Historical Overview
The Decades and the Villages - 1740 -1750
Historical Overview
In 1744 France and Britain began another war, King George's War, lasting until 1748. On the continent, the war had impacts in New France and the upper colonies for the most part. In Louisiana Bienville, smarting from the cost of his boggled 1739 Chickasaw campaign, decided on a cheaper policy of dealing with them. He reasoned that while his campaign had ended in a French/Chickasaw peace, the same could not be said of his Indian allies. In 1740 he enlisted his Indian allies to fight for him, particularly the Choctaw. Bienville even believed that Red Shoe was back in the French camp (MPA I 733). In 1741 Bienville wrote (MPA III 741) about a Choctaw raid, "last spring a party of seven to eight hundred men had gone the Chickasaw villages from which they had carried off about one hundred horses almost all belonging to the English traders . . . At the end of last September the Choctaws returned there in about the same number to cut the grain." In addition to rewarding the taking of Chickasaw scalps Bienville employed another strategy (MPA I 742) against the Chickasaw . . . "I do not see any better way to ruin the English race at the Chickasaws and consequently to bring this nation to subjection than to have their horses carried away from time to time, without which they cannot carry away the peltries and return to their country."
These strategies proved successful as several French correspondences (MPA III 747, 769 and 781) of 1741 and 1742 reported migrations of Chickasaw families eastward. Some of these Chickasaw joined the Upper Creeks (JCHA 1741/42 313) and formed a village among them that Adair called Ooe-asa (Adair 1775 54) and other traders called Breeds Camp (SCIA 1750-1754 36). Breeds Camp was frequently noted in the 1750s letters and journals of the Carolina traders as a strategic place where traders from South Carolina waited for armed escorts into the Chickasaw Nation.
A large group of Natchez (MPA III 752) men, women and children left the Chickasaw in 1741 and apparently sought Cherokee protection. English traders also reported Natchez living with the Chickasaw at Breeds Camp.
Bienville, encouraged by groups of Chickasaw leaving their villages, reported (MPA III 781) in a letter that reached Louis XV dated February 11, 1743 that there was every probability that the Chickasaws would "not hold out for six months longer". Perhaps hopeful, perhaps prophetic, Bienville did not last the six months. Bienville, who had waded ashore on the Mississippi coast in 1699 and had founded New Orleans in 1718, left Louisiana. The reigns of governor were handed over to Pierre de Vaudreuil who assumed them in May 1743 (MPA IV 210). The French change in administration took some time for adjustment of Indian affairs, that change allowed a peace of sorts.
Some of the Chickasaw chiefs (probably Tchichatala) immediately pursued peace with Vaudreuil (MPA IV 211); however he informed the Chickasaw that peace would not be granted until the English were driven from their country (MPA IV 219). The English traders among the Chickasaw used this administrative lapse to build alliances and extend trade into Choctaw villages. When Vaudreuil tired of the Chickasaw promises to rid themselves of English, the Choctaw war with the Chickasaw rekindled in 1745 (MPA IV 231, 244).
But the English traders (Adair 1775 239, 305, 315) had developed significant relations with parts of the Choctaw, particularly Red Shoe, who killed three French soldiers and started a civil war within the Choctaw on August 14, 1746 (MPA IV 312). The French divided the Choctaw into factions- the west villages who supported Red Shoe and the English and the east villages who held fast to French fidelity (MPA IV 334) . After the treachery was punished and Red Shoe killed, the Choctaw civil war ended in 1750 (MPA V 58). During the civil war the Chickasaw saw a lessening of hostilities from the Choctaw. However, in a letter dated January 12, 1751 Vaudreuil (MPA V 60) announced peace with the Choctaws and promised a renewed Chickasaw attack "so long as they exist".
The civil war caused Indian displacement and refugee Choctaw and Chakchiuma made their way into the Chickasaw Nation. The Chakchiuma who had lived with the Red Shoe Choctaw faction were displaced by the civil war (MPA IV 335) and "took refuge at the Chickasaws" in 1748. This was later confirmed by the English traders (SCIAD 1754-1765 415). Vaudreuil reported Choctaw refugees among the Chickasaw on several occasions (MPA V 109, 112).
Village Locations
We left the last decade with Bienville's late 1739 account of all the Chickasaw villages all located in the large prairie at Old Town. This situation remained largely unchanged during the decade except that sometime during the 1740s all of the barrier villages south of Kings Creek, due to Choctaw pressure and their unprotected south, moved north across the creek. These movements would take advantage of the defense that the creek and its swamp afforded as well as the other villages that occupied Old Town. See Figure 4. These villages would have squeezed into Old Town in the area shown on Figure 10.
Where the confederate Choctaw and Chakchiuma settled among the Chickasaw in Old Town is not known. Perhaps the Chakchiuma and Choctaw were given the east side to replace some of the Natchez (MPA III 752) who had left.
The exodus Chickasaw near Fort Moore remained in that area, and there are many accounts of them in the South Carolina and Georgia archives.
It is interesting to reflect on the extent of the movement and compaction of the Chickasaw villages from 1720, Figure 1, to 1740, Figure 10. While conditions at Old Town were terrible and resources stressed, the worst lay ahead.