Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Carolina in Crisis
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Waterville
STATE: ME
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.colby.edu/historydept/daniel-j-tortora/ * https://allthingsliberty.com/author/daniel-tortora/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2014006243
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2014006243
HEADING: Tortora, Daniel J.
000 00294nz a2200109n 450
001 9464761
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008 140131n| azannaabn |n aaa
010 __ |a n 2014006243
040 __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC
100 1_ |a Tortora, Daniel J.
670 __ |a Fort Halifax, 2014: |b ECIP t.p. (Daniel J. Tortora)
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Washington and Lee University, B.A. 2003; University of South Carolina, M.A., 2006; Duke University, Ph.D., 2011.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Colby College, Waterville, ME, assistant professor of history. Contributor to films, archaeological projects, exhibits, and research projects. Contributor to movement to rebuild and interpret Fort Halifax in Winslow, Maine.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Daniel J. Tortora. is a writer and assistant professor of history at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He researches and teaches courses about American and Native American history and he lectures on the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War eras. Tortora also leads battlefield and historic tours and has contributed to films, archaeological projects, exhibits, and research projects. He is involved with a movement to rebuild Fort Halifax in Winslow, Maine.
Tortora received his B.A. from Washington and Lee University in 2003, his M.A. from the University of South Carolina in 2006 and his Ph.D. from Duke University in 2011. Tortora wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the Anglo-Cherokee War of 1759-1762, fought in the mountains of Tennessee, North and South Carolina. He lives in Waterville, Maine.
In Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756-1763, Tortora tells the story of the Anglo-Cherokee War. He describes the circumstances leading up to the war, the main events that transpired and how the various participants fared, and what occurred following its conclusion. Tortora attempts to address the difficulty in presenting the history of the South, as there are so many perspectives that require representation to create a full, balanced story. He does this by offering perspectives from numerous sources. Tortora follows the example of recent scholars in their attempts to dig up previously untouched histories in order to provide a more rounded understanding of historical events. In presenting the story of the Anglo-Cherokee War, he includes topics such as the Indian slave trade, the effects of merchant capitalism, concern over smallpox, and fear of a slave uprising. Tortora’s research is taken from archival and published sources as well as the current literature on the topics.
The book opens with an introduction to the influence and importance of Native American affairs on early colonial life. Tortora describes the ways in which Native societies impacted colonial policy decisions and gives a brief overview of the Seven Years’ War. In the introduction he also provides a synopsis of the current literature on the Anglo-Cherokee War. The book then goes onto chronologically document the events leading up to the Anglo-Cherokee War. Tortora writes about the circumstances and actions that led to shifts in relations between the British and the Cherokees. The two groups started as allies, but as tensions rose, violent actions from both dashed hopes of friendly relations. The relationship quickly turned hostile and the two groups became violent enemies.
Tortora provides a multifaceted image of South Carolina during this time. He explains that tensions were high due to strained relations with Cherokees, but that was not the only reason individuals living in this reason were unsettled. Fear of smallpox and other epidemics plagued South Carolinians, and lack of economic stability created anxiety. White settlers feared slave uprisings, and clashed with British authorities. Tortora makes clear that the tensions that developed before, during, and after the Anglo-Cherokee War were influential in leading colonists to seek out independence from the British.
Tensions between the British and the Cherokees ignited when South Carolina colonists began taking increasingly hostile actions toward the Cherokees, including taking hostages from their tribe. Cherokees responded with violence, which they viewed as a fitting and necessary retaliation. Early in the conflict, the Cherokees achieved several important victories, including the success over Fort Loudoun in 1760 and the assassinations of British officers. The British responded ruthlessly, completely decimating several Cherokee towns and ruining the associated farmland. Surviving Cherokees fled to the mountains. Following the British victory over the Cherokees, relations between the two were essentially over. The British neglected the defeated Cherokees, viewing them as nuisances.
These actions led to a period of peace, but neither the Cherokees, the British officials, nor South Carolinian merchants and planters were content with the outcome of the war. Remaining Cherokees were estranged, and tensions existed between the British officials and the merchants and planters, who believed the officials had not been extreme nor thorough enough in their treatment of Cherokees and disapproved of the terms of peace following the war.
Tortora tells the story by presenting white colonial, Cherokee, and African American perspectives from archival research. In Journal of Southern History, Matthew Jennings suggested, “readers will benefit from Tortora’s ability to weave these disparate and occasionally divergent strands together into a cohesive, engaging narrative.”
Jennings also suggested that Carolina in Crisis is lacking an in depth look at particular key historical events. He wrote, “students of Native American history hoping for a thoroughly Cherokee centric take on the war may wish that more had been made of the clash between Attakullakulla and Oconostota; the ramifications of the war for Cherokee conceptions of gender; the interplay between clan, town, and nation; and the Cherokee delegations that traveled to London mentioned near the beginning and end of the book.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Choice, November, 2015. J. Mercantini, review of Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756-1763, p. 486.
Journal of Southern History, November, 2016, Matthew Jennings, review of Carolina in Crisis, p. 906.*
Daniel J. Tortora
Assistant Professor of History
Department: History
Contact
Office: Miller Library 251
Phone: 207-859-5325
Fax: 859-5340
Email: dtortora@colby.edu
Mailing Address
5325 Mayflower Hill
Waterville, Maine 04901-8853
Education
Ph.D. – Duke University, 2011
M.A. – The University of South Carolina, 2006
B.A. – Washington and Lee University, 2003
Courses Currently Teaching 2014-2015
Course Course Title
HI131 A Survey of U.S. History to 1865
HI234 A Native Americans since 1850
HI432 A Research Seminar: Native Americans in New England
Daniel J. Tortora
Daniel J. Tortora is assistant professor of History at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, where he teaches courses in American and Native American history. He is author of Fort Halifax: Winslow's Historic Outpost and Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756-1763. He speaks extensively on the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War eras, leads battlefield and historic tours, and has contributed to films, archaeological projects, exhibits, and research projects. He is part of the movement to rebuild and interpret Fort Halifax in Winslow, Maine.
Daniel J. Tortora
I am a Ph.D. candidate at Duke. I am writing my dissertation on the Anglo-Cherokee War of 1759-1762, fought in the mountains of Tennessee, North and South Carolina. An early Americanist by trade, my supporting fields are American Indian History and Atlantic World slavery. My larger interests lie in “frontiers,” racial conflict, and the American South. I also do a bit of evangelical history,
having recently published some work on presbyterianism in mid-eighteenth
century Charleston, SC. My educational background is as follows:
Ph.D. candidate, Duke University
M.A. University of South Carolina
B.A. Geology, History, Washington and Lee University
I will focus my postings on subjects like the Anglo-Cherokee War, Native American conflicts in the Southeast, Slave rebellions, and the French and Indian War.
Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the
American Southeast, 1756-1763
Matthew Jennings
Journal of Southern History.
82.4 (Nov. 2016): p906.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
Full Text:
Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756-1763. By Daniel J. Tortora. (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 2015. Pp. xii, 274. Paper, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4696-2122-7.)
Daniel J. Tortora's Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756-1763, a new history of the Seven Years'
War in the Southeast, charges headlong into one of the most fraught issues in the history of the colonial South, and the overall result is
illuminating and impressive. In recent years scholars have been treated to a number of excellent works regarding specific aspects of the
indigenous Southeast. Our understanding of the Indian slave trade, the effects of merchant capitalism, and various individual Native communities
has increased dramatically. Our understanding of African enslavement has increased dramatically, too, thanks to the growing sophistication of
demographic analysis and attention to cultural history on both sides of the Atlantic. If one believes that it is impossible to render the history of the
South fully and honestly without including multiple perspectives, then the main problem facing students of the region's history is how, exactly, to
go about that project. Carolina in Crisis provides one possible template, and it is a promising one indeed.
The book's brief introduction reminds readers of the importance of Indian affairs to colonial policy makers, gives an overview of the Seven Years'
War in broad strokes, and reviews the extant literature on the Anglo-Cherokee War to set the stage. The book then proceeds chronologically
through the conflict and its aftermath, explaining how, in a short time, "Cherokees went from British allies to enemies to neglected nuisances" (p.
1). A blow-by-blow account is beyond the scope of this review, but the basics are as follows: Cherokees were justifiably aggrieved by a series of
increasingly outrageous actions on the part of South Carolina, including taking high-level hostages, and the Cherokees responded by engaging in
violence they viewed as appropriate, even necessary. Cherokee warriors scored several key victories, such as killing British officers and forcing
the capitulation of Fort Loudoun in 1760, but these victories only served to inflame British desires to launch a terrifying campaign against the
Cherokee Lower Towns, destroying several with their associated cornfields completely, and sending refugees into the mountains. Such actions
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eventually brought peace to the region, but it was a troubled peace. Not only had provincial and imperial soldiers alienated the vast majority of
Cherokees, but also South Carolina's merchants and planters believed that British forces had not been harsh or thorough enough and thus
quarreled with British officials, in a prelude to the independence crisis of the next decade. At every stage, Tortora provides fine-grained accounts
from multiple Cherokee, white, and, to a lesser extent, African American perspectives. Readers will benefit from Tortora's ability to weave these
disparate and occasionally divergent strands together into a cohesive, engaging narrative.
Carolina in Crisis showcases Tortora's solid research in archival and published sources and his clear mastery of the historical literature. Still,
Cherokee and African American viewpoints and voices are difficult to recover. Occasionally, the sections on African American responses to the
crisis seem truncated, though tantalizing. Students of Native American history hoping for a thoroughly Cherokee-centric take on the war may
wish that more had been made of the clash between Attakullakulla and Oconostota; the ramifications of the war for Cherokee conceptions of
gender; the interplay between clan, town, and nation; and the Cherokee delegations that traveled to London mentioned near the beginning and end
of the book. Even these minor quibbles are not totally fair, though. Scholars constantly look for histories, whether to add to their own bookshelves
and lecture notes or to assign to students, that convey the full complexity of the colonial era and the diversity of its peoples without overvaluing
white perspectives and undervaluing the perspectives of others. For the Seven Years' War in South Carolina, Carolina in Crisis fulfills that need
admirably, and it is a welcome addition to the history of the early American South.
MATTHEW JENNINGS
Middle Georgia State University
Jennings, Matthew
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Jennings, Matthew. "Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756-1763." Journal of Southern History,
vol. 82, no. 4, 2016, p. 906+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470867668&it=r&asid=a21c697a54d61b97f53d1685e6f93b84. Accessed 9 July
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A470867668
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Tortora, Daniel J.: Carolina in crisis: Cherokees, colonists,
and slaves in the American southeast, 1756-1763
J. Mercantini
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.
53.3 (Nov. 2015): p486.
COPYRIGHT 2015 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
Full Text:
Tortora, Daniel J. Carolina in crisis: Cherokees, colonists, and slaves in the American southeast, 1756-1763. North Carolina, 2015. 274p bibl
index afp ISBN 9781469621227 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9781469621234 ebook, contact publisher for price
53-1463
E83
2014-34900 CIP
Tortora (Colby College) places conflict with the Cherokee Nation at the center of the history of South Carolina in the mid-18th century. In his
account, tensions leading to the Anglo-Cherokee War of 175961 fueled the anxiety of the Low Country elite. The atmosphere of uncertainty and
eventual bloodshed, as well as smallpox and other epidemics plus growing economic fears, led to fears of a slave uprising as well as a millennial
impulse in the colony. Differences over prosecution of the war and of the terms of peace divided the colony differed from those of imperial
authorities, and fueled the rise of many of the men who would lead the Palmetto State to independence. Tortora's mastery of the differences
among the various bands of the Cherokee Nation and Colonial and imperial negotiations with the Native Americans is the books strongest aspect.
His efforts to incorporate African Americans, women (chiefly through the matrilineal aspects of Cherokee culture), and the larger scope of
imperial affairs are not as well developed. Despite this, his imaginative connections enrich understanding of Colonial South Carolina and the
coming of the American Revolution there. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--J. Mercantini,
Kean University
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Mercantini, J. "Tortora, Daniel J.: Carolina in crisis: Cherokees, colonists, and slaves in the American southeast, 1756-1763." CHOICE: Current
Reviews for Academic Libraries, Nov. 2015, p. 486+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA434319798&it=r&asid=96beacab614a9f44efac935cc308a9b1. Accessed 9 July 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A434319798