Benjamin Hawkins

Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754 – June 6, 1816^[1]) was an American planter, statesman, and United States Indian agent . He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite. Appointed by George Washington as General Superintendent for Indian Affairs (1796–1818), he had responsibility for the territory of the Southeast south of the Ohio River, and was principal Indian agent to the Creek Indians.

Hawkins established the Creek Agency and his plantation in present-day Georgia, where he lived in what became Crawford County. He learned the Muscogee language, was adopted by the tribe and married Lavinia Downs, a Creek woman, with whom he had seven children. He wrote extensively about the Creek and other Southeast tribes: the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw. He eventually built a large complex with African slave labor, including mills, and raised considerable livestock in cattle and hogs.

Biography

Hawkins was born to Philemon and Delia Martin Hawkins on August 15, 1754, the third of four sons. The family farmed and operated a plantation in what was then Granville County, North Carolina, but is now Warren County. He attended the College of New Jersey, later to become Princeton, but left in his last year to join the Continental Army. Hawkins was commissioned a Colonel and served for several years on George Washington's staff as his main interpreter of French.

Hawkins was released from federal service late in 1777, as Washington learned to rely on la Fayette for dealing with the French. He returned home, where he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1778. He served there until 1779, and again in 1784. The Carolina Assembly sent him to the Continental Congress as their delegate from 1781 to 1783, and again in 1787.

In 1789, Hawkins was a delegate to the North Carolina convention that ratified the United States Constitution. He was elected to the first U.S. Senate, where he served from 1789 to 1795. Although the Senate did not have organized political parties at the time, Hawkins' views aligned with different groups. Early in his Senate career, he was counted in the ranks of those senators viewed as pro-Administration, but by the third congress, he generally sided with senators of the Republican or Anti-Administration Party.

US Indian Agent

In 1785, Hawkins had served as a representative for the Congress in negotiations over land with the Creek Indians of the Southeast. He was generally successful, and convinced the tribe to lessen their raids for several years, although he could not conclude a formal treaty. The Creek wanted to deal with the 'head man'. They finally signed the Treaty of New York after Hawkins convinced George Washington to become involved.

In 1786, Hawkins and fellow Indian agents Andrew Pickens and Joseph Martin concluded a treaty with the Choctaw nation at Seneca Old Town, today's Hopewell, South Carolina. They set out the boundaries for the Choctaw lands as well as provisions for relations between the tribe and the U.S. government.^[2]

In 1796, Washington appointed Benjamin Hawkins as General Superintendent of Indian Affairs, dealing with all tribes south of the Ohio River. As principal agent to the Creek tribe, Hawkins soon moved to present-day Crawford County in Georgia where he established his home and the Creek Agency. He studied the language and was adopted by the Creek. He wrote extensively about them and the other southeast tribes.

Marriage and family

He made a common-law marriage for years with Lavinia Downs, a Creek woman. They had a total of six daughters: Georgia, Muscogee, Cherokee, Carolina, Virginia, and Jeffersonia, and one son, Madison Hawkins.^[1] In 1812, thinking he was on his death bed, Hawkins married Lavinia formally in the European-American style to make their children legitimate in US society.^[1] Jeffersonia was born after this marriage. As the Creek had a matrilineal system, all the children were born into their mother's clan, and gained their Creek status from her.

Hawkins was close to his nephew William Hawkins of North Carolina, whom he made an executor of his estate along with his wife; he bequeathed him a share of his estate, reputed to be quite large. This bequest became a source of contention among his heirs, especially as he had not altered his will to include his last daughter Jeffersonia Hawkins.

Georgia

Hawkins began to teach European-American agricultural practices to the Creek, and started a farm at his and Lavina's home on the Flint River. In time, he purchased enslaved Africans and hired other workers to clear several hundred acres for his plantation. They built a sawmill, gristmill and a trading post for the agency. Hawkins expanded his operation to include more than 1,000 head of cattle and a large number of hogs. For years, he met with chiefs on his porch and discussed matters there. His personal hard work and open-handed generosity won him such respect that reports say that he never lost an animal to Indian raiders.

He was responsible for 19 years of peace between the settlers and the tribe, the longest such period during European-American settlement. When in 1806 the government built a fort at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, to protect expanding settlements just east of modern Macon, Georgia, the government named it Fort Benjamin Hawkins in his honor.

Hawkins saw much of his work to preserve peace destroyed in 1812. A group of Upper Creek (who became known as the Red Sticks) were working to revive traditional ways, and they opposed the assimilation of the Lower Creek (with whom Hawkins worked closely) and continuing encroachment by European Americans. They allied with the Shawnee chief Tecumseh of the Western Confederacy to resist increasing settlement by European Americans. During the War of 1812, the British encouraged the Red Stick resistance. Although Hawkins was not attacked, he was dismayed by the damage to the Creek people from their civil war, with the White Sticks and Red Sticks at odds.

During the Creek War of 1813-1814, Hawkins organized the friendly Lower Creek under Major William McIntosh, a chief, to aid Georgia and Tennessee militias in their forays against the Red Sticks. General Andrew Jackson led the defeat of the Red Sticks at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in present-day Alabama. Hawkins was unable to attend negotiations of the Treaty of Fort Jackson in August 1814, which required the Creek to cede most of their territory and give up their way of life. Hawkins later organized friendly Creek warriors against a British force on the Apalachicola River; they had threatened to rally the scattered Red Sticks and reignite the war on the Georgia frontier. After the British withdrew in 1815, Hawkins was organizing a force to secure the area when he died from a sudden illness in June 1816.

Hawkins never recovered from the shock of the Creek civil war. He tried to resign his post and return from the Georgia wilderness, but his resignation was refused by every president after Washington. He remained Superintendent until his death on June 6, 1816. At the end of his life, he formally married Lavina Downs in a European-American ceremony, making their children legitimate in United States society. They already belonged to Downs' clan among the Creek, as they had a matrilineal system; this gave them status in the tribe.

Benjamin Hawkins was buried at the Creek Agency near the Flint River and Roberta, Georgia.

Fort Hawkins was built overlooking the ancient site since designated as the Ocmulgee National Monument. Revealing 17,000 years of human habitation, it is a National Historic Landmark and has been sacred for centuries to the Creek. It has massive earthwork mounds built nearly 1,000 years ago as expressions of the religious and political world of the Mississippian culture, the ancestors to the Creek.

Legacy and honors

• Hawkins County in Tennessee is named in his honor.
• Boy Scout Camp Benjamin Hawkins near Byron, Georgia is named in his honor.

The archeological site of the original Fort Benjamin Hawkins is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and it is within the Fort Hill Historic District of Macon, Georgia, also listed on the NRHP.

References

Further reading

• Robbie Franklyn Ethridge, Creek Country: The Creek Indians and Their World, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
• Thomas Foster, editor. The Collected Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1810. 2003, University of Alabama Press, ISBN 0-8173-5040-3.
• C. L. Grant, editor. Benjamin Hawkins: Letters, Journals and Writings. 2 volumes. 1980, Beehive Press, volume 1: ISBN 99921-1-543-2, volume 2: ISBN 99938-28-28-9.
• Florette Henri. The Southern Indians and Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1816. 1986, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-1968-3.

External links

• Benjamin Hawkins at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2009-03-04
• Merritt B. Pound, "Benjamin Hawkins, Indian Agent", Digital Library of Georgia
• "Benjamin Hawkins", New Georgia Encyclopedia
• "Benjamin Hawkins", History and Culture, Ocmulgee National Monument, National Park Service
• "Benjamin Hawkins", Horseshoe Bend National Military Park
• "Camp Benjamin Hawkins", Boy Scouts of America