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Sparks, William Henry, 1800-1882

"The Memories of Fifty Years Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent i"

Unquestionably he was the great
man of his tribe.
Tuskega, or Jim's Boy, was a man of herculean proportions. He was six
feet eight inches in height, and in every way admirably proportioned.
He was the putative son of a chief whose name he bore, and whose
titles and power he inherited. But the old warrior-chief never
acknowledged him as such. The old chief owned as a slave a very large
mulatto man, named Jim, who was his confidant and chief adviser, and
to him he ascribed the parentage of his successor, and always called
him Jim's boy. His complexion, hair, and great size but too plainly
indicated his parentage. He was not a man of much mark, except for his
size, and would probably never have attained distinction but through
hereditary right.
In their new home these people do not increase. The efforts at
civilization seem only to reach the mixed bloods, and these only in
proportion to the white blood in their veins. The Indian is incapable
of the white man's civilization, as indeed all other inferior races
are. He has fulfilled his destiny, and is passing away. No
approximation to the pursuits or the condition of the white man
operates otherwise than as a means of his destruction.


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