Henry Woodward (colonist) - Trade With Chattahoochee River Indians

Trade With Chattahoochee River Indians

Starting perhaps as early as 1675, and definitely by the mid-1680s, Woodward was traveling to the southwest of modern Georgia, visiting the Indian towns along the lower Chattahoochee River such as Coweta and Cussita (later to be key towns of the Creek Nation). He led a dozen other Charles Town traders to the Chattahoochee Indians. These traders took over the business after Woodward's death.

During these trips Woodward discovered some Chickasaw Indians who had married into the Chattahoochee River "proto-Creek" groups. The ties between the Chickasaw and the proto-Creeks were fairly strong, which helped the English to discover a new market among the Chickasaw to the far west. Woodward was involved in this initial stage of English-Chickasaw relations, but he died before the first adventurous traders traveled to Chickasaw territory in the early 1690s.

The lower Chattahoochee River region had previously been contacted by Spain and was considered a potential mission province known as the Apalachicola Province. A visit by Woodward in 1685 sparked a Spanish reaction. Lieutenant Governor Antonio Matheos led a force of 6 Spanish soldiers and as many as 200 gun-toting Apalachee Indians from Mission San Luis de Apalachee in western Florida to the lower Chattahoochee towns. The English traders hid or fled. The following year, 1686, Matheos returned with a larger force, marching from town to town and confiscating firearms, deerskins, and other trade goods. Matheos offered the towns of "Apalachicola Province" the chance to submit to Spanish authority. Eight towns did so. The four that did not, including Coweta and Cussita, were burned to the ground. Following this, the four towns grudgingly pledged their obedience to Spain. Within years, English traders from South Carolina were again active among these towns, but, in 1690, Henry Woodward died in Charles Town.