The Other War of 1776: When Independence Meant Invasion

In July 1776, as Congress declared independence in Philadelphia, Cherokee communities on the southern frontier fought for a homeland the new nation intended to take — the war the Declaration itself called “merciless.” Sixteen days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Cherokee war parties struck the illegal settlements on their land. Four colonies answered with a coordinated invasion that burned at least 36 towns, destroyed the harvest, sold captives into slavery, and drove the Cherokee nation toward starvation in the winter of 1776–77. This is the story of that other war of 1776 — of Dragging Canoe, who refused to sell another acre and carried the resistance for eighteen more years; of Old Tassel and Nancy Ward, who spoke for peace and for their people; and of a revolution that declared a people's right to resist an empire taking their land — and recognized that right only for itself. A line that runs, unbroken, to the Trail of Tears.