Henry Woodward (c. 1646 – c. 1686), was a Barbados-born merchant and colonist who was one of the first white settlers in the Carolinas. He established relationships with many Native American Tribes in the American southeast. He initiated trade, primarily in deerskins and slaves, with many Indian towns and tribes.
Early life
Not much is known about Henry Woodward's early life. He is thought to have been born in Barbados. His father was William Woodward and his mother was Esther Martin.
In 1666, Henry Woodward accompanied Captain Robert Sandford's exploration of the South Carolina coast. Woodward volunteered to remain in the Port Royal Sound vicinity and live among the Cusabo Indians, to establish relations and learn their language. For this he was granted, temporarily, "formal possession of the whole Country to hold as Tennant at Will" by the Lords Proprietors.
Captured by Spanish
In 1667, Woodward was captured by the Spanish of Spanish Florida, taken to St. Augustine, Florida and held captive for about a year. As a prisoner he was well-treated. He professed Catholicism and was made official surgeon. During this time he learned about the thriving Spanish-Indian trading system. This experience helped him in rapidly establishing a trading system with local Native American after he regained his freedom.
Woodward escaped in 1668, after the English buccaneer and privateer Robert Searle raided St. Augustine. For about two years Woodward served as surgeon on privateer vessels in the Caribbean before being shipwrecked on Nevis in August 1669. He then took passage on the Carolina fleet of 1669–1670, which established Charleston, South Carolina. Henry Woodward became an interpreter and Indian agent for the fledgling colony. Starting in 1670, Woodward began taking a series of expeditions into the interior, making contact with various Indian groups. While a few Spanish expeditions had explored the interior of the American southeast in the sixteenth century, Woodward was the first Anglo-American colonist to do so. Notably, Woodward was the last European to visit the paramount chiefdom of Cofitachequi in 1670.
Westo and Shawnee
The Westo Indians were initially hostile to the new colony of South Carolina. In October 1674, some Westo Indians visited Woodward, who was widely known among the Indians, at St. Giles plantation on the head of the Ashley River. They requested he travel with them to their village (Hickauhaugau) on the Savannah River. During this visit Woodward initiated a trading relationship between Carolina and the Westo. While in Hickauhaugau Woodward witnessed the arrival of two Shawnee Indians. These Shawnee had probably migrated to the Apalachicola River region in the 1640s in order to trade with the Spanish and perhaps to escape the Iroquois wars in the north. Using sign language, the Shawnee warned the Westo of impending attack from the "Cussetaws, Checsaws, & Chiokees," earning the goodwill of the Westo. Later the Apalachicola Shawnee migrated to the Savannah River area, approached Henry Woodward privately and established a relationship that eventually doomed the Westo. These Shawnee became known in South Carolina as the "Savannah" Indians. When war broke out between the Westo and South Carolina in 1679, the Savannah Shawnee assisted South Carolina. By 1680, the Westo had been decimated and the Savannah Shawnee moved into their lands along the lower Savannah River.
In April 1677, South Carolina's Lords Proprietors, claiming a monopoly on Indian trade, forbade all trade with the Indians and the Spanish, except by their official agents. The destruction of the Westo left Woodward out of favor with the colony's Lords Proprietors. In 1682, Woodward got shot in the head but still manage to travel to England, where he not only obtained a pardon, but an official position as Indian agent for the Lords Proprietors. Woodward agreed to conduct the Indian trade for the proprietors in return for 20% of the profits.