“1. The Seminole negroes captured by the army, will be taken on account of Government and held subject to the orders of the Secretary of War.
2. The sum of eight thousand dollars will be paid to the Creek chiefs and warriors by whom they were captured, or who were present at their capture, in full for their claims; the amount to be apportioned among the battalions in proportion to the numbers respectively taken by each, viz: To the first battalion, five thousand seven hundred dollars; to the second battalion, two thousand dollars; and to the spy battalion, three hundred dollars.
3. To induce the Creeks to take alive, and not destroy, the negroes of citizens who had been captured by the Seminoles, a reward was promised them for all they should secure. They have captured and secured thirty-five, who have been returned to their owners. The owners have paid nothing, but the promise to the Indians must be fulfilled. The sum of twenty dollars will be allowed them for each, from the public funds.
4. Lieutenant Frederick Searle is charged with the execution of this order. He will cause accounts to be made, in the name of the United States, and receipts taken from the Indians in full, for all claims to the negroes, both of the Seminoles and citizens. Lieutenant Searle will call on the Commanding General for funds to enable him to comply with this order.
5. Until further orders, the Seminole negroes will remain at Fort Pike, Louisiana, in charge of the Assistant Quarter-Master at New Orleans, and in custody of the Commanding Officer of the post. They will be fed and clothed at the public expense.”
This order was reported to the Secretary of War, and on the seventh of October was approved and became the act of the Executive; and the people of the nation became the actual owners of these ninety slaves, so far as the Executive could bind them to the ownership of human flesh.
Such was, undoubtedly, the view of General Jessup, who, on the fourteenth of September, wrote the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, saying, “The Seminole negro prisoners are now the property of the public. I have promised Abraham the freedom of his family, if he prove faithful to us; and I shall surely hang him if he be not faithful.”[100]
This refinement in cruelty by which the life and liberty of a man and his family is held out as a bribe to induce him to prove traitor to his own kindred and nation, or to be hanged, and his family enslaved in case of refusal, appears worthy a place in the history of our Government, in order that our successors may have a correct idea of its administration. The intention to enslave Abraham’s wife, who was an Indian woman and had been the wife of the former chief of the nation, and now the wife of the principal chief of the Exiles, exhibits a total disregard of the feelings and sympathies of the human heart, as well as of the prejudices and condition of both Exiles and Seminoles. These Exiles were at Fort Pike, near New Orleans, where we will leave them for the present, to pursue our narrative of events which were transpiring in Florida.
On the ninth of September, General Jessup wrote Lieutenant Searle, as follows: “You will muster the Creek regiment out of service, and honorably discharge them. Then you will proceed to New Orleans, and obtain funds to pay the Creeks for the captured negroes. The chiefs and warriors who were actually in the field at the time of the capture of negroes are alone to receive any part of the sum allowed. Those who remained in camp and did not march are to receive nothing.
“You will examine the prisoners at ‘Fort Pike,’ (the ninety Exiles,) and cause an accurate description to be taken of them, specifying their names, ages, height, sex, and such other particulars as you may deem important. They must all be comfortably clothed, at the public expense, immediately, by the Assistant Quarter-Master at New Orleans, who will keep them properly clad.”