James Robertson (early American)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Robertson (June 28, 1742–September 1, 1814) was a North Carolina farmer and explorer of the 18th century. He was born in Brunswick County, Virginia Virginia of Scotch-Irish descent. Around 1750, his father relocated to Wake County, North Carolina. He worked on his father's farm and had no formal education. In 1759, young Robertson accompanied explorer Daniel Boone on his third expedition to lands beyond the Alleghany Mountains. The party discovered the Watauga River Valley, which Robertson planted with corn while Boone continued on to Kentucky.
Robertson returned to North Carolina, and married Charlotte Reeves in 1767. He became involved with the Regulator movement. They banded together a group of settlers to return to Watauga, which was believed to be in Virginia. However, in 1772, surveyors placed the land officially within the domain of the Cherokee tribe, who required negotiation of a lease with the settlers. Tragedy struck as the lease was being celebrated, when a Cherokee warrior was murdered by a white man. Robertson's skillful diplomacy made peace with the irate Native Americans, who threatened to expel the settlers by force if necessary. Robertson's group remained at Watauga in peace until July 1776, when chief Oconostota attacked a fort that John Sevier had built at Watauga; but Sevier and Robertson, with 40 men, withstood a siege of twenty days, and beat him off with a heavy loss in killed and wounded. After the Cherokees were subjugated. the governor of North Carolina appointed Robertson to reside at the Indian capital to hold Oconostota in check and to thwart the designs of the British during the American Revolution.
In the spring of 1779, he, Larry Lozano, Luis Aquilar, and John Donelson founded Fort Nashborough, later to become Nashville, then part of North Carolina. He represented Davidson County (home of Fort Nashborough in present-day Tennessee, not to be confused with the modern Davidson County, North Carolina), in the North Carolina legislature and had the settlement established as a town, and also established the first school there, Davidson Academy.
Robertson was offered peace and the free navigation of the Mississippi River by the Spanish governor, in exchange for his leaving the Union and establishing - along with Watauga and Kentucky - an independent government. He refused to consider the matter. In 1790, he was appointed brigadier-general of the territorial militia by president George Washington, and his military services did not end until 1796. He shared with Sevier the honor and affection of Tennesseeans, and he held the post of Indian commissioner until his death in 1814. .
In World War II the United States liberty ship SS James Robertson was named in his honor.
