CHAPTER IV –
INDIAN SLAVERY IN SOUTH CAROLINA
The Indian Slave Trade by Alan
Gallay
Here are a
few excerpts about Indian slavery from “The Indian Slave Trade” by Alan Gallay.
Every serious researcher of the Indians in the American Southeast should read
this book. I should also warn you that it might make you cry. One reason there
was so much warfare is that slave traders demanded this trade in slaves as a
means for the Indians to pay off their debts. In a typical slave raid, the men
would be killed, and the women and children taken to the traders, who in turn
sold these women and children on the slave markets of Charleston. The Indian
slaves were sold to plantations in the Caribbean, while the plantations in
South Carolina were buying slaves from Africa. They said Indian slaves ran away
too often, and went back home. Africans were afraid of the Indians, so they
rarely ran away, at least in the beginning.
p. 60. The
proprietors rhetorically asked governor Joseph Morton (September 1682-August
1684; October 1685-November 1686) why the colony had no wars with Indians when
it was first founded and weak and then had warred with the Westo “while they were in treaty with that
government . . . The proprietors astutely recognized the Carolinians turned
them [the Westo] into enslaving Indians.” Reprehensibly then, the colony
began a war with the Waniah, a group of Indians who lived along the Winyah
River, “under pretense they had cut off a
boat of runaways.” The Savannah [Shawnee] then captured [the] Waniah and
sold them to an Indian trader who shipped them to Antigua . . . [The
proprietors] learned that the Savanah were at first not going to sell the
Waniah but had been intimidated by slave traders into doing so. (37)
p. 61. The
proprietors also received word that the surviving Westo had wanted peace with
Carolina . . . but the messengers were sent away to be sold. The same fate
befell the messengers of the Waniah. Sarcastically the proprietors rued, “but if there be peace with the Westohs and
Waniahs, where shall the Savanahs get Indians to sell the Dealers in Indians?”
The proprietors were sure that the cause of both the Westo and Waniah wars, and
the reason for their continuance, lay in the colonist’s desire to sell Indians
into slavery . . . (38)
Even some
of the Indian dealers wrote privately to the proprietor of the greed that had
led to the enslavement of friendly Indians . . . You have repaid their kindness by setting them to do all these horid
wicked things to get slaves to sell to the dealers in Indians and then call it
humanity to buy them and thereby keep them from being murdered. The
proprietors questioned the morality of attacking all the Waneah for the crimes
of a few . . .
p. 62. In
1680, they [the proprietors] limited enslavement of Native Americans to those
who lived more than 200 miles from Charleston, Carolina, though they left the
door open to abuse by stipulating this applied only to Indians in league or
friendly to the colony. This law might explain why the Saura moved from the Dan
River to the Pedee. It would have been harder for the slave raiding Shawnee and
Seneca to get at them. Also being nearer Charleston, they were within the 200
mile range spoken of in this law. (39)
p. 210. -- 211.
The Catawba was a name the English used to describe many of the Piedmont Indian
groups of both North and South Carolina . . .The Catawba, under Carolinian
beckoning, official or otherwise, had prayed on the Savannah (Shawnee) . . .
The Savannah, probably in revenge, then attacked the Catawba and other Indians
of the Piedmont. Bull appeared in October 1707 and reported that he had learned
from the Shutteree, a Piedmont group, that 130 Indians calling themselves
Savannah and Senatuees (Santees?) [Vance's note: The author is probably wrong –
this has to be Seneca's. The Santees were allied to the Piedmont Indians
whereas the Seneca were their enemies] fell on them . . . The force carried
away 45 women and children, but mostly children. A Cheraw Indian (from a group
then in the Piedmont) informed Bull that the attackers traded with the white
men at their own homes and that they lived but 30 days journey from us.
Apparently, if this report was correct, the Savannah were selling their
captives in Virginia, Maryland, or Pennsylvania . . . as for the Savannah, not
all of them would leave the colony. About a third of the population remained in
their settlements along the Savannah River. (27-28) Those who left would
continue their attacks on the Piedmont Peoples. (40)
p 239. Sometimes
Indians friendly to South Carolina were enslaved. One proprietor wrote; “I hear that our confederate Indians are now
sent to war by our traders to get slaves.” (41)
p. 242-3.
The commission of the Indian trade met first on September 20, 1710 in Charles
Town . . . The commission undertook a
flurry of business, mostly hearing complaints against traders for illegal
enslavement of free Indians . . . The establishment of the commission opened a
floodgate of grievances against the traders for crimes ranging from assault and
battery to kidnapping, rape and the enslavement of free people. (42) This
is just a handful of instances that occurred between 1680 and the end of the
Yamasee War.
Heard
enough yet? Well I have. Now to the statistics Gallay brings out. He goes on to
say after the Yamasee War, Indian slave raids gradually died out by 1720. By
that time, there just were no more easily obtained Indians to enslave. At one
point in the book the traders boast that there are no more Indians in Florida,
as they have all been taken as slaves. When Gallay speaks of Piedmont or low
country Indians, he is talking of the Eastern Siouan peoples, the Catawba and
members of the Catawba Confederation. He continues;
p. 298-299.
There is no telling how many Piedmont and
low country Indians . . . were enslaved . . . and there is evidence all members
of these groups were enslaved, but there are no numbers . . . The Lord
Propritors frequently complained of illegal enslavement . . . all told, 30,000
to 50,000 is the likely range of Amerindians captured directly by the British,
or by Native Americans for sale to the British., and enslaved before 1715.
Gallay says
the numbers enslaved ranged from a low range of 24,000 to 32,000, to a high
range of 51,000. He also adds that excluding the Creek, Cherokee, Savannah, and
Piedmont Indians, 25,000 to 40,000 were enslaved. Doing the math, knowing there
were few Creek and Cherokee enslaved, we have a low range of between
5,000-7,000, to an upper range of 10,000-11,000 of these Piedmont Indians were
enslaved, from the period of 1670-1720, per Gallay. Per Thornton, raiding for
Indian slaves started at least twenty years earlier in Virginia. Various Indian
tribes went to war to capture enemy Indians, and sell them to the English, who
in turn exported them to the Caribbean, exchanging them for African slaves. If
Thornton was right about this, I suspect the English started taking slaves in
Virginia at a much earlier date, at least by 1650 and possibly earlier. By the
1680s or 90s there were far fewer Indians to enslave. But when Carolina and
Charles Town were established by the 1670s, this opened up another batch of
Indians to enslave.
He
continues on page 299, to say “What is
surprising about these figures is that Carolina exported more slaves than it
imported before 1715.” (43)
Map 8. Below
portrays the Catawba and Associated Bands closer to the time of Lawson, about
1700. Here is an interesting note on Indian slavery. Hudson tackles this topic
a little more than Blumer. He states; “While
warfare or raiding was definitely important in the Southeast, early colonial
references to continual Indian wars were often rationalizations for enslaving
the Indians . . . we shall see presently that in early colonial times most of
this Indian warfare was stimulated by Charleston traders as a means of
acquiring slaves.” (44)
Hudson
makes comments about the hill tribes of the Piedmont as being more backwards
than their Cherokee or Creek neighbors. But what we know of the Creek and
Cherokee runs forward from 1750 to the present, whereas all our knowledge about
the Eastern Siouan “hill tribes” flows from 1670 only up to 1720, by which time
some of these hill tribes had become extinct, or their numbers have been
assimilated into the local populations. We could say the same about the
colonists, that is, the colonists before 1750 were more primitive than those
who came afterwards.
Hudson
talks quite a bit about Lawson's observations of 1701. He states, “As Lawson journeys up the Catawba River, he
successfully passed through the territories of the Waxsaw's, Esaw's, Sugaree's,
and Catawba's . . . Unlike the hill tribes, all these groups were populous. In
every village, beginning with the Waxsaw, Lawson saw a “townhouse” . . .
Lawson said the last town house he saw was at Saponi, situated northeast of the
Catawba’s, on the Upper Pedee River . . . at Saponi, Lawson first mentions
seeing protective palisades that were common in the Northern Piedmont. At the
time of Lawson's visit, the Saponi were considering confederation with two
other hill tribes, the Tutelo and the Keyauwee. The three, being small . . .thought they should strengthen themselves .
. . and become formidable . . . (45). Some of the Catawba tribes are said
to have practiced skull deformation. Hudson says; “. . .the Catawba were sometimes called “Flat Heads, but this usage was
generally limited to the Iroquois, who referred to the entire Catawba
Confederacy by this designation.” (46)
Interestingly,
Hudson says the Indians living on the Catawba River were called “Esaws” until
about 1710. After that time to the present, they were called “Catawba’s”. He offers
no reason for this change. Now the Esaw were also called Issa, Iswa, Yssa, and
Yesah. (47) The Esaw town is always, on maps, near the Waxhaw village. Both
towns disappear about the same time.
Little is
known about the history and culture of the Piedmont Indians. Only the Virginia
traders knew them at all, and they left us very little information about them.
Hudson says that according to Lawson, the Eastern Siouan’s were middle men in
trade with other Indians. Hudson says, “Lawson,
for example, met a man named John Stewart, a Virginia trader residing with the
Catawba King, who had traded there for many years.”
Quite a bit
is suspected about these trader’s relationships with the Piedmont Catawba. For
instance, Hudson says; When discussing Lawson who seemed to be paraphrasing
Stewart; “They set apart the youngest and
prettiest faces for trading girls. These are remarkable for their hair, having
a particular tensure by which they are known and distinguished from those
engaged to husbands. They are mercenary, and whoever makes use of them, first
hires them, the greatest share of the gain going to the King's purse, who is
the chief bawd, exorcizing his prerogative over all the stews of the nation,
and his own cabin very often being the chiefest brothel-house.” But at best
this is heresay or gossip. Maybe it’s true or maybe it isn’t.
I have seen
others write of the influence of the South Carolina traders. Hudson however,
speaks of the Virginia traders., saying in the late 17th century the Virginia
traders influenced the Catawba and Piedmont Catawba. After the Ochonocanough
massacre in 1644, a serious of forts were built in Virginia. These forts became
jumping off points for expeditions into the interior of Virginia and nearby
regions by the commanders of these forts (48).
Map 8. Carolina and Virginia @ 1700
The map
above is compiled from information dating to about 1700 (map taken from The
Indians New World, by James H. Merrell. It is captioned “Carolina and Virginia.
Colonial settlement distribution adapted by Herman R. Friis, A series of
population maps of the Carolinas and the United States, 1625-1790”, rev. ed.,
New York 1968. Drawn by Linda Merrell'). Much of interior Virginia has been
abandoned. Both Monakin Town and Upper and Lower Saura Towns are abandoned
about 1700, give or take. The Monakin's soon unite with the Saponis while the
Saura move to the south and east and in South Carolina become known as Cheraw.
These Eastern Siouan Peoples are still fairly numerous, but their northern
cities in central and western Virginia have vanished entirely, making the way
for settlers to claim the interior of Virginia. The Saponi, Tutelo, Manakin,
and Keyauwee's unite to make them stronger probably near where Salisbury is
today, in North Carolina. Together, these four bands can more easily defend
themselves from the slave traders, and other enemies who seek them out.
In “The Indians of North Carolina and their Relations with
the Settlers” by James Hall Rand, the author names the sixteen Tuscarora
cities before the Tuscarora War. On page 8, he says of the Tuscarora; “They had the following sixteen important
villages: Haruta, Waqni, Contahnah, Anna Oaka, Conaugh Kari, Herooka, Una
Nauhan, Kentanuska, Chunaneets, Kenta, Eno, Naurheghne, Oonossura, Tosneoc,
Nanawharitse, Nursurooka.” (49) Were the Eno originally a band of the
Tuscarora? They appear on the 1650 map in the same location as they are living
in 1700. Where the Eno are concerned, Rand was probably wrong. Most consider
them to have been a Siouan people, not Tuscaroran. But we see we must test what
we read, and not simply accept what is written.
The Shakori
lived in close proxemity to the Eno, Keeauwee, Occoneechi, and Saxapahaw,
between 1650 and 1700. By 1715 they are called the 'Chickanee and have moved
westward closer to the Catawba. They, like several others, just vanish from
history shortly after the end of the Yamassee War. Note the Saras and Tutelo
have changed places, and the Cherokee are where the Chiaha civilization was
located in Spanish times, one or two hundred years earlier.
Map 11
shows the former Tuscarora lands, and they are empty of inhabitants by 1725.
Even the Eastern Siouan Bands that were nearby, are no longer living in the
area. This opened the land up for White settlements. So most of Virginia's
Indians in the interior had vanished by 1700, the same is true for much of
North Carolina by 1725. Settlers can just walk in, unopposed. The Eno, the
Saxapahaw, the Shakori, have all moved or vanished. The few Indians left
quickly are surrounded by new settlers and farmers claiming their old hunting
grounds, and they cannot oppose them anymore.
The Yamassee as Indian Slave
Traders
“The Indians of North Carolina and
their Relations with the Settlers” by James Hall Rand, (50) The Yamasee settled on the
South Carolina coast in 1683 following their flight from the Spanish coastal
Georgia Guale missions. The newly arrived Yamasee first settled on the islands
around Port Royal Sound including St. Helena, Parris, and Hilton Head Islands.
In 1686, the Spaniards attacked and destroyed both the Yamasee towns and
Stuart’s Town, a nearby settlement of Scots. The Yamasee relocated their
settlements closer to Charles Town on the banks of the Ashepoo and Combahee
Rivers. They returned to the area around Port Royal Sound in the 1690s. A 1707
Act established the Yamasee lands on the mainland in the upper part of Port
Royal. Within this Yamasee territory, the Yamasee were settled in two distinct
clusters. The Upper Yamasee towns, Pocotaligo, Pocosabo, Huspah, Tomatley, and
Tulafina, were occupied primarily by Guale who had been part of the Spanish
mission system on the Georgia coast. The Lower Yamasee towns included Altamaha,
Ocute or Okatee, Ichisi or Chechessee, and the Euhaw. These Lower Towns were
formerly residents of interior Georgia (the Spanish province of La Tama) who
had sought refuge among the Guale missions following devastating slave raids by
the Westo. Many of the Yamasee towns have been excavated by archaeologists.
(50)
Notice
there is a Yamassee town named “Tomatley”. There is another interesting comment
found in “A guide to Cherokee Documents in Foreign
Archives” we have, on page 269, the following, “24-25 Jan 1727 – Yamassee speak the same
language as the Lower Cherokee, but they picked up a second language when
driven out of the Carolinas . . .” (51) We also have a Cherokee town
named “Tomatley” that dates back to the middle of the 18th century. Thornton
says the Lower Cherokee spoke the same language as the Creek. He just says this
without offering a single bit of evidence to back it up. An honest historian or
researcher will always cite his or her sources. If he would provide some
evidence of his statements I might believe it. We learn and grow by
collaborating with and reaching out to other researchers, not by running and
hiding from them. As I have often said, I believe in the usage of Occam’s Razor
Rule – don’t over complicate anything more than is necessary to explain it.
When I find a credible reference saying the Yamassee spoke the same language as
the lower Cherokee, and a Yamassee town has the same name as a Cherokee town,
i. e., Tomatley, I must agree that the Yamassee are related to the Cherokee,
NOT the Creek – unless or until I see or hear a citation from a credible
historical document stating otherwise that is more convincing. The sources I
have seen suggest a closer tie with the Cherokee than the Creek.
The Carolina Slave-Traders
In an
effort to try to explain the Yamassee, there is an author who first speaks of
the Westo. You might wonder why I discuss these slaving tribes.
It is they
who plundered and enslaved many of the Piedmont Siouan tribes, or bands of the
Catawba. Their raids on the Florida Indians are somewhat documented
No one
knows the origin of the word “Westo”. By 1609, the name Orista had already been
attached to Edisto Island, and was said to be some 6 leagues (about 16 miles)
north of Santa Elena. Orista there became one of three principal chiefs along
the lower South Carolina coastline, including Santa Elena-Escamaçu, Orista, and
Kiawa. Perhaps it was a small confederation of “city-states” so to speak, that
had one time lived near “Edisto Island”. It doesn't take much imagination for
us to see “ED”isto morph into “W”esto – or Westo. Likewise, Oresta could morph
into “Resta/Westa” and then “Westo”. Just a thought, take it or leave it. Worth
offers suggestion. He first speaks of the Westo as destroying those coastal
towns in slave raids, saying, “In any
case, these few surviving coastal towns would soon feel the effect of the
Southeastern firearms revolution, presaged by the arrival of armed Indian slave
raiders from Virginia in the deep Georgia interior after 1659.” He doesn't
think the Westo were from those coastal towns, but rather that they destroyed
those towns. He suspects they simply came from the interior. The province of
Carolina came into existence in 1670, and the Westo appeared before that date
with firearms, firearms that could have only been obtained from Virginia. If
this is the case, it agrees with a part of what Thornton said. If these Westo
were related to the Cherokee, it might explain the Yamasee as speaking the same
language as the Cherokee.
Later, when
the Westo were destroyed, the Yamassee came in to take their place on the
Savannah River as one of the major slaving tribes. Worth starts his paper on
the Yamassee by talking a little about the people known as the Westo to the
Carolinians, saying the Spanish knew them as the Chichomicco. The “Micco”
ending implies the word is of Muscogeean origin. This does NOT mean the people
were of Creek origin. All it means is that the Spanish asked someone of
Muscogeean descent, and they were told the Muscogeean word for them. It only
means the Spanish were told of these people by the Muscogeean people, so they
used their own term for them. Perhaps the Carolinians heard of them from the
Catawba speakers. So another explanation for the word “Westo” and its
similarity to “Edisto” or “Orista.” The origin of the term “Westo” might be of
Catawban origin and has been lost through the years.
Worth goes
on to say the following about the Westo; The decline of old Escamaçu was only
accelerated with the arrival of the Chichimeco/Westo slave-raiders on the
middle Savannah River about 1662. (53)
. . . In
1674, Henry Woodward had finally established direct contact with the Westos on
the Savannah River, effectively redirecting the Indian slave trade from
Virginia to Carolina, and simultaneously establishing a nominal peace between
the Westo and all English-allied Indians. (54) Just five years later, the Westo
were reported by Spanish authorities to have allied themselves with both the
Chiluques (known as the St. Helena Indians by the English) and the Uchises,
possibly representing a fragment of the original Ichisi chiefdom of middle
Georgia that had not attached itself previously to the Yamassee. End of quote.
I can't help but see the resemblance of the word “Chiluques” and “Cherokees”.
There is mention of the “Ucheries” at one point living near the Catawban
peoples, and a people known as “Uchees” or “Yuchi's”, when I see mention of
these people called “Uchises”. There are also the “Yssi” known also as “Esaw”.
We know from the last of the Tutelo speakers in Six nations that they called
the collection of all their peoples, the “Yesaw”. All of these terms have
gramatical similarities to one another. Please know I am not claiming PROOF of
a relationship between these various peoples. I am just stating the obvious,
that these terms are similar, nothing more.
Back to
Worth's narrative –
Curiously,
negotiations between Carolina colonists and the aggressive Westo broke down
that very same month of April, ultimately leading to what was known as the
Westo War, in which the Westo were largely destroyed with the help of immigrant
Savano Indians, who soon replaced them as the principal slavers in the interior
after 1681. With the power of the Westo broken, the door to contact and trade
with the deep interior opened up. The frontier dynamic had changed, effectively
removing the threat from the interior. In 1682, the chiefs and leaders of all
coastal Carolina Indians, including Santa Elena and Ashepoo, signed a land
cession with Carolina colonist Maurice Matthews, ceding massive tracts of lands
to the English. Nevertheless, Escamaçu remained populated, if only with about
160 Indian residents in and around Santa Elena by English estimates.
From 1659
until 1681 the Westo terrorized the Indian population from Florida through the
Carolinas, on enslaving raids. They sold their slaves to the Carolinians. After
the Westo War, the Shawnee became the principle slave catching Indians for the
Carolina traders, who know them as the Savana people.
The Savano Indians
The Westo
raids became increasingly disruptive to the expansion of the colony in the late
1670s. Around 1680 the South Carolina government cut a deal with the Savano
Indians (Shawnee) living at the lower end of the Savannah River. They armed and
reinforced the Savano’s, while cutting off the supply of munitions to the
Westo’s. The Savannah’s destroyed the Westo villages and killed many of the
Westo warriors. There were Westo survivors, but little is known of what became
of them.
The Shawnee
were instrumental later in the weakening of the Eastern Siouan confederacy, as
the Shawnee remained at war with the Catawban bands off and on until after the
French and Indian War in 1763. Afterwards they moved north of the Ohio River,
and afterwards migrated westward with other Eastern Algonquin tribes such as the
Nanticoke, Delaware and Miama.
The Yamassee
Worth
discusses the Yamassee, saying; “Anyone
familiar with the English documentary record for the early 18th century
Yamassee towns of coastal Carolina will note that there are significant
differences between the town names of the mission Yamassee and those of the
later period. Some of these differences may be explained by the arrival of a
number of new towns and groups during the winter of 1684- 1685, following the
destruction of the Guale mission chain. Most if not all of the Yamassee towns
with Guale derivation probably arrived at this time, including Sapala and
presumably Huspah, both of which were noted at that time to have been recent
fugitives from the Spanish. The Uchise, or Chachise, may have joined the flood
of Yamassee from the deep interior at this time. Still other towns arrived
later, including the Euhaw in 1703, the Tomatley, the Chehaw, and the Tuskegee,
the latter two of which did not ultimately remain with the Yamassee, but rather
relocated farther back into the interior.” End of quote of Worth. We
remember that Tomatley and Tuskegee are also the names of Cherokee towns, which
we know, would have been “in the interior”. (55) And we know the Yamassee spoke
the same language as the lower Cherokee.
Clearly,
the Yamassee were not a static confederacy throughout their brief known
history. Their formation during the early 1660s brought many groups together as
refugees,
All these
groups had previously been constantly at war with one another. The traders made
sure of it. The Indians would buy something from the traders then not be able
to pay for it. The traders would tell them their debt could be repaid by
bringing in Indian slaves. This is a sad story that has never been fully told,
and probably never will be, as evidence of it is scarce. These early traders
were ashamed of their actions, or they would have better documented them. As
the 17th century was coming to an end, so was the Indian slave
trade. There just weren’t many Indians left to enslave.
References:
37. “The Indian Slave Trade;” Alan
Gallay, Yale University Press; © 2002
38. Ditto
39. Ditto
40. Ditto
41. Ditto
42. Ditto
43. Ditto
44. “The Catawba Nation”, by
Charles M. Hudson; University of Georgia Press; © 1970
45. Ditto
46. Ditto
47. Ditto
48. Ditto
49. “The Indians of North Carolina
and their Relations with the Settlers” by James Hall Rand,
50. Ditto “24-25 Jan 1727 – Yamassee speak
the same language as the Lower Cherokee, but they picked up a second language
when driven out of the Carolinas . . .”
51. in “A guide to Cherokee
Documents in Foreign Archives”; William L. Anderson and James A. Lewis; © 1983,
by Anderson and Lewis; The Scarecrow Press
52. Http://uwf.edu/jworth/WorthOmohundro1999.pdf
; Yamassee Origins and the Development of the Carolina-Florida Frontier John E.
Worth; The Coosawattee Foundation
53. Ditto
54. “The Indian Slave Trade;” Alan
Gallay, Yale University Press; © 2002
55. Http://uwf.edu/jworth/WorthOmohundro1999.pdf
; Yamassee Origins and the Development of the Carolina-Florida Frontier John E.
Worth; The Coosawattee Foundation
Maps:
Map 8.
Carolina and Virginia bout 1700. Colonial Settlement Distribution adopted from
Herman R. Friis; a series of population Maps of the colonies and the United
States; 1625-1890. Drawn by Linda Merrill
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