The Tuscarora War: Indians, Settlers, and the Fight for the Carolina Colonies

by David La Vere

At dawn on September 22, 1711, more than 500 Tuscarora, Core, Neuse, Pamlico, Weetock, Machapunga, and Bear River Indian warriors swept down on the unsuspecting European settlers living along the Neuse and Pamlico Rivers of North Carolina. Over the following days, they destroyed hundreds of farms, killed at least 140 men, women, and children, and took about 40 captives. So began the Tuscarora War, North Carolina's bloodiest colonial war and surely one of its most brutal. In his gripping account, David La Vere examines the war through the lens of key players in the conflict, reveals the events that led to it, and traces its far-reaching consequences.
La Vere details the innovative fortifications produced by the Tuscaroras, chronicles the colony's new practice of enslaving all captives and selling them out of country, and shows how both sides drew support from forces far outside the colony's borders. In these ways and others, La Vere concludes, this merciless war pointed a new direction in the development of the future state of North Carolina.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Native American, War, Audiobook, American, American History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2013

Reviews

[Kendall Davidson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Professor La Vere- you wrote a great book. Just ignore the 1 star I gave it! Now time to craft a beautiful essay after reading

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief and bloody war.

La Vere's 2013 "The Tuscarora War" tells the story of 1711's brutal war between Tuscoarora Indians and North Carolinian colonists. The book chronicles several of the major players from both sides and details the troubles the North Carolina had establishing itself in the early 18th century and the eventual/inevitable conflicts with surrounding tribes.

While most contemporary histories of native/colonial conflict tend to always place the colonials in the dominant position (usually in an effort to assign moral blame for their eventual success), that is rarely true and even less so in the early periods of American colonization.

Instead, as here, you frequently had opposing forces of rough parity but with diametrically opposed cultures and traditions coming to blows and eventually engaging in some horribly brutal hand-to-hand combat. The novelty of the Tuscarora War was that the Indians ended up barricading themselves in a fort of their own design and being besieged by colonists. La Vere's recounting of this fairly unique battle is riveting.

While most stories of Indians vs Colonials results in Indian removal, that's not as much the case here as La Vere notes that as of 2011 North Carolina had the highest number of Indian peoples east of the Mississippi with over 100,000. All told, "The Tuscarora War" is a quality slice of regional history.

[Todd Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

The topic of this work is a virtually unknown event in American history. As a graduate level history degree holder, who specializes in Native American conflicts and history, I had only a passing understanding of this war. La Vere clearly has done a great deal of research into the minutiae of this event. There is a great dearth of written records, so La Vere makes the best of the few memoirs and journals from the key players in this event. Unfortunately, the Tuscarora were not allied with any other power, so we have virtually no first hand accounts from their point of view, but this is no fault of La Vere's. He does an excellent job with the information available to him, and for anyone interested in early American history, I would recommend giving this relatively short book a try.

[Francis X DuFour · Rating 5 out of 5]

La Vere’s excellent history of the war between native Americans and European settlers in colonial North Carolina explains in detail the political and cultural conflict between the two parties culminating in the Tuscarora War (1711-1715). North Carolina was one of the poorest colonies of British America and when the Tuscarora and other tribes finally decided to attack the offending colonists, the state was helpless to defend its citizens. Political infighting between the Anglican ruling party and the large Quaker population in NC prevented effective military reaction to the Indian attacks. This forced NC to beg its neighbors, South Carolina and Virginia to supply troops for protection of its population. Both sister colonies provided troops, supplies and money to defend North Carolina. One of the most famous adventurers, “Tuscarora Jack” Barnwell, marched militia volunteers and Indian allies from coastal South Carolina to the NC western frontier and caused enough damage to the native tribes to force them to sign a peace treaty. Personal animosity between Barnwell and the NC governor sank the treaty. NC governor Pollock was more interested in destroying the natives who perpetrated the devastating attacks, and reopened the conflict after Barnwell returned to SC. NC once again was forced to ask its neighboring colonies for help and Col. James Moore of SC lead a much more successful campaign against the natives, decisively defeating the Tuscarora. Virginia provided aid in negotiating a second peace with the native tribes, using the influence of its long trading history with the NC tribes. The book explores the contentious relations between the NC ruling class and independent settlers attempts to colonize the frontier, along with the resulting uprising by the native tribes. The political relations between the Tuscarora and other tribes, especially the Seneca and the NY-based Iroquois nation provides a fascinating look into native American attempts to deal with the encroachment of European settlement.

[Gregory Melahn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember Fort Neoheroka!!!

I now live in North Carolina not far from the scene of the events described in this history. How did I know nothing about this before?

In 1711, in response to continued depredations of the European colonists, the Tuscarora Indians made war. And it was brutal as only a colonial war can be. When it was over, the powerful Tuscarora Indians had become a tribute people.

They were doomed from the start, they had become dependent on European manufactured goods, notably firearms, and were weakened by disease and disunity. But they put up a good fight.

The near epic battle at Fort Neoheroka near what is now Snow Hill, NC showed the skill and courage of the Tuscarora. They had constructed a well designed fortification. There, several hundred Tuscarora fighting men, women and children resisted a three week siege ending with their annihilation in fiery blockhouses and tunnels.

The scattered remnants of the Tuscarora people migrated to New York to live as the sixth tribe of the Iroquois Federation or lived on the edge of the expanding North Carolina colony.

Worthy of an historical novel.

[Carl Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of the social and political situation of North and South Carolina in the early 17th century that describes the complicated interaction of the character and personal circumstances of major players and the web of shifting relationships between various groups of settlers, their magistrates, the royally appointed proprietors, and the various groups of native populations in the eastern part of the territory. This small window into the relatively obscure colonial history of the Carolinas provides an understanding unencumbered with mythology of similar dynamics that characterized more northerly colonies in the preceding century.

[Peter Goggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly impartial, even though a reader with any knowledge of colonial America is naturally inclined towards the plight of the Indians. What was surprising here were the dissimilarities between this war and wars of puritan aggression in the northeast - though the methods and failings of Indians warfare were exactly similar in both situations, the underlying politics appear to be quite different. Somewhat illuminating in describing the prevalence of slaving in the Carolinas even at this time, and the institutional similarities between the Carolina’s and the sugar colonies of the Caribbean.

[Aishuu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up because one of the figures, John "Tuscarora Jack" Barnwell showed up in my family tree and I was curious about what "Tuscarora" meant since I'm not familiar with the tribe. As expected, it's the usual "everyone is horrible to everyone else" story of the settlement of the Colonies. I'm fascinated by the research that went into this, and it really helped orient me to this part of Carolina history.

[Chris Stratton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engaging read

I enjoyed reading about the history of the eastern North Carolina coastal plains as told in this book for the late 1600s and early 1700s centering around the war with the Tuscarora Indians. It is interesting to live among and walk on this history and imagine how it was.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine work that struggles with, but deftly surmounts while maintaining its intellectual rigour, a lack of data and resources in the telling of an overlooked, yet important, chapter in North Carolina history.

[Heather McCloud · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book--and much of it was angering, and frustrating, and heartbreaking! And I think nothing should be named after Thomas Pollock or William Brice. They should not be remembered, at least not in any good way!

[Marilyn]

Excellent history

The Tuscarora war, Iike so many of the other Indian wars, was a sad ending to an amazing people. The details and the history provided was well presented. A lot of effort and research must have gone into the book. Well done.

[B.L. Blankenship · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful & insightful telling of history of America under English Dominance holding Native American & Negro slaves alike, all of the violence, and so forth.

[Asher Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent enough but didn't really capture my attention.

Definitely needed another thorough round of editing. Some very sloppy grammar.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim volume is a much needed summary of an important piece of North Carolina history. It is much more than just a battle summary, however. Structured around short descriptions of the major players on both the colonial and Native American sides, it brings into focus the context of the clash of cultures up and down the Eastern seaboard.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

David LaVere’s book, The Tuscarora War is very enlightening. He does a great job at describing what North Carolina was like in the year 1705. The book is descriptive and an interesting to read. It was so descriptive that at times I thought I was trudging through the Great Dismal Swamp.

[Darlis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I decided that I had too much to do to continue with this. It is interesting, but the style is a little boring.