September/October 2014, Muzzleloader, page 82
First off, Muzzleloader is my favorite periodical, by far. On this single page of the regular department Voices from the East, the editors have provided the reader with period quotes from Paul Clements book Chronicles of the Cumberland Settlements.
The attacks on Ziegler’s Station in the Cumberland valley occurred in 1792 and the quotes cited were written between 1792 and 1852. The Creek Indian campaign against the settlers resulted in a total of 70 settlers killed, wounded and taken prisoner.
When sourcing quotes it is important to note the subtext provided by language conventions and in this case the terminology for combatants and noncombatants: woman, child, man, Indian, negro, and mulatto. It is clear that the chroniclers, at least subconsciously, saw natives, mixed race people, and African Americans as sub human.
Despite this the women at Ziegler’s Station adamantly encouraged their husbands to flee and leave them and their children at the mercy of the warriors, an indication that Indian warriors were generally believed to spare women and children, and, as the pleading women stated, showed no mercy to captive men.
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