Yamsee War 1715

1. Yamsee War 1715

2. Historically Yamasee based in northern Florida • Allies of Spanish • moved north in late 17th C - mouth of Savannah River

3. 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……

4. Collaboration brought regions Indians into closer contact • Saw disunity & weaknesses of British colonies • South Carolina • North Carolina • Virginia • Quarreled over • Tuscarora War • Trade

5. Yamasee long-term relationship with British • By 1715 difficult to obtain trade items desired by British • Deerskins • Indian slaves.

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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

16. Craven at Salkehatchie • 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.

17. 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.

18. South Carolina sent 300+ soldiers to the Cherokee • arrived December 1715 • Visited key Lower, Middle, and Overhill towns

19. During winter Cherokee leader Caesar traveled throughout the Cherokee towns • drumming up support for war against the Creek • Other’s urged caution and patience • ChariteyHagey, "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.

20. "flag of truce“ • sent from Lower Towns to Creek • Creek headmen promised to come • January 27, 1716 • South Carolinians were summoned to Tugaloo

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. Ochese Creek relocated all their towns from • Ocmulgee River basin to the Chattahoochee River. • Distance protected them from a possible South Carolina attack.

25. 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 ……..

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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

30. 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

31. ~ 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

32. Developments in New France

33. France = wide area in North America • Louisianna ~1700 • Due to a series of events that led to what has been called the Middle Ground

34. Development of the Middle Ground • Iroquois • Gained Weapons from English • Replaced dead with captives • Need to replace dead led to warfare with western Indians

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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.

44. de La Sallegranted • 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

45. 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.

46. 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

47. 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.

48. 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.

49. 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

50. 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