<P> In April 1670, settlers arrived at Albemarle Point, at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers . They founded Charles Town, named in honor of King Charles II . Throughout the Colonial Period, the Carolinas participated in many wars against the Spanish and the Native Americans, including the Yamasee and Cherokee tribes . In its first decades, the colony's plantations were relatively small and its wealth came from Native American trade, mainly in Native American slaves and deerskins . </P> <P> The slave trade adversely affected tribes throughout the Southeast and exacerbated enmity and competition among some of them . Historians estimate that Carolinians exported 24,000--51,000 Native American slaves from 1670 to 1717, sending them to markets ranging from Boston in North America to Barbados . Planters financed the purchase of African slaves by their sale of Native Americans, finding that they were somewhat easier to control, as they did not know the territory to make good an escape . </P> <P> Divided roughly along the Santee River were the two main groups of Native American peoples--Hokan Sioux (Ancestral Sioux) & the Cusaboan tribes . Relative to the Hokan were mostly the Waccamaw Siouan & the Sewee . That being said, there were also the Wateree, Woccon & the Santee (not to be confused with the Dakota Santee of the west .) Hokan Sioux lived in a narrow, zigzagging region from modern day Ohio to the Carolina coast . Most of the region south of the Santee River was controlled by the Muskogean Cusabo tribes . North of the Sewee were the Croatan, an Algonquian nation related to the Chowanoke, Piscataway, Nanticoke & Powhatan further north . Many descendants of the Croatan survive among the Lumbee, who also took in many Siouan peoples of the region . Deeper inland, other Muskogean tribes merged to form the Yamasee . The lands of the Cherokee may have just grazed into the state, but they were set further back in Appalachia . In the 18th century, both the Yamasee & Cherokee merged with other tribes to form the Creek Confederacy, who later fractured after conquering mush of the east coast . The Yamasee survive today among the Seminole . </P> <P> In the 1700--70 era, the colony possessed many advantages - entrepreneurial planters and businessmen, a major harbor, the expansion of cost - efficient African slave labor, and an attractive physical environment, with rich soil and a long growing season, albeit with endemic malaria . Planters established rice and indigo as commodity crops, based in developing large plantations, with long - staple cotton grown on the sea islands . As the demand for labor increased, planters imported increasing numbers of African slaves . The slave population grew as they had children . These children were also regarded as slaves as they grew up, as South Carolina used Virginia's model of declaring all children born to slave mothers as slaves, regardless of the race or nationality of the father . So the majority of slaves in the colony came to be native - born . This became one of the wealthiest of the British colonies . Rich colonials became avid consumers of services from outside the colony, such as mercantile services, medical education, and legal training in England . Almost everyone in 18th - century South Carolina felt the pressures, constraints, and opportunities associated with the growing importance of trade . </P>

Who lived in south carolina before european settlers