8 - The power of writing

Summary

In Shakespeare's The Tempest, which draws heavily on New World imagery, the slave Caliban plots to overthrow his master, a European colonizer named Prospero. Caliban, whose name recalls the Indian “Cannibals” of the Caribbean, tells a co-conspirator:

…thou mayst brain him, Having first seized his books, or with a log Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake, Or cut his wesand with thy knife. Remember First to possess his books; for without them He's but a sot.…

Shortly after giving this advice, Caliban again reminds his partner in crime, “Burn but his books.” Prospero's seemingly magical powers on this unmapped island clearly derive from his books; hence Caliban's repeated plea to destroy his master's library. In Caliban's preoccupation with the written word, Shakespeare underscored a link between writing and power in the New World, as numerous critics have observed in recent years. Not surprisingly, perhaps, Shakespeare's supposition is borne out by Creek history.

Like their fictional counterpart in The Tempest, Creeks were preoccupied by the literacy of European colonists. In 1733, for example, Oeekachumpa told Georgia newcomers that the Giver and Taker of Breath had “given more Wisdom to the White Men.” A Creek leader named Captain Aleck echoed those words in 1765, explaining that “he does not doubt but both red and White Men spring from the same God, but tho' the White People are more sensible and can write yet the red People are very sincere in what they say and speak from their hearts.”