April 30

On this day in 1825, 200 Creek warriors set fire to a plantation house, and shot and stabbed the owner to death. The owner was William McIntosh, a Creek Indian chief killed by his own people.

McIntosh was born around 1778 to a white Scotsman and a Creek woman. Though raised among the creeks, he spoke fluent English and was related by blood or marriage to several prominent Georgians—including governors George Troup and David Mitchell—strengthening his loyalty to the United States. His support of slaveholding, cotton cultivation, and personal ownership of property challenged Creek ways of life and alienated him from more traditional Creeks.

In 1825, McIntosh, without Creek consent, negotiated the Treaty of Indian Springs that sold almost all Creek land in Georgia and personally profited McIntosh. According to Creek law, any leader who ceded land to the United States without the full assent of the Creek Nation would be put to death.

The controversial Creek chief was killed on April 30, 1825, Today in Georgia History.