Indian Wars in North Carolina by Enoch Lawrence Lee

Author:Enoch Lawrence Lee [Lee, Enoch Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Native American, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV)
ISBN: 9788026888901
Google: aodjDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: e-artnow
Published: 2018-04-17T22:24:57+00:00

Chapter VIII

The Catawba Indians of the Piedmont Plateau

Table of Contents

The lure of cheap, fertile land eventually drew settlers onto the Piedmont Plateau of North Carolina. The extent of this movement was indicated in 1750, when Anson County was created for the convenience of those already there. In the beginning, Anson County covered roughly the western half of present-day North Carolina. In 1753, the continued increase in population resulted in the upper part of Anson being made a separate county, called Rowan. At the time, the two counties had a combined population of about 3,000 persons. In the same year, Moravians under Bishop Spangenberg began moving down from Pennsylvania into North Carolina. Their village of Bethabara (near present-day Winston-Salem) and Salisbury, the county seat of Rowan, were at this time the westernmost towns in the colony. Most of the people were settled to the eastward. There were, however, a few scattered and more adventurous pioneers to be found farther to the westward along the Yadkin, Catawba and Broad Rivers. Among these outlying pioneers were farmers with their families carving homesteads out of the forest. There were also hunters and trappers who lived as primitively as the Indians.

Some of the Piedmont settlers came westward from the coast. Others came down through the interior from the north. Among them were persons from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New England. Many were Scotch-Irish and Germans, hardy and courageous people who were well suited to the taming of a wild frontier. For these pioneers of the Piedmont, like the earlier settlers of the Coastal Plain, moved into a strange and endless forest. They also moved into a land of native Indians.

Each settler who came to the western frontier faced the problem of dealing with these Indians. In a way, Bishop Spangenberg spoke the concern of all as he considered the wisdom of founding the Moravian settlement on land he first selected and later abandoned at the foot of the Blue Ridge. It was a chill November day in 1752 and the Bishop was at this camp in the wilderness far up the South Catawba. In the dim light of his tent he bent over his diary and entered his thoughts:

Our lands lie in a region much frequented by the Catawbas and Cherokees, especially for hunting. The Senecas, too, come here almost every year, especially when they are at war with the Catawbas. The Indians in North Carolina behave quite differently from those in Pennsylvania. There no one fears an Indian, unless indeed he is drunk. Here the whites must needs fear them . . .

Every man living alone is in this danger, here in the forest. North Carolina has been at war with the Indians, and they have been defeated and have lost their lands. So not only the tribes that were directly concerned, but all the Indians are resentful and take every opportunity to show it. Indeed they have not only killed the cattle of the whites, but have murdered the settlers themselves when they had a chance.

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