Capture of General Evan Shelby's Negro Girl

By Emory L. Hamilton

From the unpublished manuscript, Indian Atrocities Along the Clinch, Powell and Holston Rivers, page 17.

After killing John Duncan at Moore's Fort the next strike of Logan, the Mingo Chief, was at the fort of General Evan Shelby, near the present Bristol. At this time General Shelby was away on the Lewis Expedition to Ohio. On October 6, 1774, the Indians captured a slave girl belonging to Shelby.

In a letter dated October 9, 1774, Major Arthur Campbell reports the raid on Shelby's settlement in this manner:

On last Thursday evening, ye 6th instant, the Indians took a Negro wench prisoner, belonging to Captain Evan Shelby, within 300 yards of his home. After they took her some distance, they examined her, asking how many guns were in the fort and other questions relative to the strength of the place. They asked her if the store was kept there now. After they had carried her off about a mile, they saw or heard a boy coming from the mill; they immediately tied the wench and went off to catch the boy. While they were gone the wench luckily got loose and made her escape. She says they knocked her down twice when she refused to tell in what situation the fort was; and she says one was a large man much whiter than the rest, and talked good English. It was the same kind of person Mr. Blackmore saw in pursuit of the Negro he relieved. (1)

(1) Calender Virginia State Papers, Draper Mss 3 QQ.



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