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

Of these movements the Exiles were ignorant. Many hearts were moved in sympathy for them, and many of our military officers were active in their endeavors to defeat the machinations of the President and the War Department.

Lieutenant Reynolds found it necessary to return to Florida before leaving New Orleans with his party of Emigrants. While he was absent, the efforts of slaveholders to reënslave these people appeared to increase, and they became more bold, although Collins had not yet appeared, clothed with the authority of Government, to effect their enslavement.

General Gaines, commanding the Western Military District of the United States, and residing at New Orleans, as if premonished of the arrival of this national slave catcher, issued his peremptory order (April 29), directing Major Clark, Acting Quarter-Master at New Orleans, to make arrangements for the immediate embarkation and emigration of the Seminole Indians and black prisoners of war, at that time in Louisiana, to the place of their destination on the Arkansas River, near Fort Gibson.

Major Clark being thus placed in charge of the prisoners for the purpose of emigrating them, at once informed the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, that claims were “made for about seventy of the Seminole negroes, and the courts here have issued their warrants to take them. The United States District Attorney has been consulted. He gives it as his opinion, that the Sheriff must be allowed to serve the process. It appears they are claims from Georgia, purchased from Creek Indians. No movement of the Indians or negroes can be made at present. The Indians are almost in a state of mutiny.”

This state of feeling arose from these attempts again to separate the Indians and negroes. Many of them were intermarried: they had been separated; their families broken up, but were now reunited, and they determined to die rather than be again separated. The Exiles had also fought boldly beside the Indians; they had encountered dangers together, and had become attached to each other; and soon as the subject of surrendering the Exiles to bondage was named, the Indians became enraged, threatening violence and death to those who should attempt again to separate them from the Exiles.

The claimants mentioned by Major Clark, were from Georgia. The pirates who robbed E-con-chattimico and Walker of their slaves and seized the Exiles resident with those chiefs, as stated in a former chapter, were from Georgia. Watson, the more dignified dealer in human flesh, and acting in accordance with the advice of the Secretary of War, was also from Georgia; and all these claims were said to be derived from Creek Indians, who, as we have seen, professed to own all the Exiles who fled from Georgia after the close of the Revolution, and prior to 1802, together with their descendants.

Information, respecting these difficulties of reënslaving the Exiles, reached the authorities at Washington, and created great embarrassment. The War Department appears never to have anticipated that negroes, who were already prisoners of war, would find friends or means to awaken the sympathy of others. But it was clear that any litigation would make the public acquainted with the facts.

It will be recollected that on the tenth of May, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs wrote an order, directed to General Jessup, to deliver up near one hundred of these Exiles to Collins, the Agent of Watson, and two days later—that is, on the twelfth of May—he wrote Thomas Slidell, District Attorney of the United States at New Orleans, saying, “It is represented to this Department, that the emigration of the Seminoles, now near New Orleans, has been impeded by claims set up to some of their negroes. I am directed by the Secretary of War to request that you will give the Indians your advice and assistance, and by all proper and legal means protect them from injustice and from harrassing and improper interferences with their property and persons. It is of the highest importance that, if possible, no impediments should be suffered to be thrown in the way of their speedy conveyance to their country, west of Arkansas.”

It is a historical curiosity, that the Secretary of War should so often change his policy. He had, as the reader is aware, exerted his influence to prevent those Exiles, who had been captured by the Creeks, from going West.

On the fifth of May, Commissioner Harris declared—“it is the opinion of the Department that it will be impolitic to take these negroes West;” and on the ninth, acting under the direction of the Secretary of War, he furnished Mr. Collins with authority to demand and receive these people, and instructions were also issued “to the officer commanding at Fort Pike; to Major Isaac Clark at New Orleans; to the commanding officer at Florida, and to any other officer who may have the negroes in charge,” to deliver them to Mr. Collins; while three days afterwards he assures Mr. Slidell, as before stated, “It is of the highest importance that, if possible, no impediments should be suffered to be thrown in the way of their speedy conveyance to their country, west of Arkansas.” This letter to Mr. Slidell was inclosed in another of the same date, addressed to Major Clark, as follows: