1803. The chief told captive John Rodgers Jewitt that 7 of the crew had tried to run away but were captured and put to death. Four Indians held each man on the ground, forced his mouth open, and choked him by ramming stones down his throat.129 Jewitt, an English armorer, was one of only 2 survivors of the brig Boston, which was captured as well. After the capture, he was confronted with a line of 25 heads. The chief asked Jewitt whose each was, but Jewitt had to tell him some were mangled beyond recognition.130
Medicine man Tenskwatawa, younger brother of Tecumseh, made some rousing speeches to the Delaware Indians in 1806. He said that those who spoke or acted against him were probably possessed by evil spirits, were witches, and must be reeducated or eliminated. The Delaware invited him to come to their communities on White River in Indiana in 1806 to help them purify the people. He went there and punished 5 witches. An old woman named Coitos was roasted over a slow fire for 4 or 5 days, then confessed she could secretly fly long distances in the air. She was killed. Then Joshua, a Christian Mohican, was found to have a giant man-eating bird. He was clubbed and burned. Two Christian Delaware subchiefs, Teteboxti and Billy Patterson, were found to have trafficked with evil powers, so they too were clubbed and burned. Billy Patterson’s wife was also accused and convicted. As she was being tied to the fire stake, her young brother freed her and led her out of the building. Then he came back and declaimed, “The devil has come among us, and we are killing each other.”131 The witch hunt was suspended.
In 1807 Mary Jordan, her husband, and their 6 children were at home when 40 or 50 Indians broke in and dragged them naked from the house. Twenty Indians were ordered to take them to the Indian village 200 miles away. The rest stayed behind to pillage and fire the house. The family was marched 40 miles through wilderness the first night. Anyone who slackened the pace was beaten and threatened with death. They made another 40 miles the second day. They then were joined by the pillaging party, which had found and consumed part of the husband’s keg of spirits. The children were beaten, cut with knives, and scorched with brands of fire.
The Indians decided the children could not walk farther. They dug holes in the earth and placed dried branches around them. The husband broke the ropes with which he was bound and attempted to escape, but was brought back. He was placed in a hole as were the 6 children. All 7 were buried in earth nearly to their necks. The branches were then set on fire. All were burned to death in less than 15 minutes.132
THERE ARE a number of recorded atrocities during this period whose dates cannot be determined, but most of them probably happened between 1770 and 1810, and the last (Blackwell) a few years before 1865.
Mrs. Boggs, with a suckling child, was captured by the Indians. The child was not permitted to nurse. It was thrown in the road from time to time. Sometimes the Indians kicked it before them. After treating the baby in this fashion for 3 days, it was carried in the woods, where it was murdered and scalped.133
George Woods was forced to witness an Indian torture. The Indians cut holes in a man’s cheeks, passed a small cord through the holes, then tied the cord to a small sapling. Two Indians with heated gun barrels seared his naked body. His scalp was torn from his head, then hot ashes and coals were applied to his skull. His abdomen was opened, one end of his bowels cut and tied to a tree, then red-hot irons again were applied to his body to make him move around the tree until his bowels were all drawn out. His genital organs were cut off. A hot gun barrel was thrust into his heart, finally killing him. Woods also recounted that sometimes the Indians opened the wrists and ankles and then, with a forked stick, twisted out the sinews.134
Bookseller and whiskey dealer James Potts was a sutler in the rear of a 2-division army during the Revolution. The 2 divisions were a few miles apart. Potts decided to move to the forward division in order to improve his sales. He was captured by Indians while on the way. The Indians killed and scalped him, hung him upside down by a sapling, and cut him open so that his intestines hung down over his head. The rear division found him in that condition as it marched by.135
Another victim in a torture was stripped naked and tied to a pole with a grapevine. Before being tied to the stake, he was beaten by women and children with dry canes or pitch pines in a most barbarous manner. When the death signal was given, the victim’s arms were tied and a vine was fastened around his neck, with the other end at the top of the pole. Clay was put on his head to secure his scalp from the torches. Women came at him from all sides with burning torches. Fire burned his body. He was then doused with water so the burning could start again. When he fell unconscious, he was scalped, dismembered, and all the extremities of his body, including his genital organs, were carried off in triumph.136
The Shawano tribe captured a Muskohge (a group of tribes later known as the Creeks) warrior called Old Scrany and prepared for the usual fiery torture. Scrany showed no concern. He told them he was a noted warrior who had gained most of his martial prestige at their expense and was going to show them while dying that he was still their superior as he was in battle. He added he could punish himself more exquisitely than “all their despicable ignorant crowd” could possibly do. He finally said if they would untie him and hand him a red-hot barrel, he would show them. When given the barrel, he seized it, brandished it from side to side, made his way through the crowd, leaped from a very high bank into a stream, and made his escape. “He proved a sharp thorn in their side afterwards to the day of his death.”137
The Shawano also captured the warrior Anantooeah. He appeared to be as unconcerned as Old Scrany. And like Scrany he stated that they did not know how to punish a noted enemy, but he was willing to teach them if they would give him a pipe and tobacco. He then lit the pipe and sat down naked with no apparent concern on the women’s burning torches. A Shawano head warrior stood up, said it was plain Anantooeah was not afraid of dying, and he would not have died except that he was now spoiled by the fire. “And then by way of favour,” commented Loudon, “he with his friendly tomahawk, instantly put an end to all his pains.”138
The Seneca were at war with the Catawbas. Seven Seneca warriors surprised a Catawba warrior who was hunting. He ran to a hollow rock he knew 4 or 5 miles away. While he was running, however, he managed to kill the 7 with his rifle. But he was captured by others and taken to the Seneca village for the fire torture. The women and children beat him severely at each town through which he passed. As he was being taken to the stake, he broke away, dived into a nearby river, and swam underwater until he reached the other shore. He climbed the steep bank on the other side. Many Seneca were in the water after him, many on land in pursuit of him, bullets were flying all around him, yet, Loudon reported, “his heart did not allow him to leave them abruptly, without taking leave in a formal manner…. He first turned his backside toward them, and slapped it with his hand … and darted off.” He ran for 2 days, pursued by several Seneca. He then discovered 5 of the pursuing Seneca and waited until they were asleep. He took one of their tomahawks and killed them all. “He chopped them to pieces, in as horrid a manner as savage fury could excite, both through national and personal resentment, —he stripped off their scalps … [and] set off afresh with a light heart.” He went to the place where he had killed the first 7 Seneca, “digged them up, scalped them, burned their bodies to ashes, and went home in safety with singular triumph.” The Seneca met in war council and decided to leave him alone.139
The Chickasaw had also been at war with the Muskohge. A Chickasaw warrior went into Muskohge territory alone to revenge the death of a relative. He concealed himself for almost 3 days under the top of a fallen pine tree. He could see the ford of a river where the Muskohge sometimes passed. A Muskohge young man, woman, and girl came by. The w
arrior shot the young man, tomahawked the other 2, then scalped all 3 in full view of a Muskohge town. He was pursued and ran back to his tribe, a distance of 300 miles, in less than 3 days.140
Elizabeth Blackwell was found by Indians with badly frozen legs in the mountains. They nursed her, and after her legs were amputated in the east, she returned to the tribe. Another woman who had been captured from a train was brought on horseback into the Indian camp. When an Indian attempted to lift her from the horse, she shot him. The Indians cut her body in gashes, filled them with powder, then set fire to her. Blackwell was so distressed by the woman’s suffering that she asked them to kill the woman immediately, and they did.141
NOT LONG after the Revolution, Britain and France were at war again, this time in the War of 1812. In the years leading up to the Americans’ involvement in the war, they furnished the French with a vast quantity of military supplies; as a consequence, Britain started seizing ships headed for France. Congress prohibited the importation of many goods from Britain. The Embargo Act of 1807 ended all trade with foreign countries. Merchants persuaded Jefferson to end the act as it applied to all countries except Britain and France.142 Napoleon persuaded Madison to remove the embargo on France but retain it against Britain. There were skirmishes on the high seas between American and British ships. At the same time, expansion by settlers into the Northwest Territory, according to Douglas Brinkley, “sparked ominous Indian uprisings.” Hawks demanded preparation for a new war, and on June 1, 1812, Madison asked Congress to declare war on Britain.143
The Creek Red Sticks prepared for war against the settlers in 1813, said James Wilson, by chanting, “War now. War forever. War upon the living. War upon the dead; dig up their corpses from the grave; our country must give no rest to a white man’s bones.”144
The British burned Washington in 1814, but later that year the American navy won a decisive victory over the British on Lake Champlain; this defeat so upset the British that they retreated to Canada. A peace treaty was entered into later the same year at Ghent in Belgium.145
The War of 1812 was uncommonly important because after the peace treaty was signed, General Andrew Jackson*—unaware of the treaty—fought and won the Battle of New Orleans. A makeup army composed of Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen, free blacks, and various other irregulars kept firing on advancing British troops. The British suffered 2,037 casualties, while Jackson had only 21. Jackson became a national hero and later became president. He had a great influence on American Indian policy. The war also proved that the Revolution had been no fluke—once again, Americans had managed to defeat Europe’s best army.147
During the first year of the war, Fort Dearborn (now Chicago) surrendered. When the troops and civilians left the fort, the Potawatomi Indians struck. A total of 35 whites were killed, many by torture.148
That same year, British colonel Henry Proctor had besieged Fort Meigs on the Maumee River with Tecumseh and his men. The fort was relieved by men from nearby Fort Defiance, so Proctor pulled back into Canada, although Tecumseh wanted to stay and fight. On the way to Canada, Tecumseh’s men scalped 20 prisoners Proctor had taken.149 (Wilson claimed that Tecumseh also scrupulously avoided unnecessary killing.150 How it can be said that the 1788 revenge atrocity on Drake Creek and this atrocity were necessary is difficult to explain.)
Many lives were lost when hundreds of settlers took shelter in Fort Mims because of earlier Indian depredations. The fort was really the fortified home of Samuel Mims, a Creek half-breed. In 1813, about 1,000 Red Stick Creeks under Red Eagle attacked the fort. The commander, Major Daniel Beasley, had ignored warnings given by black slaves that there were Indians nearby and had left the gates open. The fort was taken. About 400 settlers were massacred; only 36 escaped.151
Soldiers themselves were not above such behavior. A scout for Andrew Jackson in 1813 in the Creek War, the famous Davy Crockett, bragged in his autobiography that in one skirmish against the Indians, “we shot them like dogs; and then set the house on fire, and burned it up with the 46 warriors in it.”152
In 1813, William Wells, the chief federal Indian agent in Fort Wayne, Indiana, intercepted a British message about a troop movement. He thought he could help, so he collected 30 Miami warriors and started out. His force was attacked by Potawatomi. His 30 Miami fled except for those who joined the Potawatomi. Wells killed at least 2 Indians, then was cut apart. The Potawatomi took out his heart and ate pieces of it while it was still warm. His head was cut off, put on a spear, and shown to American prisoners.153
Early on in the war, in 1813, British and Indians occupied the village of Frenchtown (now Monroe, Michigan) on the Raisin River. Kentucky militiaman Private Elias Darnell described the battle there. He kept a journal that was published shortly after his captivity was ended.154 The militia formed the line of battle and advanced on the town, which they soon took. Twelve Indians were slain and scalped. The next day, a militia party went out to bring in the soldier dead. All but one had been scalped and stripped. The British were reinforced. American commanding general Winchester was captured and surrendered the entire American army. The new American commander, Major Madison, would not agree to capitulate until British colonel Proctor promised that prisoners would be protected from Indians and the wounded taken care of. An Indian who spoke English said his company had gone after retreating militiamen, who surrendered, gave up their guns, and pleaded for quarter, but most of them were killed because the Indians tomahawked them without distinction.155
Darnell was helping take care of the American wounded, who included his brother Allen, when Indians rushed in, took the blankets and best clothes, and ordered them out. The Indians then burned the houses where the wounded had been, even though it was January. Those who were unable to get out were burned to death. Those who did get out were shot, tomahawked, scalped, and mangled by the Indians. A number of prisoners were marched toward the town of Maiden but were unable to keep up and were massacred by the Indians. The next day, the road was strewn for miles with bodies. Darnell marched with the Indians. Two wounded fell behind. The Indians shot and scalped one. The other ran up to them and begged that he not be shot, but he was shot and scalped. Darnell’s brother Allen was also killed for lagging behind.156
The Indian who had charge of Darnell decided to befriend him. He gave him food, a knapsack, and a gun and offered him a female Indian and shelter. The third night, while the Indian was asleep, Darnell escaped and went to Fort Maiden, which was east of the Detroit River. He found the house where American prisoners were held by the British and entered it, feeling that “Providence had smiled on my attempt to extricate myself from the Indians.”157 There had been 960 Kentucky militia at the Raisin River. No less than 850 of them were massacred. Only 33 escaped alive. This “served to arouse American anger and resolve.” Bil Gilbert concluded that
when news of it [the Raisin River Massacre] reached the United States, the slaughter of the unarmed prisoners understandably increased the Americans’ fear of the Indians. However, in a cold, objective way, the atrocity had an invigorating effect on the national war effort. Thereafter the western settlers did not have to refer to old massacres which had occurred in the 1780s and 90s. They had one of their own which needed to be revenged and which morally justified more or less anything they might be able to do to the savages. “Remember the River Raisin” stirred Americans in 1813, as slogans having to do with the Alamo, the battleship Maine, and Pearl Harbor would their descendants.158
The Battle of Fort Meigs in 1813 in central Ohio followed the pattern of the Raisin River Massacre. Indians under Tecumseh captured several prisoners. Just as had happened at Raisin River 4 months earlier, the Indians began massacring the prisoners. Tecumseh learned of this, galloped to the stockade, and physically drove the Indians from the prisoners. Forty had been killed before he got there. Because of this incident, the settlers started thinking of Tecumseh as the Noblest Savage.159
Tecumseh was never seen alive after the 1813 Battle of the T
hames. There was speculation that a corpse that was found was his, but 6 people who had known him could not make a positive identification at the time. Many rumors and stories arose later. One was that troopers took pieces of his skin for souvenirs, but it is not known if this is true.160
ATROCITIES CONTINUED after the war ended. A band of the Pawnee tribe* had a ritual. A war party would go into enemy country, where it would kill and scalp, but the purpose of the raid was to bring back an adolescent girl unharmed. She was treated like a queen, with her every
wish fulfilled for a time. Then a scaffold was erected, she climbed upon it with hands and feet bound, a priest would rush upon her, cut out her heart, and offer it to the gods. (Another version says 3 priests would murder her using a torch, an arrow, and a knife, then every male would shoot arrows into her body, which was left where she was killed to fertilize the earth.)162 One year, when a young Comanche girl was to be sacrificed, a future chief named Petalesharo grabbed her before she was led to the scaffold and rode away with her. After he got her back to her people, he returned to his tribe. It was decided to discontinue the ritual after that.163
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