Theodore (Andrew Jackson captive)

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"Andrew Jackson as the Great Father" —In this political cartoon, likely published in the 1830s, Andrew Jackson sits in an armchair holding two diminutive Native Americans on his lap. Six diminutive Native Americans sit or stand on the patterned rug at Jackson's feet, looking up at him.

Theodore (c. 1813 – before March 1814) was a baby or child who was "adopted" by Andrew Jackson during the early 1810s and sent to live at the Hermitage. He is presumed to have been of Muscogee heritage,[1]: 140  but his family background and tribal affiliation are unclear.[2]: 131  Andrew Jackson wrote to his wife Rachel on October 13, 1813, "Say to my little Andrew I have got a little Indian for him—which I will bring him when I return."[3]

Theodore was one of the prisoners taken from the tribal town of Littafuchee, near Big Canoe Creek, in present-day St. Clair County, Alabama.[4]: 36 [5]: 278  According to one researcher, "Jackson referred to Theodore as 'Indian' but he could have belonged to any nation. Some historians have posited that Theodore was an enslaved African-American...Since chiefs often gave children whom they had obtained from raids, or through captive-raiding and adoption practices, Theodore could have belonged to any nearby native nation and may have had some white or African-American ancestry."[2]: 131  The headman of Littafuchee, Bob Cataula, had surrendered the entire town, including an enslaved Choctaw woman and her children, and an enslaved black named Cato. The prisoners, consisting of 27 women and children, and nine men, were sent to Huntsville and Nashville.[6] The 36 prisoners sent away arrived as 35, because infant Theodore was "separated from his mother and sent to Jackson's home."[7] Theodore was described as a "pet" or playmate for Andrew Jackson Jr., who was then about five years old. When Lyncoya, another Muscogee war orphan, was sent north to Nashville, Jackson described him as "about the size of Theodore and much like him."[8]: 189 

Theodore died in the late winter or early spring of 1814. Jackson wrote his wife from Fort Strother on March 4, 1814, "...I am sorry, that little theodore is no more, I regret it on Andrew account, I expect he lamented his loss-to amuse him, and to make him forget his loss, I have asked Col Hays to carry Lyncoya to him..."[9] Historian Evan Nooe wrote of Theodore's successor, Lyncoya, who survived until he was 16, " lived a short life under the oversight of his parents' killers."[10]: 81 

According to one historian, Jackson Jr. "threw a fit when his own playmate died and coveted Charley," who was another Indigenous captive and the assigned playmate of Andrew Jackson Donelson.[11]: 91  Lyncoya Jackson, who was captured at the Battle of Tallushatchee ("all his family is destroyed") arrived at the Hermitage in May 1814.[12]: 444 

See also

References

  1. ^ Peterson, Dawn (2017). "5. Adoption in Andrew Jackson's Empire". Indians in the Family: Adoption and the Politics of Antebellum Expansion. Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674978720. ISBN 978-0-674-97872-0.
  2. ^ a b Gismondi, Melissa (2017-06-12). Rachel Jackson and the Search for Zion, 1760s–1830s (PhD, History thesis). Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia. doi:10.18130/v3q364.
  3. ^ Henderson (2014), pp. 243–244, n. 20.
  4. ^ Jackson, Andrew (1991-01-01). "The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume III, 1814–1815". The Papers of Andrew Jackson.
  5. ^ Braund, Kathryn E. Holland (October 2011). "Reflections on "Shee Coocys" and the Motherless Child: Creek Women in a Time of War". Alabama Review. 64 (4): 255–284. doi:10.1353/ala.2011.0004. ISSN 2166-9961.
  6. ^ Henderson (2014), pp. 238–239.
  7. ^ Henderson (2014), p. 243.
  8. ^ Rogin, Michael Paul (1975). Fathers and Children: Andrew Jackson and the Subjugation of the American Indian. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0-394-48204-0. LCCN 74021310. OCLC 1111310.
  9. ^ "General Jackson's lady; a story of the life and times of Rachel Donelson Jackson, beloved wife of General Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United ..." HathiTrust. p. 285. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
  10. ^ Nooe, F. Evan (2024). Aggression and sufferings: settler violence, native resistance, and the coalescence of the Old South. Indians and southern history. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press. ISBN 978-0-8173-9473-8.
  11. ^ Snyder, Christina (2017). "Andrew Jackson's Indian Son: Native Captives and American Empire". In Garrison, Tim Alan; O'Brien, Greg (eds.). The Native South: New Histories and Enduring Legacies. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 84–106. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1q1xq7h.9. ISBN 978-0-8032-9690-9. JSTOR j.ctt1q1xq7h.9.
  12. ^ Various; Jackson, Andrew (1984). Moser, Harold D.; MacPherson, Sharon (eds.). The Papers of Andrew Jackson, Volume II, 1804–1813. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press. ISBN 978-0-87049-441-3. LCCN 79015078. OCLC 5029597. Free access icon

Sources