Daniel,

I am quite familiar with this account (and others). Nevertheless, this 
appears to be an act perpetrated within the settlements ("within two miles 
of my house") and not beyond the frontier (where different rules prevailed 
and such acts were commonly "excused," if not justified by some recent 
Indian outrage). Furthermore, my comments were meant to be taken in the 
constrained context of Goose Creek/South Carolina (not New England), which 
was a different people ... with different culture and religious convictions 
... and different Indians (and this particular native was a slave, which 
arguably placed her under a different set of societal expectations as to 
what was permissable in her treatment, that is, those applicable to slaves 
in general, and not the "rules of engagement" for Indians beyond the 
settlements).

I still read Rev. Le Jau's comment as a rather matter-of-fact lamentation 
for an act of cruelty (and his statement "within two miles of my house" 
infers his disapproval that some socially unacceptable behavior has 
transpired), and still argue that if it had been an act as unusual as the 
scalping of a slave woman within the settlements, and given that context, 
the good reverend is sure to have expressed a bit more outrage.

Bob

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Davis, Daniel (KYTC)" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2007 7:46 AM
Subject: Re: Scalloped


Perhaps you should review the case of Hannah Dustin, with regards to
some of the statements below regarding scalping. Even good reverends
made money scalping Native Americans and selling the scalps to the
authorities.

Daniel B. Davis
Archaeologist Coordinator
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet
Division of Environmental Analysis
200 Mero Street
Frankfort, KY 40622
(502) 564-7250

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bob
Skiles
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 8:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Scalloped

Jeez! This act was perpetrated by a white man in South Carolina in 1709.
I
fear some of you may be misreading "Indian trader" as meaning the
perpetrator may have been a native American. No way! Only white men were

permitted to trade with the Indians.

Scalping was NOT a socially (or legally) acceptable form of punishing
slaves; flogging was (though beating a slave to death was unacceptable,
and
illegal, and COULD bring a charge of murder in a rare instance in later
years, especially if the slave died during the beating ... but on the
frontier in 1709 ... no one, except perhaps a good-hearted reverend,
would
raise any real objection to a severe flogging that culminated in death
several days later).

Instances of scalping BY WHITE MEN were quite rare, even as an
act-of-war in
retaliation against native warriors after a massacre, the act was still
looked upon as marking the perpetrator as a barbarian beneath the
contempt
of the lowest member of society ... a spawn of Satan. A white man
scalping a
woman (even a native woman) would have been looked upon with greater
horror
and revulsion even than necrophilia or bestiality ... both of which were

doubtlessly more common than incidences of scalping (if one is to
believe
the charges and prosecutions, in both church and court records). Can you

imagine how the good reverend would have carried-on if it had been an
act as
bizarre, horrific, and satanic as necrophilia, bestiality or scalping?

If it were scalping, rather than scalloping, I would expect more
righteous
outrage from the reverend. His response seems to be one of a
matter-of-fact
in-passing condemnation of an extremely cruel act of one human against
another, but not one of condemning a particularly unusual, bizarre, or
satanic act.

~ Bob Skiles


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "geoff carver" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 3:15 PM
Subject: Re: Scalloped


> 1676 N. S. Narrat. New-Eng. 14 Laying him for dead, they flead (or
> skulp'd) his head of skin and hair. 1697 S. SEWALL Diary 13 Sept.
(1878)
> I. 459 Indians shot and scalped him about noon. (OED)