The Yamasee were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida. The Yamasee engaged in revolts and wars with other native groups and Europeans while living in North America, specifically from Florida to North Carolina. The Yamasee, along with the Guale, are considered by many scholars to be Muskogean from linguistic evidence, such as the Yamasee term 'Mico,' meaning chief. After the Yamasee migrated to the Carolinas, they began participating in the slave-raiding culture of the English which was a large cause of the Yamasee War, which they are perhaps most well-known for.
History
Location
The Yamasee lived in coastal towns in southeast Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. The Yamasee migrated from La Florida to South Carolina and became friendly with the British Colonists in the late 16th century. The Yamasee were joined by members of another colonial native group, the Guale, and their cultures intertwined.
European Contact
Slavery in the Carolinas
The Yamasees were one of the largest slave-raiding groups in the south east during the late 1600s, and have been described as a "militaristic slaving society," after being influenced by the English and Spanish. The slave raids can be partially attributed to the Yamasees aligning with western cultures to avoid assimilation.
Charles Town, South Carolina
The Yamasee migrated to the British Colony, Charles Town, SC in 1686 likely in pursuit of British Trade, or to escape the Spanish. In Charles Town, some Yamasee families looked toward missionaries to educate their children in reading and writing as well as converting them to Christianity. It was easier for the English to convert the Yamasees, along with the Guales, because they had been around Spanish missionaries and were more open to conversion.
Spanish Contract
The Hernando de Soto expedition of 1540 traveled into Yamasee territory, including the village of Altamaha. In 1570, Spanish explorers established missions in Yamasee territory. The Yamasee were later included in the missions of the Guale province. Starting in 1675 the Yamasee were mentioned regularly on Spanish mission census records of the missionary provinces of Guale and Mocama. The Yamasee usually did not convert to Christianity and remained somewhat separated from the Christian Indians of Spanish Florida. Pirate attacks on the Spanish missions in 1680 forced the Yamasee to migrate again. Some moved to Florida. Others returned to the Savannah River lands, safer after the destruction of the Westo. In 1687, Spaniards attempted to send Yamasees to the West Indies as slaves, and as a result of this attempt the tribe revolted against the Spanish missions and their Native allies and moved into the British colony of the Province of South Carolina. They established several villages, Pocotaligo, Tolemato, and Topiqui, in Beaufort County, South Carolina. A 1715 census conducted by John Barnwell counted 1,220 Yamasee living in ten villages in near Port Royal, South Carolina.
Yamasee War
See main article: Yamasee War The Yamasee war began due to Yamasee's being indebted to the English, as a result of unfair trading by the English. This was a war between the English colonists and the Yamasees, who were allied with multiple other Native American groups, which began after the massacre of South Carolina citizens by the Yamasees on April 15, 1715. For years, the Yamasee and the Carolinian colonists conducted slave raids upon Spanish-allied Indians and attacked St. Augustine, Florida. In 1715, the Yamasee joined an intertribal war against the British, triggering the Yamasee War, which lasted until at least 1717. Many tribes allied themselves with the Yamasee. British Governor Charles Craven defeated the Yamasee at Salkechuh on the Combahee River. The tribe was driven across the Savannah River back into Spanish Florida. The Yamasee then migrated south to the area around St. Augustine and Pensacola, where they allied with the Spanish against the British. In 1727, the British attacked the tribe's settlement and slaughtered most of them. Some survivors joined the Seminole tribe and some joined the Hitchiti people and disappeared from the historical record.
The Yamasee "Prince"
In 1713, a Yamasee man was sent on a journey from Charleston, SC to London, GB, funded by Anglican Missionaries. The prince's journey was a measure of religious diplomacy on the Yamasee's part because in the early 1700s, the colonists treated the natives poorly, at points even enslaving them. If the prince was a successful convert, it was believed that the British Empire and the Yamasees would be politically intwined. Around the time of the prince's travels the Yamasee's were largely unwilling to convert to Spanish culture in general and relations with the English had already begun. The prince returned to Charleston, which was then called Charles Town, in 1715 right when the Yamasee attacked the British in the Yamasee War and shortly after his father and the rest of his family were taken as slaves by the Europeans.
Heritage
The Yamasee language, while similar to many Muskogean languages, is quite similar to Creek, for they share many words. Many Spanish missionaries in La Florida were dedicated to learning native languages, such as the Yamasee, so that they could convert them easier. By gaining the trust of the Yamasee, it was easier for the Spanish and British to convert the Yamasee people. Steven J. Oatis and other historians describe the Yamasee as a multi-ethnic amalgamation of several remnant Indian groups, including the Guale, La Tama, Apalachee, Coweta, and Cussita Creek, among others. Historian Chester B. DePratter describes the Yamasee towns of early South Carolina as consisting of Lower Towns, consisting mainly of Hitchiti-speaking Indians, and Upper Towns, consisting mainly of Guale Indians.
Language
The name "Yamasee" perhaps comes from Muskogeeyvmvsē, meaning "tame, quiet"; or perhaps from Catawbanyį musí:, literally "people-ancient". Little record remains of the Yamasee language. It is partially preserved in works by missionary Domingo Báez. Diego Peña was told in 1716-1717 that the Tuskegee also spoke Yamasee. Hann claims that Yamasee is related to the Muskogean languages. This was based upon a colonial report that a Yamasee spy within a Hitchiti town could understand Hitichiti and was not detected as a Yamasee. Francis Le Jau stated in 1711 that the Yamasee understood the Creek. He also noted that many Indians throughout the region used Creek and Shawnee as lingua francas. In 1716-1717, Diego Peña obtained information that showed that Yamasee and Hitchiti-Mikasuki were considered separate languages. Inconclusive evidence suggesting the Yamasee language was similar to Guale rests on three pieces of information:
a summary of two 1688 letters, sent by the Florida governor, mentions prisoners of the "ydioma Yguala y Yamas, de la Prova de Guale" ; and
the Guale called the CusaboChiluque, which is probably related to the Muscogee word čiló·kki "Red Moiety."
The Spanish documents are not originals and may have been edited at a later date. The name Chiluque is probably a loanword. It seems also to have been absorbed into the Timucua language. Thus, the connection of Yamasee with Muskogean is unsupported. A document in a British Colonial Archive indicates that the Yamasee originally spoke Cherokee, an Iroquoian language, but had learned another language.
Research
The Yamasee Archeological Project was launched in 1989 to study Yamasee village sites in South Carolina. The project hoped to trace the people's origins and inventory their artifacts. The project located a dozen sites, two of which, Pocosabo and Altamaha are now on the National Register of Historic Places.
