Indian slave trade in the American Southeast facts for kids

Native Americans living in the American Southeast were sometimes forced into slavery by European colonists from the 1600s to the 1800s. This happened through wars or by being bought. The Spanish also used forced labor systems in Florida.

New British colonies like Virginia, Carolina (which later became North and South Carolina), and Georgia brought in Native Americans as slaves. These Native American slaves often worked alongside African slaves. Over time, African slaves became more numerous. The demand for slaves by European settlers reached as far west as present-day Illinois and the Mississippi River, and as far south as the Gulf Coast. Tens of thousands of enslaved Native Americans were also sent outside the region to places like New England and the Caribbean.

Native Americans were used for different types of work. Some worked on large farms called plantations, others as servants for wealthy families, and some as interpreters for European traders. Rules about how Native Americans were treated and enslaved varied from colony to colony in the Southeast.

The slave trade involving Native Americans often relied on Native Americans capturing and selling other Native people. This trade between colonists and Native Americans greatly changed the nature of slavery in the Southeast. Before Europeans arrived, Native Americans did have slaves, but these slaves were usually personal servants or helped with tasks. They were not seen as property to be bought and sold, which is what "chattel slavery" means. Slaves were not a big part of the economy for Native societies back then.

After the British arrived and introduced firearms, some Native societies began to focus on warfare to capture other Native people. They would then sell these captives into chattel slavery. The plantations set up by European settlers in the Southeast depended heavily on enslaved people for their workforce. This slave trade and the wars it caused reduced the number of Native peoples in the region. Many Native societies were forced to leave their homes, breaking apart communities and changing the map of peoples and ethnic groups in the area.

How the Slave Trade Worked

Slavery has existed in societies all over the world for a very long time. You can learn more about it globally at History of slavery or specifically about the Americas at Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas. When Europeans came to North America in large numbers starting in the 1600s, slavery practices continued and changed.

Often, European colonists would trade with Native Americans. They gave them goods and weapons, like the flintlock musket (a type of gun). In return, they received beaver pelts (animal furs) and Native people who would be sold into slavery.

One of the first Native American groups to make these agreements was the Westos, who came from the north into Virginia. They are thought to be related to the Erie. After the Westos stopped their trade, the Savannah people took over this role. Later, the Yamasee and the Creek tribes became involved in this trade.

The Native Americans who were captured were brought to the Carolina colony to be sold. From there, they were often resold to the Caribbean. This was because it was harder for them to escape in a new, unfamiliar place. They might also be resold to one of the other British colonies of North America.

This slave trade system wasn't easy to keep going. Eventually, the number of Native people available for capture started to decrease. Those who weren't killed or captured sometimes became the captors themselves. As fewer Native people could be captured, the Native American groups involved in the trade began to owe money to the colonists. This debt and frustration led to the Yamasee War in 1715. This war was one of the main reasons the Native American slave trade system in the Carolinas ended.

Slavery in the Southeastern Colonies

British colonists in Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia brought in enslaved Native Americans to work during the 1600s and early 1700s. The Carolina colony became a major place for sending enslaved Native Americans to other colonies, including those in New England and the Caribbean. The southern colonies were known for using slavery to run their large farm economies. People often think that all slaves were from Africa, but Native Americans were also frequently enslaved. In some cases, more Native Americans were enslaved than Africans.

The Native American slave trade in the colonial Southeast grew a lot because of European weapons. Native Americans traded other Native people for more ammunition and other European goods. However, Native Americans being involved in enslaving other Natives could not last forever. The number of available Native Americans decreased. Also, Native American revolts, like the Yamasee War of 1715, helped end the practice of Native Americans being the main group enslaved in the colonial Southeast.

Slavery in the Carolinas

Trade between Carolina colonists and Native peoples was very important to the Carolina Colony from its start in 1670 until the early 1700s. European colonists offered weapons, alcohol, and manufactured goods. In return, they received animal skins and Native American slaves. Charles Town (which is now Charleston, South Carolina) became a major port for sending enslaved Native Americans out of the colony. The money made from this trade helped the Carolina colony set up its plantations, which mainly grew rice and indigo. These plantations then brought in African slaves to work them.

Historian Peter H. Wood found that by 1708, South Carolina had a total population of 9,580 people. This included 4,100 African slaves and 1,400 Native American slaves. About 45% of the slave population were African men, while Native American women made up about 15% of the adult slave population in colonial South Carolina. There were more Native American women than men, and many more African men than women. This led to many African and Native American people forming families together. Many former slaves later mentioned having a Native American relative from one or two generations before them. This also led to many children with both African and Native American heritage. By 1715, there were an estimated 1,850 Native American slaves in the Carolina colony. Before 1720, when the Native American slave trade ended, Carolina sent out as many or more Native American slaves than it brought in African slaves.

This trade system involved the Westo tribe, who had moved south. The Westos received European goods in exchange for beaver and other animal furs, and for capturing Native people to be sold into slavery. Colonial traders encouraged their Native American trading partners to fight wars and capture people. They supported conflicts like the Stono War of 1674 and the Westo War of 1680. A small group of planters called the Goose Creek Men, who moved from Barbados to Carolina, benefited from this trade. They gave large amounts of weapons to the Westo, Savannah, Yamasee, and Siouan-speaking "Settlement Indians" to help the trade. Colonists and their Yamasee allies fought the Tuscarora in 1712, defeating them and capturing hundreds as slaves.

In the early 1700s, French traders living with the Kaskaskia Illinois and Miami peoples encouraged wars to get slaves for the Carolina market, and also to sell in New France (French colonies in North America).

Slavery, especially of Native Americans, was allowed by the colony's laws. "Slave Codes" were created soon after the colony was founded. As slaves, Native Americans were often expected to hunt, while black slaves worked on the plantations. As trade with Native Americans continued, so did the enslavement of Native Americans. However, some colonists, like Henry Woodward, tried to limit the amount of trade with Native Americans because of a growing trade monopoly. But Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) stopped efforts to limit trade and allowed for more sales of slaves in Charleston.

It was relatively easy for Native Americans to escape because they knew the land well and were often not far from their own people. To solve this problem, slave owners sent escaped Native slaves to work in the West Indies or to another of the thirteen colonies where it would be harder for them to escape.

However, the Yamasee War, which started in 1715, eventually stopped the colony's purchase of Native Americans as slaves. This made the colony rely more on the labor of black slaves.

Slavery in Colonial Georgia

The colony of Georgia was started in 1732. Its founder, James Oglethorpe, made sure that slavery was not allowed in the colony. However, the 1735 law that banned slavery only applied to Africans, not Native Americans. Some of the first Native American slaves in Georgia were brought there by the Musgrove family from South Carolina. Historian Rodney Baine found that Native American slaves continued to be bought in 1738, and they were still working on Georgia plantations in 1772.

Slavery in Florida

The Florida peninsula was controlled by the Spanish Empire until 1763. Then, it was a British colony for 20 years, before the Spanish took control again in 1783. Before Florida became a British colony, in the early 1700s, Spanish Florida was a place where raiding Native groups from Carolina and Georgia often attacked.

While one of the original raiding groups, the Westos (thought to be descendants of the Erie People), mostly left them alone, Spanish Florida was heavily targeted by later raiding groups like the Yamasee and Creek. These raids destroyed villages and captured or killed Native people. This drove the Native people to seek protection from the Spanish, who tried their best to help them.

However, the Spanish power weakened. As the raids continued, the Spanish and the Native people they protected were forced to move further south down the peninsula. The raids were so frequent that there were hardly any Native people left to capture. Because of this, the Yamasee and Creek tribes started bringing fewer slaves to the Carolina colonies to continue the trade. The retreat of the Spanish only ended when the Yamasee and Creek entered what would later be known as the Yamasee War with the Carolina Colony.