Indian slave trade in the American Southeast

The enslavement of Native Americans was common across the thirteen British colonies and Florida in the 1600s and early 1700s, but especially in the American Southeast. It is commonly believed that Africans were the only people who were enslaved in the Americas however, in some of the southeastern colonies Native American slaves, at times, outnumbered those of African descent. Natives were sometimes used as labor on plantations or as servants to wealthy colonist families, other times they were used as interpreters for European traders. The policies on the treatment and slavery of Native Americans varied from colony to colony in the Southeast. A large part of the Native American slave trade in the southeast consisted of other Natives trapping and selling other Natives into slavery; this trade between the colonists and the Native Americans had a profound effect on the shaping and nature of slavery in the Southeast.

The southern colonies of the United States were known for their use of slavery to keep their large plantation economy running, as well as the terrible ways in which the slaves were treated. It is usually assumed that all of the slaves were from Africa, however Native Americans were also frequently enslaved; and in some cases were used more than African slaves. The Native American slave trade in the colonial Southeast was brought to its peak with the use of the European weapons as well as the trade by natives of natives in exchange for more ammunition for weapons as well as other English goods. However, the involvement of the Natives in the slavery of other Natives was not a model that would be able to sustain itself for a long time, and the depletion of 'resources' - Native Americans in this sense being the resources - coupled with the Yamasee War of 1715 would effectively bring an end to the use of Native Americans as slaves in the colonial southeast.

A trade system between the Natives, the Colonists, and England helped to get the colony's economy on its feet when it was first founded in the late 1600s. This trade system allowed for the Carolina colony to then set up its plantations which mainly produced rice and indigo, and bringing with it the African slaves who would then work the plantations. This trade system involved the Westo group, who had previously come down from further north. The Westos were given English goods in exchange for beaver and other animal pelt and capturing natives to be sold into slavery. The slavery of Native Americans was crucial in both phases of the colony's changing economy. Slavery, especially of Native Americans, was allowed in the legislative framework of the colony with the creation of "Slave Codes" soon after the creation of the colony. As slaves, the natives were expected to hunt while the black slaves worked the plantations. As trade with the Indians continued, so did the slavery of Native Americans; however, due to a growing trade monopoly in the colony, some of the colonists, such as Henry Woodward, were trying to limit the amount of trade done with the natives. However, Queen Anne's war interrupted the building campaigns against trading and allowed for increased sales of slaves in Charleston. Often the price of native slaves was lower than that of black slaves due to the increased amount of native slaves who escaped. Escape was relatively easy for the Native Americans, as they knew the land well and often were not far from their own people. The slave owners' solution to the problem of escaped native slaves was to send them to work in the West Indies where they would not be able to escape. However, the outbreak of the Yamasee War in 1715 completely ended the use of Native Americans as slaves, making the colony completely reliant upon the labor of black slaves.

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