Ex-Slave Stories
District 5
Vanderburgh County
Lauana Creel

Indians made slaves among the negroes. 
Interviews with George Fortman
Cor.  Bellemeade Ave. and Garvin St.
Evansville, Indiana, and other interested citizens

“The story of my life, I will tell to you with sincerest respect to all and love to many, although reviewing the dark trail of my childhood and early youth causes me great pain.”  So spoke George Fortman, an aged man and former slave, although the history of his life reveals that no Negro blood runs through his veins.

“My story necessarily begins by relating events which occurred in 1838, when hundreds of Indians were rounded up like cattle and driven away from the valley of the Wabash.  It is a well known fact recorded in the histories of Indiana that the long journey from the beautiful Wabash Valley was a horrible experience for the fleeing Indians, but I have the tradition as relating to my own family, and from this enforced flight ensued the tragedy of my birth.”

The aged ex-slave reviews tradition.  “My two ancestors, John Hawk, a Blackhawk Indian brave, and Racheal, a Chackatau maiden had made themselves a home such as only Indians know, understand and enjoy.  He was a hunter and a fighter but had professed faith in Christ through the influence of the missionaries.  My greatgrandmother passed the facts on to her children and they have been handed down for four generations.  I, in turn, have given the traditions to my children and grandchildren.

“No more peaceful home had ever offered itself to the red man than the beautiful valley of the Wabash river.  Giant elms, sycamores and maple trees bordered the stream while the fertile valley was traversed with creeks and rills, furnishing water in abundance for use of the Indian campers.

“The Indians and the white settlers in the valley transacted business with each other and were friendly towards each other, as I have been told by my mother, Eliza, and my grandmother, Courtney Hawk.

“The missionaries often called the Indian families together for the purpose of teaching them and the Indians had been invited, prior to being driven from the valley, to a sort of festival in the woods.  They had prepared much food for the occasion.  The braves had gone on a long hunt to provide meat and the squaws had prepared much corn and other grain to be used at the feast.  All the tribes had been invited to a council and the poor people were happy, not knowing they were being deceived.

“The decoy worked, for while the Indians were worshiping God the meeting was rudely interrupted by orders of the Governor of the State.  The Governor, whose duty it was to give protection to the poor souls, caused them to be taken captives and driven away at the point of swords and guns.

“In vain, my grandmother said, the Indians prayed to be let return to their homes.  Instead of being given their liberty, some several hundred horses and ponies were captured to be used in transporting the Indians away from the valley.  Many of the aged Indians and many innocent children died on the long journey and traditional stories speak of that journey as the ‘trail of death.’”