The Forgotten History of Indian Slavery In The South Carolina Low Country

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For generations, the history of South Carolina has been told primarily through the stories of European settlement and Gullah Geechee enslavement. Less widely understood is the extensive Indian slave trade that shaped the early colony and permanently altered the Indigenous communities of the Lowcountry.

Before English colonization, the Combahee River corridor was home to Indigenous peoples including the Combahee, Ashepoo, Coosaw (Cusabo), and the Yamasee towns of Salkehatchie and Pocotaligo. These communities occupied the rivers, marshes, and coastal forests of what is now Beaufort, Colleton, and Hampton counties.

Beginning in the late seventeenth century, South Carolina developed one of the largest Indian slave trades in North America. Following the defeat of Kusso warriors in 1671, English colonists expanded the trade in Native captives by forming military alliances with rival Indigenous nations and conducting slave-raiding expeditions throughout the Southeast.

One of the largest of these campaigns was led by Colonel James Moore against the Spanish mission provinces. Contemporary records report that approximately 500 Timucua and more than 4,300 Apalachee people were captured, with many transported into the Carolina colony and its plantation system.

In 1712, following the Tuscarora War, Colonel John Barnwell—often remembered as “Tuscarora Jack”—captured hundreds of Tuscarora women and children who were subsequently marched into South Carolina and sold into slavery.

The violence continued into the Revolutionary era. During Colonel Andrew Williamson’s 1776 campaign against the Lower Cherokee, Cherokee towns were destroyed and captives were taken. A South Carolina legislative committee report dated March 7, 1786, titled Committee Report on the Allegations of the Head Men of the Cherokees Concerning Indian Children Being Detained as Slaves, documents Cherokee leaders petitioning the state over Cherokee children who remained enslaved. This record demonstrates that the enslavement of Native people continued well after the colonial period and remained a matter of public concern.

For many years, it was commonly assumed that Indian slavery in South Carolina effectively ended following the Yamasee War. However, wills, probate records, estate inventories, and other documents preserved by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History reveal individuals identified as “Indian” and “Mustee” appearing in Lowcountry records into the mid-nineteenth century, with documented references extending as late as 1859.

These records suggest that Native communities did not simply disappear. Instead, many experienced warfare, forced migration, enslavement, and incorporation into plantation society, while others sought refuge in remote river systems and swamps. Over generations, Indigenous descendants and Gullah Geechees formed new communities throughout the Lowcountry.

Colonial South Carolina also developed its own racial terminology. Across much of British North America, people of mixed Gullah Geechee and Indigenous ancestry were often recorded as “Mulatto.” In South Carolina, however, the term “Mustee” also appeared in official records, reflecting another category used by colonial officials. Today, many descendants and scholars use terms such as Afro-Indigenous or Black Indian to describe people whose ancestry includes both African and Indigenous heritage, while recognizing that historical labels and modern identities are not always equivalent.

The Combee Heritage Organization is committed to preserving and documenting this overlooked history through archival research, genealogy, oral history, historical geography, and family records. Our mission is not only to recover forgotten documents, but also to better understand the communities and families whose stories remain woven into the history of the Combahee , Edisto , Ashepoo and Salkehatchie River corridors.

As our research continues, we seek to document how Indigenous nations—including the Cusabo, Yamasee, Apalachee, Timucua, Lower Creek, Cherokee, and others—became connected to the history of the South Carolina Lowcountry and contributed to the formation of the Afro-Indigenous communities that continue to call this region home.