To Thomas Jefferson from William Cocke, 5 July 1804
From William Cocke
Chiccasaw Nation 5th July 1804
Dear Sir,
I am now on my return from the natchez after Visiting that place and a Small part of Louisiana the advanced Season induced my friends to advise me not to Venture Returning by way of Orleans Yesterday the 4th of July was Celebrated at this place by a large Concorse of the natives among whom was General Colbert Major Colbert Levy & James Colbert Turnbull and a number of the cheifts of the nations their wives & families to geather with a Respectable Collection of white people who inhabit this Country the Toast was appropriate to the day, and a dinner in plain and Jenteel Stile was provided the General Joy and harmony Shown on this Occasion and the atteachment exprest for Our Government and its administration would do honor to any portion of the Union after diner they had a ball, in American Stile as they Calld this the American day, at this exebition I could Scarsely credit my own eyes, many of the natives danced with a most gracefull air and kept good time they danced Reales Curtilions & Jigs in the Old Virginia mode I only do Justice to the wife of Mr James Colbert when I Say She is one of the most accomplished women of my Acquaintance that has not the aid of a Liberal Education She Speaks English equally as plain as any person in her manners She is plain unassuming and uneffected the women of that nation Seem to Vye with each other who Shall Spend the most & the neatest the agent Mr Mitchel deserves great credit for his exertions to improve this people they are making great improvements in farming Vast numbers of them have lately left their Towns and are makeing farms & Raiseing Stock I have been Very Sick a few days past with the fevour so prevalant in this Country but have got about again not one of my Company escaped and more than one third of the boat men that Return that belong to the States of Kentuckey Tennessee & Ohio are taken with that plague the agent hear Shew them every kindness in his power so that his house is little better than a hospitle for the Sick travellers I know by th[. . .] you will be tired Reading my Scrawl & I am too Sick to write more accept assurances of the high esteem of your
m obt h servt
Wm Cocke
My fevour is Riseing & I expect will Shortly be up to 190—
W.C
RC (DLC); torn at seal; addressed: “The President of The United States Washington City”; endorsed by TJ as received 26 July and so recorded in SJL.
General William Colbert and his brothers George (known as Major Colbert), Levi, and James were sons of Scotsman James Logan Colbert, who had married into the Chickasaw nation. The brothers grew wealthy from commercial opportunities afforded by the 1801 Chickasaw treaty, which established a right-of-way through tribal land, later the Natchez Trace. As key members of the bicultural elite that dominated Chickasaw leadership, they served as negotiators and interpreters for the Chickasaws and steered the economic and political management of tribal affairs (; Guy B. Braden, “The Colberts and the Chickasaw Nation,” Tennessee Historical Quarterly, 17 [1958], 222-34; James R. Atkinson, Splendid Land, Splendid People: The Chickasaw Indians to Removal [Tuscaloosa, Ala., 2004], 183, 296n).
Turnbull: perhaps William Turnbull, born to a Chickasaw mother and trader John Turnbull. William Turnbull, who was married to a Choctaw woman, and William Colbert were both signers of an 1805 U.S. treaty with the Choctaws (Christina Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America [Cambridge, Mass., 2010], 204-5; Charles J. Kappler, comp. and ed., Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, 5 vols. [Washington, D.C., 1975], 2:88).
wife of Mr James Colbert: Susan or Susannah James, the daughter of a Choctaw woman and fur trader Benjamin James, who worked as an intermediary between U.S. officials and the Choctaws (, Indian Affairs, 1:442; Rickey Butch Walker, Chickasaw Chief George Colbert: His Family and His Country [Killen, Ala., 2012], 77; Vol. 26:413n).