The Sewee or "Islanders" were a
Native American tribe that lived in present-day
South Carolina in North America.
In 1670, the English founded the coastal town of
Charleston
Charleston most commonly refers to:
* Charleston, South Carolina
* Charleston, West Virginia, the state capital
* Charleston (dance)
Charleston may also refer to:
Places Australia
* Charleston, South Australia
Canada
* Charleston, Newfoundlan ...
in the
Carolina Colony on land belonging to the Sewee. The town flourished from trade with the Sewee and neighboring tribes. The Sewee exchanged their deer hides for manufactured goods and beads from the English. However, the Sewee, who received only five percent of what buyers in England paid for their deer skins, felt that this business was unfair. Upon noting that the English ships always came in at the same location, they were confident that it was the direct route to England. They believed that by rowing to the point on the horizon where the ships first appeared, they could reach England, and once there, establish more profitable, direct trade. Therefore, the Sewee nation decided to build a navy.
English land
surveyor
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...
John Lawson witnessed the construction:
"It was agreed upon immediately to make an addition of their fleet by building more canoes, and those to be of the best sort and biggest size as fit for their intended discovery. Some Indians employed about making the canoes, others to hunting - everyone to the post he was most fit for, all endeavors towards an able fleet and cargo for Europe." – John Lawson.
Months later, the Sewee had completed their navy of canoes, and they filled the vessels with hides, pelts and their most valuable possessions. All able-bodied Sewee men and women boarded the boats and took to the sea. Only the children, the sick and the elderly were left behind. As the Sewee entered open ocean, high seas engulfed their canoes. The survivors were rescued by a passing English
slave ship only to be sold into slavery in the
West Indies.
Related Nations
*
Akenatsi
*
Catawba
*
Cheraw
The Cheraw people, also known as the Saraw or Saura, were a Siouan-speaking tribe of indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, in the Piedmont area of North Carolina near the Sauratown Mountains, east of Pilot Mountain and north of the Yad ...
*
Moneton
*
Mosopelea
*
Saponi
*
Tutelo
*
Waccamaw
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sewee
Native American tribes in South Carolina
Native American history of South Carolina
History of Charleston, South Carolina
Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands