The Tuscarora War: Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for the Carolina Colonies
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David La Vere. The Tuscarora War: Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for the Carolina Colonies. Chapel Hill: University Of North Carolina Press, 2013. 272 pp. $30.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-4696-1090-0. Reviewed by Ethan A. Schmidt Published on H-AmIndian (March, 2015) Commissioned by F. Evan Nooe (University of North Carolina, Charlotte) The Yamasee War of the early eighteenth cen‐ as intercolonial and Native politics. Finally, La tury has become a very popular historical topic of Vere achieves a very welcome balance between late and has fgured prominently in some excel‐ erudition and readability that eludes many but lent work on the colonial South by such scholars the most practiced writers of early American eth‐ as Allan Gallay, William Ramsey, and Paul Kelton, nohistory. to name but a few. However, this renaissance of La Vere tells the story of the Tuscarora War interest in that conflict, which raged mainly in the by devoting separate chapters to the lives of seven Carolinas from 1715 to 1717, has, for the most of its most important participants. In the frst full part, treated the Tuscarora War immediately pre‐ chapter, he chronicles the life of the baron ceding it in that same region as simply a prologue Christoper de Graffenried, the cash poor Swiss no‐ or precursory chapter. David La Vere’s The Tus‐ bleman who dreamt of the redemption of both his carora War: Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for family fortune and the lives of the dissenting the Carolina Colonies largely renders such an act Swiss and German indigents he had led to North impossible in the future. Carolina in 1710. Unfortunately, for both de Graf‐ As one of the few (if not the only) full-length fenried and his New Bern settlement, he was easi‐ monographs in over a century to focus solely on ly rooked. For despite the assurances of North the Tuscarora War, this volume contains tremen‐ Carolina surveyor general John Lawson that the dous value simply for its account of the war’s land he and the colony’s proprietors had sold de causes, its major events, and its repercussions. Graffenried was indeed free and clear of any oth‐ The value of La Vere’s work does not end there. er encumbrances, the baron soon discovered that The Tuscarora War also provides valuable in‐ he had seated his settlement in the midst of lands sights into ethnic, religious, and class tensions in claimed by the Tuscaroras and their allies. Never‐ early eighteenth-century North Carolina as well theless, de Graffenried pressed on with the busi‐ H-Net Reviews ness of creating what he viewed as nothing short make. These men often took advantage of dis‐ of a feudal state with him as lord of the manor. putes with Indians to further their fortunes. La Early on, it seemed as if his dream might actually Vere’s third chapter profiles one such colonist in come to fruition and for a time the colony thrived. the person of William Brice. Brice, a longstanding However, that early success prompted both Law‐ rogue with a penchant for abusing Indians and son and de Graffenried to reach too far. When pilfering their land, soon took over the leadership they embarked on a journey up the Neuse River of North Carolina’s defenses. Though he met with in September of 1711 to fnd lands suitable for the mixed success in his attempts to actually defeat colony’s expansion, they were captured by war‐ the Tuscaroras, Brice’s real motivation seems to riors from the nearby Tuscarora town of Catchena have been nothing more than the procurement of where they would eventually be sentenced to Indian captives to sell into slavery, and at this ob‐ death for their role in the dispossession of Tus‐ jective he excelled much to the approval of many carora land. While de Graffenried would eventu‐ of his fellow colonists and the chagrin of leaders, ally be spared execution, Lawson, who had de‐ such as de Graffenried, who sought a negotiated frauded the Tuscaroras as well as their allies of peace to the conflict. land on more than one occasion, was not so fortu‐ The next two chapters detail the intercolonial nate. His subsequent death and the attacks of the rivalries and political intrigue endemic to all in‐ Tuscaroras and their allies against North Carolina teractions between England’s North American settlements immediately following sparked the colonies. Utilizing South Carolina colonel John Tuscarora War. Barnwell and North Carolina Council president The second chapter explains the role played Thomas Pollock, La Vere demonstrates the way in by internal Tuscarora politics in the decisions which the tactics and strategy of both Carolina both to execute Lawson and to strike the North colonies were more often determined by the de‐ Carolina settlements. La Vere uses the opposing sire of their respective governments to outdo the Tuscarora leaders King Hancock, an older and other and by the personal whims of those they more accommodationist leader, and Core Tom, a placed in command of their expeditions. The out‐ younger man more in tune with the desires of come of all of this was a series of failed campaigns Tuscarora warriors, to peer into the group’s inner and sieges which ended in defeat more than once deliberations. In the end, a combination of abuse for Barnwell and prompted him to sign a peace by traders, the effects of the Indian slave trade, treaty with the Tuscaroras, which he then imme‐ disease epidemics, and the encouragement of diately broke either at the behest of such North their Seneca kinsmen from New York created a Carolinians as Pollock who felt it akin to an ad‐ groundswell of support for action against English mission of defeat or because he (Barnwell) gave in colonialism. In a political system based heavily on to his desire to take Indian captives home with the idea of consensus, those who disagreed with him to sell as slaves. Either way, what might possi‐ the stance of the younger warriors were honor bly have been the beginnings of a peaceful resolu‐ bound to throw their lot in with those clamoring tion to the conflict was swept away by the vanity, for war. Therefore, even the most staunch accom‐ greed, and bloodlust of those in the leadership of modationist leaders (such as King Hancock) could both the North Carolina government and its mili‐ not hope to hold out against the will of his people tary allies. if he hoped to retain his authority. As much as anything, Virginia governor Much like Virginia during the previous centu‐ Alexander Spotswood’s refusal to militarily sup‐ ry, North Carolina was a paradise for men on the port the North Carolina government while also 2 H-Net Reviews cutting the Old Dominion’s trade ties with the Tus‐ Yamasee War. It is on the whole a very successful caroras did as much as anything to end the war. work of history. However, there are a few minor Virginia’s refusal to trade with them forced those issues which even the most supportive of readers Tuscaroras who were either opposed to the war cannot fail to notice. The smallest of which relates or at best lukewarm supporters to eventually directly to La Vere’s writing style. While on the abandon their more militant brethren altogether. whole, his prose is highly readable and exciting, On the other hand, the withdrawal of South Car‐ there are sections in which the delivery comes off olina forces under Barnwell coupled with as rather formulaic and simplistic. Those sections Spotswood’s reluctance to commit Virginia troops read much more like tropes from Hollywood de‐ forced North Carolina leaders, such as Pollock, to pictions of Indian/settler contact or fanciful Eng‐ consider a negotiated settlement once again. It lish popular writings of the era rather than the was at this point, however, that a new force of analysis required of the modern-day historian. South Carolinians, this time under the command Granted, these instances are few and far between, of Colonel James Moore, arrived in the colony and but their appearance is jarring nonetheless. On forced the remaining Tuscarora holdouts to the the other hand, La Vere’s choice of organizational table. La Vere uses the personas of the Tuscarora schema represents a much greater issue. As stated negotiator King Tom Blount and Moore to relate above, La Vere chose to organize the book as a se‐ this sequence of events over the last two major ries of mini-biographies of the Tuscarora War’s chapters of the volume. major fgures. However, the story of the war can‐ In a concluding chapter, La Vere provides his not be contained within the confines of such a assessment of the results of the confict. He writes, narrow organizational framework and therefore “the war broke the power of the Tuscaroras and each chapter contains long stretches in which the other eastern Indians and allowed the colony to supposed central object of analysis does not even expand west and south at a phenomenal rate” (p. appear. For example, Brice is mentioned in the 206). Additionally, he concludes that while the first paragraph of the chapter that bears his war temporarily united warring factions within name, but then promptly disappears for ffteen the colony’s government, its end brought about pages of a twenty-six-page chapter. In reality, the downfall of the religious dissenters (mainly what La Vere has done is to provide an excellent Quakers) who had exerted considerable power in chronological account of the Tuscarora War, yet the years prior to the war and strengthened the he forced that chronological account into a bio‐ hold of those politicians friendly to the original graphical framework.