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Native Americans

Yamasee

Yamasee
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 4 to 6
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.71

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    ammunition, similar, rifles, slavery, colonial, armed, gain, settled, settler, slave, defense, unfair, attack, supplies, livestock, people
     content words:    South Carolina, Native Americans, North Carolina, New England, Governor Craven

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Yamasee
By Mary Lynn Bushong 		  
1     The Yamasee people were similar to the Muskogee, but they were not always friends. They were alike in culture and language, but they sometimes competed for the same territory.
 
2     The Yamasee territory first covered northern Florida and southern Georgia, but when the Spanish moved into their lands, the people resented their control. They rebelled in 1687 and moved north to South Carolina.
 
3     At first, they lived peacefully with the English colonists. They grew to enjoy the goods they traded for with dressed deer skins. They liked the rifles and ammunition they got best of all.
 
4     Then the traders showed them how to make money with slavery. It was not a new idea to Native Americans, but as a way to make money, it was. They could capture their enemies and sell them as slaves.
 
5     The Yamasee used their guns to attack smaller groups who were not so well armed. To protect themselves from raids, these smaller groups had to arm themselves. They, in turn, enslaved others to pay for their weapons. The traders profited by this vicious circle.

Paragraphs 6 to 11:
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