Cofitachequi

Origins

Cofitachequi arose among Mississippian farming towns on the Wateree River in central South Carolina, with its main centre probably at the Mulberry mound site near modern Camden. By the 14th century it had become the leading power of the region, and its paramount chief claimed authority over towns across much of the Carolina piedmont and coastal plain.

Rule and society

In 1540 Hernando de Soto's army was met by a woman ruler, known to the Spanish as the Lady of Cofitachequi, who presented strings of pearls; the Spanish looted pearls from a temple-burial house and took her hostage, though she escaped. Spanish accounts describe towns with mounds, granaries of maize and stored deerskins and textiles. Juan Pardo passed through in 1566 to 1568.

Decline and legacy

Epidemics and the Spanish and later English slave trade weakened the chiefdom. When the English trader Henry Woodward visited in 1670 it was still recognised but much smaller, and it vanished soon after, its people probably merging with the Catawba and other piedmont groups.