SEMINOLE (Black)/GULLAH WARS

peggymddltn
Oct 17, 2016
34 min read

Seminole (Black)/Gullah Wars

Jan Carew - Black Seminoles - pt. 1

Jan Carew - Black Seminoles - pt. 2

Jan Carew - Black Seminoles - pt 3

First of all, the name Seminoles was first given to the so called blacks, Christain Black Code Names: negro, nigger, colored, indians, mulatoes, etc. The runaway slaves underground railroad at that time was not Canada but seeking freedom in Florida. Most enslaved peoples came from Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas. The Florida Tribes welcomed them to their lands. They all became known by the Europeans as the "Seminoles." The Seminoles are a Native American people originally of Florida. They comprise three federally recognized tribes and independent groups, most living in Oklahoma with and in Florida. The Seminole nations emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creek from what are now northern Muscogee.[1] The word Seminole is a corruption of cimarrón, a Spanish term for "runaway" or "wild one".[2] Seminole was a name given to them by the Europeans.

Etymology of the word Seminole:

The word Seminole is derived from cimarrón, a Spanish term for "runaway" or "wild one", historically used for certain Native American groups in Florida.[9] The people who constituted the nucleus of this Florida group either chose to leave their tribe or were banished. At one time the terms "renegade" and "outcast" were used to describe this status, but the terms have fallen into disuse because of a negative connotation. They identify as yat'siminoli or "free people," because for centuries their ancestors had resisted Spanish efforts to conquer and convert them, as well as English efforts to take their lands and use them in their wars.[10] They never signed a peace treaty with the United States.

Chiefs of Florida Tribes: (Some of the Chiefs had European Fathers)

Seminoles/Gullah consisted of:

Miccosukee, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek) African Americans Georgia, South Carolina, Florida and West Africa

Florida's Tribes:

The Calusa Indians:

The Apalachee Indians:

Pictures of Florida Indians Homes and Artifacts:

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUTHERN FRONTIER

THE SEMINOLE/GULLAH WARS OF FLORIDA:

No event hindered the development of the Territory of Florida and slowed the effort of Floridians to gain statehood more than the Seminole Wars. The conflict between white man and Indian in Florida became the longest continuous war in which the United States Government engaged an enemy. To the Seminole, it is a war that never officially ended. The Unconquered Seminole/Gullah Wars, they never surrendered.

The origin of the Seminole conflict date back to Governor Moore's invasion into Spanish Florida in 1704 in which he introduced bands of Creeks into the region to destroy the Apalachee. Many of these Indians remained in Florida and later joined the British to fight Georgia settlers during the American Revolution.

Apalachee:

The development of the Southern states disrupted the boundaries of all native American groups in the region. In the mid-1700's Creeks, predominately of the Hitchiti-speaking Oconee tribe, left Western Georgia and moved southward to the Gainesville prairies. Perhaps they were adventurous young Indians since Seminole means "runaway" or "wild". More likely they were groups of Indians who found Spanish Florida a save refuge from the onslaught of white settlements

Calusa:

2016 brings the bicentennial of the destruction of the Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River in 1816. Join us to discuss the significance of that community and its people, known as maroons, Black Seminoles, African Seminoles, and freedom-seeking people. This event will highlight archaeological insights and will unveil new virtual reconstructions that help us better understand all of the early 19th-century maroon communities on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Dade Massacre (Seminole Wars)

Why did make Georgia a state?

James Oglethorpe was angry after a friend of his died in debtors' prison and he called for an investigation into the conditions of British jails. He also formulated a plan to obtain the release of people from debtors' prison and to establish a new colony, south of Carolina, to be inhabited by the "worthy poor" of London. The "worthy poor" included the debtors and other homeless people. In the Royal Charter (June 20, 1732), granted by King George II for the colony of Georgia, a board of Trustees was established to fulfill this goal. As it happened, however, this plan was never fully realized. When the ship Anne sailed for the new colony on November 16, 1732, not one of the 114 colonists aboard had been released from debtors' prison to make the voyage.WEATHER

The history of Georgia in the United States of America spans pre-Columbian time to the present day. The area was inhabited by Native American tribes for thousands of years. A modest Spanish presence was established in the late 1500s, mostly centered on Catholic mission work. The Spanish were largely gone by the early 1700s, though they remained in nearby Florida, and their presence ultimately left little impact on what would become Georgia. (Most Spanish place names in Georgia date from the 19th century, not from the age of colonization.)

English settlers arrived in the 1730s, led by James Oglethorpe. The name "Georgia", after Britain's King George II, dates from the creation of this colony. Slavery was forbidden in the colony, but the ban was overturned in 1749 due to the pressure of George Whitfield and others. Slaves numbered 18,000 by the American Revolution

By early February, 1733, a small group of settlers was headed up the Savannah River. They landed at Yamacra Bluff on February 12th and Oglethorpe began the process of laying out lots for Savannah, Georgia. General James Oglethorpe's colony was the only U.S. colony founded as a refuge for the "poor and deserving". February 12, 1998 marked 265 years since Oglethorpe and his shipload of settlers founded Georgia.

Since that time, Georgia has become the commercial leader of the region. The state now ranks first in the production of peanuts, pecans, lima beans and pimiento peppers. Savannah has been called "this nation's most beautiful city" and Atlanta has become the leading transportation center of the southeast.

The famous Margaret Mitchell novel, Gone With the Wind was written in Georgia and Atlanta served host to the 1996 Summer Olympics

Fleet-footed goddess Atalanta The city of Atlanta was named for Martha Atalanta Lumpkin twice.

Atlanta was named by J. Edgar Thomson, Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad. Mr. Thomson gave varying stories about how he came up with the name, but our personal favorite is that the city was named for former Governor Wilson Lumpkin's daughter's. Her middle name was Atalanta, after the fleet-footed goddess. Standing Peachtree was the name of the fort built on the Georgia frontier by future governor, then Lt. George Gilmer. It may also have been the name of an old Indian village in the area. Early settlers called the area Canebreak or Canebrake, depending on which history you're reading. On June_9, 1835 the federal government recognized the area with the Whitehall Post Office. Hardy Ivy was an early citizen and it was on his property that Stephen Long established the end of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Colonel Abbott Hall Brisbane, Chief Engineer of the W&A named the area Terminus in September, 1837. The name Terminus was never an official name and between 1837 and 1842 the area was also called Deanville (for Lemuel Dean) and Thrasherville (for John J. Thrasher). In 1842 former governor Wilson Lumpkin, then president of the W&A suggested either the name Lumpkin or Mitchell for the town (Samuel Mitchell had given land to build the actual terminus). On December 23, 1842, the tiny town was incorporated as Marthasville in honor of his daughter, Martha Atalanta. The origin of this name may have been an unknown Milledgeville clerk or, more likely, Charles Felton Mercer Garnett, who was then Chief Engineer of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. Anyway, in 1845 Atlanta finally got its name, and has been stuck with it ever since. By the way, Martha Lumpkin liked the story of the city being named in her honor so much that see altered the family bible and added the initial A. In fact, Thomson probably just created a feminine form of Atlantic, a popular practice of the day.

Named after King George II of Great Britain,[5] Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788.[6] It declared its secession from the Union on January 19, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states.[6] It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870.[6] Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas.[7] Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South.[6] Atlanta is the state's capital and its most populous city.

Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, and to the north by Tennessee and North Carolina. The state's northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. The Piedmont extends through the central part of the state from the foothills of the Blue Ridge to the Fall Line, where the rivers cascade down in elevation to the coastal plain of the state's southern part. Georgia's highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet (1,458 m) above sea level; the lowest is the Atlantic Ocean. Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River in land area.[8]

History[edit]

Main article: History of Georgia (U.S. state)

Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures. The British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12, 1733.[9] The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by (and named for) King George II. The Trustees implemented an elaborate plan for the colony's settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan, which envisioned an agrarian society of yeoman farmers and prohibited slavery. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins' Ear. In 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a crown colony, with a governor appointed by the king.[10]

The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, on June 27, 1864

The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence. The State of Georgia's first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24, 1778,[11] and was the 4th state to ratify the current Constitution on January 2, 1788.

In 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to take land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgia's tribes. Despite the Supreme Court's ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched federal troops to gather the Cherokee and deport them west of the Mississippi. This forced relocation, known as the Trail of Tears, led to the death of over 4,000 Cherokees.

Slavery in Georgia is known to have been practiced by the original or earliest-known inhabitants of the future colony and state of Georgia, for centuries prior to European colonization. During the colonial era, the practice of Indian slavery in Georgia soon became surpassed by industrial-scale plantation slavery.

Curiously, the penal colony of the Province of Georgia under James Oglethorpe was the only one of the thirteen British colonies to have banned slavery (1735) before it was once again legalized by royal decree in 1751, in part due to George Whitefield's support for the institution of slavery.Slavery was officially abolished by the Thirteenth Amendment which took effect on December 18, 1865. Slavery had been theoretically abolished by President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed, in 1863, that only slaves located in territories that were in rebellion from the United States were free. Since the U.S. government was not in effective control of many of these territories until later in the war, many of these slaves proclaimed to be free by the Emancipation Proclamation were still held in servitude until those areas came back under Union control.

While these Seminoles were not direct participants in the Creek Wars of 1813, their ability to adapt to such European ways as wheat farming and cattle raising aroused the anger of Georgia farmers who accused them of stealing their cattle. Most of the Seminole herds appeared to be wild Spanish stock. More significantly, planters noted that the Indians welcomed and accepted the arrival of runaway African-American slaves.

When Florida became a Territory in 1821, its first Governor Andrew Jackson considered the some 7,000 Seminoles in Florida a major handicap in the development of Florida. Busy with the settlement of Americans, Jackson did not have the time and manpower to curtail the arrival of even more Creeks along the Panhandle.

APALACHICOLA CENTER FOR HISTORY, CULTURE AND ART is hosting Professor Uzi Baram, Dr. Ed Gonzalez-Tennant, and Vickie Oldham will discuss the history of anti-slavery resistance in Florida, an incredible story of freedom-seeking people. From the Apalachicola River to Tampa Bay, people of African heritage battled for their freedom, sought refuge, and fell back in a southern movement that ultimately led some to Andros Island in the British Bahamas and the others to the Florida interior, where they and their descendants fought in the Second Seminole War. REMEMBERING THE APALACHICOLA RIVER MAROONS OF 1816 SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 AT 1:00 PM ADMISSION IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. NO REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. 2016 brings the bicentennial of the destruction of the Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River in 1816. Join us to discuss the significance of that community and its people, known as maroons, Black Seminoles, African Seminoles, and freedom-seeking people. This event will highlight the archaeological insights into the history for the fortification at Prospect Bluff, as well the community known as Angola on the Manatee River, and will unveil new virtual reconstructions that help us better understand all of the early 19th century maroon communities on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The destruction of the Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River in 1816 was followed by the Battle of Suwannee in 1818 and then the destruction of Angola and the other maroon communities south of Tampa Bay in 1821. It is a history of tragedy but also of survival. More information on the project can be found at http://goo.gl/OAyUEZ. If you need additional information, please telephone Barbara Clark, Florida Public Archaeology Network at 850-877-2206. Funding for this program was provided through a grant from the Florida Humanities Council with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Florida Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanitie

THE TREATY OF MOULTRIE CREEK:

In September of 1823, the next Territorial Governor William F. Duval met the Seminoles at Moultrie Creek on the St. Johns River. Duval proposed the creation of a reservation area in the southern interior of the peninsula of Florida as the solution for the two peoples. After much contriving, most chiefs accepted the plan, provided the West Florida Creeks were given a treaty for land along the Apalachicola River. The Seminoles made no commitment on slavery or alleged stolen cattle, two important issues..

The more militant braves never complied with the Treaty of Moultrie Creek. They had already been forced from their traditional hunting grounds, changed their livelihood from farming to cattle, and disliked any form of confinement. Neamathia, a Mikasukis from North Florida, challenged Duval:

"Do you think . . . I am like a bat, that hangs by its claws in a dark cave, and that I can see nothing of what is going on around me? Ever since I was a small boy I have seen the white people steadily encroaching upon the Indians, and driving them from their homes and hunting grounds . . . I will tell you plainly, if I had the power, I would tonight cut the throat of every white man in Florida."

Neamathia's fears were quickly realized as conflict between Indian and white settler started almost immediately after the signing of the document. By 1828, the Florida Legislative Council was urging Congress to remove all Seminoles from Florida Territory. Northern Congressmen were reluctant to bring up the issue of the Seminoles in committee, but the new President Andrew Jackson, not friend to the Indians, was firm in his plans to remove all troublesome tribes west of the Mississippi River. Since Florida was a much needed slave territory, Southern Congressmen vigorously backed Jackson's plans.

Upon the threat of losing their annual Government annuity to pay the cost of moving into the new reservation area, the old chiefs agreed to discuss the problem with Indian agent Colonel James Gadsden. In the so-named Treaty of Payne's Landing, outside Silver Springs, the chiefs agreed to send six Seminole inspectors to Oklahoma to check the proposed Seminole tribal grounds.

THE SECOND SEMINOLE WAR:

The inspectors would sign the Treaty of Fort Gibson (Oklahoma) after their visit to Oklahoma. It is doubtful if the Seminoles fully understood the full extent of the treaty, thanks it is believed to the bribing of interpreters by Government agents. The Seminoles were given a tourist tour of only the most desirable areas of the reservation. They were not told they would share their reservation with other tribes not did they satisfaction to their concerns about the suitability of the land to Seminole crops.

The older chiefs led by Micanopy accepted the Treaty of Fort Gibson, but younger Indians became infuriated when details of the agreement became interpreted. A young Indian named Osceola, recently arrived from the Panhandle and vowed to organize the younger Indians against the plan. Although wed to a Seminole, Osceola's mother was Choctaw and his father was believed to be a white trader from Mobile. Tribal websites note this fact today. Osceola knew white society and he knew that the treaty did not even guarantee that the Seminoles would not have to share land with other tribes.

Osceola was particularly incensed when he discovered the Treaty indicated that runaway slaves who lived with the Seminoles, many of them intermarried into the villages, would remain in Florida. It was apparent to Osceola, they would be returned to slavery even if it were impossible to locate their previous owners.

While the older chiefs prepared for travel to Fort Brooke (Tampa) established for the debarkation by boat to Oklahoma via the Mississippi-Arkansas River systems, Osceola quickly thrust his knife into a copy of the treaty, shouting:

"Am I a Negro slave? My skin is dark, but not black! I am an Indian, a Seminole. The white man shall not make me black. I will make the white man red with blood, and then blacken him in the sun and rain, where the wolf shall gnaw his bones and the buzzard shall live on his flesh."

THE DADE MASSACRE:

In December of 1835 Osceola began his war in dramatic fashion when his men ambushed the new Indian agent General Wiley Thompson, by his office just outside the gates of Fort King (Ocala). The Seminoles next killed Chief Emathia, who was helping Thompson recruit Indians to go to Fort Brooke (Tampa). The reaction by the United States Government was to send reinforcements even though there were few trained foot soldiers in Florida.

An even more stunning event would soon follow - the worst defeat of U.S. troops to the American Indian outside of the stupidity of George Armstrong Custer. Major Francis L. Dade and 110 soldiers, many of them untrained artillery soldiers, was ordered from Fort Brooke (Tampa) to bolster forces at Fort King (Ocala). Halfway to their destination they were ambushed by a large band of Seminoles and their slave allies, at a site where many of the Indians hide in the unlikely spot of a lake bank. Only a few soldiers escaped the attack.

Unfortunately for the Seminoles, the Dade Massacre pressured Northerners in Congress to accept Southern proposals for more troops and equipment. Since the Florida militia could not assure protection to farmers and planters, homesteaders south of Gainesville fled to the safety of the coast. The Government decided the Seminoles had to be surrounded by a ring of small wooden forts where U.S. troops could operate in protecting a region.

Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Fort Meade, and Fort Pierce were started as forts in the Seminole Wars. Even Fort Brooke on Tampa Bay was subject to increased protection as many Seminoles slipped away just minutes for scheduled departure to Oklahoma. Eventually, Seminoles were keep on Egmont Key to assure their safe removal.

Federal troops adopted a strategy of crisscrossing the interior by boat and foot driving the Seminoles into open country. The major weakness of the Seminoles was their women and children could not move around like the warrior units so the U. S. Government adopted a policy of hunting down, uprooting, and capturing the Indian villages.

The Capture of Osceola A Prison Cell in Saint Augustine

In 1837 Osceola was captured under a flag of truce and delivered to General Thomas Jesup, a Southerner in charge of the Indian war strategy. Osceola refused to accept any Oklahoma agreement so he was transported to Four Moultrie's prison outside Charleston, South Carolina, where the great Seminole warrior died of throat inflammation. Even in death, Osceola was attacked as soldiers beheaded his body before burial.

SEMINOLE WAR IN THE SWAMPS:

The surviving Seminoles were driven southward toward the Everglades. They were used to adjusting their way of life, even some of their cultural activities just to survive. Some Seminoles had married the last remaining Calusa and adopted an economy of hunting and fishing in the swamps.

FORCED MOVEMENT OF SEMINOLES SOUTHWARD IN FLORIDA:

Federal troops built Fort Dallas on the banks of the Miami River to block the route into the Everglades on the east and constructed Fort Dulaney at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee to supply Fort Myers and Fort Denaud up the river. At the latter fort Captain B. L. E. Bonneville launched boat patrols to disrupt the Seminoles.

Fort Dallas Miami River:

Old Fort Dallas was established in 1836 as an United States military post and cantonment, and not as a fortification, although it is more than probable that there was a stockade surrounding it in its early days. It was named in honor of Commodore Alex. James Dallas, U. S. N., then in command of the naval forces in the West Indies.

The first commandant was Lieutenant F. M. Powell, who remained in command about two years. From 1836 to 1857 it was occupied much of the time by troops, but was not a military reservation. Quite a number of buildings were erected, and today only two remain. In addition to these, there were a dozen comfortable dwellings besides the slave quarters, stables, and a blacksmith forge.

During the Civil War, the place was occupied by refugees from many places, and at the close of the war by a hand of desperadoes. Judah P. Benjamin, of the Confederate camp, made his escape to Cuba through Indian River and Bay Biscayne. In describing the trip, he refers to the rough treatment he received at the hands of occupants of the fort, but, he added that it was a beautiful and picturesque spot, with its white houses and fine parade ground. The interior of the fort has been improved, and care has been taken to preserve the exterior unchanged.

Some of the buildings were razed to the ground and removed to other locations, and in 1872, while the property was occupied by Dr. Harris, all the remaining buildings except the two still standing were burned, the fire originating accidentally in the house occupied by Dr. Harris.

The old barracks are still untouched save by the hand of time, and the parade ground is more beautiful than ever, aided by the hand of the landscape gardener.

Source: Excerpt from "Old Fort Dallas" Official Directory to the City of Miami and Nearby Towns, 1904.

In May of 1838, General Alex Macomb signed the Biscayne Bay agreements with Chief Chitto-Tustenuggee of the Muskogees and Miccosukee. This temporary provision allowed the Indians to stay in a district, from Punta Rassa at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee to Lake Okeechobee, then south to the Shark River and the Gulf. The Indians considered this the first step to staying in Florida, but even this marshy wilderness could not protect the Indians. Farmers and trappers ignored the agreement, and Cuban fishermen, long time trading friends to the Indians, were told to avoid Indian contact.

In July of 1839, open warfare broke out in Southwest Florida when traders and Indians clashed. Chekiki, the last of the Calusa tribe, allied his people with the Seminoles in a last ditch attempt at freedom.

THE THIRD SEMINOLE WAR:

In 1841, when North Florida was booming with settlers, South Florida was still a war zone. Congress appropriated more than one million dollars to capture by bribe or bullet the surviving Indians. The Indian Council, headed by Holatta-Micco (Billy Bowlegs) was determined to defend the Biscayne holdings. The Third Artillery under Major Childs and Lt. John McLaughlin began to crisscross the swamps with the intent of destroying anything that would help the Seminoles. By 1842 230 Indians had been captured by this strategy.

Billy Bowlegs of the Third Seminole War Andrew Jackson

There was great pressure in Congress among Northerners to curtail this expensive and bloody conflict, which could only result in the creation of another slave state. A truce was started when Billy Bowlegs agreed to stop hostilities. It did not last.

Inspired by the discovery of the rich muck lands of the Okeechobee area, Governor Thomas Brown encouraged cattlemen and farmers, protected by the Florida militia, to enter the region. Fort Myers was developed into a full sized village. In December of 1855, Lt. George Hardstuff, on a "survey" of Seminole facilities, ram survey lines across Billy Bowlegs prize banana garden. The Indians returned to the war.

Five hundred dollar rewards for braves, $250 for women, and $100 for children were offered to white bounty hunters. Indians could receive the same rewards for giving up. The Seminoles rejected the financial rewards and began their guerrilla warfare. A band of forty Oklahoma Seminole could not convince the Indians to surrender.

Billy Bowlegs rejected bribes of $5,000 plus $100 per surrendered Indian, but when his granddaughter was seized, he was forced to surrender. On May 4, 1858, the last of the famous Seminole warriors met the soldiers at Billy's Creek and was sent forever from Florida. A handful of Seminoles remained in the Everglades, but fighting ended.

The Seminoles had delayed Florida statehood for thirty years. They had never surrendered, each person allowed to decide whether to accept a treaty. Now the frontier was ready for settlement and only the Civil War would delay the potential growth of this last frontier.

The Seminole Tribe once part of the Muscogee Creek Confederacy (part of a huge Civilization of the Mississippian Culture 700 AD - 1600 AD) escaped warfare caused by invaders of the British and French during the 16 hundreds, and later by the American Government. The People now known as "Seminole' escaped by moving to Florida joining the surviving Natives of other destroyed Chiefdoms of ancient Florida. They lived peacefully and took in escaped African Slaves. The language spoken by the Seminole Indians is known as Muskogee. They typically farmed the lands, hunted and fished the abundant waters off the coast of Florida. They began to manufacture guns and tools influenced by Europeans and exchanged goods with European traders...They lived in log homes and chickees gathered around trading centers and court yards. Unfortunately, things took a turn around 1732, when settlers started heading southward into Florida. Once they arrived, many Seminole Indians were kidnapped, tortured, raped, or killed. But the Seminoles held their own ground and stayed within their territory, many migrating near where Tampa exists today.

Those who stayed ended up being forced to work for money, either as an agricultural helper or a tourist attraction. In 1957, a law was passed declaring the tribes in Florida were officially the Seminole Tribe of Florida. In 1970, the Seminoles were awarded over $12 million by the government because of land taken from them by the United States military. Today the tribe is still in existence and is a proud part of the state of Florida's rich heritage.

Fort Brooke at Tampa Bay

The First Seminole War (1817–1818) occurred during Horse's childhood and the youngster, along with his sister and mother, was probably among those displaced blacks who fled south of the Suwannee River toward Tampa Bay.[43]

There young John grew into adolescence and came into contact with American soldiers who had established an outpost, Fort Brooke, in the region[44] with the formal annexation of Florida after the success of Jackson's incursions. John Horse first enters the written record in a short narrative by the officer in charge, Major George M. Brooke, who discovered the young Seminole black had been swindling his personal cook by selling him the same land turtle, or tortoise (a so-called "gopher"), multiple times for the major's personal mess. Discovering the young boy's fraud, Brooke opted for leniency and let John go on condition he make good on the missing turtles which he apparently did.[45] This began a lifelong relationship between John Horse and the American military and vouchsafed him his nickname in later life, Gopher John.[46]

He would go on to fight against the American army, on the side of his fellow Seminole, and, eventually, to work with the Americans.[47] During the Second Seminole War of 1835 to 1842, which began when American settlers pressured for Indian removal to free up their lands for white settlement, John Horse served as what would be called, today, a field officer on the Indian side. At first a translator for the Indian leaders[48] (since few of them spoke English while their black allies did), he also became a lower level war chief.[49][50]

Because of his facility with languages and quickness of mind, John Horse eventually found himself in the midst of the Seminoles' negotiations with the U. S. Army[1][51] as the war dragged on and open battles in the field gave way to guerrilla tactics and a long war of attrition.[52][53]

In the spring of 1838, after several pitched battles, Horse finally decided the fight against the Americans was unwinnable and surrendered to US troops.[54] This may have been prompted by the loss of his first wife, a Seminole woman said to have been a daughter of Chief Holatoochee, a brother or nephew of the chief Micanopy. The blacks in the war received promises of freedom if they would cease fighting as Indian allies and accept resettlement in the newly established Indian Territory west of the Mississippi.

Horse was later granted papers freeing him a second time by General William J. Worth for the services he subsequently rendered to the U.S. Army in the latter days of the Second Seminole War in Florida, as both translator and scout.[55] But his initial decision to give up fighting had been in response to the offer of a prior general, Thomas Sydney Jesup, who had made the first promise of general freedom to all escaped slaves and their children willing to surrender and accept removal. Thus John Horse's claim to freedom from slavery would rest on at least two legal claims, via decisions by two different American military officers. This would eventually be important as events unfolded a few years later in the west. Unfortunately, Horse's second wife and their children, who were removed to Indian Territory with him, did not gain freedom through his later service and had only the earlier declaration by Jesup to fall back on, thus remaining at risk from the increasingly aggressive activities of slave catchers in the new Indian Territory.

With other Seminole, Horse was shipped across the Gulf of Mexico from Tampa Bay to New Orleans and north from there by way of the Mississippi to Indian Territory. There he and his family joined with the other Seminole and Black Seminole who had accepted removal to take up residence at one of two locations assigned to the Seminole inside the Creek area.[56]

Horse quickly rose as a leader among the Black Seminole[41] because of his friendly relations with the Americans, his experience as a leader in the fighting, his linguistic skills and decisive cleverness.

Fort Brooke was a historical military post situated on the east bank (at the mouth) of the Hillsborough River in present-day Tampa, Florida. The fort was established in 1824, soon after Florida was acquired by the United States from Spain. It was an important post during the Seminole Wars and of lesser importance during the United States Civil War. It was decommissioned in 1883, and the land was eventually sold to private interests.

Fort Brooke was located on what is now the southern end of downtown Tampa along the Garrison Channel. It stretched approximately from the current location of the Tampa Bay History Center on the east to the Tampa Convention Center on the west, and Amalie Arena, Cotanchobee/Fort Brooke Park, two large hotels, and other structures have been built in its footprint. Unmapped army and Seminole cemeteries along with many artifacts were discovered during various construction projects. The soldiers' remains were re-interred at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, the native remains were transferred to the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the artifacts were given to the Tampa Bay History Center and other institutions for research and preservation.

John Horse

YouTube Video:

John Griffin Black Seminole descendant and Historian

YouTube Video:

https://youtu.be/9dQvqlC3EuA

Florida and Bahamas:

Black Seminole descendants continue to live in Florida today.

They can enroll in the Seminole Tribe of Florida if they meet its membership criteria for blood quantum: one-quarter Seminole Indian ancestry. About 50 Black Seminoles, all of whom have at least one-quarter Seminole ancestry, live on the Fort Pierce Reservation, a 50-acre parcel taken in trust in 1995 by the Department of Interior for the Tribe as its sixth reservation.[34]

Descendants of Black Seminoles, who identify as Bahamian, reside on Andros Island in the Bahamas. A few hundred refugees had left in the early nineteenth century from Cape Florida to go to the British-held islands for sanctuary from American enslavement.[35] After banning the international slave trade in 1808, in 1818 Britain held that slaves brought to the Bahamas from outside the British West Indies would be manumitted.[36][37]

In 1834 Britain abolished slavery in these colonies and Bermuda. They have been sometimes referred to as "Black Indians," in recognition of their history.

Seminole Freedmen

In 1900, Seminole Freedmen numbered about 1,000 on the Oklahoma reservation, about one-third of the total population at the time. Members were registered on the Dawes Rolls for allocation of communal land to individual households.[38] Since then, numerous Freedmen left after losing their land, as their land sales were not overseen by the Indian Bureau. Others left because of having to deal with the harshly segregated society of Oklahoma.

The land allotments and participation in Oklahoma society altered relations between the Seminole and Freedmen, particularly after the 1930s. Both peoples faced racial discrimination from whites in Oklahoma, who essentially divided society into two: white and "other". Public schools and facilities were racially segregated.

When the tribe reorganized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, some Seminole wanted to exclude the Freedmen and keep the tribe as Indian only. It was not until the 1950s that the Black Seminole were officially recognized in the constitution. Another was adopted in 1969, that restructured the government according to more traditional Seminole lines. It established 14 town bands, of which two represented Freedmen. The two Freedmen's bands were given two seats each, like other bands, on the Seminole General Council.

There have been "battles over tribal membership across the country, as gambling revenues and federal land payments have given Indians something to fight over."[39] In 2000, Seminole Freedmen were in the national news because of a legal dispute with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, of which they had been legal members since 1866, over membership and rights within the tribe.

The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma held the Black Seminoles could not share in services to be provided by a $56 million federal settlement, a judgment trust, originally awarded in 1976 to the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Seminole Tribe of Florida (and other Florida Seminoles) by the federal government.[40] The settlement was in compensation for land taken from them in northern Florida by the United States at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, when most of the Seminole and maroons were moved to a reservation in the center of the territory. This was before removal west of the Mississippi.[40]

The judgment trust was based on the Seminole tribe as it existed in 1823. Black Seminoles were not recognized legally as part of the tribe, nor was their ownership or occupancy of land separately recognized. The US government at the time would have assumed most were fugitive slaves, without legal standing. The Oklahoma and Florida groups were awarded portions of the judgment related to their respective populations in the early 20th century, when records were made of the mostly full-blood descendants of the time.[40] The settlement apportionment was disputed in court cases between the Oklahoma and Florida tribes, but finally awarded in 1990, with three-quarters going to the Oklahoma people and one-quarter to those in Florida.

However, the Black Seminole descendants asserted their ancestors had also held and farmed land in Florida, and suffered property losses as a result of US actions. They filed suit in 1996 against the Department of Interior to share in the benefits of the judgment trust of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, of which they were members.[39][41]

In another aspect of the dispute over citizenship, in the summer of 2000 the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma voted to restrict members, according to blood quantum, to those who had one-eighth Seminole Indian ancestry,[33] basically those who could document descent from a Seminole Indian ancestor listed on the Dawes Rolls, the federal registry established in the early 20th century. At the time, during rushed conditions, registrars had separate lists for Seminole-Indians and Freedmen. They classified those with visible African ancestry as Freedmen, regardless of their proportion of Indian ancestry or whether they were considered Indian members of the tribe at the time. This excluded some Black Seminole from being listed on the Seminole-Indian list who qualified by ancestry.[39]

The Dawes Rolls included in the Seminole-Indian list many Intermarried Whites who lived on Indian lands, but did not include blacks of the same status. The Seminole Freedmen believed the tribe's 21st-century decision to exclude them was racially based and has opposed it on those grounds. The Department of Interior said that it would not recognize a Seminole government that did not have Seminole Freedmen participating as voters and on the council, as they had officially been members of the nation since 1866. In October 2000, the Seminole Nation filed its own suit against the Interior Department, contending it had the sovereign right to determine tribal membership.[39]

In April 2002, the Seminole Freedmen's suit against the government was dismissed in federal district court; the court ruled the Freedmen could not bring suit independently of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which refused to join.[42] They appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which in June 2004 affirmed that the Seminole Freedmen could not sue the federal government for inclusion in the settlement without the Seminole Nation joining. As a sovereign nation, they could not be ordered to join the suit.[43]

Later that year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs held that the exclusion of Black Seminoles constituted a violation of the Seminole Nation's 1866 treaty with the United States following the American Civil War. They noted that the treaty was made with a tribe that included black as well as white and brown members. The treaty had required the Seminole to emancipate their slaves, and to give the Seminole Freedmen full citizenship and voting rights. The BIA stopped federal funding for a time for services and programs to the Seminole.

The individual Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) is based on registration of ancestors in the Indian lists of the Dawes Rolls. Although the BIA could not issue CDIBs to the Seminole Freedmen, in 2003 the agency recognized them as members of the tribe and advised them of continuing benefits for which they were eligible.[44] Journalists theorized the decision could affect the similar case in which the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma excluded Cherokee Freedmen as members unless they could document a direct Indian ancestor on the Dawes Rolls.[44]

Notable Black Seminoles

Dosar Barkus, band leader from 1892 through allotment, namesake for contemporary band[45]
Cesar Bruner, band leader from Reconstruction through statehood, namesake for contemporary band[46]
John Horse, leader at the time of removal, founder of Wewoka, and co-leader of 1849 escape to northern Mexico

Famous Freedmen chiefs, leaders, and medicine men

The Freedmen: Dosar Barkus was a leader of the Black Seminole Indians

Details

The Freedmen: Dosar Barkus was a leader in a Black Seminole community ... KEYWORDS: Dosar Barkus freedmen black indians black seminoles black indian leader slaves who lived with Indians Seminole leaders seminole indian history seminole nation Sasakwa, Indian Territory A significant number of Afro-Americans escaped or fled from slavery and eventually settled in the West, where they were adopted by Indian tribes and accepted into the tribal structure as equals. Many even assumed roles of leadership. Dosar Barkus is one such individual who became a leader in a Black Seminole community.

Though said to have been a slave of John Jumpers, Dosar Barkus emerged as one of the leaders in the Black Seminole community of Indian Territory in the late 1800s. According to his records documented by the Dawes Commission, his parents were known only as Charley and Tema without surnames enscribed. Dosar Barkus married a woman, named Sooky or Sookie and she was possibly a part of the Sango family that had returned from Mexico in the late 19th century, back to Indian Territory. Dosar Barkus emerged as a reliable leader in the Seminole Nation, and became a spokesperson for many of the African Seminoles going through the admissions process. Though details about earlier aspects of his life are unknown, by the time of the Dawes hearing he was a man of 50 years, and one who had a strong constiuency in the Seminole nation. This constiuency would later depend upon him to get them through the Dawes Commission hearings. A series of the Dosar Barkus interviews were published in the Spring 2000 issue of the Frontier Freedman's Journal. Barkus witnessed more than 50 interviews for the Dawes Commission and he was part of their final interview process, vouching for the character and reliability of the data provided, for the Commission. It is clear by this respect accorded him at the hearings that his word was to be listened to and followed. Dosar Barkus, alongside another band leader Caesar Bruner, both became leaders so strong, to have had bands named after them. The two African bands in the Seminole nation today carry their names after 100 years. Dosar Barkus resided in a largely black settlement in Sasakwa, Indian Territory with his wife, Sookey, and their children Daniel, Sango, Amey, Dolley , and Jackson.

Network to Freedom Trail sign commemorating hundreds of Black Seminoles who escaped from Cape Florida in the early 1820s to the Bahamas.

Fort Mose Historic State Park in Florida is a National Historic Landmark at the site of the first free black community in the United States
Four Black Seminole Scouts were awarded the Medal of Honor.
A large sign at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park commemorates the site where hundreds of African Americans escaped to freedom in the Bahamas in the early 1820s, as part of the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Trail.[18]
A sign at the Manatee Mineral Spring marks the location where traces of Angola were uncovered [47]
Red Bays, Andros, the historic settlement of Black Seminoles in the Bahamas, and Nacimiento, Mexico are being recognized as related international sites on the Network to Freedom Trail.[18]

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SEMINOLE (Black)/GULLAH WARS