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McGILLIVRAY, Alexander,
Indian chief: b. in the Creek Nation in 1740; d. Pensacola, Fla., Feb. 17,
1793. His father was a Scotchman and his mother a half-breed Creek
princess, whose father was a French officer of Spanish descent.
McGillivray seems to have inherited the characteristics of all these
nationalities. He was well educated by his father, and then joined a
mercantile firm in the Creek nation. After his mother's death he became a
powerful Creek chief with the title Emperor of the Creek Nation. During
the Revolution he sided with the British, and, enraged at the confiscation
of his Georgia estates, he waged bloody warfare on the borders. After the
treaty of 1783 he proposed to the Spanish of Florida the policy of
wresting from the Americans the trans-Allegheny region, the fulfilment of
which plan for twelve years was attempted with violence and cunning. In
1790 McGillivray was invited to a personal conference with President
"Washington in New York. Since this gave an opportunity for display, he
consented and was received with great ceremony. A treaty was signed by
which much land was restored to the Creeks. McGillivray was paid $100,000
for his confiscated property and was commissioned major-general in the
United States army, although he was already a British colonel and a
Spanish general. He returned home and continued the warfare on the
American border settlers until his death. McGillivray was a shrewd
business man and politician with scholarly tastes, but was also a
heartless savage who lived in barbaric splendor; a man of great intellect,
but totally without moral principles.
You can download a book about him here in pdf format |
