Within the compelling beauty of the southern Appalachian Mountains was certain peril for those unacquainted with its dangers. Forces of nature hindered travelers with sudden heavy rains and thunder, earthquakes, freezing waters, and snow. In late 1761 while traveling through Cherokee country, Henry Timberlake described extreme scarcity of food and ammunition while contending with life in the wild. Thomas Sumter, Timberlake’s traveling companion, rocked their canoe and accidentally dropped their only gun into the river. They considered jumping overboard, as “drowning at once seemed preferable to a lingering death.” After the men got to shore, and while gathering wood, “several large bears came down a steep hill” toward them, but luckily the bears were frightened away. The men made a fire in the mouth of a cave. Exhausted by the day’s physical trials, they fell asleep only to be awakened “by the howling of wild beasts” that kept them awake all night. Moments before dawn, they were “stunned with a noise, like the splitting of a rock,” which was likely an earthquake.

A Demand of Blood is Nadia Dean’s epic saga of adversity and triumph, and the first comprehensive book to chronicle the Cherokee War of 1776. A Demand of Blood: The Cherokee War of 1776 examines the collision of the British-Cherokee alliance with frontier settlers in the American Revolution. Historian and journalist Nadia Dean examines the 18th century southern frontier—a place of rapid change and political unrest. Based on eight years of extensive primary source research, Nadia Dean’s scholarship examines unpublished 18th-century manuscripts, which reveals a complex tapestry of cultures converging on the southern colonial frontier on the eve of the Revolutionary War.

The Cherokee War of 1776 dramatically weakened British influence with their Indian allies and bolstered rebel confidence to repulse the British. For more than two centuries Americans have embraced the idea that during the American Revolution the British were villains, the Indians were savages, and the rebel patriots were valiant and glorious. But is this how it really was?

This first scholarly narrative about the Cherokee War of 1776 examines the Cherokee, Euro-colonials and the British Empire at war. The objectives of that war personify many of the ideals that helped shaped America.

A Demand of Blood: The Cherokee War of 1776 reveals a complex cast of thousands, including Southern Indians, Euro-colonial settlers in Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas, land speculators, traders, merchants, spies, messengers, translators, royal governors, LOYALISTS and rebel leaders. Nadia Dean’s research offers fresh insight into a complex and compelling era where opportunity and inclination came together to form a powerful idea that became the United States of America.