The Other 1776
THE OTHER 1776.
In retaliation for Cherokee attacks on pioneer settlements in the Carolinas and their alignment with the British, a multi-prong Colonial attack was launched against the Cherokee Nation in 1776. By its end, over fifty Cherokee towns had been burned to the ground and the nation was in large part broken.
In the last phase of the military assault, the crops of the Cherokee were burned to assure the starvation of surviving men, women and children. A young Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox) later referred to the event as “the most un-Christian act he had ever witnessed” (and participated in).
On one side, my maternal, Scots Irish ancestor, John McClure, part of the military prelude referred to as the Snow Campaign.
On the other side, my paternal ancestor, Elizabeth Jackson (1750-1820), purported to be Cherokee.
As the historian/genealogist Lewis Gates says, “It’s complicated”.
