Yamasee War: Difference between revisions

The Yamasee were an amalgamation of the remnants of earlier tribes and chiefdoms. The Upper Yamasee were primarily [[Guale]] originally from the Georgia coast. The Lower Yamasee included the Altamaha, [[Ocute]] (Okatee), [[Ichisi]], (Chechessee), and Euhaw, who had come to the coast from the interior of Georgia.<ref>Worth 1993:40–45</ref> They emerged during the 17th century in the contested frontier between South Carolina and Spanish Florida. They moved north in the late 17th century and became South Carolina's most important Indian ally. They lived near the mouth of the [[Savannah River]] and around [[Port Royal Sound]].<ref>{{NRHP url|id=64500575|title="The Foundation, Occupation, and Abandonment of Yamasee Indian Towns in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1684-17151684–1715"}}, National Register Multiple Property Submission, Dr. Chester B. DePratter, National Park Service</ref>

For years, the Yamasee profited from their relation with the settlers. By 1715, deer had become rare in Yamasee territory, and the Yamasee became increasingly indebted to the American traders who supplied them with trade goods on credit. Rice plantations had begun to thrive in South Carolina and was exported as a commodity crop, but much of the land good for rice had been taken up. The Yamasee had been granted a large land reserve on the southern borders of South Carolina, and settlers began to covet the land which they deemed ideal for rice plantations.<ref name="Gallay2003rice">{{cite book|last=Gallay|first=Alan|title=The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-17171670–1717|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwYJXj6PdbAC&pg=PA218|year=2003|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-10193-5|pages=218, 330–331}}</ref>

Each of the Indian tribes that joined in the war had its own reasons, as complicated and deeply rooted in the past as that of the Yamasee. The tribes did not act in carefully planned coordination, but the unrest increased and tribes began to discuss war. By early 1715, rumors of growing Indian support for war was troubling enough that some friendly Indians warned colonists of the danger. They suggested that the Ochese Creek were the instigators.<ref name="Oatis2004warning">{{cite book|last=Oatis|first=Steven J.|title=A Colonial Complex: South Carolina's Frontiers in the Era of the Yamasee War, 1680-17301680–1730|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_rcFu4KjwVAC&pg=PA124|year=2004|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|isbn=0-8032-3575-5|pages=124–125}}</ref>