Volume 2, Chapter 19, Indian War in North Carolina
No sooner had the North Carolina proprietary suppressed rebellion in 1711 than the colony
became embroiled in a crucial Indian conflict. The Indians in North Carolina had been growing
increasingly restive. Not only was wide expansion driving them from their proclaimed lands and
Hunting Grounds, but a perhaps more embittering grievance was the common practice of kidnapping
Indians into slavery. In fact, so notorious was this practice that Pennsylvania, in 1705,
prohibited further importation of Indian slaves from Carolina, since it had been observed
to give the Indians of this province some umbrage for suspicion and dissatisfaction.
Most dangerous of the Indian tribes was the powerful Tuscarora in central North Carolina,
one of the feared and disliked Iroquois nations. In the fall of 1711, the Tuscaroras, taking
advantage of the turmoil of the late Thomas Carey Rebellion, launched a general attack
on the white settlements. The attack was particularly effective on the new and scattered southern
But the main center at Albemarle escaped devastation because Tom Blount, the Tuscarora chief in
the vicinity, refused to join the war. Governor Edward Hyde induced the assembly to pass a
law authorizing conscription of all males between 16 and 60 and called on the neighboring
colonies for aid. The Virginia assembly refused to vote the funds or permit Governor Spotswood
to Send Troops, South Carolina sent a strong military force under Colonel John Barnwell.
Barnwell's troop again demonstrated the propensity of the Indians for mutual destruction, redounding
to the benefit of the whites, for it consisted largely of Creek, Yemisi and Sioux Indians.
As was true of all other Iroquois, the aggressive Tuscaroras had incurred the enmity of the
The other tribes of the region, Barnwell decisively defeated the Tuscaroras, captured one of their
forts and slaughtered the male inhabitants. The Indian allies got all the plunder and
the female slaves. Barnwell wistfully regretted that only one girl we got. Finally, the Tuscaroras
sued for peace and a peace treaty was signed, the beaten Indians agreeing to leave all the
The Southern North Carolina Land Between Cape Fear and the New River
Colonel Barnwell had expected to be handsomely rewarded by a grateful North Carolina for
his supposed patriotism. He found instead that the ingrates, cozily far from the battle,
were carping because he had not annihilated the enemy. The embittered Barnwell then decided
to get willy-nilly what he had come for, luring a large number of Indians to a spot near New
New Bern under pretense of a parley, Barnwell and his men fell on them in a surprise attack,
seized them and carried them off to South Carolina to sell the hapless Indians into slavery.
The Tuscaroras were understandably bitter at this treachery and, in the summer of 1712,
resumed their war against a white foe who they were now convinced could not be trusted
in any respect.
Once again, however, Tom Blount agreed to remain neutral and, indeed, to come partially
to the aid of the whites. South Carolina again sent an armed troop, almost exclusively Indian
as before, under Colonel James Moore. Moore crushed the Tuscaroras in March 1713, ending
the war. The defeated remnants made their way north to New York to join their Iroquois
Brethren