Elizabeth Grierson (c. 1790 – 1847) was a 19th-century Muscogee woman from the Hillabee town in the Muscogee Nation, now present-day Alabama.
She was a businesswoman, who used the court system to her advantage. As the Muscogee relationship with people of African descent changed, she became a target of raids and retaliation. She enslaved multiple people and against Muscogee law was in a relationship with one of her former bondsmen, whom she had freed. In 1825, the Muscogee passed a law that barred the marriage of Muscogee and people of African descent. Though wealthy and influential, Grierson was eventually forced to leave Alabama because of her partnership. Settling in Indian Territory, the couple would be forced out of both the Muscogee and Choctaw territory because of their marriage. After living in Arkansas briefly, they found refuge in the Chickasaw Nation.
Since the 20th century, she has often mistakenly been claimed as the wife of William McIntosh, but records created during her lifetime, according to historian Claudio Saunt do not support that conclusion.
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Early life
Elizabeth Grierson, also known as Liza, was the daughter of Robert Grierson and his wife, Sinnugee (Muscogee). In the 18th century, Sinnugee, a multi-racial woman probably of mixed Spanish-Native-Black heritage, fled from Spanish Florida and became a refugee in the Muscogee Nation in what is now Alabama. She was adopted into the tribe and into the Spanalgee (Spanish) clan. She lived in the town of Hillabee (also known as Hilabi) located on a small waterway, near Town Creek, which drained into the Hillabahatchee Creek and Tallapoosa River, about 50 miles from present-day Montgomery, Alabama. Around the time of the American Revolutionary War, Sinnugee married a Scottish trader, Robert Grierson. Their union was advantageous and created wealth and stability for the family, because Grierson brought networks with colonial administrators and contacts, while Sinnugee's ties within the nation created security and acceptance. The couple had eight children born between 1780 and 1800, including Sandy, Watt (sometimes shown as Walter), Thomas, Sarah, David, and the three youngest, Elizabeth, William, and Katy (also known as Catherine). Elizabeth learned to write and was able to sign her own name.
By the 1790s, as the trade in deerskins was declining, the couple were operating a cotton plantation on 30 acres and had around 300 head of cattle, 30 horses, and 40 enslaved people. Producing around 2,000 pounds of cotton annually, Grierson preferred to pay Native American women to pick his crop. This behavior confused Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins, who did not understand the kinship ties and relationships of Native people with their slaves. Within the Muscogee nation, slaves who were intermarried were not considered the same as chattel, and their kinship ties prevented their status of bondage from being passed to their descendants. Slaves who were considered to be kin typically performed domestic services, like cooking, cleaning, farming, and gathering firewood, similarly to other family members.
During the Creek War (1813–1814), the wealth and lifeways of Grierson and Sinnugee made them targets of the Red Sticks, who opposed attempts to assimilate Native people. Their son David was murdered by the Red Sticks in April 1813. Three months later, their home was ransacked and many of their slaves and livestock were destroyed or run off. Attacks against the family included an assault of a daughter-in-law, banishment of their son Sandy, and the murder of their daughter Sarah's child Pinkey Hawkins. Despite the attacks, the family refused to leave their home, until it was razed in October. Left without shelter, they fled north and sought aid from the American troops and Cherokee Nation. Grierson appealed to General Andrew Jackson after the family was attacked by Cherokee warriors near what is now Rome, Georgia, writing that his slaves were stolen, as well as his family's food and clothing. Their son William was serving in the brigade of Muscogee soldiers who had enlisted to fight against the Red Sticks and was under the command of Jackson and General John Floyd.
The family finally resettled in what is now Jasper County, Georgia, where William reunited with them in 1814. Borrowing money from a business associate, Grierson was able to buy a plantation and reestablish his family in Georgia, where they remained until the war ended.
In 1817, Henry Walker sued Grierson for payment for having supported him and between 70 and 100 slaves belonging to Robert. Grierson argued that since Walker had the use of his slaves during the time the family resided with him, no money was owed, since their labor would have covered the family's costs. The Superior Court of Jasper County awarded him a judgment, but Grierson and his family returned to the Muscogee lands after the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson. Unable to collect, Walker sold the rights to collect the judgment to William McIntosh, who seized around 20 slaves belonging to Grierson and willed them to his wife Susannah and her offspring. To prevent further seizures of her father's property, Elizabeth transported several of his slaves into American territory and out of Muscogee jurisdiction.
Career
In 1817, Elizabeth was enumerated on the Muscogee rolls and Robert conveyed to her slaves named Amitto Jr. and Sr., Ben, Daniel, Diana, Dye, Grace and her child Rinn, Hope, Isaac, Lucy, Lumina, Molly, Nelly, and Rena and her children Dick, Ian, Lidia, Nero, and Polly. He also gave slaves to his daughter Katy at that time, and before 1820 to his sons Watt and Sandy, intending the gifts to provide them with economic security. In 1818, Elizabeth drew up a will granting Dick his freedom upon her death. That year, lands ceded by the Muscogee under the Treaty of Fort Jackson began to be sold. The loss of their lands caused Native traditionalists to seek retaliation, and in 1819 Elizabeth's plantation was targeted. She lost a horse and some axes, and the following year, during another raid, she had farm equipment stolen. In 1819, she sued in Alabama courts to recover her lost property, including the slaves who had been granted to her two years earlier.
Elizabeth by this time had become a businesswoman, often traveling to Montgomery to conduct business, and had experience protecting her property in the courts. The raid which occurred on Elizabeth's plantation in October 1821, included theft of hogs, harnessing chains, and soap, amounting to around $400 (~$9,675 in 2025). Returning in December, raiders took cotton and spun wool, hogs, sheep, and tools. In 1823, nine of her slaves were robbed of their possessions, including clothing, jewelry, and musical instruments. Robbing her slaves was another way of expressing displeasure with Elizabeth. That year, her father died, and McIntosh was appointed as the estate administrator. Elizabeth received her portion of the estate, which included slaves. Among those slaves was her brother William's wife and son; William had been disinherited.
In 1825, McIntosh negotiated for cession of all Muscogee lands in Georgia and removal of the people west of the Mississippi River. The six headmen who signed, all from Lower Creek towns, were not part of the Muscogee National Council, nor did they have authority to sign the Treaty of Indian Springs on behalf of the nation. There were 56 towns in the nation, and 52 of the signatories to the treaty were not chiefs or known to the National Council. In response, the council decreed that McIntosh, his sons-in-law, Samuel and Benjamin Hawkins, and others had committed treason and should be executed. That same year, the Muscogee Nation passed a law, that Muscogee people who had Black spouses or children were not entitled to own property, and any property they owned could be distributed to other family members. The law's provisions reflected a change in the position of Blacks within Muscogee society, equating anyone with Black heritage as an enslaved person and ignoring the previous kinship ties of intermarried Blacks. Owning Blacks or intermarrying with them had become a liability, which was problematic for the Griersons as multiracial families were no longer tolerated.
Death and legacy
Elizabeth died in the Chickasaw Nation, probably in 1847. Her will was settled on October 7, 1847, by the General Council of the Kings and Warriors of the Muscogee Nation. Their decree gave an equitable division of the enslaved Blacks in her estate to her siblings.
After her death, a dispute arose over the ownership of one of her formerly held slaves, named Dinah, when it was alleged that Dick had sold her to another party. During the testimony of the trial, it was noted that Dick and Elizabeth had no children and that under Muscogee law, property was not inherited by a husband, but by the wife's nearest relations. Because the couple had lived in Arkansas when Dinah was purchased, the issue became whether Arkansas law, in which the husband inherited, or Muscogee law, which dictated that property went to the wife's family, prevailed. Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court George C. Watkins issued an opinion that Elizabeth and Dick were Native Americans and had not acquired citizenship in Arkansas, as they were temporary residents. He ruled that they were Muscogee, and further stated that Muscogee law prevailed unless proof had been provided, which it had not, that the Chickasaw law where they were living at the time of Elizabeth's death, differed from Muscogee inheritance traditions at that time.
The history of the Grierson/Grayson family, according to Saunt illustrates the importance of race in Native history. The changes to Native American communities in the 19th century separated families as those with African ancestry had to find different ways to survive as racial hierarchies became entrenched.
Genealogical misinterpretations
Historian Claudio Saunt wrote in Black, White, and Indian that in the 20th century, many genealogists claimed that Grierson was the primary wife of McIntosh. Saunt noted that there are no historical documents that support that the two were married. He stated that there was contemporary evidence in a letter written from Charles Pendleton Tutt to James Barbour on November 25, 1826, which provided the information that Eliza McIntosh, was the daughter of Stephen Hawkins. McIntosh's wife's maiden name of Hawkins was also accepted by Oklahoma historian, John Bartlett Meserve in his 1932 history of the McIntosh family. Texas historian and professor Judith McArthur, who analyzed the biography of McIntosh's daughter, Rebecca Hagerty, also concluded that McIntosh's senior wife was Eliza Hawkins.