Agents Provocateurs and Indians: The Struggle for the Eighteenth-Century American Southwest

Ian Chambers

My paper for the 2007 Harvard International Seminar on the Atlantic World focuses upon the American Southeast, specifically the Carolinas and Georgia. However, rather than examining the grand narrative of political discourse between competing European powers my paper instead examines local events in the British ‘back country’ That region contested not only by various European powers but also by the regions original native inhabitants. I examine the manner in which interaction between non-British individuals and the local native population, specifically the Cherokee, sent ripples of fear and panic into the heart of the British colonial government. I examine two separate events. Firstly, the actions of German immigrant Christian Priber in 1739 and secondly, the presence of a young French Lieutenant Chevalier de Lantagnac in 1756, both of whom threatened to disrupt the existing relationship between the British and the Cherokee. Using evidence drawn from multiple colonial documents, including official records of both Britain and France and personal journals, I detail the steps taken by the British to reestablish both their relationship with the Cherokee, and also their self-perceived control of the region and concurrent exclusion of competing European powers. In so doing I show that the transatlantic struggle for the Americas was played out as much on the ground in North America as it was in the palaces and governmental halls of Europe. 

[WP #07021]