Seminoles and Slaves: Florida's Freedom Seekers
By Jean West

Imagine a tapestry woven with three colors of thread: red, white and black. The tapestry represents Florida's history, a story of three races and their relationships with each other: Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans. The search for freedom in Florida brought fugitive slaves and the Seminole Indians together 300 years ago. Yet today, the bond between these two groups may be unraveling. Courts and judges are trying to answer the question: "Who is a Seminole?"

On Easter Sunday (Pascua Florida) in 1513, Juan Ponce de León claimed and named the North American lands that he hoped to occupy for Spain "Florida." Historians estimate that there were between 100,000 and 500,000 Native Americans in Florida at the time. The main tribes were the Apalachee, Calusa, and Tequesta. But, there were no Seminole at that time. Their ancestors were living farther north, in modern Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas.

The Spanish established the first permanent settlement in what became the United States at St. Augustine in 1565. By 1600, an estimated 75 percent of native Floridians were dead. Some died in warfare against the Spanish and French. Many died from European diseases such as smallpox and measles. Shortly after the English established Charleston (1670), the Carolinas became the center of the Native American slave trade. The Spanish could not prevent English raiders from enslaving most of Florida's remaining 10,000-12,000 native people. In 1763, there were less than 90 natives left.

To replace the lost native Floridians, Spanish officials decided to attract more settlers. They were not successful in attracting more Europeans. And, while the royal government had brought African slaves and free black artisans to Florida since founding St. Augustine, they did not intend to purchase huge numbers of slaves to support the struggling economy. Instead, they tried to recruit slaves and Native Americans living in the English colonies.

On November 7, 1693, Spanish King Charles II issued a cedula (proclamation) promising that any English slave who came to Spanish territory would be free. He declared he was "giving liberty to all…the men as well as the women…so that by their example and by my liberality others will do the same." In exchange for their freedom, the fugitive slaves would become Catholics and perform military service.

In 1733, British settlers established the colony of Georgia, and Spain offered freedom to any slaves escaping from the English colonies. Hundreds of fugitive slaves found refuge in St. Augustine's Castillo (fort) de San Marcos and a fort called Mose (or Moosa). Both places witnessed pitched battles between freed slaves and runaways, and the British. In 1763, England obtained control over all of Florida, and almost all of its 350 slaves and 80 free blacks fled to Havana, Cuba and other Spanish colonies. English settlers then established plantations in Florida, using intensive slave labor. Towards the end of the American Revolution, Loyalists to England fled to Florida, bringing with them thousands of slaves. When Spain regained Florida from the British in 1783, nearly 10,000 enslaved people lived there.

During the time of Spanish and British control of Florida, unknown numbers of fugitive African slaves built free villages in the wilderness. Their isolation helped to preserve African ways. Some modern Black Seminole words come from the African Gullah language. Children received African day names like Cudjo (Monday) and Cuffy (Friday). They raised rice using African techniques.

At the same time that runaway slaves were seeking freedom in Florida, Native American refugees from Georgia and Alabama began moving into the lands left empty by the extinction of the Florida tribes. Those who were members of the Creek nation began to be designated by the term Seminole, which some scholars believe comes from the Mikasuki Creek word siminoli. It is a word that took its meaning, however, among the Native Americans from the Spanish word cimarrones, meaning "wild, runaway" as applied to plants or animals. The term maroons, also derived from this Spanish word, was used to identify any runaway slaves in the Americas.

Although most of these refugees founded their own villages, some may have been accepted into fugitive slave villages. Mikasuki-speaking Lower Creek Indians moved into north central Florida, settling in the Alachua Plains. Muskogee-speaking Upper Creeks from Alabama arrived slightly later and settled in northwest Florida. Yuchi, Yamasee, and Choctaw groups also moved into Florida. After their defeat in the Creek War of 1812-1814, over 2,000 "Red Stick" Creek joined the Florida tribes. John Stuart, the British Superintendent for Indian Affairs of the Southern District (Florida), first used the word "Seminole" in 1771.

Seminole Life

By 1822, roughly 5,000-6,000 Seminole lived in 34 settlements, mainly in the northern half of the peninsula. The Seminole farmed corn, beans, and pumpkins both in community fields and in private gardens. They also raised cattle and horses descended from Spanish breeds, sometimes in huge herds. They hunted deer and other animals, mainly because they could trade deerskins for tools, guns, cloth, and glass. Seminole towns could run as large as several hundred log cabins and frame houses; some were plastered and painted. Yet, there has never been a single "Seminole" language. Muskogee was the language of treaties and trade agreements. Some Seminole spoke Muskogee while others spoke Mikasuki.

The Seminole practiced some slavery, although they did not sell slaves. They enslaved Yamasee Indians who were prisoners of war. The Seminole also purchased some African-born slaves, while receiving others as "gifts" from the English Government. Seminoles sometimes returned runaway slaves. Most often, the Seminole claimed all blacks living with the tribe to be either slaves or family members. Slave catchers claimed that all people of African ancestry were runaway slaves. Written records have so many contradictions, they have not helped historians to figure out the exact number and social status of the Black Seminole.

The Seminole distinguished between two groups of black refugees in the Florida wilderness. Maroons were free blacks or fugitive slaves who had lived so long with the Seminole that they were part of the tribe. Maroons wore Native American turbans, tunics, and moccasins and fought alongside the Seminole. The second group, called estelusti, referred to recently escaped slaves.

Estelusti runaways lived in as many as 15 Red Seminole towns. Some estelusti were free, working the communal fields and sharing the communal sofkee (corn meal gruel) pot. Others were slaves who were required to work for their Seminole owners. However, they did receive land for their own gardens and weapons for hunting. Any child born to an estelusti was free, regardless of whether the parent was free or enslaved, as the Seminole did not practice hereditary, racial slavery in Florida.

An estimated 450 Black Seminole maroons lived in at least three settlements. In 2000, archaeologists first excavated a Black Seminole village, Peliklakaha (Abraham's Old Town). They found earrings, pottery, and hide-scrapers like those used by Red Seminole. Anthropologists who have looked at slave narratives know that Black Seminole also adopted some Red Seminole spiritual and cultural practices. They consumed the purifying "black drink" at meetings. Black Seminole also danced at the Green Corn Ceremony.

The Black Seminole looked at marriage differently than the Red Seminole did. Black Seminole were more likely to have only one wife, whereas Red Seminole men married a principal wife, and could marry other wives. One of the wives of the famous Seminole warrior, Osceola (Asi Yahola, the Black Drink Singer), was a Black Seminole and the daughter of a slave. Historical accounts and science confirm that there was some intermarriage between the two groups. In 1997, scientists studied the DNA of 37 Florida Seminole. They found that about five percent of their mitochondrial DNA (transferred by mothers) was African.

Black Seminole villages had their own leaders. When called to war, they would assemble under their own captains. Then, they would travel to fight alongside their Red Seminole allies. Black Seminole warriors fought with extra bravery, for if they lost, they faced enslavement. Each Black Seminole town provided food (usually a tithe of one third of the corn or crops it grew each year) to the Red Seminole band that helped defend them from slave-raiders. They also provided interpreters since they were more likely than Red Seminole to speak English or Spanish, as well as Muskogee or Mikasuki. Abraham, (Sauanaffe Tustenuggee) was chief of a Black Seminole village and a "sense-bearer" or interpreter for the Alachua Seminole chief, Micanopy (Mikkonapa). While the Black Seminole may not have experienced perfect equality in tribal life, they had many more rights and opportunities compared to slaves or "free persons of color" under English or Spanish law.

Chaos in Florida

Florida had few residents, even fewer soldiers, and rich lands. Spain's weakness and global wars caused Florida to change ownership three times in 20 years. The Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian Wars, transferred Florida from the Spanish to the British in 1763. Following the American Revolution, a second Treaty of Paris transferred Florida back to Spain in 1783.

The power vacuum led to chaos and violence. Slave-raiders continually violated the international border between Georgia and Florida. The Spanish abandoned their century-old sanctuary policy to stop the problems. Instead, Southerners accused the Spanish of supporting Seminole raids in southern Georgia. Southern slave owners believed that the Seminole stole slaves and encouraged runaways.

Many people in the United States wanted Florida to become a U.S. territory. In 1811, Congress secretly authorized President James Madison to send U.S. military forces to Florida. During the next three years, U.S. military forces, the Georgia militia, and Tennessee volunteers attacked Spanish and Seminole communities in north Florida. The invasion failed largely because Seminole warriors of both races fought the U.S. invaders to defend their land and liberty. Black Seminoles faced the greatest danger. Brigadier General Thomas Flourney ordered, "Every Negro found in arms will be put to death without mercy." He told troops to enslave all blacks they captured regardless of whether those captured were free men or slaves. Yet, the fighting resulted in few battle-related deaths among the Seminole. However, the Army's destruction of cattle and crops did cause starvation among all the Seminole.

First Seminole War (1817-1818)

Although an 1816 peace treaty promised a more peaceful border, the United States continued to pry away at Florida. General Andrew Jackson placed U.S. troops at Fort Scott, just inside the Georgia border on the Flint River. Jackson complained about a "Negro Fort erected during our late war with Britain…now occupied by upwards of 250 Negroes, many of whom have been enticed away from the service of their masters." He was describing Negro Fort (Fort Gadsden,) located at Prospect Bluff overlooking the Apalachicola River. Jackson planned to supply Fort Scott by sending whaleboats upstream through Spanish territory past Negro Fort. When the defenders of Negro Fort fired on the boats and killed their crews, General Edmund Gaines ordered a joint U.S. and Creek attack on the Fort.

Fort Negro had 18-foot thick walls and many cannons, muskets, and swords. It protected 320 defenders and refugees, both free blacks and runaway slaves. However, a U.S. Navy gunboat fired a heated cannonball over the walls. It landed in the ammunition dump and set off an enormous explosion killing 270 people. Most of the captured survivors were sold into slavery.

Following Jackson's victory at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814, the Creeks gave away not only much of their own land in the peace treaty, but also some Seminole land. When 300 soldiers attacked the Seminole village of Fowl Town in the disputed land, the Seminole responded by besieging General Gaines in Fort Scott.

General Andrew Jackson invaded Spanish Florida with a force of 1,800 army regulars, Georgia militiamen, and Tennessee volunteers. General William McIntosh brought 1,600 Creek Indians to support Jackson. After relieving the Fort, Jackson marched through northwest Florida and burned Red and Black Seminole towns in the Suwannee River region. He also burned Spanish fortifications at St. Marks on the Apalachee and seized Pensacola.

Although the Spanish governor escaped to Santa Rosa Island, the Spanish Crown decided it was better to sell Florida than to lose it by conquest. Under the terms of the Adams-Onís Treaty , Spain ceded Florida to the United States. The treaty took force in 1821. Article VI guaranteed freedom to Creoles (those with African blood) and free blacks. "The inhabitants of the territories which his Catholic Majesty cedes to the United States shall be…admitted to the enjoyment of all privileges, rights, and immunities of citizens of the United States."

The Seminole viewed the provision with hope. They could not prove where they were born, but they believed their Florida residence would give them the protections of U.S. citizenship. However, 200 Black Seminole feared the worst and fled to Andros Island in the Bahamas at the time of turnover. (Today, there are about 300 Black Seminole descendents in the "Red Bays" community.) Their fears were well founded. The U.S. Government named General Andrew Jackson military governor of the territory. Jackson's first decree nullified Article VI, denying U.S. citizenship to Seminole, black, and mixed-race Floridians.

Jackson resigned in less than a year, so President Monroe appointed William DuVal as the first territorial governor. On September 6, 1823, DuVal met with 70 Seminole near St. Augustine. They accepted the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, giving up 28 million acres in north central Florida. They received a 20-year commitment by the United States to respect their four million acre reservation. The U.S. Army promised peace to the Seminole if they would turn over all blacks living among them. The Seminole refused because the army demanded they turn over free blacks and Black Seminole maroons, as well as runaway slaves.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 provided for the relocation of all Native Americans east of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory (Oklahoma and Arkansas). Although many white settlers supported Seminole removal, the U.S. Government called a meeting in May 1832 at Payne's Landing. Seminole leaders agreed to a second treaty, swapping their lands in north central Florida for five million acres in south central Florida. However, the swamplands to the South of Fort Brooke (Tampa) and West of Lake Okeechobee proved poor for crops. Despite food allotments, the Seminole struggled against hunger, drought, and slave-raiders.

The Seminole Wars

President Jackson ordered the U.S. Army to remove all remaining light-skinned Seminole and to sell the Black Seminoles into slavery. In October 1834, U.S. Indian Agent Wiley Thompson met with top Seminole leaders at Fort King (Ocala) to dictate the removal process. Mikkonapa, Huithli Emathla (Jumper), Charlie Emathla, the medicine shaman Abiaka (Sam Jones), Holata Mikko, and the Black Seminole Abraham attended the two-day meeting. Most of them objected to the removal and refused to sign the removal agreement. When they quoted the 20-year agreement in the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, Thompson lost his temper. Osceola spoke eloquently against removal. He also defended the freedom of the Black Seminole. Although legend records that Osceola thrust a knife through the removal papers, no contemporary witness reported this as a fact.

On December 25th, 1835, the Second Seminole War began. Members of the Seminole alliance attacked plantations owned by supporters of the U.S. Government. Three days later, on December 28th, a group of 300 Seminole ambushed and massacred Major Francis Dade and 105 U.S. troops en route to Fort King. New archaeological evidence suggests that the 50 Black Seminole horsemen reported by survivors came from the Black Seminole town of Peliklakaha, ten miles away. On the same day as the Dade Massacre, Osceola killed Indian Agent Wiley Thompson. Three days later, on December 31st, Osceola led 250 Seminole to victory over 750 soldiers led by General Duncan Clinch at the Battle of Withlacoochee. U.S. troops abandoned both Fort King and Fort Drane; they did not reoccupy them for over a year.

U.S. Major General Thomas Sidney Jesup recognized the role the Black Seminole played. He declared in 1836, "Throughout my operations, I found the Negroes the most active and determined warriors; and during my conference with the Indian chiefs, I ascertained that they exercised an almost controlling influence over them. This, you may be assured, is a Negro and not an Indian war; and if it be not speedily put down, the South will feel the effects of it before next season."

General Jesup attempted to end the conflict by promising the Seminole safe passage to Indian Territory and guaranteeing the freedom of the Black Seminole. Jesup hoped the offer would end the war quickly. He also believed that the Black Seminole were so independent-minded that they would lead slave rebellions if re-enslaved. However, slave owners pressed their claims to fugitives among the Seminole and the war dragged on.

In October 1837, General José (Joe) Hernandez captured Osceola. Acting under General Jesup's orders, he tricked Osceola using a flag of truce. Then, on December 14, 1837, during truce talks, U.S. troops seized Mikkonapa, Emathla, and other Seminole leaders. The army jailed all the leaders with Osceola in a cell in St. Augustine's Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos). Nineteen Seminole starved themselves until they could wiggle through the bars of their cell and escape. Emathla's sons Coacoochee (Chief Wild Cat) and Juan Caballo (John Horse) escaped; however, Osceola was ill and did not break free. In December, the Army took him to Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island near Charleston, South Carolina. Osceola died of malaria on January 30, 1838.

Coacoochee stepped into Osceola's position as leader of the Seminole resistance. He teamed with Juan Caballo, a Black Seminole chief and freeman of Spanish, African, and Native American ancestry. Colonel Zachary Taylor pursued the Seminole with over 1,000 troops. The Seminole escapees rallied 500 Seminole warriors to their cause. On December 25, 1837, Coacoochee, Juan Caballo, Halleck Tustenuggee (Alligator), and Abiaka counterattacked at the Battle of Okeechobee. Although the Seminole withdrew, the U.S. troops lost 28 dead and 112 wounded.

The Seminole continued to fight the United States for another four years. Heat, malaria, mosquitoes, alligators, venomous snakes, and difficult terrain added to the misery of all involved. The Second Seminole War finally ended in August 1842. The Seminole estimate 2,000 tribal members died during the lengthy war. The U.S. Army captured and deported another 4,420, among them, nearly 500 Black Seminole. The U.S. army lost 1,500 soldiers, and the war cost the United States $20 million.

Mikkonapa's nephew, Billy Bowlegs, led the Seminole in the Third Seminole War (1855-1858). At the war's end, the remaining 100-200 Seminole hid in Florida's "River of Grass," the Everglades. Small groups survived on alligator, beans, and small stands of corn. These unconquered people are the ancestors of the present Seminole Nation of Florida.

Indian Territory

The Tripartite Treaty of 1845 proved disastrous for the estimated 500 Black Seminole who accompanied the tribe to Indian Territory. The Creek Indians were active slave traders, known to kidnap free blacks and slaves. They feared that the independent Black Seminole would inspire their slaves to rebel. They disapproved of the Seminole form of slavery.

The Creek assigned the Seminole tribe poor land with little wild game, so the hungry Seminole would enslave their black and maroon companions. Pro-slavery U.S. Indian agents in charge of Seminole food allotments threatened to starve the Seminole if they did not enslave the Black Seminole. Creek slavers abducted two children of Juan Caballo's sister. Caballo founded the town of Wewoka to protect his band of Black Seminole. Then, the Creek Tribal Council banned further Black Seminole settlements and barred them from owning weapons. Finally, the Attorney General of the United States ruled that all Black Seminole were slaves.

Faced with a hopeless situation, in November 1849, Coacoochee and Juan Caballo left Indian Territory. They led a group of 300 Seminole, Kickapoo, maroons, and runaway black Creek and Cherokee slaves on a nine-month journey to Mexico. Although no longer part of the Spanish colonial empire, Mexico had abolished slavery in 1829. In exchange for land, the group adopted the Catholic religion and Spanish names. They promised to defend Mexico's border from Texans, Comanche, and Lipan Apache. Descendants of the Black Seminole called Indios Mascogos still live in Nacimiento (Coahuila, Mexico) at the headwaters of the Rio San Juan Sabinas. Some members of Caballo's Black Seminole settled in Texas following the Civil War. Two groups served with the U.S. Army as the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts out of Fort Duncan and Fort Clark (Brackettville).

The Black Seminole Legacy

Today, the remaining Black Seminole, called Freedmen or Estelusti, and the Seminole tribe are involved in a bitter argument over the question, "Who is a Seminole?" Friction between the two groups of Seminole goes back to the Second Seminole War. General Thomas Jesup guaranteed freedom to the Black Seminole if they surrendered. Some Seminole felt betrayed by the Black Seminoles who accepted the offer. Others, who had lost herds, home and land, resented losing their only remaining wealth: their slaves. On the other hand, the Black Seminole resented the pro-slavery Seminole who blocked Jesup's guarantee. They also felt betrayed by the tribe's unwillingness to protect them from slavery in Indian Territory. Both Black and Red Seminole served as guides and interpreters to the U.S. Army. Those who resisted considered them traitors.

Neither the U.S. Government nor the Seminole tribal government recognized the Black Seminole as full tribal members (in the legal sense) at the time of their deportation from Florida. Regardless of the degree of their Native American blood descent, any dark Seminole was labeled a Black Seminole. As slave owners in Indian Territory, the Seminole supported the Confederate States in the Civil War. In 1866, new U.S. treaties required the defeated Confederate Seminole to free their slaves. These treaties demanded that the Freedmen and their descendents receive the same rights as tribal members. The Seminole tribe complied by adopting the Black Seminole.

The Dawes Act of 1887 ordered a census of Native American tribal members to determine allotments of reservation land. The Seminole enrolled on the Dawes Rolls in 1897. Three groups were listed on the rolls: "full bloods," "mixed bloods" (Seminole-Caucasian mixtures), and Freedmen. Unlike "mixed bloods," Government officials never recorded the percentage of Seminole blood for the Freedmen. However, all Seminole with even a tiny fraction of Black Seminole blood were listed as "Freedmen." When Oklahoma became a State in 1907, Black Seminoles faced new discrimination. The legislature adopted Senate Bill One, a collection of Jim Crow laws. It required all black Oklahomans to live in all-black towns, physically separating the Freedmen from the Seminole.

Today, approximately 2,000 of 12,000 registered Seminole have black ancestry. Two of the 14 bands have been part of the Seminole Tribe since it organized are Black Seminole bands; they held four of the 28 seats on the Tribal Council through the past century. But, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will not issue a certificate of Indian blood card (CDIB) to Freedmen descendents, because they are not listed on the Dawes Rolls; however, the Seminole Tribe requires a CDIB for enrollment in the tribe.

Enrollment is crucial to the Freedmen, because it gives them the right to vote for tribal government. It also allows the Freedmen to receive benefits from the U.S. Government and Tribal Judgment Fund. In 1991, Federal courts ruled that the Seminole Tribes of Oklahoma and Florida were entitled to payment for illegally seized Florida lands. The Judgment Fund contains $56 million. Members of the tribe are entitled to money for school and scholarships. They may also receive cash towards housing for seniors or burial. Other money is for cultural and recreational programs.

However, in a disputed referendum in July 2000, the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma adopted a resolution requiring proof of one-eighth degree "Seminole Indian blood." The move excluded 1,500 Black Seminoles from tribal membership. It also expelled the four Black Seminole representatives from the Tribal Council. The BIA did not approve this change in the tribal constitution and does not accept the legality of the Seminole General Council elected in 2000. Instead, it has extended recognition of incumbent Principal Chief Jerry Haney and the old General Council, including the Freedmen representatives. Black Seminoles have filed a lawsuit (Davis v. United States) against the Federal Government and the BIA. They blame the U.S. Government for ruling that Black Seminoles were slaves, who therefore could not have owned any Florida land.

As the courts struggle to define membership in the Seminole tribe, they might consider the origin of the word "Seminole." It appears to come from either from the Spanish cimarrones or the Muskogee ishi semoli, both meaning "runaway," or from the Hitchiti-Mikasuki phrase yat'siminoli, which means "free people." The meaning of word "Seminole" suggests a people united by their love for freedom rather than by race. Divisions between the two sides in this case will not heal quickly, regardless of the outcome. We can only hope that the bonds between these two freedom-loving people will not hopelessly unravel in the process.

For a lesson using this essay, click here.

This essay was written by Jean M. West, a social studies education consultant in Port Orange, Florida.

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Opala, J. and SCETV. (1990). "Family Across the Sea."

Websites

UF Researchers Launch First Excavation of Black Seminole Town
http://www.napa.ufl.edu/digest/old/2000-2001/seminole0619.htm

Strands of Time: A Geneticist's Work on DNA Bears Fruit for Anthropologists
http://www.chattanooga.net/cita/mtdna.html

Genetics and Identity: The Black Seminole
http://www.bioethics.umn.edu/genetics_and_identity/case.html