Indian Slavery in Colonial South Carolina and thoughout the colonial southeast and beyond : law, eraser and the indian factor 1513-1865

Indian Slavery in Colonial South Carolina and Throughout the Colonial Southeast and Beyond examines one of the most overlooked systems of bondage in early American history: the Indian slave trade. Long before the expansion of plantation slavery based primarily on African labor, the colonial Southeast developed a vast network of Indigenous captivity, warfare, and forced labor that shaped the legal and economic foundations of the region.Beginning in the early sixteenth century with the expansion of Spanish imperial authority and continuing through the English colonization of Carolina, this work traces how Indigenous peoples were captured, traded, and incorporated into colonial systems of labor and commerce. The destruction of Spanish mission provinces, the emergence of Charleston as a frontier trading center, and the rise of the Indian slave frontier reveal how Indigenous captivity became embedded within the colonial economy.Drawing upon colonial statutes, missionary accounts, imperial correspondence, and historical records, this study demonstrates that Indian slavery was not a marginal phenomenon. Instead, it played a foundational role in shaping the legal structures, racial classifications, and labor systems that later defined slavery in the American South.Covering the period 1513–1865, the book places South Carolina at the center of a broader regional system that extended across the colonial Southeast and beyond. Through this wider perspective, it reveals how warfare, trade networks, and colonial law combined to produce one of the earliest and most influential slave systems in North America.By reconstructing the history of Indigenous captivity in the colonial Southeast, this work challenges conventional narratives of early American slavery and highlights the complex intersections of empire, race, and law that shaped the formation of the United States. Read more