Congaree

The Congaree people lived along the rivers that bear their name and flow onward to the Santee. Their villages stood in a country of wooded bluffs and floodplains, near routes joining the Catawba and Cherokee lands to the Carolina coast. English trader John Lawson met a Congaree community in 1701, when disease and conflict had already reduced its numbers.

The Congaree took part in the Yamasee War of 1715, after which survivors moved north to join the Catawba people. In 1718 South Carolina established Fort Congaree and a trading post near the river, at a place known as the Congarees. The post became an important point on the paths into the backcountry, where traders exchanged imported goods for skins brought from the interior.

The later city of Columbia lies here.