Yamasee War
The Yamasee War was a significant conflict that erupted in April 1715 between the Yamasee tribe, allied with the Creeks and Catawbas, and English settlers in South Carolina. The roots of the war can be traced back to the economic pressures faced by the Yamasee, who had engaged in extensive trade with the English since the late 1680s, exchanging deerskins and slaves for guns and rum. Following the Tuscarora War, the Yamasee's ability to sustain this trade diminished due to the loss of hunting grounds and a decrease in available slaves for capture. As debts to Carolina traders mounted, the situation escalated when traders began enslaving Yamasee women and children for unpaid debts.
During the conflict, the Yamasee and their allies attacked colonial settlements, resulting in significant casualties among the English. However, the tide turned after 1717 when the English formed an alliance with the Cherokees, leading to a series of defeats for the Yamasee. By 1720, the Yamasee retreated to Florida, continuing some resistance before ultimately being defeated in 1728, which resulted in the loss of their tribal identity. This war not only reshaped the dynamics of power and land ownership in the region but also influenced the strategies of neighboring tribes as they navigated relationships with European powers.
Yamasee War
Date: 1715-1728
Place: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina
Tribes affected: Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Yamasee
Significance: This largest Indian war of the eighteenth century American South destroyed the Yamasee as a tribe and significantly changed English-Indian relations in the South
Beginning in the 1680’s, the Yamasee conducted a large amount of trade with the English in South Carolina, trading deerskins and Indian slaves for English guns and rum. After the Tuscarora War of 1711-1713, however, the ability of the Yamasee to pay for English goods declined. White settlement on Indian lands had ruined the Yamasee deer hunting grounds. The English victory in the Tuscarora War removed most of the tribes from which the Yamasee abducted their slaves. By the 1710’s, the Yamasee were heavily indebted to Carolina traders. When they could not pay their debts, Carolina traders started to enslave Yamasee women and children as payment.
The Yamasee made an alliance with the Creeks and Catawbas, who also had trade grievances with the English, and began a war against South Carolina in April of 1715. The Yamasee and their allies attacked Carolina traders and settlements, killing four hundred English and driving the English out of the Port Royal region. The South Carolinians fought back with a hastily constructed army of colonial militia and African slaves, who made up half of the Carolina troops. The English won a decisive advantage after 1717, when they made an alliance with the powerful and abundant Cherokees. The defeated Creeks signed a peace treaty with the Carolinians in November, 1717, and moved westward. The defeated Yamasee retreated to Florida, from which they continued to raid South Carolina for several years, killing whites and stealing black slaves for sale to the Spanish. South Carolina conducted a final expedition against the Yamasee in 1728. The Yamasee were destroyed and subsequently lost their identity as a tribe.
The defeat of the Yamasee and the Creeks opened new lands to white settlement in Georgia and South Carolina. The war induced the Creeks to begin a policy of neutrality toward the English, French, and Spanish, playing the European powers against one another for maximum advantage. The Cherokees realized that the English were dependent upon them for military success, and began to make greater demands on them.