Tuscarora War
When tribes divide.
This series is on the foundations and Founding Fathers of the United States. Follow this link to the first article in the series.
The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina from 1711 until 1715, between the Tuscarora people and their allies on one side and European American settlers, the Yamasee, and other tribal allies on the other. This was considered the bloodiest colonial war in North Carolina.
The first successful English settlement in North Carolina began in 1653. The Tuscarora lived in peace with the settlers for more than 50 years. This is a near-miracle because nearly every other colony in America was involved in some conflict with Indians during this time period.
History
The Tuscarora are an Iroquoian people who are believed to have migrated from the Great Lakes area into the Piedmont centuries before European colonization. The other Iroquoian-speaking peoples were based largely in what became New York and Pennsylvania.
Remember what I said about the Iroquoia tribe…they were genocidal maniacs. I’m not saying the Tuscarora were, but it’s important to remember North Carolinanian tribes were mostly Algonquins, the traditional enemies of the Iroquois. This explains later events.
As the English settled Carolina (there was no North and South yet), the Tuscarora benefited from trade with the colonists. By acquiring weapons and metal goods from the English, they developed commercial dominance over other tribes in the region. The Northern Tuscarora experienced more benefits than their Southern counterparts, who became cut off from the prosperous Northern Tuscarora by increasing numbers of European settlers as colonists continued to push into Tuscarora territory.
As the settlers moved closer to the Tuscarora and interaction became more frequent, conflict arose over competition for resources, shared hunting grounds and cultural differences. The Tuscarora held John Lawson accountable for his role in the settlers’ expansion into their territory. Lawson (1674 – 1711) was an English explorer, naturalist, and writer. He played an important role in exploring the frontier regions of the Carolinas, publicizing his expeditions. He founded the Bath and New Bern settlements in North Carolina, both located on rivers in the coastal plain.
Lawson’s writings emphasized the potential the lands held for European settlement, and the Indians resented his perceived role in the founding of New Bern, which encroached on Tuscarora territory. Settlers found eastern North Carolina to be swampy and difficult to farm, so they pushed westward, attracted by the more fertile uplands. The Indians also held the same opinion of the land. As settlement expanded, colonist demand for workers increased demand for the Indian slave trade in the region, which the Tuscarora were happy to oblige with captives from surrounding tribes. These factors all led to tension between the Tuscarora, the Alonguion tribes around them, and the growing population of Anglo colonists.
Outbreak of War
There were two bands of Tuscarora in North Carolina in the early 18th century, a northern group led by Chief Tom Blount and a southern group led by Chief Hancock.
Blount was born in 1675 and grew up near the Tar and Roanoke rivers. His name matches the names of two prominent Englishmen in the area. Nobody knows for sure, but one theory is he was adopted by an English family and given the name, while the other theory is he was the illegitimate son of an Englishman named Blount and a native woman.
During his childhood, Virginia traders routinely visited the area. Through interaction over the years, Blount developed a conversational fluency in English. This would help him after his rise to power. Blount lived in a matrilineal society and came to chiefdom through his mother’s side of the family. Due to the contact he experienced early in life and his ability to speak English, Blount allied himself and his people with the English settlers in North Carolina.
Meanwhile, Chief Hancock seems not to have had much close interaction with settlers. It was common for Indian chiefs to adopt English names to facilitate trade, but Hancock became a staunch opponent of English settlement while Blount thought the tribe could benefit from it.
Blount occupied the area around Bertie County on the Roanoke river while Hancock was closer to New Bern, occupying the area south of the Pamlico River.
Hancock’s tribe began to attack the settlers, but Blount’s tribe didn’t become involved in the war at this point. It is possible the English settlers were confused by dealing with two different bands of the same tribe, leading to misunderstandings. The Southern Tuscaroras led by Hancock allied with the Bear River tribe, Coree, Cothechney, Machapunga, Mattamuskeet, Neuse, Pamlico, Senequa, and Weetock to attack the settlers in a wide range within a short time period. They attacked homesteads along the Roanoke, Neuse, and Trent rivers and in the city of Bath beginning in September 1711, killing hundreds of settlers, including several key colonial political figures, such as John Lawson, while driving off others. The Baron of Bernberg was a prisoner of the Tuscarora during the raids, and he recounted stories of women impaled on stakes, more than 80 infants slaughtered, and more than 130 settlers killed in the New Bern settlement.
If true, it’s hard to frown on the English for what followed.
Barnwell’s expedition
In 1711, the North Carolina colony had been weakened by Cary’s Rebellion, and Governor Edward Hyde asked South Carolina for assistance. These attacks came amid a yellow fever outbreak that caused many settlers to flee the region. Governor Thomas Pollack requested the aid of South Carolina, which sent Colonel John Barnwell with a force of 30 European officers and about 500 Indians, including Yamasee, Wateree, Congaree, Waxhaw, Pee Dee, and Apalachee. Remember what I said the Tuscarora being Iroquois in the middle of Algonquin tribes? We don’t know the reason these tribes contributed to this levy, but it’s likely they felt the Tuscarora had earned an attack. Barnwell’s expedition traveled over 300 miles and arrived in January 1712.
Supplemented by 50 local militiamen, the force attacked the Tuscarora, who retreated to Fort Neoheroka in Greene County. The Tuscarora negotiated a truce and released their prisoners.
Barnwell’s expedition didn’t win the war. They established a temporary ceasefire and exchange of prisoners. Barnwell left for South Carolina, displeasing the North Carolina settlers who wished for a total victory over the Tuscarora. The South Carolinians were unhappy to receive no payment for their help. Additionally, some South Carolina officers retained Tuscarora Indians to sell as slaves, which incited the Tuscarora into a new wave of attacks.
Let’s remember — the Tuscarora were fine with slavery of other tribes. They didn’t like it when it happened to them.
Chief Blount and the Moore Expedition
South Carolina dispatched Colonel James Moore with a force of 33 colonists and nearly 1,000 Indians, which arrived in December 1712. The settlers offered Blount control of the entire Tuscarora tribe if he assisted them in defeating Hancock. What an opportunity! Blount captured Hancock, and the settlers executed him in 1712.
In 1713, the Southern Tuscarora lost their Fort Neoheroka in Greene County, followed by the destruction of their other forts by North Carolina colonists. Archeological evidence of Fort Neoheroka indicates the Tuscarora were adapting to modern methods of warfare, using firearms, explosives, and artillery. The Tuscarora’s arsenal lacked a large supply of the sophisticated artillery and explosives employed by their opponents, but they were moving toward becoming a formidable force.
About 950 people were killed or captured and sold into slavery to the Caribbean or New England by Colonel Moore and his South Carolina troops.
Following the decisive defeat, many Tuscarora began a migration to New York, where they joined the Five Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and were accepted as the Sixth Nation in 1722. They were Iroquois and they returned to their ancestral territory and probably joined the Iroquoian genocide of the Algonquin tribes in the northern territories . Some Tuscarora bands remained in North Carolina with Blount for decades, with the last leaving for New York in 1802.
The Tuscarora War didn’t ensure lasting peace in the region. On Good Friday, April 15, 1715, a group of Native Americans attacked South Carolina. Among them were Apalachees, Savannahs, Lower Creeks, Cherokees, and Yamasees — all allies of Colonels Barnwell and Moore during the Tuscarora War. This attack began what is known as the Yamasee War. The Yamasee and other tribes in South Carolina learned from the Tuscarora War that colonial settlers were heavily invested in the slave trade, including that of Indians, but the Tuscarora War and subsequent peace treaty drastically cut down the number of Indians in the area who could be enslaved. With this in mind, the tribes of South Carolina decided on a preemptive attack. They had learned to stand together and wanted to hit the colony before it got any stronger, hoping to kill the traders, destroy the plantations, burn Charles Town, and put an end to the slave trade. During the Yamasee War, Col. Maurice Moore, the brother of Colonel James Moore, led a regiment in the battle against the Yamasee. Among his regiment were some 70 Tuscarora warriors who were keen to fight against the Yamasee, a tribe who had fought against them during the Tuscarora War. Following the Yamasee War, these Tuscarora were asked by South Carolina officials to remain in South Carolina as their allies and to protect the colony from Spain and its Indian allies. As part of the arrangement, South Carolina would return Tuscarora enslaved tribal members, one for one for each Tuscarora killed in the line of duty and for each enemy Indian fighter they captured. The Tuscarora came to be so well respected by the South Carolina government they were granted land in the colony.
Legacy
The Tuscarora War and the Yamasee War were turning points in the Carolinas’ slave trade. By 1717, South Carolina began to regulate its slave trade. Additionally, after two wars between colonists and the tribes, the tribal populations declined significantly. The most valuable role of Native Americans also shifted during this time from slave to ally because of the ongoing power struggle between the French and English to control North America. Because colonists sought to ally themselves with the tribes, the market for African slaves began to grow.
The Tuscarora signed a treaty with colonial officials in 1718 and settled on a reserved tract of land in Bertie County, North Carolina. About a thousand stayed and submitted to Chief Blount. The ending of the war signaled almost certain demise of the southern Tuscarora. Chief Tom Blount, as promised, took full leadership of the Tuscarora left in the area. Blount was treated as an absolute monarch by the settlers.
With all of the disruption from the war, the Tuscarora were now vulnerable to attack from other tribes. The English agreed to allow the Tuscarora to move back to their old hunting grounds for safety.
Chief Tom Blount lived the rest of his life as the “King of the Tuscarora”. Blount and the English in North Carolina worked together and lived peacefully. The few acts of misconduct by Blount’s people were taken directly to him and were taken care of—once again showing how much a mutual language benefits disparate people. North Carolina and the Tuscarora allied with each other against each other’s enemies. As the years went by, Blount saw his nation grow weaker. Many of his people left to join other tribes or went to work for settlers. By his 1731 death, he ruled around 600 people total.