"Deerskins and Duffels" documents the trading relationship in the eighteenth century between the Creek Indians and the Anglo-American peoples who settled in what is now the southeastern United States. The Creeks were the largest Indian nation in the Southeast, and through their trade alliance with the British colonies, they became the dominant Native power in the area.
The deerskin trade became the economic lifeblood of the Creeks after European contact. This book is the first to examine extensively the Creek side of this trade, especially the impact of commercial hunting on all aspects of Indian society. British trade is examined as well: the major traders and trading companies, how goods were taken to the Indians, how the traders lived, and how trade was used as a diplomatic tool. The author also discusses the Creek-Anglo cooperation in the trade of Indian slaves that resulted in the virtual destruction of the Native peoples of Florida. This second edition features a new introduction by the author.

William Bartram traveled throughout the American Southeast from 1773-1776. He occupies a unique place as an American Enlightenment explorer, naturalist, writer, and artist whose work was widely admired in his time and thereafter. Coleridge, the Wordsworths, and other leading romantics found inspiration in his pages. Bartram's most famous work, Travels has remained in print since the first publication of the book in 1791. However, his writings on Indians have received less attention than they deserve. This volume contains all of Bartram's known writings on Native Americans: a new version of "Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians," originally edited by E. G. Squier and first published in 1853; a previously unpublished essay, "Some Hints and Observations Concerning the Civilization of the Indians, or Aborigines of America"; and extensive excerpts from Travels. These documents are among the most valuable accounts we have of the Creeks and Seminoles in the last half of the eighteenth century. Several illustrations by Bartram are also included. The editors provide information on the history of these documents and supply extensive annotations. The book opens with a biographical essay on Bartram and concludes with a thorough evaluation of his contributions to southeastern Indian ethnohistory, anthropology, and archaeology. The editors have identified and corrected a number of errors found in the extant literature concerning Bartram and his writings.

A fully annotated edition of a classic work detailing the cultures of five southeastern American Indian tribes during the Contact Period. James Adair was an Englishman who lived and traded among the southeastern Indians for more than 30 years, from 1735 to 1768. During that time he covered the territory from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River. He encountered and lived among Indians, advised governors, spent time with settlers, and worked tirelessly for the expansion of British interests against the French and the Spanish. Adair's acceptance by the Creeks, Choctaws, Cherokees, and Chickasaws provided him the opportunity to record, compare, and analyze their cultures and traditions. Adair's written work, first published in England in 1775, is considered one of the finest histories of the Native Americans. His observations provide one of the earliest and what many modern scholars regard as the best account of southeastern Indian cultures. This edition adheres to current standards of literary editing, following the original closely, and provides fully annotated and indexed critical apparatus.