In 1715 the upstart British colony of South Carolina was nearly destroyed in an unexpected conflict with many of its Indian neighbors, most notably the Yamasees, a group whose sovereignty had become increasingly threatened. The South Carolina militia retaliated repeatedly until, by 1717, the Yamasees were nearly annihilated, and their survivors fled to Spanish Florida. The war not only sent shock waves throughout South Carolina's government, economy, and society, but also had a profound impact on colonial and Indian cultures from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi River.

Drawing on a diverse range of colonial records, A Colonial Complex builds on recent developments in frontier history and depicts the Yamasee War as part of a colonial complex: a broad pattern of exchange that linked the Southeast’s Indian, African, and European cultures throughout the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In the first detailed study of this crucial conflict, Steven J. Oatis shows the effects of South Carolina’s aggressive imperial expansion on the issues of frontier trade, combat, and diplomacy, viewing them not only from the perspective of English South Carolinians but also from that of the societies that dealt with the South Carolinians both directly and indirectly. Readers will find new information on the deerskin trade, the Indian slave trade, imperial rivalry, frontier military strategy, and the major transformations in the cultural landscape of the early colonial Southeast.

Steven J. Oatis is an assistant professor of history at the University of the Ozarks.

"Steven J. Oatis's book is the most important contribution to our understanding of the Yamasee War since Verner Crane's magisterial The Southern Frontier. . . . first published in 1928. . . . Oatis makes it abundantly clear that whatever the causes of the Yamasee War, it powerfully reordered the political landscape of the lower South for a very long time to come."—Charles Hudson, American Historical Review

"Steven J. Oatis has written a superb account and analysis of the Yamasee War, an event that most historians either simplify or forget but one that had repercussions for all empires, native and foreign, interested in the Southeast. . . . A Colonial Complex will surely rank as a classic text in the study of the colonial South for years to come."—Julie Anne Sweet, The Georgia Historical Quarterly

"With the publication of Steven J. Oatis's excellent book, we finally have a comprehensive and persuasive interpretation of this critical war."—Journal of Southern History

"A welcome addition to the growing body of literature addressing the early colonial period in the American southwest."—William Wall, Journal of Military History

"A Colonial Complex is noteworthy because Oatis provides an insightful look into a conflict that is usually only mentioned as a side note in the history of the Creek Indians. But Oatis's research goes well beyond the Yamasee War, and as a result anyone studying colonial interaction with Indians in the Southeast will find this book useful."—Michael Hoekstra, Southern Historian

“Oatis allows the reader to appreciate the 'kaleidoscopic complexity' of the eighteenth-century southern frontier with its 'fluid identities and ambiguous alliances'. . . . Oatis has produced a work that is a must read for serious students of South Carolina’s early history.”—Mary Ferrari, South Carolina Historical Magazine

“This well-written volume will appeal to scholars of the American frontier and the early American South. It effectively draws upon a wide range of English and Spanish sources to provide by far the most detailed account of the war and the events that surrounded it, and readers will appreciate its insights.”—Andrew K. Frank, Itinerario

“While the broad outlines of the Yamasee conflict are well known, Oatis’ exploration of the conflict and the years leading up to and after the war are the best I have read. . . . Rather than casting the war as a turning point in the history of the English South, Oatis deftly reveals how it ended some peoples’ ability to shape their own destinies but, at the same time, it did little to change the imperatives, strategies, and practices that characterized politics and diplomacy in the region. The book is a welcome addition to the recent spate of frontier studies for its subject matter, and Oatis’ rehabilitation of the concept of frontier offers interesting theoretical challenges to studies that have focused instead on region-making and borderlands.”—James Taylor Carson, Southern Quarterly

“Oatis’s writing skills, powers of analysis, and command of the South Carolina materials are impressive.”—Amy Turner Bushnell, The Americas