USA > South Carolina > A sketch of the history of South Carolina to the close of the proprietary government by the revolution of 1719. With an appendix containing many valuable records hitherto unpublished > Part 3
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The ancient Indians, who constructed the enclo- sures and mounds existing in the Mississippi valley, had extended their habitations within the borders of our State to the eastward of the Waterree River.t But all knowledge of those more improved people had been lost long before the discovery of America.
* See Trans. of Amer. Ethnol. Soc., vol. ii.
t Sec first vol. published by Smithsonian Institute.
C
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EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
The Indians who lived here when the Europeans first came, could not tell at what period, or for what purpose, these large mounds had been constructed.
The French and Spanish expeditions, noticed in the preceding chapter, afford only an unsatisfactory knowledge of some of the small tribes on the coast. We must, therefore, turn to a later period to find a less deficient account of the barbarous multitudes who filled our land from the seaboard to the mountains.
The Cherokees extended through Georgia and the north-western part of South Carolina. Their hunt- ing grounds stretched onward between the Saluda and Broad Rivers. About 1735 they mustered six thousand warriors, who were reduced to twenty-three hundred in 1775 .*
The Catawbas dwelt on both sides of the Wateree. In 1700, they had fifteen hundred warriors. In 1743 these were reduced to four hundred, including por- tions of broken tribes who had lived in their neigh- borhood.
The Muscogee, or Creeks, possessed the country on the Savannah River, south of the Cherokees. In 1775, their warriors were computed to be thirty-five hundred.+ The total of men, women, and children in each nation may be estimated at about six times the number of warriors.
The Choctaws and Chickesaws lived further toward the Mississippi River, at a distance of eight hundred miles from the English settlement in South Carolina .¿ The degree of intercourse between these
* Adair, p. 226.
t Ibid, p. 257. # Gov. Glen.
1
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Indians and the whites may be shown by the state- ment, that in 1751 there were twenty-eight English traders among the Creeks, seventeen among the Cherokees, two among the Catawbas, and but one for both the Choctaws and Chickesaws."
The precise limits of the various. tribes and nations were never ascertained by government, ; though there were undoubtedly such limits in every nation that had strength enough to maintain its independence .. and permanence.j
1912837
Some of the small tribes north of the Santee and east of the Wateree, were the Santee or Seratee, Hooks and Back Hooks, Winyaws, Peedees, Wacca-
* MSS. in Sec. of State's Off. t Adair, p. 223.
# That the Cherokees had a permanent abode is evident from their holding the same lands at the period of our Revolution which they held before 1693, at which time they sent a deputation to Charleston. The Catawba country is part of the same which their nation held, perhaps, for centuries before the arrival of the English, as they are reported to have been at war with the Five Nations time immemorial. In Ogle- thorpe's Treaty of 1739, it is said that from the seaboard in Georgia to the Mountains, was the ancient possession of the Creek Nation, main- tained against all opponents, and that they could "show the heaps of bones of their enemies, slain by them in defence of said lands." At this period the Upper and Lower Creeks were computed at 25,000 men, wo- men, and children. Previously, in a treaty with the Governor of Sonth Carolina, they had claimed the lands south-west of Savannah River, beyond which the colonists of South Carolina agreed not to settle. They do not appear, however, to have extended their towns to the coast, for Oglethorpe in his letter of 10th Feb., 1733, speaks of "a little In- dian nation, the only one within fifty miles" of Savannah. This people, under Tomo-chi-chi, had been "banished" from the towns of the Lower Creeks. (Vide Conference with Oglethorpe, May 18, 1732. Force's Hist. Tracts, vol. 1.) It must be remarked, too, that the lower towns were not peopled by the Muskoges proper, or Creeks, (so called from the numerous creeks in their territory) but by remnants of the Ooseeha, Okone, and Sawakola nations. (Adair, p. 257.)
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maws, Kadapaws, Weenees, Waterce, Chichanec, Waxsaws, and Saraws; and northward of these, the Enoes, Toteros, Saponas, and Keyauwees. These tribes were feeble in condition, and generally without combination. They often waged a petty, though destructive warfare against each other. Those that did not sink into complete decay on their own lands, migrated to other places, or embraced the protection of the Catawbas, whom so many remnants had joined, that in 1743 twenty dialects were spoken among their small band of warriors .*
The Congarees, on the river which bears their name, were an idle and squalid people. They had been greatly reduced by intestine feuds and by the small-pox, which from their strange mode of treat- ment was a fatal disease among all the Indians.+ The few who remained found refuge with the Cataw- bas. The latter had once the custom of flattening the heads of their infants to make them better hun-
* Adair, p. 224. It is impossible to trace these remains of " broken tribes," after their union, or rather complete coalescation, with the larger tribes. Such union implied the abandonment of every thing that would distinguish them from the superior tribe. "I am informed," says Adair, p. 267, "by a gentleman of character, who traded a long time near the late Alabahma garrison, that within six miles of it live the re- mains of seven Indian nations, who usually conversed with each other in their own different dialects, though they understood the Muskoge language ; but being naturalized, they were bound to observe the laws and customs of the main original body." See also Barton's New Views, 1798, p. 45.
t They generally heated themselves in a large oven, and immediately plunged into the river. (Lawson. See also Catlin's N. Am. Indians, where the same practice is mentioned.) The Cherokees reported that in one year they lost three thousand warriors by the small-pox and intemperance. (Force's Tracts, vol. 1.)
EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTII CAROLINA. 37
ters, it was believed. The Waxsaws who lived near the Congarees were the only Indians in South Caro- lina who retained this peculiar custom. But the diversity of these small tribes is more clearly shown by the fact, that though they lived only "ten or twenty miles in distance" from each other, their lan- guages were quite different .*
Within a short time after the founding of Charles Town, the coast thence to the Santee was possessed by the English. The intervening islands were used for raising hogs and cattle. On Sewee Bay was " a deserted Indian residence," and doubtless many of them were in every direction. The Sewees, besides having been wasted by the small-pox and drunken- ness, had lost, before they moved from the coast, the best portions of their tribe by sending, after solemn deliberation, a grand commercial expedition to Eng- land in canoes. Their range of hunting ground was probably between the Santee and Monk's Corner, where it met the lands of the Etiwans or Ittawans on the south and those of the Santees and Congarees stretching down from the north and north-west .;-
Westward of Charles Town were also many rem- nants of nations. The Kussoes lived north-east of Combahee River ; the land of the Cacique of Com- bahee being bounded in this direction by the land of the Kussoes .¿ The Westoes lived in Beaufort dis- trict. They were at an early period driven out by the Savannahs § or Yamassees, who belonged to the
* Lawson. + Statutes at Large, years 1691 and '95.
# Book of Grants, 1682, Secr. Off.
¿ Gov. Archdale, p. 89.
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Lower Creek nation." The tribes of St. Helena, Wimbee, Edisto, Coosaw, Stono, and Kiawaw, who with the Santees, Seewas, and Etiwans were com- monly called Cusabees, lived between Charleston and Savannah.
Some of these surrendered their lands to the Eng- lish ; others migrated or dwindled into insignificance prior to 1707.1-
The Saludas deserted their towns, on the river of that name, and removed to Pennsylvania.t In their migrations, the weaker tribes sometimes removed their abode hundreds and even thousands of miles.§ In 1734, a delegation of twenty-six Natchee Indians applied to the governor of South Carolina for per- mission to settle their nation on the Savannah.|| In 1753, a party of the Shawnees, from the Ohio, were arrested on suspicion while on their way through the province to join the Creeks. T The Yamassees and Tuskaroras were warlike and adventuresome tribes. Hence we find them in various places. The latter once dwelt between the Savannah and Altamaha .*** After conflicts there they settled in North Carolina. Coming in conflict with the whites, and being greatly reduced, they united themselves with the confederate
* Speech of the Cowecta chief in conference with Oglethorpe. Force's Tracts, vol. 1.
+ Statutes, 317 and 641. Bk. of Grants, MS. 1683.
# Sce Monson's Map.
¿ Lawson, p. 170. Barton, p. 32, and Appendix.
|| Carolina Gazette.
T Ind. Bk. Secr. of State's Off. See also MS. Council Journal, p. 24, 1753.
** Stephens' Georgia.
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nations on the frontiers of New York.# Some of them were also living at Port Royal in 1721. In like manner the Yamassees, having renounced their alliance with the Spaniards, who had executed sev- eral of their chiefs, removed to Beaufort district between 1680-90, and were conspicuous there until their defeat and expulsion in 1715. A remnant of them lived with the Catawbas in 1743; but the main portion retreated to Florida, from whom the Seminoles are said to be descended.
. We will here present some general remarks on the Indian towns, government, religion, domestic condi- tion, intercourse and alliances, trade with the whites, and mode of warfare; leaving other subjects to be elucidated as they shall appropriately attract our attention in the course of this history.
The Indian towns were more or less adjacent, in accordance with the extent of territory free from incursion, and the scarcity or abundance of game. It was remarked of the Creeks that their warlike habits were strengthened by living closely together for the sake of mustering on a sudden against attacks of the neighboring Choctaws, and from the necessity of hunting at a great distance from home. The towns were invariably situated on a river or stream, ; and contained each about fifty or sixty warriors.i Polyg-
* Williamson-ITumphrey's Prop. Gos. p. 305. 3 Statutes, p. 141.
t For ablution and fishing. The young Indians were very expert in taking fish with reed harpoons, searching their accustomed retreats among rocks and beneath the steep river banks.
# In 1740, the lands along the Savannah, from Ebenezer to Briar Creek, were in possession of the Euchees. Their town contained but one hundred inhabitants : " Few of them stay now in the town, choosing
-... .
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EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
amy was allowed in most tribes, and the women led a very dissolute life from early age till marriage. In a prosperous nation the towns averaged three hun- dred men, women and children. Among broken and dispersed nations the towns were reduced to an insig- nificant number of inhabitants. There were neither numerous tribes nor large towns between Charleston and the Catawbas, nor westward, except the Cherokee towns, which in 1750 did not average more than fifty warriors.
These towns were independent of each other in government,* if we can so call what was "simply natural, as little complicated as that which is sup- posed to direct or rule the approved economy of the
rather to live dispersed." There was another settlement of Euchees at Silver Bluff, (Force's Tracts.) In 1757, thirty-two towns of the Cherokees contained but 1990 warriors. (Ind. Bk. Secr. Office.) Thirty-one towns in North Carolina, in 1708, numbered but 1608 fen- cible men. (Williamson, p. 282.) The Sewee, Santee, Wateree, Wax- saw, Winyah, and other remnants of tribes were feeble and scattered, and where they dwelt together their huts could not properly be termed towns. The towns enumerated by Lawson, (p. 234,) contained from eighty to only six or ten fighting men.
* The towns of the Lower Creeks " have cach their different govern- ment, but are allied together, and speak the same language." (Force's Tracts, vol. 1, No. 2.) "Every town is independent of another-their own friendly compact continues the union," (Adair ;) and such were the tribes found by Vasquez and Laudonniere, in the sixteenth century, and also in our own day in the West. " With respect to goverment, during all the time we have had them for neighbors, they may be said to have had no government at all. Personal independence has kept the petty chiefs from forming confederacies for the common good. Individuals have surrendered no part of their original private rights, to secure the observance of the rest. There has been no public organization expressed or implied. The consequence has been that the law of pri- vate redress and revenge prevailed." (Schoolcraft, 1851.) The docu- ments which are sometimes found in the official MSS. representing
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ant and the bee."* There was no exclusive execu- tive authority. The greatest man insensibly became king, and was only regarded as bravest or wisest, not as lord and dictator. On important occasions he called together a Council + of distinguished elders, who after solemn deliberation made known their decision to the young men of the town, exhorting them to put it in execution under the guidance of such war-captains and head-men as had won their leader- ship by exhibitions of superior bodily and mental endowments. Certain conjurors and quacks, some- times called priests, also held a high position among them, being believed to commune with spirits and to. possess powers of cure, enchantment, and divination. The greatest personal influence, howsoever gained, ruled them in all undertakings and emergencies.
monarchies among the Indians, and the surrender of the rights and domain of the nation to individuals, are to be considered as written by Europeans as title deeds. (Vide copies in Appendix to Mills' Statistics and McCall's Georgia.) The power of their chiefs is correctly shown in Oglethorpe's Letter, Gent. Mag., 1733.
* Barton, p. 500.
t Detailed accounts of the proceedings of these assemblages are in the records of the Secretary of State's Office. See also Adair, Bar- tram, Lawson, Oglethorpe's Letters, &c. It may not be uninteresting to give here a specimen of the passes furnished by the traders to friendly Indians, (MSS., 1750.) " To all people whom it may concern : Whereas, the bearers of this being our brotherly Indians, desire the favor of you to let them pass and repass, they being going to war against their enemy Indians, and desire the favor of us to acquaint you of the same, in the hopes that you'll supply them in a little vietnals, if they stand in need of it, without killing any of your creatures, to prevent their doing any damage ; whereas, many damages has been done by these Northward Indians, in hopes you'll think nothing of their passing and repassing, they being not the same, but our friendly Indians that lives in our lands." Signed by four traders. 4*
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EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
This influence might extend from town to town ; one extraordinary man might become a kind of emperor of the whole nation, and one town a kind of capital of the whole confederacy. The alliance of the towns looked not to peace, but to war. Tribes whose lan -. guages were radically different, and who were at variance with each other, were occasionally leagued against mutual enemies. When not engaged in war, the men were absent from home three or four months. of every year on hunting expeditions. Being of a roving nature, no strong attachment confined them permanently to one spot. The towns, at best a col- location of huts, were often abandoned, as necessity or interest prompted a removal. Their true home was wherever the forest oak spread its grateful shade, and the green pines rustled on high their innumera- ble tops ; wherever the stream burst from the mountain side, or winding smoothly through the vale, reflected from its quiet surface the antlered flocks that stooped to quench their thirst.
Their variety of languages, hostilities, and estrange- ments prevented any effectual combination against the English colonists at first when they might have overwhelmed them. Afterward their respect for the whites was nothing more than a dread of their power; for they despised their pale hue, ridiculed the wearing of breeches, laughed at their military parades, and felt no deference for a civilization effac- ing the savage endurance and ferocity that consti- tuted their principal virtues, nor any relish for a religion enjoining upon them humility, love and the return of good for evil. Little reliance could be
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EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
placed in the faith of treaties, and their rhetorical speeches of brotherly affection, and assurances of burying the tomahawk, wiping away the blood on the war path, and keeping forever bright the chain of friendship. Arthur Middleton, in his address to the Commons in 1725, advising the erection of forts along the Indian frontier, says truly, "it is well known, by long experience, that force is of more prevalency than argument with these people."
In agriculture, the richness of the soil and the fer- tilizing beams of a southern sky, supplied the place of skillful management in the raising of their maize and beans. Towns and villages had each a common farm, a particular portion of which was allotted to families and individuals ; not so much from principles of private property, as for public convenience in the distribution of the produce. In times of scarcity, they received support from the store-house of the town ; and hence the buying and selling of provi- sions did not, as with other people, give origin to wealth and merchandise. In mechanics, flint stone furnished the best tools they had, and they advanced not beyond the manufacture of some rude utensils, and the construction of cabins of the simplest form. The women made pottery, moccasins, belts, fringe, and fantastic ornaments of dress; but the majority of the poorer tribes wore only a scanty covering, the body being protected against the weather and insects by a constant use of bear's oil. "The men perform nothing except erecting their mean habitations, form- ing their canoes, stone pipes, tambours, eagle's tail or
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EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTII CAROLINA.
standard, and some other trifling matters; for war and hunting are their principal employments." **
They had, as have all savages, feasts, dances, and barbaric games. But in the serious business of life, there were at home no employments, intellectual or manual, of sufficient dignity, in their estimation, to engage their restless energies. With an invincible" propensity to cling to their savage state, they passed through century after century without progressive improvement. When the chase in the wild woods was over, and the wigwam was supplied with food, the warrior gazed upon the trophies of his former bravery, and chanted the praises of the departed heroes of his race. He made for himself a new bow; he replenished his quiver; whetted his scalping knife and prepared his war paint; he started from his slumber at midnight, and his children awoke in terror at his half-uttered battle cry.
The Indians were unhabituated to accumulation, and had no medium of exchange.} The tribes were
* Bartram's Travels, p. 513. So also with those on our northern boundary-"They have no manner of musical instruments, such as pipe, fiddle, or any other arts, sciences, or trades worth mentioning, which may be owing to their careless way of living, taking little or no pains to provide for the necessaries of life as the Europeans do."-Dr. Brick- ell's Nat. Hist. N. Car., 1737, p. 279. See Lawson (1701) for those north of Santee River.
"They had musicians, who were two old men, one of whom beat a drum, while the other rattled a gourd that had corn in it, to make a noise withal. To these instruments, they both sung a mournful ditty; the burden of their song was in remembrance of their former greatness and numbers of their nation," &c. "They thus give a relation of what hath passed among them to the younger fry." (p. 39.)
t In some tribes there was a near approach to the use of a kind of money, viz. : shells for ornament, and "wampum." They did not re- spect the possession of riches, which they compared to the fading paint on a warrior's face.
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EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
entirely independent of each other for food, clothing, and utensils; so that before their traffic with the whites began,* there existed between them no inter- course or advantages of a commercial nature to check forays, stifle feuds, and render a cessation from war a blessed season for domestic prosperity. By the policy that prevailed in some nations, of incorporating the conquered tribes, the conquerors appear only to have entered upon a more extended field of warfarc.
Peace was often maintained between nations by the offering of satisfaction for injuries before retalia- tion had destroyed their amity. But, upon the whole, friendship with all their neighbors was the exception in the condition of their relations. And we must conclude, that apart from the influence of
* The following passages relate to Indians about the head waters of the Pedec, &c. "It is very surprising to find so many different lan- guages amongst them as there are, there being few nations that under- stand each other. But I believe the principal reason of this great difference and confusion of language, is owing to these people seldom or never conversing with any nation but their own." "These differences in their languages cause jealousies and fears amongst them, which often occasion wars, wherein they destroy each other; otherwise the Christians had not, in all probability, settled themselves so easily as they have done, had these tribes of savages united themselves into one people, or general interest, or were they so but every hundred miles together." They are entirely free from any love of riches or grandeur. (Brickell, p. 346.)
The traffic with the whites effected but a slight change in the relation of tribe with tribe. Instances however occurred in which the Indians, in imitation of the white traders, carried small casks of rum, the com- modity most valued by them, for exchange among the mountain tribes. In most cases, cre half the journey was performed, these merchants were found in jolly mood around the open cask, or raging like frantic bacchanals in the forest. If any rum were left, which seldom was the case, they filled the cask with water, and on arriving at their journey's end, retailed the mixture by the mouthful.
..
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EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
the trade, intervention, and protection of the whites, the most efficient preservatives of peace were the in- capacity of the tribes for sustaining conflicts, and the being so far removed from each other as to preclude all occasion of contact and collision.
The men of every tribe may be divided into two classes ; those who were too old to engage in offen- sive warfare, and the warriors. The former were counselors, and their importance and influence were proportionate to their previous valor and services ; the latter, early in life, prepared themselves for hard- ships, and suffering, and deeds of blood. In hunting, they carried their weapons of war, the bow and knife. To circumvent and secure the wild deer, buffalo, and bear, required all the devices and cunning strategy which they would need in taking or destroying their human prey. When the condition of a nation or tribe demanded extreme wisdom to preserve it from ruin, the exertions of the aged counselors were often inefficient to counteract the devilish thirst for blood that urged the young and impetuous warriors. "The young men did it, and we are sorry for it," was the perpetual excuse for injuries to the whites; and fre- quently, to save themselves from war, the perpetra- tors were apprehended after great difficulty, and delivered up to the injured party for punishment. Atta-kulla-kulla, when he suspected that the scalps brought in by a party of his warriors, had not been taken from their enemies, said, "They are young fellows, and would not come back without something to show their barbarity." Sometimes a single reso- lute warrior went forth in quest of adventure and
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EARLY HISTORY OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
distinction, many hundreds of miles from his forest home; and creeping, and crouching, and watching about the wigwams of his foes, sprang upon some defenseless woman or child; and while the blood of his victim was still warm upon the hand that clutched the reeking scalp, he hurried back like a triumphant demon ; yet durst for a moment stop to shriek forth a yell of defiance to the maddened mul- titude that rushed upon his track in wild pursuit.
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