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Lot 217
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Relations with Choctaws 1786 Amid Georgia’s Attempt to Seize Land from the Spanish in Mississippi
Relations with Choctaws 1786 Amid Georgia’s Attempt to Seize Land from the Spanish in Mississippi
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Native Americans
Cumberland (Nashville, TN?), April 8, 1786
Relations with Choctaws 1786 Amid Georgia's Attempt to Seize Land from the Spanish in Mississippi
AL
[NATIVE AMERICANS.] [Thomas Green?], Autograph Letter, to Nathaniel Cocke, April 8, 1786, Cumberland, [modern Nashville, Tennessee?]. 3 pp., 7.5" x 9.5". Some small holes and one large one from breaking seal on original opening, with small loss of text; general toning.

This curious, unsigned letter is addressed to Colonel Nathaniel Cocks [Cocke], who was a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia during the Revolutionary War. By 1786, Cocke was living near Augusta, Georgia, and he represented Richmond County in the Georgia Executive Council, the forerunner of the state senate.

The writer, who may have been Thomas Green, mentions receiving a letter from "Capt Jamison," who may have been John Jameson, a storekeeper from Wilkes County, Georgia. In July 1787, Jameson, "being ready to go on an expedition against the Indians," made a will and named Col. Nathaniel Cocke of Augusta, Georgia, as one of his executors. The will was probated in March 1789, and Cocke qualified as an executor in July 1789.

The letter suggests that Cocke had hoped to purchase land in the massive "Bourbon County" created by the Georgia legislature in modern-day southern Mississippi. The county included Natchez and the surrounding area, which was claimed by the Spanish. Although the Spanish successfully resisted the efforts of Thomas Green and others to assert ownership over the area for Georgia, the creation in 1785 and repeal in 1788 of Bourbon County set the stage for the Yazoo Land Fraud of the mid-1790s.

The author also complains about the behavior of "Capt. Devenport," who caused the Spanish commander to ban Americans from Natchez. William Davenport was part of a blatant attempt to extend the boundaries of Georgia westward to the Mississippi River in the mid-1780s. Davenport arrived in Natchez as a commissioner from Georgia in June 1785, expecting the Spanish to surrender the Natchez district. In October 1785, in response to information from a Spanish envoy who had arrived in New York to settle any issues between the two governments, Congress reiterated its adherence to the terms of the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain in 1783 and disavowed the actions of the Georgia legislature. The Georgia representatives in Congress also repudiated the creation of Bourbon County in the Natchez district and the appointment of Thomas Green as an acting governor of the area. Although the Congressional action resolved the dispute at the diplomatic level, the controversy caused by Davenport and the other Georgia "commissioners" continued in Natchez for two more months. They demanded the surrender of Natchez to Georgia. The Spanish refused and forced Davenport to leave Natchez in December. He remained in the Indian nations as a secret agent for Georgia among the Chickasaws and Choctaws, where the natives, perhaps under orders from Choctaw leader Alexander McGillivray, murdered him in 1787.

Complete Transcript
Cumberland 8th of April 1786
Dear Sir
After my best compliments to your self and Mister Cocks and family having this opertunity to inform you that I receiv'd yours of the 28 of Novr last by the hands of Capt Jamison by which I Receved the draft I drew on you and allso your request concerning the land in taking of bonds for to make titels I shall do as soon as I Return to the Natches and in case of deth I have orderd my sons to do so and will not pay the money till it [loss] only what I have all Ready to bind the bargin and that [was?] Everything that is in my power for you in that way and Sir I make no dout but that you have heard that while I was in the nations indeverin to draw the attension of those formable tribes of Indians to us Cap Devenport by his base behaver causd the Spanish govener to order him with the Rest of the America gentleman from that post I am sorry that that Gentelman was Ever put in to the Commision of peace for a man that will Eturnily be disguised in licker I think is not fit for aney publick business which is his faling therefore I shuld be glad if he could be left out and sum sober good man put in his Roome and Sir I shall indever to inform you what Recked situation our western part of this State is in by our former Enemies the Toreyes who Chefly has fled to those formable tribes of Indians and has taken the oath of alegence to the Crown of Spain and is bound to do Every thing that is in thear power to draw the attension of them to the Intrest of Spain which they faithfully do by telling of them that we are pore and have no goods and we only want to kill them and take thear lands therefore I have advised government to forward the Running of the Line as quick as posable then to buld three forts and to take the Tread In to the hands of the publick and the profit arising from the Trade will pay all Expences and bring Sum Thousands into the Treasury for only in the Chocktaw Nation thar is about ten thousand gunmen and the to kill thirty deare a peas will amount to 300000 Thousand skins which besides furroyel tallo &c amounts to sum Thousands which Spain and Briton deprives us of; by not having the line Run and proper methods Taken to prevent and allso a law to prohibit aney white man to live within aney of the nations under forfietur of life and the trade to be in the hands of the public and that at the Garrisons which will keep those people in aw and prevent aney [mur]der or Robberys on our fruntears. This I hope you and Every good man will indever to bring about

[Address panel:] To Colo Nathl Cocks
Faverd by Mr Smith

Historical Background
In December 1785 and January 1786, representatives of Congress and the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw peoples signed a series of treaties at Hopewell plantation in South Carolina. Each of the three treaties is known as the Treaty of Hopewell. Each treaty defined boundaries between the tribal lands and lands open to settlement.

The United States–Choctaw Treaty of Hopewell ceded 69,120 acres to the United States in return for protection by the United States on land in modern-day Mississippi and western Alabama. The Choctaw ultimately ceded this land to the United States in a series of treaties between 1801 and 1830 and were forced onto land in modern Oklahoma.

Thomas M. Green Sr. (1723-1805) was born in Williamsburg, Virginia, to Thomas Green III and Elizabeth Marston, and was educated by a private tutor. He served as a commissioned colonel in the Revolutionary War, after which he moved to Georgia. There, he became a friend of George Rogers Clark. He planned an abortive mission with Clark but ultimately continued to Natchez, Mississippi, then under Spanish rule, where he settled in May 1782 with twelve families, most related to him, and two hundred slaves. He petitioned the State of Georgia to claim the area, and in January 1785, the Georgia legislature created Bourbon County in the district of Natchez and authorized Green to be a justice of the peace in the county. For much of the rest of 1785, Green attempted to assert control over the Natchez district on behalf of Georgia. When Congress repudiated the attempt in October 1785 and Georgia repealed the act creating Bourbon County in February 1788, Green settled in Jefferson County, Mississippi, and became one of the most influential men in the territory. In 1791, as a magistrate of the Mississippi Territory, Green performed the marriage of Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson at his son's Springfield Plantation in Mississippi.

Nathaniel Cocke (ca. 1746-1796) of Halifax County, Virginia, served as an officer in the 7th Virginia Regiment in the Virginia State Line from the beginning of the Revolutionary War until after the Battle of Guilford Court House (March 1781). In that battle, he commanded a regiment of Virginia militia, had a horse killed under him, and a ball passed through his hat. He was commissioned as a captain and promoted to the rank of major and then lieutenant colonel during the war. He married Rebecca/Rebekah Thompson, and they had at least three children. They moved to Augusta, Georgia, soon after the war. Cocke represented Richmond County in and served as president pro tempore of the Georgia Executive Council, when it met in Augusta in January 1786. He died suddenly in December 1796. His heirs received 6,000 acres of land from the State of Virginia in 1835 for his Revolutionary War service.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.5" x 9.5"
  • Medium: AL

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