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

The scenes so often witnessed upon the slave coast of Africa became common in Florida; while Georgia, and Alabama, and Florida, afforded a class of men in no respect superior in morals to those outlaws and pirates who pursue the foreign slave trade.

The dangers threatening the Exiles now became imminent. They saw clearly they were to be enslaved, or compelled to resort to arms in defense of their liberties. Their entire influence was exercised to prevent emigration, as they feared that would subject them to Creek jurisdiction and enslavement.

These objections were made known to the Department at Washington by the Agent of the Seminoles, Wiley Thompson, who, in plain and unmistakable language, informed the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, that the principal objection to removing West which operated upon the minds of the Seminoles arose from the claim of the Creeks to those people who had fled from Georgia prior to 1802, and extending back to the commencement of the Revolutionary War. He assured the Department, that if the Seminoles were compelled to remove West, these descendants of the Exiles would be enslaved by the Creeks, and if they remained in Florida, they would be enslaved by the whites. He told the Department in plain language, that many of those negroes who had been born and raised among the Indians had been enslaved by the people of Florida and of Georgia, and were then held in bondage.[75]

Among other officers who espoused the cause of humanity at that period, so interesting to the Exiles, was the veteran General Clinch. He was a man of great probity of character—one of the most gallant officers in the service—at the time in actual command of the troops in Florida. He had long been acquainted with the Indians, and no man perhaps better understood the character of the Exiles. He had twenty years before commanded, the troops at the massacre of “Blount’s Fort,” and well understood the persecutions to which the Exiles had been subjected. In strong language, he pointed out the wrong about to be perpetrated upon them, as well as upon the Seminoles. He informed the Secretary of War, in direct and positive language, that if the Seminoles and their “negro allies” were sent West, the negroes would be enslaved by the Creeks.[76]

Hon. John H. Eaton, Governor of Florida, a warm personal and political friend of the President, in whom it was believed the Executive reposed great confidence, also wrote the department, delineating the wrongs about to be perpetrated upon these colored people, who for several generations had resided with the Seminoles.

These and other officers of Government united in the opinion, that these “negroes,” as they were generally called, exerted a controlling influence over the Indians, and that it would be in vain to attempt the removal of the Indians under these circumstances.

To these remonstrances, the Hon. Secretary of War, General Cass, replied, with apparent determination to remove the Indians at any expense of blood, of treasure, and of national reputation. The appeals made to the justice of our Government were stigmatized “as the promptings of a false philanthropy;” and our agents and officers were directed to inform the Seminoles, in peremptory language, that they must emigrate to the western country.

Laboring under the delusion that official station would add a controlling influence to his language, General Cass transmitted to the Indian Agent a speech, addressed to the Seminoles and their allies, in which he endeavored to persuade them to emigrate and join the Creeks, and subject themselves to Creek authority. The Seminoles and their friends listened to the speech with that respectful attention which would be expected from men who knew their lives and liberties were in danger.

It was at one of these consultations, in the presence of their Agent, that “Osceola,” at that time a young warrior, attracted attention by saying, “this is the only treaty I will ever make with the whites,” at the same time drawing his knife and striking it forcibly into the table before him.[77]

It was at this period that abandoned white men conceived the plan of buying negroes from Seminoles while in a state of intoxication, and selling them to the white people. If they could get an Indian drunk, they could of course obtain from him a bill of sale of any negro they pleased, whether the Indian had any title to him or not. This plan of separating the Seminoles from their colored friends, it was thought would conduce to their removal.