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Blacks escape slavery by fleeing across border
By Christopher D. Kimball
Special to the Huachuca Scout
(Author's note: This month during Black History
Month, we have seen several reminders of the Buffalo
Soldiers and their triumph in difficult situations. Here
is a little-known story about one group of men who went
from fighting against the United States to becoming
Buffalo Soldiers in one generation. Little is said about the
black Seminoles, so I feel it is important that their story be told.)
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Florida was
spanish territory. Many slaves from plantations in the
Southeast escaped to Florida because it was the nearest
international border. Once there, the former slaves were
adopted by the Seminole Indians, who themselves had
escaped from slavery and political unrest among the
Creek Indians. The former slaves organized towns and
fully adopted the Creek-Seminole customs and
languages, and soon many blacks were born as free
men. The black Seminoles had a voice in the head
Seminole councils. They made political decisions and
participated in seminole battles and raiding parties.
The plantations could not tolerate the fact that their
slaves were escaping to Florida in alarming numbers.
Since the plantation owners ran the government in the
south and made political decisions, the federal government
became involved.
From 1780 to 1818, border raids were constant between
all sides. Plantation owners in Georgia and Mississippi
territories wanted the Florida land and accused the
Seminoles of taking their slaves. The Seminoles accused
the slave owners of raiding them and taking their
black Seminole allies. On top of that, the Creek Indians
declared that the Seminoles were under their authority
and demanded them back as slaves. The United
States wanted Florida and thought it should br part of
America. The Spanish government did not do anything
to control the Indians raiding southern Georgia, and the
United States did not do anything to control the plantation
owners from raiding the Indians.
The worst incident in the border skirmishes happened
July 27, 1816. A group of black Seminoles had moved
into a fort that the British had abandoned on the
Appalachicola River in Florida, which became known as
Negro Fort. An American supply ship travelling up river
to Fort Scott, Ga., came upon the fort and both sides
started firing. A lucky shot from the ship hit the fort's
powder magazine and blew the fort sky-high. Most of
the black Seminoles who were inside the fort were
killed instantly.
In 1818, Gen. Andrew Jackson took a force of 3500
Creek Indians, regular army troops and Tennessee
volunteers, and attacked and destroyed several black
Seminole towns in northern Florida.
The black Seminoles put up the hardest resistance and
held back Jackson's army while the villagers in northern
Florida were evacuated. When the blacks retreated,
they left only empty villages for Jackson, who
burned and looted them. When the Spanish asked
Jackson to explain why he attacked Spanish
Florida, he said, "to chastise a savage foe, who,
combined with a lawless band of Negro brigands, have for
some time past been carrying on a cruel and unprovoked
war against the citizens of the United States, and has
compelled the president to direct me to march my
army into Florida."
Spain realized that it couldn't keep Florida and sold
in to the United States for $5 million. As soon as Florida
became United States territory, James Gadsden was
authorized by Congress to negotiate a treaty with the
Seminoles. He took the view that the whites in Florida
were not safe as long as the Indians remained and as
long as slaves could run and join the Seminoles. The
Treaty of Moultrie Creek was signed in 1823, and one
of the provisions was that escaped slaves be returned
by the Seminoles to their former masters.
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