Even before enslaved Africans were first brought to North America by Europeans, forms of slavery already existed among Indigenous tribes on the continent; in the Cherokee Nation, for example, slavery was determined by the capture of enemy warriors, which did not signify an economic gain as it did in the Euro-American slave economy.¹ Because these warrior captives of the Cherokee Nation were considered substitutes for deceased clan members, they had the possibility of being adopted into a Cherokee clan, receiving the same status as any other clan member. However, with increasing contact with white colonists, especially the increasing number of British settlers intruding on Cherokee land in the early eighteenth century, the Cherokees learned they could profit from capturing people with African ancestry and trading them to white planters. These enslaved Africans were considered commercial goods rather than laborers to retain.² Slowly, through their exposure to the Atlantic slave trade and its racial biases, the Cherokees came to perceive Black people as inferior to both whites and themselves, forming a sense of racial difference.  

Beginning in the early eighteenth century, the growing number of intermarriages between Cherokees and Euro-Americans or African descendants led to the creation of laws regarding marriage and property rights that restricted the integration of Black people into the Cherokee tribe. Because the Cherokee tribe was a matrilineal society, women’s rights were curtailed as well by marriage and property laws. These legal measures against intermarriages reveal the increasing number of African-Cherokees in the Cherokee Nation as well as their deeper familial, cultural, and social ties to the Nation. 
 
Restrictions on how marriage and citizenship rights were applied to African descendants within the Cherokee Nation eventually led to more racialized practices in defining Cherokee identity. While the Cherokee emphasis on “blood” to determine citizenship rights has roots in their matrilineal society, the racialization of this practice in the early nineteenth century altered the traditional values underpinning the recognition of tribal membership and replaced them with the Western value of “race as capital” in compliance with the budding modern state. The events outlined in the chronology below demonstrate how the evaluation of Cherokee “blood” to determine citizenship came to be governed by the Cherokee national body and this determination was removed from the jurisdiction of multiple clan bodies.³ 

1730—The Treaty of Dover stipulates the Cherokee role as slave traders.⁴ British colonists strategically separate the two groups, setting them at odds with one another. This action exacerbates racial bias towards Africans. 

1791—After the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War, the Cherokee Nation signs the Treaty of Holston with the United States. The gradual Americanization of the Cherokee includes owning Black slaves.⁵

1808—The first Cherokee written law adopts patrilineal inheritance, contrary to the traditional matrilineality. The law is also signed only by men.⁶  

1819—As intermarriages between European settlers and Cherokee increase, Cherokee law limits the access of European and European-American spouses to the property of their Cherokee wives. Since matrilineality has been the traditional method of determining citizenship by clan affiliations, this law enforces the protection of Cherokee women’s rights as property owners. The importance of blood is also reinforced in determining Cherokee citizenship, which excludes enslaved people and war captives from clan membership.

1824—An act of punishment for intermarriage passes in the Cherokee Council.

1825—A new law grants citizenship to the children of Cherokee men and their European or American wives. This law does not include the case of children of Cherokee men and free women of African descent, revealing a racial stratification between Euro-Americans and African descendants.⁷

1827—The New Echota Constitution permits citizenship for the descendants of Cherokee women and free Black men, but not the descendants of Cherokee men and free Black women. The privileges are also limited. African descendants are excluded from holding any office.⁸  

In the winter of 1838–39, enslaved Africans migrated with the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears, also forced to participate in this pivotal historical event. While the exact number of the enslaved who were forcibly migrated are not known, it is not difficult to imagine them having cared for the slaveholding families, both cooking and preparing for camping and packing, during this horrendous journey by foot or steamboat. However, rather than being acknowledged for their role and lived experience in Cherokee history, the enslaved Black population became an increasingly valuable human asset for the Cherokee slaveholders who were forced from their homeland. Enslaved Africans were all they owned, and, with this labor force, some tribal slaveholders reconstructed their lives in the Indian Territory (current-day Oklahoma), slowly gaining wealth. Enslaved Black people were thus the backbone of the Cherokee economy, under its chattel slavery. 

1830, May 28—The US Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, aiming to relocate Native American tribes to grant lands west of the Mississippi River, away from their homelands. Against this infringement of sovereignty, preserving Cherokee identity becomes a much more exigent goal. Because the Cherokees cannot own individual tracts of land in the Cherokee Nation, enslaved Blacks become the most valuable property.

Slave Codes

1839, Sept. 6—The Cherokee Nation establishes a constitution that excludes enslaved individuals from the right to vote, as well as from eligibility to obtain a seat in the legislative department of the Cherokee Nation’s government. 

1839, Sept. 19—The Cherokee National Council enacts “An Act to Prevent Amalgamation with Colored Persons,” which states that “intermarriage shall not be lawful between a free male or female citizen with any slave or person of color not entitled to the rights of citizenship under the laws of this Nation.” In this context, the term “free” encompasses both Indigenous and white individuals, but not Black enslaved people, settling a racial and social hierarchy between Blacks and non-Black citizens. Notably, the law persecuted Black men more severely, policing both Black male and Cherokee women’s sexuality at the same time.

In the wake of the act’s passage, more slave codes are enacted that prevent enslaved individuals from owning property, moving around freely, or being literate. Free Black people’s situation wasn’t much different. Nevertheless, these measures did not stop Black people from surviving in the hostile society, sometimes through bypassing the laws and actively seeking rebellion.  

The racial discrimination and tension in the Cherokee Nation were similar to what the African descendants enslaved by citizens of the United States were going through. However, the deprivation of citizenship even when an African descendant married a Cherokee citizen would eventually cause further problems when their Black-Cherokee progeny were unable to prove their Cherokee ancestry, which was required to establish citizenship and rights within the tribe. 

1840—Free and enslaved Black people have been actively seeking economic gains within restrictions. A new law declares it illegal for “any free negro or mulatto, not of Cherokee blood, to hold or own any improvement within the limits of this Nation.” The National Council also bans enslaved people from owning any property, making it illegal for “any person to trade with a negro slave, in any way whatever, without first having obtained permission from the owner of such negro slave.”⁹  

1842—Free Black people’s existence becomes a threat, and the Cherokee National Council passes an act to force all free Black people not emancipated by Cherokees to leave the Nation. It also adds, “Should any free negro or negroes be found guilty of aiding, abetting or decoying any slave or slaves, to leave his or their owner or employer, such free negro or negroes, shall receive for each and every such offence, one hundred lashes on the bare back, and be immediately removed from this Nation.”¹⁰ These measures indicate the rising number of enslaved people seeking freedom. 

1842, Nov. 15—Twenty enslaved Black people escape from the Cherokee Nation, joined by fifteen enslaved individuals from the Creek Nation. At the time, this is the largest reported number of enslaved people rebelling and escaping, leading to more rebellions in the Indian Territory. However, the December 1842 Slave Revolt, also in the Cherokee Nation, ends in stricter slave codes.

1842, Dec. 2—"An Act In Regard to Free Negroes" limits the rights of the free people of African descent.

1860—Enslaved Black people compose 15 percent of the residents in the Cherokee Nation.