| Charleston's colonial communities were concentrated around the rivers and coastline. Boats played a central role in the daily activities, economy, communication, transportation, and defense of these early riparian settlements. They were built and used by Amerindians, Africans, and Europeans—thus representing a form of southern creole culture shaped by the experiences and traditions of a diverse amalgamation of peoples. Settings around boats present an especially useful way of understanding social interactions on the colonial landscape.; This study presents both a complementary and a different understanding of colonial society compared to the other aspects of southern culture explored by scholars in areas such as house architecture, rice cultivation, pottery or food preparation, all of which took place within the context of riparian transportation. Not only were boats important artifacts that reflect features of the indigenous, slave, and immigrant cultures, but they were one of the most important tools that helped the immigrants survive in the new colony, and ultimately to achieve higher levels of wealth and independence from England.; Early Carolinians attempted to adapt ideas from their old world to the resources of their new world. This was not a world that they created together in harmony. It was shaped by the ambitions of planters, country factors, merchants, and shipwrights who either grappled against or used to their own commercial advantage, the efforts of Amerindians and African slaves who constantly tried to carve a more autonomous niche for themselves. The lower social classes like the deerskin traders, shipyard laborers, plantation boat patroons, and scout boat captains were the middlemen caught in the cross currents of these interactions. Laboring classes of European, Africans and Amerindians crewing aboard boats or working in shipyards may have formed alliances in the earlier colonial period, but these relationships appear to have deteriorated as commerce moved into an urban setting. The frustrations of the Europeans as middlemen, competing in the labor market with slaves, were paving stones leading to later racial tensions. In summary, boats were an important centerpiece in this dynamic set of relationships. |
