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Apalachicolas massacred 18 English traders
Source: Early History of the Creek Indians and Their Neighbors #121
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"The old [Apalachicola] town was evacuated about twenty years ago by the general consent of the inhabitants, on account of its unhealthy situation, owing to the frequent inundations of the great river over the low grounds; and moreover they grew timorous and dejected, apprehending themselves to be haunted and possessed with vengeful spirits, on account of human blood that had been undeservedly spilt in this old town, having been repeatedly warned by apparitions and dreams to leave it." (Bartram quoted in Swanton) [Bartram] explains the reference to "human blood undeservedly spilt in this old town" in a footnote, which runs as follows: "About fifty or sixty years ago almost all the white traders then in the nation were massacred in this town, whither they had repaired from the different towns, in hopes of an asylum or refuge, in consequence of the alarm, having been timely apprised of the hostile intentions of the Indians by their temporary wives. They all met together in one house, under the avowed protection of the chiefs of the town, waiting the event; but whilst the chiefs were assembled in council, deliberating on ways and means to protect them, the Indians in multitudes surrounded the house and set fire to it; they all, to the number of eighteen or twenty, perished with the house in the flames. The trader showed me the ruins of the house where they were burnt."8 This wholesale massacre reminds us so strongly of the sweeping character of the Yamasee rebellion, which the fact itself can not have followed by many years, that one is at first tempted to think reference is made to that uprising. But at that time the Apalachicola were upon Savannah River, and, since the trader was able to show Bartram the ruins of the house in which the unfortunate victims were burned, it is evident that the massacre could not have taken place there. Another suggestion is that only part of the Apalachicola were on Savannah River, but of this we have not the slightest evidence. It is surprising, to say the least, that Bartram's trading acquaintance could not or would not tell him about the comparatively recent immigration of this tribe among the Lower Creeks. The extensive mounds which Bartram notes must have owed their origin for the most part to some other of the Lower Creek tribes. It should be observed also that the people whom Bartram calls Lower Creeks were really Seminole, and it is to the Seminole that most of the scattered bands of Apalachicola went. (Swanton)
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