The Family of Indian Trader and Author James Adair

By: Shawn Henry Potter, Lois Carol Potter

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

This book provides important new insights into The Family of Indian Trader and Author James Adair. Present-day historians, sociologists, and anthropologists describe Adair’s 1775 publication, The History of the American Indians, as “one of the most valuable primary accounts of the southeastern Indians.” Yet, after the publication of his work, Adair disappeared from public view.

Scholars frequently ask: Did the historian settle in upstate South Carolina? Was he the same person as James Adair of Duncan Creek? Was he a brother of Joseph Adair of Duncan Creek? Was he a brother of William Adair of Fishing Creek? Was he related to brothers John Adair and Edward Adair of upstate South Carolina who married Cherokee wives? Biographers have speculated about potential answers to these questions; but persuasive evidence has been lacking – until now.

The authors discovered the answers to these, and other, questions through a careful review of Adair’s book, his correspondence, accounts by Chickasaw and Cherokee eye witnesses, archival records, DNA analysis, and handwriting comparisons; and they present their findings in the context of the cultures of southeastern Native Americans, customary practice among Indian traders, British settlement patterns, and contemporary historical events.

This work is of special interest to the estimated ten million Americans who trace their ancestries to the Adair family of upstate South Carolina. Yet, it also offers students of history valuable context regarding the lives of the Cherokee and Chickasaw people, Indian traders, and British settlers through a more complete understanding of The Family of Indian Trader and Author James Adair.