John Howard Payne Papers, 3-volume set: Volumes 7-14 of the Payne-Butrick Papers

The John Howard Payne Papers is a collection of firsthand political and social histories of Indigenous cultures, particularly the Cherokees, a southeastern tribe whose ancestral lands included parts of the present-day states of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. It provides a fuller understanding of the political climates Cherokees encountered throughout the early to mid-nineteenth century and the work of Sequoyah, a Cherokee genius, who introduced his syllabary in 1821.

Format: Undefined
Length: 1264 pages
Publication date: 06 December 2022
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

This collection of John Howard Payne Papers is a remarkable recovery of firsthand political and social histories of Indigenous cultures, particularly the Cherokees, a southeastern tribe whose ancestral lands included parts of the present-day states of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The papers enable readers to understand how the Cherokees and many other American Indians endured and persevered as they encountered forced removal in the 1830s due to the Indian Removal Act. The papers are also a source of cultural revitalization, elucidating the work of Sequoyah, a Cherokee genius, who in 1821 introduced his syllabary, a phonemic system with eighty-five symbols.

John Howard Payne (1791–1852), an American actor, poet, and playwright, was so taken by the Cherokees' story that he lobbied Congress to forgo their removal and wrote articles in contemporary newspapers supporting Cherokees. In 1835, Payne journeyed to the Cherokee Nation and met with John Ross, Cherokee chief from 1828 to 1866, who found in Payne a colleague to assist him and other Cherokees with their cause against removal and in preserving their ancient social, spiritual, and political heritages. Payne gathered and recorded correspondence between Cherokees such as Ross, who was fluent in English, and U.S. officials. These papers include multiple correspondences, ratified and unratified treaties, contemporary newspaper articles, and resolutions sent to Congress appealing for justice for the Cherokees. Payne also assembled letters and writings by New England Congregationalist missionaries who resided in mission stations throughout the Cherokee Nation.

Available in print for the first time, this remarkable repository of information provides a fuller understanding of the political climates Cherokees enco.

Dimension: 254 x 178 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780803243873