[4] During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American scholars thought the Congaree were likely part of the Siouan language family, given their geographic location and characteristics of neighboring tribes like the Catawba.
By 1693, the Congaree, Esaw, and Savannah slave-catchers had pursued the Cherokee as "objects of the slave trade to the extent that a tribal delegation was sent" to Governor Thomas Smith.
The Native Americans suffered high mortality from new infectious diseases that had become endemic for centuries among Europeans, leading to some acquired immunity for the latter.
[10] The English explorer John Lawson encountered the survivors in 1701, apparently on the northeastern bank of the Santee River below the junction of the Wateree.
[3] A 1715 map shows their village as located on the southern bank of the Congaree and considerably above the previous area, perhaps near Big Beaver Creek, or about opposite the future site of Columbia, on the eastern boundary of Lexington County.
[8] In early 1715, John Barnwell took a census that identified the Congaree as living in one village, with a total population of 22 men and 70 women and children.
Based on colonial accounts, American anthropologist James Mooney (1928) described the historic Congaree as: "A friendly people, handsome and well built, the women being especially beautiful compared with those of other tribes.