Indigenous Conflict with CLAW

About this event

In partnership with C of C’s Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program, we are pleased to invite a timely discussion on North America’s Indigenous conflicts during the Colonial Era and at pivotal moments during the American Revolution. With a specific focus on the late 18th century, CLAW Program Director Dr. Sandy Slater will host a conversation with subject matter experts Dr. Andrew Johnson and Professor Kevin Kokomoor on their recent publications, which put South Carolina and its First Peoples into greater context and shed light on an overlooked aspect of this important history. Purchase Tickets HERE! About the Books The Cherokee War of 1776 The forgotten history of the US war against the Cherokee offers a crucial reframing of America’s origin story. Americans remember 1776 as the year liberty was declared, the moment they cast off tyranny and proclaimed the self-evident truths of equality and freedom. But that same summer, as patriots celebrated their defiant new nation, American armies launched another campaign—this one aimed at destroying the Cherokee nation. The Cherokee War of 1776 recasts America’s founding moment by tracing the importance of westward ambition and settler violence to the origins of the Revolutionary War. In this gripping and sobering book, historian Kevin Kokomoor uncovers the rarely acknowledged war waged by the emerging United States against the Cherokee people just days after the Declaration of Independence was signed. Far from a spontaneous frontier skirmish, this war was a coordinated, state-backed campaign with a clear aim: seize Indigenous land and crush Native resistance. Many of the very men who championed liberty on parchment simultaneously advocated for the wholesale destruction of a sovereign Native nation. At the heart of this story is Cherokee resistance, which was strategic, determined, and deeply rooted in community dynamics. Figures like Dragging Canoe emerged to lead a movement that endured long after American…

Description from charlestonlibrarysociety.org