The Southern Cherokee were adopting the racially-based enslavement practices of their white neighbors, and the Hite enslaved people captured by the Cherokee were taken away as war booty to work on their farms.1
Abba may have remained with her parents, but life was uncertain, frightening, and bleak. Escape was not possible, and no rescue party was on the way for her in her second enslavement.
A Son Named Harry
Historians think that Abba was enslaved by the Cherokee for about 10 years, starting in 1776 when she was 7-years-old and continuing to around 1786/7. During this time, Abba bore a son named Harry on December 4, 1787.
There are three key sources that historians have primarily used to analyze and tell this part of Abba and Harry’s story:
- History of the Valley of Virginia, Samuel Kercheval, 1833
- Some Prominent Virginia Families, Vol. IV, Louise Perquet du Bellet, 1907
- Shenandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants, T.K. Cartmell, 1909
Despite the slight discrepancies and variations between these three authors, the core of the story remains the same: Harry is Abba’s half-Cherokee son, born after she was kidnapped by and enslaved in the Cherokee nation following the killings of Jacob and Frances Hite and the disappearance of their daughters, Eleanor and Susan.
A well-known and often quoted passage from du Bellet provides insight into Harry’s disposition as he grew up at Belle Grove:
Her boy [Abba’s son] grew up a very eccentric character and figured on the plantation as “Indian Harry.” He could never be civilized, but kept to himself; was always taciturn and refused to do anything except help in the kitchen, where his mother was assistant cook. From the time the boy was twelve or thirteen years old he would disappear the first warm weather in spring and be seen no more till snow came. Then he would suddenly and silently appear in the kitchen and take up his position in the corner of the large fireplace, on a seat the other servants dared not take when he was about. He condescended sometimes, to bring wood and water, peel potatoes, or pick fowls. When about forty years old, he disappeared in the spring and returned no more.
Louise Pecquet du Bellet, “Some prominent Virginia families” (Volume IV, 1907) 2
After the raid on Jacob Hite’s homestead, the Cherokee left the area with the enslaved people. One group headed to Kituwah, a holy town in the high hills of the Carolinas, far from the Revolutionary War at that moment. This may have been the group taking Abba and one would presume her family.
The other group fled to the Georgia mountains for five weeks following the raid with Frances Hite as their prisoner, who they killed before being captured by the South Carolina militia.
| Did you know? |
| It’s uncommon to know an enslaved person’s exact birth date, but it’s one of the few specific datapoints in Major Isaac Hite Jr’s ledger (commonly called “The Commonplace Book“). He wrote the following entry for Harry: “Harry (Abba’s) [born] 4 December 1787 Died October 22, 1828.” The parenthetical reference to Abba confirm that he is her son. |
