Yamasee War

Background

The Tuscarora War and its aftermath played a major role in the outbreak of the Yamasee War. The Tuscarora, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe, attacked colonial settlements in North Carolina in 1711. South Carolina mustered its militia, composed mainly of allied Indian troops, and campaigned against the Tuscarora in 1712 and 1713.

Yamasee warriors formed the core of both Carolina forces, and other Indians were recruited from diverse tribes, including the Catawba, Yuchi, Apalachee, Cusabo, Wateree, Sugaree, Waxhaw, Congaree, Pee Dee, Cape Fear, Cheraw, Sissipahaw, Cherokee, and various early Creek groups. This collaboration brought Indians of the region into closer alliance, and they observed the disagreements and weaknesses among the colonies. Nearly all the tribes that helped South Carolina in the Tuscarora War joined in attacking settlers during the Yamasee War just two or three years later. The Yamasee themselves were an amalgamation of remnants of earlier tribes: the Upper Yamasee were primarily Guale from the Georgia coast, while the Lower Yamasee included the Ocute, Ichisi, and Euhaw from interior Georgia.

They emerged in the contested frontier between South Carolina and Spanish Florida and became South Carolina's most important Indian ally. By 1715, deer had become rare in Yamasee territory, and the Yamasee grew increasingly indebted to American traders. Rice plantations had begun to thrive, and settlers coveted the Yamasee's land reserve on the southern borders of South Carolina.

Summary of the war

Warnings of a possible Ochese Creek uprising reached the South Carolina government, which sent a delegation to the main Upper Yamasee town of Pocotaligo to seek Yamasee assistance in arranging a summit with Ochese Creek leaders. The delegation included Samuel Warner, William Bray, Thomas Nairne, John Wright, Seymour Burroughs, and an unknown South Carolinian. On the evening of April 14, 1715, they spoke to an assembly of Yamasee, promising to redress grievances and stating that Governor Craven was on his way. During the night, the Yamasee debated and decided on war.

After applying war paint, they woke the Carolinians and attacked. Two of the six men escaped: Seymour Burroughs, though shot twice, raised an alarm in the Port Royal settlements. The Yamasee killed Nairne, Wright, Warner, and Bray; the unknown South Carolinian hid in a swamp and witnessed Nairne's ritual death by torture. The events of the early hours of Good Friday, April 15, 1715, marked the war's beginning.

The Yamasee organized two war parties of several hundred men. One attacked Port Royal settlements, but Burroughs's alarm had been raised, and a captured smuggler's ship at Port Royal allowed several hundred settlers to take refuge. The second war party invaded Saint Bartholomew's Parish, killing over a hundred settlers and slaves. Within a week, a large Yamasee army prepared to engage a rapidly assembled South Carolina militia, while other Yamasee went south to makeshift forts.

Consequences

The Yamasee War led directly to South Carolina's overthrow of the Lords Proprietors. By 1720 the transition from a proprietary colony to a crown colony had begun, and in 1729 South Carolina and North Carolina officially became crown colonies. The war also led to the establishment of the colony of Georgia, as the withdrawal of the Yamasee made it possible; the few remaining Yamasee became known as the Yamacraw under Tomochichi, and James Oglethorpe negotiated with them for the site of Savannah.

The war dealt a final blow to the southeastern indigenous slave trade, which had seen up to 50,000 Native Americans enslaved by English settlers and their allies before 1715. The proportion of South Carolina households holding Native slaves declined from 26% in 1714 to 2% in 1730, driven partly by legal changes that held slaves of both African and Native descent to be fully African. The war marked a definitive shift toward exclusive reliance on African slavery in South Carolina and a stricter delineation of racial boundaries.