“Y” is for Yamassee War (1715-1718)

"Y" is for Yamassee War (1715-1718). The Yamassee War was a major eighteenth-century conflict between the colony of Carolina and its trade partners the Yamassee.  Unscrupulous Indian traders cheated and mistreated the Native Americans. On Good Friday 1715, the Yamassees struck. They killed the traders in their midst and launched attacks against coastal plantations. Despite its name, the Yamassee War also involved the Cherokees, the Creeks, the Choctaws, the Santees, and the Waccamaws in a far-ranging rebellion from the Savannah River to Charleston. The turning point came with the colonists’ defeating the Yamassees at the battles of Port Royal and Salkehatchie. The worst was over by April 1716 and brought to a close in 1718. No English colony came as close to eradication by a native population as South Carolina did during the Yamassee War.