Henry Woodward (c. 1646 – c. 1690), was a

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

-born merchant and colonist who was one of the first white settlers in the

Carolinas The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east. Combining Nort ...

. He established relationships with many

Native American Indians Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States (Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United States are ...

in the

American southeast The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

. He initiated trade, primarily in deerskins and

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

, with many Indian towns and tribes.

Early life

Not much is known about Henry Woodward's early life. He is thought to have been born in

. His father was William Woodward and his mother was Esther Martin. In 1666, Henry Woodward accompanied Captain Robert Sandford's exploration of the South Carolina coast. Woodward volunteered to remain in the

Port Royal Sound Port Royal Sound is a coastal sound, or inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the Sea Islands region, in Beaufort County in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is the estuary of several rivers, the largest of which is the Broad River. Geograph ...

vicinity and live among the

Cusabo The Cusabo or Cosabo were a group of American Indian tribes who lived along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in what is now South Carolina, approximately between present-day Charleston and south to the Savannah River, at the time of European colon ...

Indians, to establish relations and learn their language. For this he was granted, temporarily, "formall possession of the whole Country to hold as Tennant att Will" by the

Lords Proprietors A lord proprietor is a person granted a royal charter for the establishment and government of an English colony in the 17th century. The plural of the term is "lords proprietors" or "lords proprietary". Origin In the beginning of the European ...

.''Henry Woodward.'' Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

Captured by Spanish

In 1667 Woodward was captured by the Spanish of

Spanish Florida Spanish Florida ( es, La Florida) was the first major European land claim and attempted settlement in North America during the European Age of Discovery. ''La Florida'' formed part of the Captaincy General of Cuba, the Viceroyalty of New Spain, ...

, taken to St. Augustine, Florida and held captive for about a year. As a prisoner he was well-treated. He professed Catholicism and was made official surgeon. During this time he learned about the thriving Spanish-Indian trading system. This experience helped him in rapidly establishing a trading system with local Indians after he regained his freedom. Woodward escaped in 1668, after the English

buccaneer Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from Stuart Restoration, the Restoration in 16 ...

and

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

Robert Searle Robert Searle (alias John Davis) was one of the earliest and most active of the England, English buccaneers on Jamaica. Early life Nothing, to date, is known of his early life. The famous buccaneer chronicler, Esquemeling, states that Searle ...

raided St. Augustine. For about two years Woodward served as surgeon on privateer vessels in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

before being shipwrecked on

Nevis Nevis is a small island in the Caribbean Sea that forms part of the inner arc of the Leeward Islands chain of the West Indies. Nevis and the neighbouring island of Saint Kitts constitute one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Ne ...

in August 1669. He then took passage on the Carolina fleet of 1669–1670, which established

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. Henry Woodward became an interpreter and Indian agent for the fledgling colony. Starting in 1670, Woodward began taking a series of expeditions into the interior, making contact with various Indian groups. While a few Spanish expeditions had explored the interior of the American southeast in the sixteenth century, Woodward was the first Anglo-American colonist to do so. Notably, Woodward was the last European to visit the paramount chiefdom of

Cofitachequi Cofitachequi was a paramount chiefdom founded about 1300 AD and encountered by the Hernando de Soto expedition in South Carolina in April 1540. Cofitachequi was later visited by Juan Pardo during his two expeditions (1566–1568) and by Henry W ...

in 1670.

Westo and Shawnee

The

Westo The Westo were an Iroquoian Native American tribe encountered in the Southeastern U.S. by Europeans in the 17th century. They probably spoke an Iroquoian language. The Spanish called these people Chichimeco (not to be confused with Chichimeca i ...

Indians were initially hostile to the new colony of South Carolina. In October 1674 some Westo Indians visited Woodward, who was widely known among the Indians, at St. Giles plantation on the head of the Ashley River. They requested he travel with them to their village (Hickauhaugau) on the

Savannah River The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the norther ...

. During this visit Woodward initiated a trading relationship between Carolina and the Westo. While in Hickauhaugau Woodward witnessed the arrival of two

Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...

Indians. These Shawnee had probably migrated to the

Apalachicola River The Apalachicola River is a river, approximately 160 mi (180 km) long in the state of Florida. The river's large watershed, known as the ACF River Basin, drains an area of approximately into the Gulf of Mexico. The distance to its fa ...

region in the 1640s in order to trade with the Spanish and perhaps to escape the

Iroquois wars The Beaver Wars ( moh, Tsianì kayonkwere), also known as the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars (french: Guerres franco-iroquoises) were a series of conflicts fought intermittently during the 17th century in North America throughout t ...

in the north. Using sign language, the Shawnee warned the Westo of impending attack from the "Cussetaws, Checsaws, & Chiokees," earning the goodwill of the Westo. Later the Apalachicola Shawnee migrated to the Savannah River area, approached Henry Woodward privately and established a relationship that eventually doomed the Westo. These Shawnee became known in South Carolina as the "Savannah" Indians. When war broke out between the Westo and South Carolina in 1679, the Savannah Shawnee assisted South Carolina. By 1680 the Westo had been decimated and the Savannah Shawnee moved into their lands along the lower Savannah River. In April 1677, South Carolina's

, claiming a monopoly on Indian trade, forbade all trade with the Indians and the Spanish, except by their official agents. The destruction of the Westo left Woodward out of favor with the colony's Lords Proprietors. In 1682 Woodward got shot in the head but still manage to travel to England, where he not only obtained a pardon, but an official position as Indian agent for the Lords Proprietors. Woodward agreed to conduct the Indian trade for the proprietors in return for 20% of the profits.

Stuarts Town and the Yamasee

A group of Scots founded a settlement, called Stuarts Town, in the

area of South Carolina in 1684. The Scots of Stuarts Town and the English of Charles Town never got along. The Scots asserted their independence by initiating their own Indian trade, establishing a strong alliance with the powerful and newly arrived

Yamasee The Yamasees (also spelled Yamassees or Yemassees) were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida. The Yamas ...

Indians. In 1685, Henry Woodward found himself arrested in Stuarts Town while passing through the area on mission to the "proto- Creeks" of the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chatta ...

. His arrest was apparently due to the desire of

Lord Cardross Lord Cardross is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, since 1695 a subsidiary title of the earldom of Buchan. It was created in 1606 for John Erskine, Earl of Mar, with remainder to his heirs male and assignees whatsoever and with the power to no ...

of Stuarts Town to control trade with the Creek. Woodward was soon released and seems to have assisted the Stuarts Town Scots and their Yamasee Indian allies. Although part of the English Charles Town faction, Woodward may have been Scottish himself. The Yamasee, backed by the Stuarts Town Scots, conducted a series of devastating raids on the Spanish mission province of

Guale Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16t ...

and then proceeded to invade the province of

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The var ...

in Florida, bringing back many Indian slaves to sell to the Scots of Stuarts Town. Woodward, once back in Charles Town, was among those who loudly denounced the Stuarts Town settlement for these events. The Yamasee raids soon brought a Spanish counterattack that destroyed Stuarts Town. It is likely, however, that Woodward profited from the Yamasee raids, and even assisted. In denouncing the Scots he was probably taking the Charles Town side in the political dispute between Charles Town and Stuarts Town. By 1684 the Spanish mission province of Guale was in ruins and generally abandoned.

Introduction of rice

Woodward is generally credited with introduction of viable rice crops to the colonies stemming from his time in Charles Town in 1685. Pirate trader

John Thurber John Thurber (1649–1717, last name also Churcher) was a pirate trader and slaver active off Madagascar. He is best known for his role in introducing rice to America as a staple crop and export commodity. History Thurber is primarily known for ...

returned from a trip to

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

with a bag of seed rise which he gave as a gift to Woodward, whose experiments showed that the marshy soil was ideal for rice cultivation.

Trade with Chattahoochee River Indians

Starting perhaps as early as 1675, and definitely by the mid-1680s, Woodward was traveling to the southwest of modern

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, visiting the Indian towns along the lower

such as

Coweta Coweta is a city in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, United States, a suburb of Tulsa. As of 2010, its population was 9,943. Part of the Creek Nation in Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a U.S. state, the town was first settled in 1840.Creek Nation The Muscogee Nation, or Muscogee (Creek) Nation, is a federally recognized Native American tribe based in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The nation descends from the historic Muscogee Confederacy, a large group of indigenous peoples of the South ...

). He led a dozen other Charles Town traders to the Chattahoochee Indians. These traders took over the business after Woodward's death. During these trips Woodward discovered some

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...

Indians who had married into the Chattahoochee River "proto-Creek" groups. The ties between the Chickasaw and the proto-Creeks were fairly strong, which helped the English to discover a new market among the Chickasaw to the far west. Woodward was involved in this initial stage of English-Chickasaw relations, but he died before the first adventurous traders traveled to Chickasaw territory in the early 1690s. The lower Chattahoochee River region had previously been contacted by Spain and was considered a potential mission province known as the Apalachicola Province. A visit by Woodward in 1685 sparked a Spanish reaction. Lieutenant Governor Antonio Matheos led a force of 6 Spanish soldiers and as many as 200 gun-toting

Apalachee The Apalachee were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, specifically an Indigenous people of Florida, who lived in the Florida Panhandle until the early 18th century. They lived between the Aucilla River and Ochlockonee River,Bobby ...

Indians from Mission San Luis de Apalachee in western Florida to the lower Chattahoochee towns. The English traders hid or fled. The following year, 1686, Matheos returned with a larger force, marching from town to town and confiscating firearms, deerskins, and other trade goods. Matheos offered the towns of "Apalachicola Province" the chance to submit to Spanish authority. Eight towns did so. The four that did not, including Coweta and Cussita, were burned to the ground. Following this, the four towns grudgingly pledged their obedience to Spain. Within years, English traders from South Carolina were again active among these towns, but, in 1690, Henry Woodward died in Charles Town.

Legacy

Henry Woodward was an ancestor of numerous colonial figures, politicians and businesspeople in South Carolina. A significant part of the Charleston planter and merchant elite was descended from him. Among his descendants is

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 an ...

References

External links

Beginnings of the Fur Trade in the Carolinas
Native American Voices, Digital History. {{DEFAULTSORT:Woodward, Henry South Carolina colonial people American fur traders British explorers of North America 1640s births 1690s deaths Explorers of the United States