The 1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation stands as the largest revolt of enslaved Africans within Cherokee-controlled lands in what was then Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). This daring act of resistance unfolded on November 15, 1842, when 20 enslaved African Americans, held by Cherokee slaveholders, seized their chance for freedom. Their destination was Mexico. a country that had abolished slavery since 1829.
Before European contact, the Cherokee practiced slavery by capturing prisoners of war from rival tribes. However, by the late 18th century, they began adopting European-American plantation practices, purchasing enslaved Africans to work on their expanding farmlands in Georgia and Tennessee. Wealthier Cherokee families, many of whom were of mixed European and Cherokee descent, set up large-scale plantations, cultivating cotton, wheat, corn, hemp, and tobacco.
In 1819, the Cherokee Nation introduced slave codes, modeled after those of European settlers, to regulate slave trading, prohibit intermarriage, and outline punishments for runaway slaves. These codes also restricted slaves from owning property or participating in trade without their master’s permission.
During the Indian Removal Act of the 1830s, when the US federal government forcibly displaced the Cherokee from their ancestral lands, many enslaved Africans were taken along. Slaves performed much of the labour required for the journey, including loading wagons, clearing paths, and driving livestock.
By the time of their forced relocation in 1835, the Cherokee Nation held around 1,500 enslaved Africans, the most among the Five Civilized Tribes. Within five years, 300 mixed-race Cherokee families emerged as an elite class in Indian Territory, each owning 25 to 50 slaves. These plantations sprawled across 600 to 1,000 acres, contributing to the cultivation of major crops and the expansion of the Cherokee economy.
The Great Escape
On November 15, 1842, 20 enslaved Africans escaped from Cherokee plantations, determined to reach Mexico. Most of the escapees were from the plantations of “Rich Joe” Vann and his father James Vann. The group raided local stores for weapons, ammunition, horses, and mules before fleeing. Along the way, they joined 15 other enslaved Africans escaping from Creek territory, increasing their numbers.
The group soon encountered two slave catchers, a white man and a Lenape Indian, who were returning to Choctaw Territory with an enslaved family of three adults and five children. In a bold confrontation, the fugitives killed the bounty hunters and freed the family, bringing them along in their journey southward.
However, the Cherokee Nation did not let the escape go unchallenged. On November 17, 1842, the Cherokee National Council passed a resolution authorizing Captain John Drew to raise a militia of 100 citizens to pursue the escapees.
The large Cherokee force finally caught up with the escapees on November 28. Weakened by hunger and exhaustion, the fugitives were captured without resistance and returned to their owners in the Choctaw, Creek, and Cherokee reservations. Five of the enslaved men were later executed for the murders of the two slave catchers.
The 1842 revolt, although unsuccessful, inspired future slave rebellions in Indian Territory; by 1851, nearly 300 enslaved Africans attempted to escape, mostly heading towards Mexico or the Kansas Territory, where slavery was outlawed.
In response, the Cherokee Nation tightened its slave codes, expelled freedmen from its lands, and established a ‘rescue company’ to track down and capture runaways. This created a new economic opportunity for poor Cherokee who became slave catchers, earning money and supplies for tracking fugitives. Wealthy slaveholders, on the other hand, saw it as a means to protect their investments and stabilize their labour force.
The Cherokee Nation mirrored the very practices of the european settlers they once resisted, embracing slavery as a tool of power and economic control, despite their own painful history of oppression. The 1842 revolt, therefore, exposes the dark side of a community fighting for freedom while simultaneously denying it to others.
Source:
https://web.archive.org/web/20121103030206/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/S/SL002.html
https://allthatsinteresting.com/1842-cherokee-slave-revolt
