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153 { CHAPTER SEVEN } Col. James Moore The Soldier It would have been easy for South Carolina to wash its hands of North Carolina. Officials had already appropriated £4,000 pounds to prosecute the war, sent an expedition commanded by the experienced Col. Barnwell , forced a peace treaty with the Tuscaroras, and still North Carolina wanted more. Once again, South Carolina did not hesitate. On August 6, 1712, no sooner had North Carolina’s emissary, Robert Foster, finished making his plea, Governor Craven and the South Carolina Assembly decided to help. Craven said the colony did it out of its “nobler principles” and confessed “the secret pleasure of doing good is inexpressible, to succour our distressed brethren, to save our sister colony from a barbarous enemy, are actions truly Christian & heroic & stands recorded to all posterity .” He pointed out that not all of the £4,000 appropriated for the Barnwell expedition had been spent, so the remainder should be used to “extirpate a savage people with whom no peace can be made.”1 Of course, there was the lure of numerous Indian slaves there for the taking.2 YThe South Carolina Assembly met the next day, August 7, and wholeheartedly supported another expedition to North Carolina. Barnwell had to have felt insulted by North Carolina’s demand that the army be led by anyone other than him, but even he supported a second expedition. South Carolina traders should encourage the Indians to volunteer for the expedition, he said, and asked that special attention be given to the Waccamaws and Cape Fear Indians. But Indians were not enough, Barnwell advised, as they would never attack a fort. To take such strongholds as the ones the Tuscaroras had prepared, a force of colonial militia would be needed.3 154 / Col. James Moore On August 8, the South Carolina Assembly first offered command to Col. Robert Daniel. But Daniel wanted “very large & extravagant” compensation , and the Assembly refused him. Next they voted to give it to Capt. Robert Lorey. Governor Craven vetoed him. “We have no exception against Capt. Lorey either, as to his courage or conduct,” Craven explained. “But not being a person acquainted with the way & manner of Indian war, we believe a more proper officer may be thought of for this occasion.” As Craven saw it, command should go to one of two men: Col. John Fenwick or Col. James Moore Jr. The Assembly chose Moore.4 James Moore Jr. was born in South Carolina around 1682 into a wellconnected and rather remarkable Goose Creek family. His father was James Moore Sr. and his mother Margaret Berringer, the stepdaughter of the influential early governor Sir John Yeamans. James Jr. was the oldest of ten children: James, Jehu, Roger, Maurice, John, Nathaniel, Anne, Mary, Rebecca, and Margaret. James and his brothers were close and many of his brothers would make names for themselves. As Goose Creek Men, they had no problems with Indian slavery. They certainly encouraged it and profited from it. And the Moores learned it at their father’s knee, James Moore Sr., a bigger-than-life South Carolinian who even there had a rather notorious reputation as an Indian slaver.5 James Moore Sr. had migrated to South Carolina from Barbados around 1675 and became a founding member of the Goose Creek Men. By 1683 he owned a 2,400-acre plantation there and was fast accumulating more. A true opportunist, he did everything he could to increase his fortunes. He was a planter, a merchant, a part owner of several ships, and known to do business with pirates. He was involved in the Indian trade and made several illegal slave raids. Even the Lords Proprietors condemned him in 1683 for “sending away of Indians & have contrived most unjust wars upon ye Indian in order to ye getting slaves.”6 Nevertheless, he began holding important positions in South Carolina government, eventually becoming secretary of the province in 1698, receiver general in 1699–1700, chief justice during that same time, and finally governor of South Carolina in 1700. One of his most infamous ventures came in the early 1700s, after Queen Anne’s War began. In October 1702, Moore Sr. led a company of South Carolina militia and allied Indians in an attack on Spanish Florida’s capital at St. Augustine and burned the city. After being replaced as governor in 1703, Moore Sr. the next year led an expedition against the Apalachee Indians who lived in Spanish missions in...

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