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"I" is for Indian Trade

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"I" is for Indian trade. Trade between the colony of South Carolina and neighboring Indian tribes officially began in 1674 when the Proprietors directed Dr. Henry Woodward to establish peaceful relations and regular trade with the Westos. Very quickly, the deerskin trade became a source of wealth for some early colonists. It also became a contentious issue in terms of relationships with the Indians and damaging to native cultures.

Some traders cheated and mistreated the Indians who became increasingly unhappy—and the Yamassee War resulted. Following the Yamassee War, the colony began to regulate the Indian trade. South Carolina traders dominated and controlled the trade all the way to the Mississippi River. In 1748, the colony exported 160,000 skins.  The Indian trade played a key role in the economic development of colonial South Carolina. 

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.