Politics makes strange bedfellows, we are told, with the implication that those brought together by the vagaries of politics would be best kept apart. But sometimes this is not true at all. In the case of the Black Seminoles, politics brought slaves and Seminole Indians politics brought together two groups of people who would - had the history of the South been written just a little bit differently - would never have had much in common. But slaves fleeing their masters and Seminoles trying to lay claim to what was left of their traditional lands and ways found each other to be natural allies in Florida and in time in other places as well. This paper examines the origin of this particular American population, describing how the Black Seminoles changed over time and how their culture reflected both African and Seminole elements.
The Black Seminoles began in the early 1800s in the most remote and swamp-like parts of Florida, places in the state where runaway black slaves believed that they might be safe from those who were looking to reclaim them as their property. While some blacks did try to escape to the North, this was an especially difficult task for slaves beginning in Florida: The Mason-Dixon line was a very long way off from Florida and many slaves believed that they would be recaptured or killed if they tried to make it all the way to the North. Thus they fled south, into the swamps where the Seminole Indians often took them in.
Those escaped black slaves were lucky in seeking asylum with the Seminole rather than with other native groups, many of which were far less accepting of outsiders. But the Seminole were not so much a tribe as this word is usually applied to the native peoples of the Americas but rather a confederation that was already culturally diverse. The Seminole both married people from other groups and adopted them into their confederation, so when escaped slaves came to them there was already a tradition of welcoming outsiders into the group.
The slaves had another reason to retreat South into Florida: Since the 17th century slaves had been seeking refuge in Florida during those historical periods when it was Spanish Territory and so not subject to British or, later, American law.
Although the Seminoles were racially, culturally, and linguistically mixed, they did not lack for a sense of identity. In fact, of all of the Eastern American Indian tribes, the Seminole were some of the fiercest in fighting for their rights as an independent people and in seeking to limit the power of white Americans over their territory and their customs (Mulroy, 1993, p. 7).
Another link between the Seminole and many of the slaves who sought refuge with them was that, like the Seminole the slaves themselves were of mixed blood. These slaves, whom today we would call black or African-American, were in the antebellum called maroons and were recognized as a distinct demographic group that-based many of its traditions directly on African precedents. The maroons who became Black Seminoles - who had integrated both African and American elements into their lives - also integrated Seminole customs, taking on the traditional Seminole costumes of brightly colored applique, moccasins, and turbans (Thybony, 1991, p. 92).
The Black Seminoles had their own language, a creole (which is a recent combination of two or more languages that often develops when different kinds of people are thrown together as the former slaves and the Seminoles were). This language, called Gullah, is a variety of English, although the grammatical and lexical influences of African languages, Spanish, and Muskhogean Indian would make it difficult for anyone speaking "standard" English to understand.
This brief introduction should suggest the ways in which escaped slaves were inclined to feel at home among the Seminoles while the Seminoles were also culturally inclined to welcome the slaves into their settlements. But while the two groups can be seen in many ways to have been natural allies, their alliance was not always a smooth one because of a variety of pressures brought against them by a variety of outside forces.
The political life of Florida is a complex one, for the territory was used as a bargaining chip on a number of different occasions by the colonial powers with interests in the continental United States - Britain, France, and Spain - as well as by the United States. Whenever the territory of Florida changed hands, the rights of the Black Seminoles also changed, as the next section discusses.
There was also always the question of race: What made a person black or Indian?
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Trail of Tears was an important experience that forever changed the history of the Cherokee Nation and the United States. Several thousand Cherokee Native Indians lost their lives when forced to leave their homelands through laws put in place by Federal authorities. The beginning of the negotiation of several treaties to establish land boundaries and trade routes started in 1776 between the nation of Native Americans and the United States.
This must have made the sting of their losses in court -- and their losses despite winning in court -- even more bitter. They had learned and played by the new rules even though that system was unfair to begin with (in all fairness, the Americans should have used the Cherokee legal system to try and get what they wanted), but the system refused to give them fair access.
Disease ran through our people like wildfire, while others were simply to young or old to make the journey and gave up, to die alone by the side of the road. Some of the soldiers were kind to us, but others brutalized us and tormented the young women. My young daughter survived the trip, and together, we are trying to build a new life in the Indian Country. I
Cherokee Nation can be described as the government of the Cherokee people that is recognized by the federal government in the United States. Throughout its history, the Cherokee Nation has remained committed to safeguarding its people's intrinsic sovereignty while promoting and preserving the language, culture, and values of the Cherokee people. Moreover, the Cherokee Nation is increasingly committed to enhancing the quality of life for subsequent generations of Cherokee people
President Andrew Jackson built his political and military career on an aggressive approach to Native Americans. His exploits began well before 1838-9, when his Indian Removal Act signaled the deplorable state of affairs in North America. Around 4000 Cherokee died during the forcible removal program dubbed aptly the "Trail of Tears," as many more Indians were displaced and deprived of rights that had been previously been guaranteed by federal law.
The Congress eventually followed suit by enacting the Indian Removal Act which was greeted by the newly elected President Andrew Jackson. Americans should feel no regret for the disappearance of Indians from the face of the earth, Jackson argued. "Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers," he said to Congress in his State of the Union
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