Description

The story of the pivotal struggle between the Creek Indians and an insatiable young United States for control over the Deep Southfrom the acclaimed historian and prizewinning author of The Earth is Weeping

The Creek War is one of the most tragic episodes in American history leading to the greatest loss of Native American life on what is now US soil What began as a vicious internal conflict among the Creek Indians metastasized like a cancer The ensuing Creek War of 18131814 shattered Native American control of the Deep South and led to the infamous Trail of Tears in which the government forcibly removed the southeastern Indians from their homeland The war also gave Andrew Jackson his first combat leadership role and his newfound popularity after defeating the Creeks would set him on the path to the White House

In A Brutal Reckoning Peter Cozzens vividly captures the young Jackson describing a brilliant but harsh military commander with unbridled ambition a taste for cruelty and a fraught sense of honor and duty Jackson would not have won the war without the help of Native American allies yet he denied their role and even insisted on their displacement together with all the Indians of the American South in the Trail of Tears

A conflict involving not only white Americans and Native Americans but also the British and the Spanish the Creek War opened the Deep South to the Cotton Kingdom setting the stage for the American Civil War yet to come No other single Indian conflict had such significant impact on the fate of Americaand A Brutal Reckoning is the definitive book on this forgotten chapter in our history

Cover images landscape Alabama Department of Archives and History Creek Indian sash detail ca1830/ Artokoloro/Alamy Cover design by Jenny Carrow