“All the World’s Sorrows: Hannah Worcester Hicks and the Civil War in Indian Territory” presentation

On Saturday, July 27, at 10:30 a.m., Dr. Michelle Martin will present “All the World’s Sorrows: Hannah Worcester Hicks and the Civil War in Indian Territory.”

During the American Civil War, women and children in the Cherokee Nation suffered tremendously. Hannah Worcester Hicks, the daughter of famed missionary Samuel Austin Worcester and her husband Abijah Hicks (Cherokee), lived near Fort Gibson as the war raged in the western Ozarks. Hannah Hick’s diary provides community members, her descendants, and scholars with insight into the chaos of war in the Ozarks and the important connections between the Cherokee Nation’s citizens and communities like Van Buren and Fort Smith. Her diary reveals the intense division at work in the Cherokee Nation at a critical time for the nation’s survival. The Hicks’ tragic story illustrates the human cost of war in Indigenous nations and western Ozark communities.

This program is included with site admission and will be located in the Fort Gibson Historic Site Commissary. The program runs from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m., and the site is open from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. After the presentation, browse the Fort Gibson gift shop stocked with replica items from the 19th century and tour the historic military fort, from 1824 to statehood.

Follow the Fort Gibson Historic Site on Facebook for upcoming programming.