Finding General Jessup incapable of resisting the popular clamor, the claimants for slaves openly demanded a revocation of the General Order, by which they were prohibited from entering the Indian territory for the purpose of seizing slaves. A public meeting of the citizens of various parts of Florida, was held at San Augustine, and a committee appointed to remonstrate with General Jessup, and procure a rescission of his order, No. 79, prohibiting them from entering the Territory, between the St. John’s River and the Gulf of Mexico, south of Fort Drane. The committee addressed him in a long, written protest, in which they declare, “the regaining of their slaves constitutes an object of scarcely less moment than that of peace to the country.”[96]
General Jessup now began to modify his order, No. 79, so as to admit citizens to enter the Territory as far south as the road leading from Withlacoochee to Volusi; and, on the first of May, so informed Major McClintock, commanding at Fort Drane. On the day following, he addressed a letter to Brig. General Armistead, directing that officer to “consider Order No. 79 so far modified, that citizens will be permitted to visit any of the posts on the St. John’s, and to traverse or remain in any part of the country south of Withlacoochee. There are large herds of cattle in that part of the country which no doubt belong to the citizens, and by allowing them to go into the country, they may perhaps secure a large portion of them.”
It will be recollected, that General Scott would not permit the people of Florida to interfere in the discharge of his official duties, and that they, through their representative in Congress, had demanded his removal from command of the army. They now applied directly to the Secretary of War, remonstrating against the action of General Jessup; and it is possible that officer deemed it prudent to yield to their dictation. Be that as it may, it is certain that he now lent the power of the army to carry out the wishes of the citizens. Officers and men were detailed to take black prisoners—who had come in and surrendered with the expectation of emigrating West—from their places of rendezvous to certain points where it would be most convenient for claimants to receive them.
On the seventeenth of April, Major Churchill, aid to General Jessup, wrote Colonel Harney, saying, “I am instructed by the commanding General to acknowledge the receipt to-day of your letter of the seventh instant, and to inform you that the negro prisoners captured from the Indians, and supposed to belong to the white people, were sent from this place, on the eleventh instant, to Lieutenant D. H. Vinton, at St. Marks, for the purpose of being returned to their owners. The Indians have agreed to send all slaves, taken from white people during the war, to Fort Mellon and Volusi; and runners are now employed in the interior on that service.” On the same day, information was given to William De Payster, that seven of the number sent to Volusi probably belonged to him. On the same day also, “A. Forrester” was informed of the fact, that those slaves “had been sent to St. Marks, and that six of the number probably belonged to him.”
Other plans were devised for securing slaves, as we are informed by a letter from General Jessup to E. K. Call, Governor of Florida, dated eighteenth of April, 1837, in which he says: “If the citizens of the territory be prudent, the war may be considered at an end; but any attempt to interfere with the Indian negroes, or to arrest any of the chiefs or warriors as debtors or criminals, would cause an immediate resort to arms. The negroes control their masters; and have heard of the act of your legislative council. Thirty or more of the Indian negro men were near my camp on the Withlacoochee in March last; but the arrival of two or three citizens of Florida, said to be in search of negroes, caused them to disperse, and I doubt whether they will come in again; at all events the emigration will be delayed a month I apprehend in consequence of this alarm among the negroes.”
The emigration of those Indians who had come in to Fort Brooke, and registered themselves as ready for emigration, was delayed in consequence of the difficulty of collecting those who were expected; and General Jessup began to see the effects which his violation of the articles of capitulation had wrought on the minds of both Indians and negroes. Indeed, he had in plain and distinct language repeatedly affirmed that the negroes controlled the Indians; that any interference with the negroes would cause a resort to arms; yet he himself subsequently ordered negroes to be sought out, separated from their friends, and delivered over to slavery.
The ships were yet lying in the harbor. About seven hundred Indians were encamped ready for emigration, and had been waiting for others to join them. Impatient at delay and disappointment, on the twenty fifth of May, he wrote Colonel Harney, as follows:
“If you see Powell (Osceola) again, I wish you to tell him that I intend to send exploring and surveying parties into every part of the country during the summer, and that I shall send out and take all the negroes who belong to the white people, and he must not allow the Indians or Indian negroes to mix with them. Tell him I am sending to Cuba for bloodhounds to trail them, and I intend to hang every one of them who does not come in.”
This intention to reënslave the Exiles who had recently taken up their residence with the Seminoles became known, and created general alarm. Many of the blacks, who had come in for the purpose of emigrating, became alarmed and fled; and General Jessup, doubtful whether more could be obtained by peaceful means, seized about ninety Exiles who were confined within the pickets at Tampa Bay, on the second of June, and at once ordered them to New Orleans, under the charge of Lieutenant G. H. Trevitt, of the United States Marines.
This struck the Indians and Exiles with astonishment. The chiefs, warriors and families, numbering some seven hundred, who had collected at Tampa Bay for the purpose of emigrating to the western country, thinking themselves betrayed, now fled to their former fastnesses, far in the interior, and once more determined to defend their liberties or die in the attempt. A few, however, were secured at other posts, and sent to New Orleans, where they were delivered over to Quarter-Master Clark, and confined at “Fort Pike.”