The Tuscarora War in North Carolina

This is a story not well known and rarely written about at any length—largely through the scarcity of documentation and details—concerning the early wars between the Amerindians and the break-away Virginia settlements in the upper northeast of the Carolina colony, just below where Norfolk, Va. is today.

For well over forty years the two sides had managed to interact more or less peacefully, but by the second decade of the eighteenth century frustrations, encroachments and other reasons had brought the situation to a breaking point.

The Tuscororas, or Tuskeroos, as they were called by the Carolinians, had a network of about fifteen villages, with a total of around twelve hundred warriors, suggesting a population of five thousand to six thousand people.

They were split into two groups, the northern Tuscarora along the Roanoke and Tar rivers, and the southern branch along the Neuse river.

In the year 1711, the Tuscaroras and several other smaller tribes, rose in arms and united to destroy the colonists.

It all started when they captured, tortured, and then killed John Lawson, surveyor of the colony (and author of the fascinating “A New Voyage to Carolina”) along with large numbers of other German Palatinate settlers.

New Bern, North Carolina- from which the tribe had been run off by a man named Graffenried- was attacked by a chief Hancock's warriors and two hundred people killed, eighty of them children.

A temporary peace was made but the settlers eventually retaliated- one William Brice actually roasted a native chief alive and then dined on the flesh- and the Tuscarora along with the smaller Coree tribe resumed their savage assaults on the settlers.

Aid was implored from Charles Town(Charleston), and governor Craven dispatched 600 hundred men- largely consisting of allied Yamasee warriors with thirty colonials- under Colonel Barnwell, a forty-year-old Irishman, to their relief.

Hideous and wild indeed, was the wilderness, at this time, through which they were compelled to march. Unbroken forests, unopened swamps, deep water, tangled thickets and profusions quicksand patches lay in their path.

Without roads they couldn’t utilize wagons or horses, and yet time was of the utmost importance.

In spite of every difficulty they rapidly made way until they joined forces with the North Carolina militia and came up on the warriors. They then attacked them with boldness and verve, slaying many and capturing about a hundred.

The Tuscaroras were found, to the number of 600 people more, outside the town of Catechna on the Neuse River. They were sheltering behind wooden breastwork fortifications, one of the most ambitious defensive works ever built by colonial era Amerindians.

On being surrounded by the Yamasee and Carolinians, many were killed and their chiefs sued for peace. This was granted; but when the allied Yamasee, under a flag of truce, seized hundreds of Tuscarora to sell as slaves, the war was reignited, and as soon as the force returned to South Carolina the massacres began again.

A second request was made on governor Craven, and a second force commanded by a Colonel Moore was sent to fight the attacking tribes. Moore found them on what is now known as the Tar river, about 50 miles from it’s mouth, where they had again thrown up defensive works.

They had plenty of muskets and bravery, but could not with-stand a siege. Moore defeated them, entered their village and took 800 hundred prisoners. It had tragically gotten down to one or the other and the tribe’s fighting strength was all but annihilated.

It was a sad and unfortunate event, with many of the Tuscaroras eventually emigrating to their close relatives in language and heritage, the powerful five nation league of tribes in the States of New York and Pennsylvania.

Not long after the conclusion of this conflict an even bloodier war was to break out between the Yamasee, and the settlers in and around Charleston, S.C. which was a close run thing that almost caused the destruction of that colony and town.

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