Benjamin Hawkins

Benjamin Hawkins (August 15, 1754 – June 6, 1816) is an American planter, statesman, and U.S. Indian agent.

He is a delegate to the Continental Congress and a United States Senator from North Carolina, having grown up among the planter elite.

Appointed by George Washington as General Superintendent for Indian Affairs (1796–1818), he has responsibility for the Native American tribes south of the Ohio River, and is principal Indian agent to the Creek Indians.

Hawkins establishes the Creek Agency and his plantation in present-day Georgia, where he lives in what becomes Crawford County.

He learns the Muscogee language, is adopted by the tribe and marries Lavinia Downs, who some believe was a Creek woman, with whom he had seven children.

He writes extensively about the Creek and other Southeast tribes: the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw.

He eventually builds a large complex using African slave labor, including mills, and raises a considerable quantity of livestock in cattle and hogs.

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