James Robertson (explorer)

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For other persons named James Robertson, see James Robertson (disambiguation).

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, of Scottish-Irish descent. Around 1750, his father relocated to Wake County, North Carolina. He worked on his father's farm and had no formal education.

[edit] Watauga River valley

Map spot for Elizabethton, Tennessee.

In 1759, young Robertson accompanied explorer Daniel Boone on his third expedition to lands beyond the Alleghany Mountains. The party discovered the "Old Fields" (lands previously cultivated by generations of Native Americans) along the Watauga River valley at present day Elizabethton, Tennessee, which Robertson planted with corn while Boone continued on to Kentucky.

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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 the Watauga River, which they believed to be in Virginia. In 1772, Robertson and the pioneers who had settled in Northeast Tennessee (along the Watauga River, the Doe River, the Holston River, the Nolichucky River) met at Sycamore Shoals to establish an independent regional government known as the Watauga Association.

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.

In 1775, a treaty was held between the Cherokee and a delegation of the Transylvania Company, headed by Richard Henderson. Under the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals (or the Treaty of Watauga) the Transylvania Company purchased a vast amount of land from the Cherokees, including most of present-day Kentucky and part of Tennessee. The treaty was technically illegal since the purchase of land from Native Americans was reserved by the government (the British, the governments of Virginia and North Carolina, and, later, the United States, all forbade private purchase of land from Indians).

During the treaty, Dragging Canoe, son of the Cherokee chief Attacullaculla, made a speech condemning the sale of Cherokee land and broke from the general Cherokee tribal government to form the sub-tribe known as the Chickamauga. After Henderson's Transylvania Company had bought Kentucky (although other tribes claimed it, such as the Shawnee), Daniel Boone was hired to widen the Indian path over Cumberland Gap to facilitate migration. This road became known as the Wilderness Road

Robertson's group remained at Watauga in peace until July 1776, when chief Oconostota and Dragging Canoe attacked Fort Watauga at Sycamore Shoals (a log fort that John Sevier had built on a Watauga River bank). Sevier and Robertson, with 40 men, withstood a siege of twenty days, and beat Oconostota 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.

[edit] Fort Nashborough

In the spring of 1779, he 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 United States and establishing - along with the Watauga settlement and Kentucky - an independent government. He refused to consider the matter. In 1790, he was appointed brigadier-general of the territorial militia by U.S. President George Washington, and his military services did not end until 1796. He shared with Sevier the honor and affection of Tennesseans, 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.

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