Cotton Gin Treaty

The Convention with the Cherokee, also known as the Treaty of Washington, or Treaty of Tellico, and informally, the Cotton Gin Treaty, was a deal between Cherokee (Tsalagi, ᏣᎳᎩ) tribal leadership and the United States government, documented in five agreements over four months. The first negotiations took place at Tellico (Knoxville, Tennessee) and were signed October 25,[1] and October 27, 1805.[2] The first agreement ceded land in exchange for payment in cash and farm tools, and permitted free access of certain roads, and is thus sometimes called the Treaty for Cession of Land and Road Privileges.[1][3] This agreement also "authorized a Mail Road" through Cherokee land that connected Knoxville to the Natchez Trace.[2] The second part was concluded January 7, 1806 in the national capital, Washington, D.C.[4] Key signatories on the Cherokee side were Doublehead and James Vann; key negotiators on the American side were Indian agent Return J. Meigs and Tennessee surveyor and U.S. senator Daniel Smith.[4]

The land ceded included locations in Kentucky, and Middle Tennessee north of the Tennessee River, Southwest Point, First Island in the Tennessee River "above the Mouth of Clinch", a tract in Tennessee between the Tennessee and Duck Rivers, and Long Island of Holston River, also known as the Beloved Treaty Ground.[5]

The treaty was a morass of bribery and long-con chicanery under the aegis of the state, which was not uncommon; in the words of one county historian regarding this treaty and similar, "It placed the United States in an attitude of reserving what was the property of others. Numerous peculiar and inconsistent things were done, however, while the settlement of East Tennessee was in progress."[6]

History

Doublehead was a brutal war chief during the Cherokee–American wars of the 1780s and 1790s who had settled into maturity as the principal chief in the vicinity of the Muscle Shoals along the Tennessee River in what is now the northern reaches of the U.S. state of Alabama.[7] He had become a businessman, developing a 100 mi (160 km) wagon road from Tennessee.[7] Aided by a Cherokee language-English language-bilingual Scottish-American trader named James Chisholm, he requested a boat from the U.S. government to carry the Cherokee nation's agricultural products in New Orleans.[7] Doublehead's town was on the south side of the Shoals but his house was on the north side.[8] As of 1804, Doublehead's village had 121 Cherokee residents and about 15 Whites.[7]

The Cherokees agreed to negotiate in part because they hoped to forestall more White settlements in Georgia, and because Indian agents Meigs and Smith were insistent.[9] Longtime U.S. Indian agent Return J. Meigs and surveyor, U.S. senator and Andrew Jackson in-law Daniel Smith "employed the standard technique of bribery as a method of working out two new treaties with the Cherokees. Doublehead and Tahlonteeskee [Common Disturber] were promised choice tracts of land [in exchange] for help in persuading the other chiefs to approve land cessions. Still other secret awards were issued when a delegation comprising Doublehead, [James Vann], Tahlonteeskee, and 14 others was escorted to Washington, D.C., in late December for consummation of still another treaty and a visit with President Jefferson."[9]

Vann got the federal road from Augusta to Nashville routed past his trading post.[10] The Washington treaty included language that granted preferred tracts of land at Muscle Shoals to five people.[9] The first reserve was "bounded southerly on the said Tennessee river, at a place called the Muscle Shoals, westerly by a creek called Te Kee, ta, no-eh or Cyprus creek [Cypress Creek] and easterly by Chu, wa, lee, or Elk river or creek, and northerly by a line to be drawn from a point on said Elk river ten miles on a direct line from its mouth or junction with Tennessee river, to a point on the said Cyprus creek, ten miles on a direct line from its junction with the Tennessee river."[4] This land was to be shared in common by "John D. Chesholm, Au, tow, we, and Cheh Chuhz," also known as Sequechu (Big Half Breed), who was Doublehead's brother.[9] This was called Doublehead's land.[11] Doublehead's reserve included "much of present-day Lauderdale County".[12]

The other tract was described as "two miles in width on the north side of Tennessee river, and to extend northerly from that river three miles, and bounded as follows, viz. beginning at the mouth of Spring Creek, and running up said creek three miles on a straight line, thence westerly two miles at right angles with the general course of said creek, thence southerly on a line parallel with the general course of said creek to the Tennessee river, thence up said river by its waters to the beginning."[4] This land was "on which Moses Melton now lives" to be titled equally to both Melton and Charles Hicks.[4] John Melton and his wife, a sister of Doublehead, had been living at the confluence of the Elk River and the Tennessee since 1780, eventually giving their name to a place called Melton's Bluff.[13] The government also agreed to fund construction of a cotton gin at the Muscle Shoals.[13] Off the books, key Cherokee representatives were also paid $1,000 and two rifles.[9] Chisholm and Doublehead later granted a White man 10-year lease at Muscle Shoals "for the purpose of building a dam, gristmill, and sawmill".[9]

The terms of this treaty, and the side deals, were among the motives for the murder of Doublehead at the stickball games and Green Corn Dance event at Hiwassee in August 1807.[14]

Article 10 of the Jackson-McMinn Treaty of 1817 extinguished Cherokee title to Doublehead's and Melton's reserves.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Treaty with the Cherokee, 1805". treaties.okstate.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-11.
  2. ^ a b Brannon (1950), p. 244.
  3. ^ Berutti (1992), p. 296.
  4. ^ a b c d e "7 Stat. 101 – A Convention between the United States and the Cherokee nation of Indians" (PDF). legislink.
  5. ^ Brown (1938), pp. 551–552.
  6. ^ Campbell, T. J. (1940). Records of Rhea; a condensed county history. Dayton, Tenn.: Rhea publishing company. p. 42.
  7. ^ a b c d Hoig (1999), p. 91.
  8. ^ "Observations While Passing Through the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Nations (April 1803)". The Evening Post. New York City. September 1, 1803. p. 2. Retrieved 2026-02-11.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Hoig (1999), p. 92.
  10. ^ Hoig (1999), p. 93–94.
  11. ^ Alabamatourism (October 29, 2009). Forks of Cypress Plantation Tour in Florence Alabama. Retrieved 2025-06-06 – via YouTube.
  12. ^ Rice (1975a), p. 3.
  13. ^ a b Shelton, William (November 12, 2025). "Davy Crockett, President Jackson, and Cherokee Nation passed through Melton's Bluff in Lawrence County". The Moulton Advertiser. Moulton, Alabama. Retrieved 2026-02-11.
  14. ^ Hoig (1999), p. 95.
  15. ^ "Treaty with the Cherokee, 1817". treaties.okstate.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-15.

Sources

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