Yamsee War 1715

• Historically Yamasee based in northern Florida– Allies of Spanish

• moved north in late 17th C - mouth of Savannah River

1711 The Tuscarora

• Tuscarora attack North Carolina in 1711 • South Carolina send help

–1712 and 1713–Primarily Indian troops

• Yamasee made up the core of both armies.

• Other Indians recruited – Set the stage……

• Collaboration brought regions Indians into closer contact

• Saw disunity & weaknesses of British colonies –South Carolina–North Carolina–Virginia

• Quarreled over –Tuscarora War –Trade

• Yamasee long-term relationship with British

• By 1715 difficult to obtain trade items desired by British – Deerskins – Indian slaves.

• Deerskin trade booming• Deer become rare in Yamasee territory• Tuscarora War depleted potential slaves

Trade goods continued to be supplied on credit

• Yamasee became indebted to the British traders

Additional problem• By 1715 rice plantations

thrive in region• Most of accessible land

taken• Yamasee had large land

reserve • Much of land ideal for

rice plantations.

• For the Yamasee the choice was not so much whether to fight

• but when

• Rumors spread about possible Indian uprising – involving the

Ochese Creeks

• South Carolina government took warnings seriously.

• Delegation sent to Pocotaligo

• Upper Yamasee town– Samuel Warner– William Bray – Thomas Nairne – John Wright – Seymour Burroughs +1

• Hoped to obtain Yamasee assistance to arrange summit with Ochese Creek

• Evening April 14, 1715 spoke to assembly of Yamasee

• Promise to redress Yamasee grievances

• As the South Carolinians slept Yamasee debated what to do.

• In Morning• Yamasee woke up the

Carolinians • Nairne, Wright, Warner, and

Bray – killed

• 2 escaped – Seymour Burroughs fled raised alarm in Port

Royal

• Unknown South Carolinian hid in nearby swamp

• Witnessed death-by-torture of Thomas Nairne.

• Events of early hours of Good Friday, April 15, 1715

• Mark beginning of Yamasee War.

• British traders throughout the southeast attacked • About 100 traders in the field • about 90 were killed in first few weeks.

• Yamasee War first major test of South Carolina's militia

• Governor Craven led force of 240 militia men against the Yamasee.

• Near the Indian town of Salkehatchie • pitched battled fought. • Kind of battle that Craven and the militia

officers wanted • Indians poorly suited for it

• Several head warriors killed • Yamasee dispersed into swamps.• Casualties about equal

– 24ish

• Practical result • decisive victory for South Carolina. • Before long Yamasee moved south to

Altamaha River.

• News from the north • British traders among Catawba and Cherokee

killed• Virginian traders accused of goading Catawba

into making war on South Carolina. • Catawba did kill South Carolinian traders

– spared Virginian traders.

• By May 1715 Catawba sending war parties against South Carolina – Initially victories for Catawba

• June 13, 1715, Colonel Chicken launched direct assault on Catawba

• Battle of the Ponds. – general rout.

• Catawba decided on peace.

• July 1715, Catawba diplomats arrived in Virginia

• Informed British of • willingness to

– make peace– assist South Carolina

militarily.

Craven at Salkehatchie

• Late 1715, 2 Carolinian traders visit Cherokee

• returned to Charles Town with large Cherokee delegation.

• Alliance made– plans for war against the Creek

• Following month Cherokee fail to meet up at Savannah Town as planned.

• South Carolina sent 300+ soldiers to the Cherokee – arrived December

1715

• Visited key Lower, Middle, and Overhill towns

• During winter Cherokee leader Caesar traveled throughout the Cherokee towns– drumming up support for war against the

Creek

• Other’s urged caution and patience• Charitey Hagey, "the Conjurer"

– from Tugaloo, one of the Lower Towns closest to South Carolina.

• Many Lower Town Cherokee – open to peace – reluctant to fight anyone other than the Yuchi

and Savannah River Shawnee.

• "flag of truce“ • sent from Lower

Towns to Creek• Creek headmen

promised to come • January 27, 1716• South Carolinians

were summoned to Tugaloo

• Delegation discovered Creek delegation had already arrived

• Cherokee had killed 11 or 12 of them. • Cherokee claimed Creek delegation was

– a war party of hundreds of Creek and Yamasee

–Who had nearly attacked British

• Tugaloo led to 3 outcomes:• 1) War between the Cherokee and

Creek• 2) Alliance between Cherokee and

South Carolina.• 3) Possibility of a major Creek

invasion ended

• But….• South Carolina eager to regain peaceful

relations with the Creek• Did supply Cherokee

– weapons and trade goods

• Did not provide the military support• Cherokee victories in 1716 and 1717• Creek counterattacks

– undermined the Cherokee's will to fight

• Ochese Creek relocated all their towns from

• Ocmulgee River basin to the Chattahoochee River.

• Distance protected them from a possible South Carolina attack.

• Cut off from British trade Creek experienced problems – in supply of ammunition, gunpowder, and firearms.

• Cherokee well-supplied with British weaponry. • The lure of British trade further undermined

anti-British elements among the Creek. • In early 1717

– a few emissaries from Charles Town went to the Lower Creek

– a few Creek went to Charles Town – starting the process that would lead to peace.

• But ……..

• Late 1716 Creek traveled north to Iroquois

• Iroquois sent 20 ambassadors to accompany the Creek back home

• Iroquois and Creek mainly interested in planning attacks on their mutual enemies

• Catawba and Cherokee.

• To South CarolinaCreek-Iroquois alliance was something to be avoided at all costs

• South Carolina sent emissaries to Lower Creek towns – With large cargo of trade

good presents.

• With Cherokee as support• Creek’s at least neutral• British able to defeat Yamasee• War led to • South Carolina's overthrow of the Lords

Proprietors• Establishment of Georgia

– without the withdrawal of the Yamasee no where to plant a colony

Reshaping the Native South

• Yamasee lost ~1/4 of population• Survivors moved south to the Altamaha

River • Region that had been their homeland in the

17th century• Unable to find peace and security• Fractured

• ~ 1/3 of survivors settled among the Ochese Creek

• Rest moved to the vicinity of St. Augustine in the summer of 1715.

• gradually weakened by disease and other factors

• Survivors became part of the Seminole Indians

Developments in New France

• France = wide area in North America–Louisianna

~1700• Due to a series

of events that led to what has been called the Middle Ground

Development of the Middle Ground

• Iroquois• Gained Weapons from

English• Replaced dead with

captives• Need to replace dead

led to warfare with western Indians

• The aggression shown in these attacks was dramatic

• Thousands of captives• Mutilation and destruction to ward off

revenge• Depopulated nearly all of what is now

Ohio• Remainder fled further west or absorbed

by Iroquois

• Into to the space of mediators stepped the French

• trappers, soldiers and missionaries• Not always welcome• E.g. 1684 killed 39 traders• Why did French continue to push?• Needed to protect their interests in fur

trade against both the Iroquois and later the British

• French traders used Brandy, and Firearms as trade items and to create a barrier

• Supplied with arms by France western groups hit back

• By 1701 Iroquois losses so high they sued for peace

• 1701 fort erected at Detroit • Western Indians moved back to fertile

lands around lake Erie and Huron

• Region became a middle ground in which no one could wield sovereign power

• French influential but could not in control

• French spent a lot of money in the region

• They ran a deficit in the fur trade but used it to hassle the English

• French power in the region was based not on numbers – France always had a much smaller population than England

• In 1700 –English American pop. = 250,000–French American pop = 14,000

• Instead they focused their contact and diplomacy on a Native model

• No aggressive acts

• Governor of New France known as “Onontio”

• Supreme alliance chief who won cooperation through persuasion

• Whereas the English would constantly try to buy land and command native population

• French realized you only got what you gave

• Persuasion always accompanied by gifts

• Also realized that agreements had to be renewed periodically

• British never understood this

• In addition to the financial cost there was a second ‘cost’ to running the middle ground

• Louis XIV had expressly forbade enslavement of Native Americans

• But as captive taking was part of native culture and captives were given as gifts

• New France went against this law• By 1720 5% of population was slave• In commercial Montreal every household

held a slave or two

Colonists of New France head south

• 1639, Jean Nicolet discovered the Bay of the Stinking Waters west of Lake Michigan

• Robert Cavelier de La Salle explored Ohio River in 1669 and 1670 – before navigating the

Illinois River and the Mississippi itself.

• de La Salle granted – control of any lands he discovered – permission to construct two outposts south of

Lakes Erie and Michigan

• 1680, sailed down the Illinois River learned from the Indians that the river was navigable

• emptied into the sea near where the Spanish colonies had been established.

• following year, La Salle continued descent of the Mississippi

• Claimed land On April 9, 1682• Cross erected• new colony, named

"Louisiane" in honor of the king.

• Explorer returned to France– Louis XIV gave him a warm

welcome

• Using own funds, La Salle returned to America to found a colony – sailing in four ships that the king

had given him.

• 1685 La Salle unable to find mouth of the Mississippi

• became lost in Texas• Two ships foundered

– landed and established a log fort

• early 1686, expedition north on foot, he came upon the Mississippi River

• Returning to Saint Louis, La Salle was killed by two of his men

• mutineers and their accomplices remained at the fort– Later killed by Indians

• faithful to La Salle made their way up the Mississippi to New France

• colonization of Louisiana was halted for a dozen years

• Pierre d'Iberville – Canadian from the Lemoyne family of Normandy

• granted permission by Louis XIV to establish a colony in Louisiana.

• He left France in the autumn of 1698• located the Mississippi River and built fort

near a village of Biloxi Indians.

• Fort, christened "Maurepas“ • honor of the Minister of the Navy • Center of a village which became

the colony's first capital: Biloxi• Iberville then built a square fort in

the Mississippi delta in order to control access to the river.

• He visited Louisiana three times between 1699 and 1702

• Traveled length of the colony, making contact with most of the Indian tribes

• kept a valuable record of his journeys

• d'Iberville did not return to Louisiana after 1703• Left command of colony to younger brother

Jean-Baptiste de Bienville• 1709, the French took Pensacola from the

Spanish– later returned it

• War in Europe left fledgling colony isolated• Louis XIV knew exploration of this new

territory would be long and costly • Europe, at peace, began to invest in colonial

businesses

• Cadillac, the colony's governor – Founded Detroit in

1702

• convinced Antoine Crozat, a banker, to suggest to the king that a company be created which would have the monopoly on trade with Louisiana.

• September 1712, Crozat granted privilege for a period of fifteen years.

• Did not invest enough in the new company

• Despite some progress

• monopoly was transferred to a new company belonging to John Law.

• Law 's General Bank right to issue paper money in 1716

• 1717 Law created the Western Company – two years later became the Company of the Indies

• 25-year trade monopoly for Louisiana and Illinois– had flattering articles published about it in the

press• Stockholders flocked to invest in the colony, which

attracted money, colonists and engineers from 1717 to 1719.

• New Orleans established as a trading town 1718

• 1729 In response to the arrogance of the commander of the French garrison at Fort Rosalie

• built his house on the site of a Natchez Indian village

• Indian warriors attacked, killing soldiers as well as men, women and children, and then pillaging their homes. In all, approximately 60 black slaves and 183 French colonists died.

• The slaughter sent fear throughout the colony

• Governor Périer sent two expeditions to punish the Natchez Indians.

• The first recovered fifty French women and a hundred black slaves

• second, led by Périer himself, almost completely eliminated the tribe

• Natchez Indian war ruined the Company of the Indies

• 1731 Louis XV annulled Company's privileges retook colony – declaring it a free-trade area.

• Bienville, "the father of Louisiana“, colony's military commander for nearly thirty years, became governor in 1732

• Bienville's task was a hard one – He had to negotiate peace with the Indian tribes– re-establish confidence among the colonists– protect Louisiana against the English and the

Spanish

• achieved second 2 • Successor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil,

– appointed in 1743

• The interaction of • French – Indian – English• In the Northern and the Southern

Colonies after the founding of Louisiana

• Would eventually lead to the • French and Indian War/ Seven Years

war in 1763