Triumph of the Eccunna Nuxulgee: Land Speculators, George M. Troup, and the Removal of the Creek Indians from Alabama and Georgia, 1825-1838

Triumph of the Eccunna Nuxulgee is the first book to chronicle the tragic saga of Indian Removal with a specific focus on the Chattahoochee Valley of Georgia and Alabama. With candor and objectivity, William W. Winn chronicles the duplicity, political manoeuvring, and military force through which the native Creeks ultimately lost their lands, illuminating latent issues of morality, sovereignty, cultural identity, and national destiny the affair brought to the surface.

He introduces readers to the key players on both sides of one of our nation’s most infamous dramas, which twice brought it to the brink of civil war, taking them into the resplendent halls of Congress, the smoke-filled backrooms of commercial establishments, and the earthy Native town squares where decisions were made that plotted the trajectory of both a region and a people. Along the way, Winn demonstrates the elusive but vital connection between the state rights philosophy-brought to its fullest expression by firebrand Georgia Governor George M. Troup-and the rise of the Old South and the coming of the Civil War.

While it is perhaps too much to say that the doctrine originated in the Indian question, Triumph makes clear that it certainly matured as a result of that issue. In the end, this is the story of America’s moral failure to live up to its most sacred promises and a foreshadowing of the terrible consequences of that act, the aftershocks of which are still being felt today.