“In his book, Adair dates his entry into the deerskin trade at 1735, when he briefly traded with the Catawba Indians. He quickly moved to the more lucrative Cherokee trade and soon afterward began trading with the Chickasaw. Adair, a man of education and ability, quickly caught the attention of those in power, and he was employed by the governor of South Carolina to entice a band of Chickasaw Indians to resettle at New Windsor, near Fort Moore on the Savannah River, to help defend the post – and colony – from attack by Indian allies of the French or Spanish.” [ii]
While Adair’s career as an Indian trader and agent for South Carolina certainly makes him worthy of historic attention, “it is his book that sets him apart from other notables of the day. By the time the work was published, he had developed it from an event-driven narrative into a complex examination of the origins of the American Indians. The book details important events between the 1740s and the 1770s from the viewpoint of a backcountry settler and merchant, including commentary on land grants and settlement patterns in West Florida and British policies regarding the Indians. It is particularly valuable in documenting the bitter struggle between British and French colonists for control of Indian allies and thus, the southern backcountry.
“More importantly, Adair’s discourse on the origin of the American Indians is the most complete and systematic attempt by an American to discuss the question up to that time—a question of prime importance among intellectuals of Adair’s day. His central thesis, which dominates the text and has subsequently caused many to dismiss the contents, includes 23 arguments purporting to demonstrate that the American Indians are of Hebrew descent (the Lost Tribes of Israel).”[iii]
Adair’s Arguments
As mentioned above, James Adair presented 23 arguments he felt proved that the North American aborigines were descended from the ten lost tribes. These are:
“1. Their division into tribes. 2. Their worship of J-hov-h. 3. Their notions of a theocracy. 4. Their belief in the administration of angels. 5. Their language and dialects. 6. Their manner of counting time. 7. Their prophets and high priests. 8. Their festivals, fasts and religious rites. 9. Their daily sacrifice. 10. Their ablutions and anointings. 11. Their laws of uncleanliness. 12. Their abstinence from unclean things. 18. Their marriage, divorces and punishments of adultery. 14. Their several punishments. 15. Their cities of refuge. 16. Their purifications and preparatory ceremonies. 17. Their ornaments. 18. Their manner of’ curing the sick. 19. Their burial of the dead. 20. Their mourning for the dead. 21. Their raising seed to a deceased brother. 22. Their change of names adapted to their circumstances and times. 23. Their own traditions, the account of English writers; and the testimonies given by Spaniards and other writers of the primitive inhabitants of Mexico and Peru.”
In next month’s column we will examine some of these “proofs.” None of them, of course, have any basis in fact.
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[i] The Jewish Encyclopedia, Volume XII,Ktav Publishing House, Inc, 1901-1905, page 249. This article is available at www.jewishencyclopedia.com
[ii] Encyclopedia of Alabama, James Adair (http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1098)
[iii] Ibid.