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

When General Taylor assumed the command of the army, there was a feeling of deep disgust prevalent among the regular troops at the practice of seizing and enslaving the Exiles.

We have already noticed the fact, that the citizens of Florida supposed the war to have been commenced principally to enable them to get possession of negroes whom they might enslave. Indeed, they appear not to have regarded it as material, that the claimant should have previously owned the negro. If they once obtained control of his person, he was hurried into the interior of Georgia, Alabama, or South Carolina, where he was sold and held as a slave. And the Florida volunteers, while nominally in service, appear to have been far more anxious to catch negroes than to meet the enemy in battle.

This feeling was so general among the people and troops of Florida, that General Call, Governor of the Territory, recommended to the Secretary of War that military expeditions should be fitted out for the purpose of going into the Indian Country, in order to capture negroes, who, when captured, should be sold, and the avails of such sales applied to defray the expenses of the war.

It is easy to see that this feeling would lead the regular troops to entertain great contempt for the volunteers of Florida; and a corresponding feeling of hostility would arise on the part of such volunteers toward the regular troops.

These feelings operated upon President Jackson in ordering the withdrawal of General Scott; and General Jessup sought to appease this hostility by obeying the dictates of the slave power. Indeed, whatever appears like a violation of pledged faith, or bears the evidence of treachery on the part of General Jessup, may probably with great justice be attributed to the popular sentiment of the Territory. He had assiduously captured, and delivered over to bondage, hundreds of persons whom he had most solemnly covenanted to “protect in their persons and property.”

General Taylor discarded this entire policy. His first efforts were to make the Indians and Exiles understand that he sought their emigration to the Western Country, for the advancement of their own interest and happiness. Owing to these circumstances there was scarcely any blood shed in Florida while he had command. The army was no longer employed to hunt and to chase down women and children, who had been reared in freedom among the hommocks and everglades of that Territory.

There were yet remaining several small bands of Indians upon the Appalachicola River, and in its vicinity. Most of the Exiles who had a few years previously resided with these bands, had been captured by pirates from Georgia, and taken to the interior of that State and sold, as the reader has been already informed. Those of E-con-chattimico’s and of Blunt’s and of Walker’s bands were nearly all kidnapped; but of the number of Exiles who remained with the other remnants of Indian Tribes, resident upon the Appalachicola River, we have no reliable information. We are left in doubt on this point, as General Taylor drew no distinctions among his prisoners; he neither constituted himself nor his officers a tribunal for examining the complexion or the pedigree of his captives. He denied the right of any citizen to inspect the people captured by the army under his command, or to interfere in any way with the disposal of his prisoners. He repaired to the Apalachee towns with a small force about the first of October. Neither the Indians nor Exiles made any resistance; nor did they oppose emigration. They readily embarked for New Orleans on their way westward. Their emigration was not delayed in order to give planters an opportunity to examine the negroes. Under the general term of “Apalachees,” two hundred and twenty persons were quietly emigrated to the Western Country; but, as we have already stated, how many of them were negroes, we have no information. These people were also delivered over to the agent, acting for the Western Indians, and settled with their brethren upon the Cherokee lands.

General Taylor now entered upon a new system for prosecuting the war, by establishing posts and manning them, and by assigning to each a particular district of country, over which their scouts and patroles were to extend their daily reconnoisances.

1839.

Small parties of Indians and negroes occasionally came in at different posts, and surrendered under the articles of capitulation of March, 1837; and, on the twenty-fifth of February, one hundred and ninety-six Indians and negroes were embarked at Tampa Bay for the Western Country. But the proportion of negroes, compared with the whole number, is not stated in any official report. General Taylor, in his communications, speaks of them as prisoners, and occasionally uses the terms “Indians and negroes”.