Benjamin Hawkins

Who was Benjamin Hawkins?

Benjamin Hawkins was an American planter, statesman, and United States Indian agent . He was a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite. Appointed by George Washington as General Superintendent for Indian Affairs, he had responsibility for the territory of the Southeast south of the Ohio River, and was principal Indian agent to the Creek Indians.

Hawkins established the Creek Agency and his plantation in present-day Georgia, where he lived in what became Crawford County. He learned the Muscogee language, was adopted by the tribe and married Lavinia Downs, a Creek woman, with whom he had seven children. He wrote extensively about the Creek and other Southeast tribes: the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw. He eventually built a large complex with African slave labor, including mills, and raised considerable livestock in cattle and hogs.