John Barnwell (colonist)
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John Barnwell (1671 – 1724) was a native of Ireland who emigrated to the Province of South Carolina in 1701.
By the time the Tuscarora War began in 1711 he had become an important official of the colony. South Carolina sent two armies against the Tuscarora in North Carolina, the first of which, campaigning in late 1711 and early 1712, was under Barnwell's command. The army was made up mostly of Indians, especially Yamasee. Barnwell defeated the Tuscarora and arranged a peace treaty, after which his army disbanded. Hostilities between the Tuscarora and North Carolina resumed and South Carolina sent a second army. North Carolina, unhappy with Barnwell and blaming him for not totally destroying the Tuscarora, specifically requested he not command the second army. Nonetheless, for his role in the war, Barnwell was popularly known as "Tuscarora Jack" or "Tuscarora John".
In 1715 the Yamasee War broke out between South Carolina and the Yamasee and many other tribes. The initial Yamasee attack occurred near Port Royal. A survivor managed to flee to Port Royal Island, the main island in Port Royal and sound the alarm. Barnwell and other colonists living on the island escaped by ship to Charles Town.
When South Carolina overthrew the colonial proprietors and arranged to become a royal colony, John Barnwell travelled to London to represent South Carolina and help form the new government. After returning to South Carolina, he spent many years seeking a renewal of friendship with the Yamasee, who had migrated south to Spanish Florida. In 1721 Barnwell had a fortified outpost, named Fort King George, on the Altamaha River, in an attempt to check the Spanish influence on the region and its Indians. He was never able to achieve a renewal of the old Yamasee-British alliance.
[edit] References
- "John Barnwell." Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
- Gallay, Alan (2002). The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South 1670-1717. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-10193-7.
