Andersons of Colonial N. Carolina

I’ll have to add this guy to my list of suspect Indian Traders… also, he has been just out of my radar range for years but has recently come to my attention. A John Underwood is noted as the father in law to a George Anderson who left a will in Granville, 1757… so I have been curious about him for a while but could never find a trail. But that will have to be put on a back burner and researched later… I do not know if this is the guy or not.

I found a deed for “a” John Underwood in the Southampton records… but he is buried up sort of like a tick inside the Nottoway Indian’s Six Mile Square “reservation”. What’s up with that, I mumble to myself. So I’ve been occupying myself with figgerin’ out this perplexity. We all know that Indian Land is, you know…”reserved” for Indians. So how did a white guy worm his way into the sacred bowels of the Square?

I’ve dealt with a number of these colonial era deeds … but this one has some strange terms. Like “to corner number thirteen” and what the hell is Barrow doing building a “Road” in and amongst the heathens? I mean, wouldn’t a road builder surely get his ass shot full of pointy arrows or bbbb..bullets? Tommyhawks for sure!

Heres a map… its what I do… the sumbitch usurper is lower right (I used red for the color…get it?)

So with my curiosity meter on high… I searched up an article by Dr. Helen Rountree and she was right on top of all my questions. She is also remarkably un-racist and un-bigoted… but then what do I know? Hell! I watched John Wayne right there on the Big Screen when he kilt all those Comancheros and Comanches what kilt hapless settlers and buried guys up to their necks in ant beds… I know how Injuns really are… well, except for that old commercial on TV that showed that Indian with a tear running down his cheek. I get choked up thinking about it until I remember he was an actor just, you know… acting. (Iron Eyes Cody… that Italian guy from Louisiana)

Seems like it was common knowledge the Nottoway Indians drank spiritous liquors to excess. Well not ALL of them of course… but enough … if I say the Indians were a bunch of drunks I would of course be a racist bigot asshole.

Those princes of men in the colonial Virginia Legislature (I guess you could call it that) wrote a damn law! about the Drunken Indians and how they could sell their land to solve their lack of sobriety problem. (They were Problem Fixers for true!) I am convinced without any doubt whatsoever that Lyndon B. Johnson would have approved this bill and be inspired to later initiate his own bill for a Great Society. I quote verbatim…

Here are a couple more deeds of the Nottoway Indians selling their land. I’m 70 years old now and have lost my youthful misconceptions. I study history as it was… not how we wish it was. I may return to this study later but I think I will take a breather for now… its hard for me to find any humor when it gets this sad…

Drink in moderation.