Type of Document	Thesis
Author	Miller, James Hendry
URN	etd-06222011-124608
Title	Fowltown and the First Seminole War: "Civilization," Centralization, and Politics in the Early American Republic
Degree	Master of Arts
Department	History, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Andrew Frank Committee Chair Edward Gray Committee Member Ronald Doel Committee Member
Keywords	Civilization Creek Indians Seminole Indians First Seminole War
Date of Defense	2011-04-29
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract This thesis investigates changes in Creek and Seminole society wrought about by centuries of European contact, participation— or lack thereof— in the Euro-American marketplace by Creek Indians, and the attempts of the United States government to deal with and control the Creeks. The destruction of Fowltown in 1817 provides a perspective into the struggles occurring inside and outside of Muskogee culture. The contest for autonomy remained at the center of the conflict for Fowltown and other villages. The nascent centralized Creek government and the American federal government attempted to assert control over individual villages, which previously acted as autonomous entities and only in confederation with other Creeks. In the turmoil of the first two decades of the nineteenth century, villages reacted to these attacks against their autonomy in different ways. Fowltown’s course of action favored maintaining village control of local affairs. Outside pressures forced Fowltown to resort to violence in order to protect its sovereignty. After Fowltown’s destruction and the skirmishes and limited action of the First Seminole War, American officials, politicians, and military officers waged their own political battles over the war and the place of Native Americans in antebellum America. These debates were part of ongoing discussions about the federal policy of civilizing the Indians in order to bring them into the fold of white-American life. The two American officials closest to Fowltown’s destruction, General Edmund P. Gaines and Creek Indian Agent David B. Mitchell, played prominent roles in the debates. Their occupations and politics pitted them against one another and their words showed the differing opinions on Fowltown’s meaning between American officials and between whites and Native Americans.
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