Katie Miesner

February 25 2019
AMH3441

Tortora, Daniel J. ​Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American
Southeast, 1756-1763​. Chapel Hill, NC: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 2015.

In ​Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists and Slaves in the America Southeast​,

Daniel Tortora focuses on South Carolina as a center of action during the late

eighteenth century. Although not necessarily the first place you think of when asked to

imagine critical locations in pre Revolutionary Era America, South Carolina coped with a

bloody frontier war with the Cherokee, a widespread smallpox epidemic, a slave

conspiracy and increased conflict between European officials and colonists. Although

Carolina in Crisis ends in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, Tortora also provides evidence

as to how the Anglo-Cherokee war and its devastating impact on colonists motivated

anti-British sentiments that had implications for the upcoming Revolutionary era.

One of Tortora’s greatest accomplishments in ​Carolina in Crisis​ was his ability to

flesh out and provide a multifaceted view of broad groups. From a predominantly white

colonist lens, it is easy to to view the Cherokee as bloodthirsty warriors craving

destruction. But Tortora dedicates himself to showing that “not all whites at the time

were uniformly racist at the same time, the Cherokee “Nation” was rarely a single

entity….warriors act within parameters that suit their own conceptions of appropriate

behavior.”1 The main way he is able to accomplish this goal is because he used a wide

multitude of sources that helped inform the perspectives of different groups. In primary

1
Tortora pg.4
sources alone he incorporates newspaper accounts, military and diplomatic

correspondence, the speeches and dictations of Indian peoples which were transcribed

by trusted interpreters. Diaries and letters of South Carolinians including those written

by preachers and women and the very rare James Grant Papers. Aside from written

sources, he also actually went to the site of some of the major battlefields to get a sense

of the geography. Another reason for Tortora’s success was his ability to read other

books written by his contemporaries, identify their research limitations and correct or

address those problems in his piece. Some of his gripes included the dismissal of

Cherokee as key players in the global conflict of this period, and the lack of connection

between the Anglo Cherokee war, slavery and the upcoming revolution.

One of my favorite chapters in ​Carolina in Crisis​, dealt with the ramifications of

the smallpox epidemic. While it is well known that smallpox had a devastating impact on

the colonists, Tortora provides even more importance to the outbreak by detailing how it

impacted all the players of South Carolina. For instance, the smallpox epidemic made

their towns more vulnerable to Cherokee attack. Additionally, the slave owners were

fearful of losing their property and so they hid their slaves away and prevented them

from working or properly burying their dead. These shallow graves did not appease

slaves and “when they let cattle desecrate slave corpses and graves, slave owners

interfered at a spiritual level”, which only increased the fear of a widespread slave

revolt.2 This chapter was a direct reflection of Tortora’s skill as a historian as he was

able to make such valid connections between seemingly isolated groups.

2
Tortora pg. 85
 The only criticism I had for Tortora, is that I would have loved even more

information about the war time ethics and strategy of the Cherokee. Throughout

Carolina in Crisis​ he would scatter fascinating tidbits of information that made me want

to learn more. For example, when discussing Cherokee treatment of prisoners he

mentioned that “due to cultural taboos, Cherokee warriors did not rape the enemy.” 3

This information is shocking considering that European colonists, especially in early

colonization did not uphold this same standard but still regarded the natives as morally

inferior. Similarly he discussing how the Cherokee would use prisoners as a way to

replenish their dead and would often times use assimilation to rebuild their troops. But in

that same paragraph Tortora also claimed that scalping their captives was done as a

ceremony for avenging the dead. More information about how these distinctions

between the two choices was made would have been extremely helpful and fascinating.

Tortora has crafted a fascinating read that offers a new perspective on South

Carolina and its role as a major player in pre Revolutionary Era history. The French and

Indian war was truly the first global war and because of this it would have been easy for

Tortora to become lost in the sea of information he could have chosen to cover during

this period. However, his focus on the untold history of South Carolina’s role in it all

paired with his extensive research allowed for him to unify the plights of the Cherokee,

colonists and slaves into a clear and engaging read.

3
Tortora pg. 103