It has been alleged, that men who so far paralyze their own moral sensibilities as to rob their fellow-men of their labor, their liberty, their manhood, and hold them in degrading bondage, can not entertain any clear conceptions of right and wrong. However this may be, it is certain that men who deal in slaves, are ever regarded, even by slaveholders, as destitute of moral sentiment.
In this case, Milton, finding that Judge Cameron had reported the claim to be fraudulent and void, professed to sell his interest in these people to certain other slaveholders, of Columbus. These men provided themselves with chains, and fetters, and bloodhounds, and all the paraphernalia of regular slave-dealers upon the African coast, and descending the river in a steamboat, intended to surprise their victims before any notice should be given of their approach. But some friendly white, who had learned the intentions of the pirates, had whispered to the aged chief the danger which threatened his people. They were soon armed, and prepared to defend themselves or die in the attempt. The desperadoes landed upon the Reservation; but finding the people armed, and ready to receive them in a becoming manner, they retired into the country and alarmed the settlers, by proclaiming that E-con-chattimico had armed his people and was about to make war upon the whites. The news flew in all directions; troops were mustered into service; an army was organized and marched to the Reservation, and the proper officer sent, with a white flag, to demand the object and intentions of the chief, in arming his people. The old man was most indignant that his honor should be impugned in such manner. He fully explained the cause which induced his people to convene, and assume a hostile attitude towards those who had come to rob them of their liberty.
The officers, who sympathized with the pirates, were sustained by military force. They assured the old man that no persons should be allowed to injure him or his people; that the country was alarmed, and the public mind could only be pacified by a surrender of his arms and ammunition. To this proposition he was constrained to yield. They took his arms and ammunition, and left him defenseless. They remained undisturbed, however, during the night; but the next morning the slave-hunters returned, fully armed. They seized every negro residing upon the Reservation, including both Exiles and the slaves of E-con-chattimico, and, fastening the manacles upon their limbs, hurried them off to Georgia, where they were sold into interminable bondage.[73][74] They, and their ancestors, had enjoyed a hundred years of freedom; but they were suddenly precipitated into all the sufferings and sorrows of slavery, and now toil in chains, or have departed to that land where slavery is unknown.
E-con-chattimico petitioned Congress for indemnity, but obtained no redress. Neither the President, nor the Secretary of War, manifested any interest in maintaining our most solemn treaty obligations with the Indians, or attempted any redress for their violation. Disheartened and broken down in spirits, E-con-chattimico yielded to General Jackson’s orders, emigrated to the western country, and spent the remainder of his days in poverty and want.
Nor were the piracies of the white people confined to the crime of kidnapping Exiles. They robbed the Indians and Exiles of horses, cattle and money.
A chief named Blunt also held a reservation on the river, under the treaty of Camp Moultrie. He had some friends among the Exiles who preferred to occupy, with him, one of the plantations left destitute by the murder of the people at “Blount’s Fort,” in 1816. He too had named his friends and become responsible for their conduct, and relied upon the pledged faith of the nation to protect them.
Some desperadoes, said to have come from Georgia, entered his plantation, robbed him of a large amount of money, and carried away all the negroes living on the Reserve.
Another chief named Walker, also residing on a reservation, with some slaves and Exiles, discovered that a notorious slave-catcher from Georgia, named Douglass, and some associates, were hanging around his plantation, with the apparent intention of capturing and enslaving the colored people. Warned by the outrage committed upon E-con-chattimico and his people, both Indians and negroes collected together, armed themselves, and determined to resist any violence that should be offered them.
When the piratical Georgians approached, they fired upon them. Finding the people armed and determined to resist, the manstealers retreated and disappeared. Feeling they were in danger, Walker wrote the Agent of the Seminoles, calling for protection, according to the stipulations of the treaty of Camp Moultrie. In his letter he says, “Are the free negroes (Exiles), and negroes belonging to this town (slaves), to be stolen away publicly in the face of law and justice—carried off and sold to fill the pockets of those worse than land pirates?”
This appeal was in vain. The Agent paid no attention to it. The kidnappers were vigilant and watchful, and when their victims supposed themselves safe, they stole upon them, seized them, and hurried them off to the interior of Alabama, and sold them into slavery.