The Exiles of Florida / or, The crimes committed by our government against the Maroons, who fled from South Carolina and other slave states, seeking protection under Spanish laws.

by Joshua R. Giddings

Mexico was free! No slave clanked his chains under its government. Could they reach the Rio Grande? Could they place themselves safely on Mexican soil, they might hope yet to be free. A Council was held. Some were connected with Seminoles of influence. Those who were intimately connected with Indian families of influence, and most of the half-breeds, feeling they could safely remain in the Indian territory, preferred to stay with their friends and companions. Of the precise number who thus continued in the Indian Country, we have no certain information;[137] but some three hundred are supposed to have determined on going to Mexico, and perhaps from one to two hundred concluded to remain with their connexions in the Indian Country.

Abraham had reached a mature age; had great experience, and retained influence with his people. Louis Pacheco, of whom we spoke in a former chapter, with his learning, his shrewdness and tact, was still with them, and so were many able and experienced warriors. Wild Cat, the most active and energetic chief of the Seminole Tribe, declared his unalterable purpose to accompany the Exiles; to assist them in their journey, and defend them, if assailed. Other Seminoles volunteered to go with them. Their arrangements were speedily made. Such property as they had was collected together, and packed for transportation. They owned a few Western ponies. Their blankets, which constituted their beds, and some few cooking utensils and agricultural implements, were placed upon their ponies, or carried by the females and children; while the warriors, carrying only their weapons and ammunition, marched, unencumbered even by any unnecessary article of clothing, prepared for battle at every step of their journey.

After the sun had gone down (Sept. 10), their spies and patrols, who had been sent out for that purpose, returned, and reported that all was quiet; that no slave-hunters were to be seen. As the darkness of night was closing around them, they commenced their journey westwardly. Amid the gloom of the evening, silent and sad they took leave of their western homes, and fled from the jurisdiction of a people who had centuries previously kidnapped their ancestors in their native homes, brought them to this country, enslaved them, and during many generations had persecuted them. Many of their friends and relatives had been murdered for their love of liberty by our Government; others had been doomed to suffer and languish in slavery—a fate far more dreaded than death. At the period of this exodus, their number was probably less than at the close of the Revolution.

When the slaveholding Creeks learned that the Exiles had left, they collected together and sent a war party in pursuit, for the purpose of capturing as many as they could, in order to sell them to the slave-dealers from Louisiana and Arkansas, who were then present among the Creeks, encouraging them to make another piratical descent upon the Exiles for the capture of slaves.

This war party came up with the emigrants on the third day after leaving their homes. But Wild Cat and Abraham, and their experienced warriors, were not to be surprised. They were prepared and ready for the conflict. With them it was death or victory. They boldly faced their foes. Their wives and children were looking on with emotions not to be described. With the coolness of desperation, they firmly resolved on dying, or on driving back the slave-catching Creeks from the field of conflict. Their nerves were steady, and their aim fatal. Their enemies soon learned the danger and folly of attempting to capture armed men who were fighting for freedom. They fled, leaving their dead upon the field; which is always regarded by savages as dishonorable defeat.[138]

The Exiles resumed their journey, still maintaining their warlike arrangement. Directing their course south-westerly, they crossed the Rio Grande, and continuing nearly in the same direction, they proceeded into Mexico, until they reached the vicinity of the ancient but now deserted town of Santa Rosa.[139] In that beautiful climate, they found a rich, productive soil. Here they halted, examined the country, and finally determined to locate their new homes in this most romantic portion of Mexico. Here they erected their cabins, planted their gardens, commenced plantations, and resumed their former habits of agricultural life. There they yet remain. Forcibly torn from their native land, oppressed, wronged, and degraded, they became voluntary Exiles from South Carolina and Georgia. More recently exiled from Florida and from the territory of the United States—they are yet free! After the struggles and persecutions of a hundred and fifty years, they repose in comparative quiet under a government which repudiates slavery. To the pen of some future historian we consign their subsequent history.

Before taking leave of the reader, we would call his attention to a review of the fate which attended different portions of the Exiles, and to a few further incidents, for some of which we have only newspaper authority; but from all the circumstances we have no doubt they actually transpired.

Of the Exiles and their descendants, twelve were delivered up at the treaty of Colerain in 1796, and consigned to slavery; two hundred and seventy were massacred at Blount’s Fort in 1816; thirty were taken prisoners—these all died of wounds or were enslaved. At the different battles in the first Seminole War in 1818, it is believed that at least four hundred were slain, including those who fell at Blount’s Fort.

In the Second Seminole War, probably seventy-five were slain in battle, and five hundred were enslaved; and at least seventy-five were seized by the Creek Indians, in 1850, and enslaved. Probably a hundred and fifty connected with the Seminoles now reside in the Western Country, and will soon become amalgamated with the Indians; while three hundred have found their way to Mexico, and are free.[140] Making, in all, thirteen hundred and fifty souls; being some hundreds less than was reported by the Officers of Government, in 1836. This discrepancy is accounted for by the fact, that the Exiles captured by individual enterprise, and by the Georgia and Florida militia, were never officially reported to the War Department, and we have no reliable data on which we can fix an estimate of the number thus piratically enslaved. There are also a few yet in Florida, not included in the above estimate.

1852.