A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816

In this volume, the author depicts a dramatic yet little-discussed transformation in the eighteenth century that overturned the world of the powerful and numerous Creek Indians and forever changed the Deep South. By 1800, some Creeks, whose most valuable belongings had once been deerskins, owned hundreds of African American slaves and thousands of cattle. Their leaders, who formerly strove for consensus, now ruled by force. New property fostered a new possessiveness, and government by coercion bred confrontation. This volume chronicles the decisive transformation toward wider material ownership in America's early history, a transformation that left deep divisions between the wealthy and poor, powerful and powerless.