32.8 America: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 5/20)

In the meantime Carolina had some Indian troubles of its own. The Tuscaroras, of Iroquoian stock, occupied much of North Carolina's Tidewater and they had been traditional enemies of the Algonquian tribes. Probably because white colonists were allying themselves with the latter, the Tuscarora suddenly turned on the whites in 1711. For 2 years full scale war raged with the Tuscarora fighting both the colonists and some of the Algonquian tribes, who were supplied by Virginia and North and South Carolina authorities. Finally some 1,000 Tuscaroras were taken captive and sold. In 19714 a still more destructive war erupted, one somewhat erroneously called "the Yamasee War". Actually there were many natives in addition to the Yamasee, including Lower Creeks, Guales, Apalachees, Savannahs, Cherokees, Yuchis, Cheraws, Catawbas, Waterees and Waccamaws who attacked the whites. Some played greater roles than others. Many of these tribes were components of the old Chiefdom of Cofitachiqui and in a way this was the native response to the commercial empire of the Goose Creek men. Losses on both sides were high - 400 colonists perished, some 6% of the white population. On the Indian side, many of the participating tribes simply became extinct. Port Royal remained deserted for years. Generally disorganized, the colonists revolted against proprietary rule in 1719 and claimed South Carolina a royal colony.

Even before their war on the colonists in 1711 the Tuscaroras were the most powerful nation in the North Carolina Tidewater and for years they had fallen on their weaker neighbors and sold captives to the Virginians and North Carolinians. Slave raids, wars and especially diseases eventually swept away almost all Timucuans, Appalachees, Tequestas and eventually even the Yamasees. Some Lower Creeks remained in Florida, destroying and mixing with aboriginal remnants of other tribes and by the latter third of the 18th century - these Indians became known as Seminoles. The Creek Chief Cowkeeper, who settled in the Gainesville region, according to some, is the progenitor of the Seminole nation. (Ref. 267 ) (See also page 1015)

Europeans customarily branded slaves and this was carried on in the United States. In 1716 commissioners in charge of the Carolina Indian trade sent branding irons to agents in the back country to mark deerskins and captives, alike. The latter were marked on the face, shoulder or arm. Through this 18th century tens of thousands of southern Indians were enslaved and most of these were women and children. Indians worked for whites as wage laborers, tilling fields, rounding up cattle and as domestics, hunters and artisans. pamunkey women worked as maids. Many female Indian servants murdered their offspring, either to escape a whipping, an increased period of service or perhaps just to keep their children from growing up in an alien world. The men sometimes carried peltry for 200 or even 500 miles for the Goose Creek men. In excellent physical condition, some of these Indian men impressed the colonists by keeping up with a man on horseback for 10 or 20 miles, apparently without fatigue. They learned new occupations such as serving on board oceangoing vessels and learning to care for and ride horses. Each village was apt to have a resident factor, an Englishman or more likely a Scot, but some factors were Indians, mestizos or occasionally blacks. The natives' appetite for trading goods and drink exceeded their ability to pay and they were frequently in debt. (Ref. 267 )