BLACK HAWK
April 1833

In the Spring of 1833, Black Hawk, a Native American and member of the Sauk nation, was held captive in Richmond’s Eagle Hotel at Broad and 12th Streets. Black Hawk and his followers refused to leave contested land while white settlers pushed to capture the frontier. A war ensued and Black Hawk was eventually taken East by U.S. troops.

President Andrew Jackson ordered that Black Hawk be paraded around major East Coast cities wearing English dress, as he is pictured here. He was held at the Eagle Hotel and later at Fortress Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. He drew crowds of onlookers who approached him with awe and curiosity to see a “noble savage” in person, a myth that captivated Americans in the East, while Native Americans in the West were driven from their land and slain for resisting removal.

Lehman & Duval Lithrs, After James Otto James, Mac-cut-i-mish-e-ca-cu-cac or Black Hawk, a celebrated Sac Chief, 1836, Courtesy of the New York Public Library