GIDEON LINCECUM
In 1849, Gideon Lincecum introduced a proposal before the Texas legislature hoping to combat crime. His solution was to castrate criminals in the manner of gelding bulls, thus literally cutting off the bloodline in order to prevent criminals from reproducing new criminals. Like many others in American and world history, he erroneously believed that criminality was hereditary. To persuade the legislators, he used this folksy analogy. His proposal was rejected.
He was referring to the Chickasaw, Creek (Muscogee), and Choctaw Native American Tribes. Historically individual whites including families had little difficulty with most Native Americans so long as they were few. The hostilities against whites generally began when large numbers of whites began to settle on traditional Indian land or hunting grounds and contest the Native Americans for their own land. The entire conflict between Native Americans and whites was in essence a battle for land.
Gideon Lincecum was an American pioneer, historian, physician, philosopher, and naturalist. Lincecum is known for his exploration and settlement of what are now the U.S. states of Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, which was then beyond the western borders of the Thirteen Colonies. Lincecum had good relations with Native Americans as he explored the wilderness in the American Deep South. He was son of Hezekiah and Sally (Hickman) Lincecum, and was born in Warren County, Georgia, on April 22, 1793. Lincecum was self-educated. He spent his boyhood principally in the company of Muskogees. After successive moves, he and his wife, the former Sarah Bryan, moved in 1818 with his parents and siblings to the Tombigbee River, above the site of present Columbus, Mississippi.
