Hidden LiteraciesMain MenuHidden Literacies - An IntroductionPhillis Wheatley, Amanuensisa letter from Susanna Wheatley, likely dictated to the famous poet she enslaved — with commentary by Katy L. ChilesWalt Whitman’s Baby Talka Confederate veteran writes fan mail in the voice of his infant son — with commentary by Matt Cohen‘Permit Us to Speak Plainly’the 1849 Munsee Petition to Zachary Taylor — with commentary by Andrew NewmanJuvenile Journalism and Genocidea manuscript magazine by three young boys — with commentary by Karen Sánchez-EpplerVisions, Versions, and DeedsCreek Sovereignty in Coosaponakeesa’s Memorials — with commentary by Caroline WiggintonAccounting for Mary Fowler Occoma household inventory of Mary Occom — with commentary by Kelly WisecupLetters and Charactersletter from Walter Duncan to Dollie Duncan from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary — with commentary by Ellen CushmanWriting the Prisoncongregate literacy in the New York penitentiary — with commentary by Jodi Schorb‘Outlandish Characters’a Kickapoo prayer stick — with commentary by Phillip RoundCesar Lyndon Was Herethe account book of an enslaved man in colonial Rhode Island — with commentary by Tara A. BynumBirch-Bark Publications of Simon PokaganMargaret NoodinHidden Literacies - The PodcastAll podcast episodesHidden Literacies - CreditsIndexIndex of all pages
Page 5 - Reading and Writing about a Sovereign Nation
12019-07-18T16:39:34+00:00Emma Sternberg9dd1d1d0edcde572d5819158147f717e072da3b915Wigginton Page 5plain2019-10-11T20:31:13+00:00Joelle Thomas0feb3b2b7a8befeee2c7d2d710d303ed96772141 One literacy that Coosaponakeesa reads and then writes with over the course of the memorials is what it means to be a sovereign nation with “natural rights” in the colonial Southeast’s dynamic trans-national space. In 1747, she notes that “her Ancesstors, Tho under the Appellation of Savages, or Barbarions, were a brave and free born people, who never owed Allegiance, to or Acknowledged the sovereignty of any Crowned Head whatever, but have always maintained their own Possessions and Independency, Against all Opposers by Warr, at the Expence of their Blood; as they Can shew by the many Troophies of Victory, and Relicts of their Enimies slain in Defence of their Natural Rights.” Similarly, the 1754 memorial insists on the Creek Nation’s eternal “Independency,” in both the portion attributed to her and the portion attributed to Creek micos, but almost certainly written by her in her role as their agent and translator. Finally, in 1755, she adds language that indicates the present Creek peoples are the “Successors (Collectively) and Natural born Heirs” to the Creeks of the past. In statements like these, Coosaponakeesa perceives British principles of sovereignty as permitting alliance with but not allegiance to another nation and Crown. Her Creek ancestors were and contemporaries are free and independent and “maintain their own Possessions,” a formulation that aligns citizenship with personal status and property rights; this citizenship was endowed by God, confirmed and protected through blood and sacrifice, and continuously passed on to each successive generation in an unbroken genealogy. All of this history is at the root of Creek “natural rights.” Moreover, because elsewhere she links her inheritance and authority to her Creek kin, she also links Creek sovereignty to women’s lineages. Her marriage to Bosomworth specifically and British legal principles generally covers and replaces neither her nor Creek rights. Coosaponakeesa reads British sovereignty and then writes a Creek version into these memorials. <insert second four column side by side excerpt comparison here; see “insert 2.docx”>
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