YAMASEE WAR

(171516), in British-American colonial history, conflict between Indians, mainly Yamasee, and British colonists in the southeastern area of South Carolina, resulting in the collapse of Indian power in that area. Embittered by settlers' encroachment upon their land and by unresolved grievances arising from the fur trade, a group of Yamasees rose and killed 90 white traders and their families (April 15, 1715). All the surrounding Indian tribes except the Cherokee and the Lower Creek eventually allied themselves with Yamasee bands that continued to raid trading posts and plantations. The conspiracy disintegrated, however, when South Carolinian military resistance was strengthened by additional troops from neighbouring colonies and war supplies from New England. Many of the defeated Indians escaped to Florida, joining runaway black slaves and other Indians to form what later were called the Seminole.