The Sewee or "Islanders" were a Native American tribe that lived in present-day

South Carolina )'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

in North America. In 1670, the English founded the coastal town of Charleston in the

Carolina Colony Province of Carolina was a province of England (1663–1707) and Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until partitioned into North and South on January 24, 1712. It is part of present-day Alabama ...

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 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 Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...

only to be sold into slavery in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

Related Nations

* Akenatsi *

Catawba Catawba may refer to: *Catawba people, a Native American tribe in the Carolinas *Catawba language, a language in the Catawban languages family *Catawban languages Botany *Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other N ...

* Cheraw *

Moneton The Moneton were a historical Native American tribe from West Virginia. In the late seventeenth century they lived in the Kanawha Valley, near the Kanawha and New Rivers. Name and language What the Monetons called themselves is unknown. In ...

Mosopelea The Mosopelea, or Ofo, were a Siouan-speaking Native American people who historically inhabited the upper Ohio River. In reaction to Iroquois Confederacy invasions to take control of hunting grounds in the late 17th century, they moved south to t ...

Saponi The Saponi or Sappony are a Native American tribe historically based in the Piedmont of North Carolina and Virginia.Raymond D. DeMaillie, "Tutelo and Neighboring Groups," pages 286–87. They spoke a Siouan language, related to the languages of ...

Tutelo The Tutelo (also Totero, Totteroy, Tutera; Yesan in Tutelo) were Native American people living above the Fall Line in present-day Virginia and West Virginia. They spoke a Siouan dialect of the Tutelo language thought to be similar to that of thei ...

Waccamaw The Waccamaw people were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, who lived in villages along the Waccamaw and Pee Dee rivers in North and South Carolina in the 18th century.Lerch 328 Language Very little remains of the Waccam ...

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