Apr 15, 2021 - Sale 2564

Sale 2564 - Lot 125

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
"THE UNSETTLED STATE OF THE INDIAN COUNTRY RATHER DETERS ME" (AMERICAN INDIANS.) Robert H. Pettigrew. Letter by a Georgia planter discussing the Creek War in Alabama. Autograph Letter Signed to brother Ebenezer of Sumter County, AL. 3 pages, 12 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches, on one folding sheet with address panel bearing inked Savannah, GA postmark on final blank; small seal tear, moderate wear, separations at folds with modern tape repairs. Savannah, GA, 5 October [1836?]

Additional Details

Robert H. Pettigrew (1788-1841) of Savannah discusses the unsettled situation in Alabama as the local Creeks faced removal in the Creek War of 1836: "I am very desirous to visit you . . . but the unsettled state of the Indian country rather deters me. . . . I wrote to father & mother some weeks since but have received no answer. This renews my apprehension that the intercourse is not free or safe. I conversed with some wagoners from the Chattahoochee & they said travellers through the Creek country was not safe."

Pettigrew also announces with relief that he has "lost no lives among my negroes" during a recent hurricane. He considers selling his plantation and moving west: "Your land and Negroes must follow the price of cotton, that is very low. The papers give frequently an account of Negroes selling for 300 dollars. . . . I could put fifteen or twenty hands in the field and a certainty of revenue . . . would make me very comfortable."