Tuckahoe-Cohee - Tuckahoe/Cohee Cultural Comparison

Tuckahoe/Cohee Cultural Comparison

One of the most distinct and enduring differences between tuckahoe and cohee settlers was their view of black slavery as a moral institution. The cohee typically exhibited ambivalence or antipathy toward slavery; while tuckahoe sentiments were overwhelmingly positive toward slavery.

In the late 18th century, lowland society often used “cohee” as a term of disparagement meant to refer to any white back-country settler who was under-educated, rough, and/or poor. Likewise, the poor independent farmer of the upcountry could heap upon any white man raised in tidewater Virginia/Carolina the disparaging term of “tuckahoe” if he exhibited traits of aristocracy, ineffectualness, lack of knowledge of the back-country, or other “effete” characteristics, whether or not he was raised on a plantation.

The tuckahoe, as a cultural group, came to an abrupt and final ending with the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865, and the emancipation of the slaves. Without the economic engine of slavery, the large plantations could no longer supply the wealth necessary to support the aristocratic tuckahoe life-style.

After 1865, "tuckahoe" became an historical term, used almost exclusively in the past tense. Without its cultural apposition, "cohee" too lost its original meaning as a social or cultural identity soon after the ending of the American Civil War. Thus, "tuckahoe" and "cohee" quickly evolved into solely self-referential terms describing a family's ethnic and cultural lineage, independent of social class or wealth. A similar pattern developed on the other side of the mountains, in Tennessee and Alabama.

Tuckahoe is also the Tuckahoe Cherokee or Cherokee Tuckahoe Band, having some Powhatan Tribe links, since there were Cherokee towns near King Powhatan's Main Town according to historians. The Doublehead Kings or Cherokee Doublehead Chiefs related to the Cherokee Maytoy (Mo' Doi) Emperors were also often, but now always, related to Tuckahoe Band of Cherokee, The Upper Cherokee, and other tribes. Tuckahoe was also known to White Colonials, who were often ignorant about Indians, as Tuckahoe Bread or Indian Bread, and other meanings. One of the most famous Indians of American History is Tuckahoe. Tuckahoe Doublehead, a Cherokee chieftain. Doublehead means the flying bird formation, an Oriental religious symbol from God. Tuckahoe Doublehead is linked to Doublehead Cave of Kentucky and other "Doublehead Caves" in other states. The Tuckahoe Cherokee were the original domesticators of the spotted bean, the New World swine, and maize. The Tuckahoe Cherokee are very real, and are not past tense. See: cherokeeempire.bravehost.com