Congaree people
| Congaree | |
|---|---|
| Region | Carolina |
| Extinct | 18th century |
|
unclassified
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
None (mis) |
|
Linguist list
|
071 |
| Glottolog | None |
The Congaree (also spelled Conagree) were a group of Native Americans who lived in what is now central South Carolina of the United States, along the Congaree River. They spoke a dialect distinct from, and not intelligible by, Siouan language speakers, the primary language family of the area (but, on the contrary, according to many opinions, more or less strictly related to Catawban Siouan).
Early European observers and later American scholars thought the Congaree were likely of the Siouan language family, given their geographic location and characteristics of neighboring tribes. Since the late 20th century, scholars more widely agree that the people were non-Siouan. Their language was distinct from the Siouan language, and not intelligible to their immediate Siouan neighbors, the Wateree.
The Congaree lived along the Santee and Congaree rivers, above and below the junction of the Wateree, in central South Carolina. They occupied territory between the Santee tribe below them and the Wateree tribe above.
Native Americans sold as slaves members of other tribes captured in war or raids. By 1693, Congaree, Esaw and Savannah slave-catchers had pursued the Cherokee as "objects of the slave trade to the extent that a tribal delegation was sent" to Governor Thomas Smith. They sought protection, claiming that Cherokee had been sold in the Charles Town slave market.
In 1698, the Congaree lost "most tribe members to smallpox."
The English explorer John Lawson encountered the survivors in 1701, apparently on the northeastern bank of the Santee River below the junction of the Wateree. Lawson described their village as consisting of about a dozen houses, located on a small creek flowing into Santee River. They were a small tribe, having lost heavily by tribal feuds, but more especially by smallpox, which had depopulated whole villages. But a 1715 map shows their village as located on the southern bank of the Congaree and considerably above the previous area, perhaps about Big Beaver creek, or about opposite the site of Columbia, on the eastern boundary of Lexington county. They may have been moving upriver to get further from English colonists.
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