844 



TUSCARORA 



[b. a. e. 



dering and taking them," so that there- 

 after they would not fear "a mouse, or 

 anything that ruffles the leaves.'" By 

 the eighth, the tribe, being strangers to 

 the people and government of Pennsyl- 

 vania, asked for an official path or means 

 of communication between them. 



Stripped of metaphor and the language 

 of diplomac3% the purport of this message 

 is plain; it was the statement of a tribe 

 at bay, that in view of the large numbers 

 of their people who were being kidnapped 

 to be sold into slavery or who were be- 

 ing killed while seeking to defend their 

 offspring and their friends and kindred, 

 they desired to remove to a more Just and 

 friendly government than that whence 

 they came. At this time there was no 

 war between them and the white people; 

 there had as yet been no massacre by the 

 Tuscarora, no threat of hostility on the 

 part of the Indians, yet to maintain peace 

 and to avoid the impending shedding of 

 blood, they were even then willing to 

 forsake their homes. The commissioners 

 of Pennsylvania, however, informed the 

 delegates, among other things, that "to 

 confirm the sincerity of their past car- 

 riage toward the English, and to raise 

 in us a good opinion of them, it would be 

 very necessary to procure a certificate 

 from the government they leave, to this, 

 of their good behaviour, and then they 

 might be assured of a favourable recep- 

 tion" (Min. Prov. Coun. Pa., ii, 511, 

 1852). The Conestoga ("Seneques") 

 chiefs present at this conference stated 

 that by the advice of their council it had 

 been determined to send these belts, 

 brought by the Tuscarora, to the Five 

 Nations. It was the reception of the 

 belts with their pitiful messages by these 

 Five Nations that moved the latter to 

 take steps to shield and protect the Tus- 

 carora, which gave so much apprehen- 

 sion to the northern colonies. 



The rapid encroachment of the whites 

 on the lands of the Tuscarora and their 

 Indian neighbors for a period of sixty 

 years after the first settlements, although 

 there was an air of peace and harmony 

 between the two races, were wrongs 

 which dwarfed in comparison with the 

 continued practice of kidnapping their 

 young to be sold into slavery. This was 

 the true cause of the so-called Tuscarora 

 war in 1711-13. This phase of the ques- 

 tion is overlooked or quite disregarded 

 by most historians; but years before the 

 massacre of 1711, Tuscarora Indians were 

 brought into Pennsylvania and sold as 

 slaves, a transaction that excited grave 

 apprehension in the minds of the resident 

 Indian tribes. To allay as much as pos- 

 sible this growing terror among them, the 

 provincial council of Pennsylvania en- 

 acted in 1705 that, " Whereas the impor- 



tation of Indian slaves from Carolina, or 

 other places, hath been observed to give 

 the Indians of this province some um- 

 brage for suspicion and dissatisfaction," 

 such importation be prohibited after 

 Mar. 25, 1706. This enactment was based 

 solely on expediency and self-interest, 

 since it was evident that the Indians to 

 the southward were in a general commo- 

 tion. During the Tuscarora war an act 

 was passed, June 7, 1712, forbidding the 

 importation of Indians, but providing for 

 their sale as slaves to the highest bidder 

 in case any should be imported for that 

 purpose. It is known that the prisoners 

 of Col. Barnwell and Col. IMoore were all 

 sold as slaves, even the northern colonies 

 being canvassed for a market for them; 

 indeed, the Boston News Letter of 1713 con- 

 tained an advertisement offering these 

 very Indians for purchase. 



According to De Graffenried, Sur- 

 vej'or-General Lawson in 1709-10 settled 

 his people, the Swiss and Palatines, on 

 the s. bank of Trent r. , on a tongue of land 

 called Chattawka, formed by the Trent 

 and the Neuse in North Carolina, in a 

 hot and unhealthful situation. De Graf- 

 fenried bitterly complained that the Sur- 

 veyor-General M-as dishonest for having 

 charged him a ' ' heav}' price ' ' for it, and 

 for the consequences of his not knowing 

 that Lawson had no title to the land and 

 that the place was still irdiabited by the 

 Indians, although the Surveyor-General 

 had attested that the land was free of 

 encumbrance aud unoccupied. This en- 

 croachment on the Indian lands was one 

 of the fundamental causes of the so- 

 called Tuscarora war. It is well known 

 that tlie Coree, together with their close 

 allies, the hostile Tuscarora, in 1711 took 

 vengeance on the Swiss and Palatines 

 settled on Trent r., killing about 70 of 

 them, wounding many others, and de- 

 stroying much of their property. De 

 Graffenried says that one of the several 

 causes of the war was the "rough treat- 

 ment of some turbulent Carolinians, who 

 cheated those Indians in trading, and 

 would not allow them to hunt near their 

 plantations, and under that pretense 

 took away from them their game, arms, 

 and ammunition," and that the despised 

 Indians being "insulted in many ways 

 by a few rough Carolinians, more barba- 

 rous and inhuman than the savages 

 themselves, could not stand such treat- 

 ment any longer, and began to think of 

 their safety and of vengeance. What 

 they did they did very secretly." 



In a letter of Maj. Christopher Gale to 

 his brother, Nov. 2, 1711, he describes a 

 condition, fairly representative of the 

 times, as to the relations between the 

 whites and the Indians around them. 

 During an attack on one of the man)' 



