In the early part of the Eighteenth Century, Daufuskie Island was contested by two of the world's superpowers of the day, Great Britain and Spain. With the founding of Charleston in 1670, a British toe hold was in place in the Carolina LowCountry, eventually additional settlers would inhabit the lands north and south of Charleston. Why were the British coming? The fur trade.
They immediately began to trade pots, pans and trinkets for furs with the Cusabo Indians of Daufuskie Island, but that treaty agreement was short lived. The Cusabo were pretty much wiped out by European diseases by 1686. Ruins of a Cusabo log lodge is located in the present day Webb Tract.
The British needed to replace their help, so the enticed the Yemasse, relatives to the Seminoles, from Florida to relocate to the LowCountry and Daufuskie Island with the promise of great riches. The one major problem was that the Yemasse were allies to the Spanish in Florida. Britain was at war with Spain, Queen Anne's War. Initially, the new relationship showed some promise, but the fur trade begin to tail spin and the Yemasse believed they would be sold into slavery.
In 1710, a British delegation agreed to listen to the concerns of the Yemasse at Pocotaligo, now near exit 33 on Interstate 95 in South Carolina. Perception was not with the British that day, they failed to recognize that there were no women and children in the village, so they entire delegation was massacred. It is believed by historians that the Spanish provoked the Yemasse to start a war with the British, today it is known as the Yemasse War. Beaufort was soon burned and many settlers were killed in the outlying areas.
The militia in Charleston was alerted to the Yemasse raids, so they figured the Yemasse would try to escape to Florida, so they decided to cut them off at Daufuskie Island. The dispatched force waited to ambush the Yemasse near the Bloody Point Cemetery on Daufuskie. English gun boats patrolled the nearby New River. Why did the English chose Daufuskie? The rip tides and the heavy surf between Tybee and Daufuskie Islands are very dangerous and they knew that it delay the Yemasse trying to cross into present day Georgia. They Yemasse were trapped, 36 warriors were killed, but the English allowed others to escape to tell the story of the Yemasse disaster at Bloody Point, hoping it would deter future raids.
The British soon built a small fort at Bloody Point and established two additional forts on Hilton Head and Parris Islands to keep an eye out for the Yemasse and the Spanish. It was quiet in the LowCountry until the Yemasse crossed the Savannah River and overran the inattentive garrison on Daufuskie. The British retaliated by sacking St. Augustine, the Spanish capital of Florida.
In 1733, the British granted a charter to James Oglethorpe to establish the colony of Georgia, which led to the founding of Savannah. The British positioned troops at present day Darien in an effort to prevent Yemasse and Spanish raids into South Carolina. War broke out between Britain and Spain in 1739, the War of Jenkins Ear. In 1742, the British received word of a Spanish raid to destroy Savannah, so they ambushed and destroyed the Spanish at the Battle of Bloody Marsh on St. Simons' Island. Thus erasing the Spanish threat to the Creative Coast and the LowCountry.
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