Title Patroons and Periaguas : enslaved watermen and watercraft of the lowcountry / Lynn B. Harris

Published Columbia, South Carolina : University of South Carolina Press, 2014

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Description 1 online resource Series Studies in Maritime History Studies in maritime history. Contents Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. The Colonial Cultural Landscape -- 2. Traders, Scouts, and Ferrymen -- 3. Immigrant Shipwrights and Shipyard Slaves -- 4. From African Canoe to Carolina Crew -- 5. The Plantation Patroon -- 6. Fair Winds, Fair Trade, and Fair Due -- A Final Note-a canow missing! a canoe found! A PETTIAUGER lives on! -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index Summary "Patroons and Periaguas explores the intricately interwoven and colorful creole maritime legacy of Native Americans, Africans, enslaved and free African Americans, and Europeans who settled along the rivers and coastline near the bourgeoning colonial port city of Charleston, South Carolina. Colonial South Carolina, from a European perspective, was a water-filled world where boatmen of diverse ethnicities adopted and adapted maritime skills learned from local experiences or imported from Africa and the Old World to create a New World society and culture. Lynn B. Harris describes how they crewed together in galleys as an ad hoc colonial navy guarding settlements on the Edisto, Kiawah, and Savannah Rivers, rowed and raced plantation log boats called periaguas, fished for profits, and worked side by side as laborers in commercial shipyards building sailing ships for the Atlantic coastal trade, the Caribbean islands, and Europe. Watercraft were of paramount importance for commercial transportation and travel, and the skilled people who built and operated them were a distinctive class in South Carolina. Enslaved patroons (boat captains) and their crews provided an invaluable service to planters, who had to bring their staple products--rice, indigo, deerskins, and cotton--to market, but they were also purveyors of information for networks of rebellious communications and illicit trade. Harris employs historical records, visual images, and a wealth of archaeological evidence embedded in marshes, underwater on riverbeds, or exhibited in local museums to illuminate clues and stories surrounding these interactions and activities. A pioneering underwater archaeologist, she brings sources and personal experience to bear as she weaves vignettes of the ongoing process of different peoples adapting to each other and their new world that is central to our understanding of the South Carolina maritime landscape."-- Provided by publisher Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Boatbuilders -- South Carolina -- Charleston County Navigation -- History -- 18th century Cultural pluralism -- South Carolina -- Charleston County Plantation life -- South Carolina -- Charleston County Boaters (Persons) -- South Carolina -- Charleston County Enslaved persons -- South Carolina -- Charleston County -- History -- 18th century HISTORY -- United States -- State & Local -- South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA, WV) SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Ethnic Studies -- African American Studies. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Ethnic Studies -- Native American Studies. Antiquities Boatbuilders Boaters (Persons) Cultural pluralism Manners and customs Navigation Plantation life Enslaved persons SUBJECT Charleston County (S.C.) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century Charleston County (S.C.) -- Antiquities Charleston County (S.C.) -- History -- 18th century Subject South Carolina -- Charleston County Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9781611173864 1611173868

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