Black Hawk (1767-1838)

SA-75

Black Sparrow Hawk (Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak) led the Sauk Nation in defense of land taken from them in the 1830s. Displaced from three Midwestern locations, the Sauk resisted another federal relocation. Led by Black Hawk, the Sauk fought throughout the summer of 1832 in what has become known as the Black Hawk War. Outnumbered, the Sauk and Black Hawk surrendered and he was held in federal custody. President Andrew Jackson ordered him paraded through major cities in European clothing as punishment. In 1833, Black Hawk was interned at Richmond's Eagle Hotel, once located nearby, and at Fort Monroe in Hampton. Released later that year, he returned to his people in Illinois.

Department of Historic Resources, 2005

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Barbara C. Batson and Tracey L. Kamerer, A Capital Collection: Virginia's Artistic Inheritance (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2005); Sandra G. Treadway, "Triumph in Defeat: Black Hawk's 1833 Visit to Virginia," Virginia Cavalcade 35(1985): 4-17; Donald Jackson, ed., Black Hawk: An Autobiography (Urbanna: University of Illinois Press, 1964).