The Yamasee War: A Study of Culture, Economy, and Conflict in the Colonial South (review)

Between 1715 and 1718, an alliance of southeastern Indian groups orchestrated attacks across South Carolina, killing more than 400 British settlers, and transforming the southern political landscape for the remainder of the eighteenth century. Ramsey’s examination of the causes, tactics, and effects of the Yamasee War is the first book-length treatment of the subject. By focusing on a war that was waged by Native American groups who were deeply involved in South Carolina’s commodity and Indian slave trade, Ramsey is able to investigate the dynamics of the Atlantic market on the peripheries, the relationship between trade and diplomacy, Native American alliance networks, and the rise of a racialized slave system. Within these realms of intercultural exchange, Ramsey examines the interplay between cultural systems and historical contingencies.

Ramsey’s methodology hinges on tracing “an evolving, multifaceted series of discussions among Indians, Africans, and the English in an effort to understand the multitude of choices that transformed the South” (9). In Chapter 1, Ramsey argues that prior to the war, discussions between English traders and Native Americans were strained by differing assumptions about gender, debt, and slavery. For the remainder of the book, however, he shifts his focus to market and diplomatic contingencies, more than entrenched cultural differences, in an attempt to understand the dynamics of the war. Constrictions of credit and the Atlantic market, which could now handle only deerskins from southeastern Indians who were used to trading a variety of skins and furs, put Native Americans at a sudden economic disadvantage, creating widespread discontent. The South Carolina government’s failure to address their complaints consistently, and particularly its inability to unify the voices of its Indian agents, sparked the Yamasee attack. Ramsey’s excavation of the tactics and alliance systems cultivated during the Yamasee War reveal the complex interplay of cultural, historical, ethnic, and local factors.

The Yamasee War transformed South Carolina plantation organization and racial ideologies. Using wills and postmortem probate records, Ramsey calculates that at its height before the war, Native Americans comprised 25 percent of the enslaved population, a number that would drop to 2 to 3 percent after the war. The fluidity of Native Americans’ slave status, their continued relationship with free Native Americans, and government-coerced manumissions due to diplomatic pressure always made them a problematical slave source. During the war, colonists began to view their Indian slaves as potential enemies. They later extended these race-based fears to their black slave majority.

After the war, southeastern Indians gained an unprecedented amount of power, marking a period of “vibrant interaction” and “intense struggles to influence the new terms of engagement,” in which diplomatic concerns about commodity prices, transport, and alliances trumped market forces (184). Ultimately, however, these interactions did not transform either party; Native American and English groups continued to maintain their separate identities and pursue distinct objectives. This understanding of intercultural exchange is consistent with the interpretations offered by White and Merrell.¹

Ramsey’s lack of direct engagement with theories of cultural change is the only disappointing aspect of this book. For example, readers might wonder why Native American slaves assimilated to African and English cultures while free Native Americans, who had constant contact with white traders and consumed European goods, preferred to maintain their traditional culture. A discussion of these two diverging situations would have added to this outstanding book and made it even more useful for an interdisciplinary readership.