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The black Seminole culture that took shape after 1800 was a dynamic mixture of African, Native American, Spanish, and slave traditions. Adopting certain practices of the Native Americans, maroons wore Seminole clothing and ate the same foodstuffs prepared the same way: they gathered the roots of a native plant called coontie, grinding, soaking, and straining them to make a starchy flour ...
John Horse, Black Seminole leader. John Horse (c. 1812–1882), [1] also known as Juan Caballo, Juan Cavallo, John Cowaya (with spelling variations) and Gopher John, [2] was a man of mixed African and Seminole ancestry who fought alongside the Seminoles in the Second Seminole War in Florida.
Creek slavers and those from other native groups, and whites, began raiding the Black Seminole settlements to kidnap and enslave people. The Seminole leadership would become headed by a pro-Creek faction who supported the institution of chattel slavery. These threats led to many Black Seminoles escaping to Mexico. [64] [65]
After the forced relocation of the Seminoles and Black Seminoles from Florida to Indian Territory, a group led by Seminole sub-chief Wild Cat and Black Seminole chief John Horse moved to northern Mexico. [2] The group settled at El Nacimiento in 1852. [3] They worked for the Mexican government to protect against Indian raids.
After acquisition by the U.S. of Florida in 1821, many American slaves and Black Seminoles frequently escaped from Cape Florida to the British colony of the Bahamas, settling mostly on Andros Island. Contemporary accounts noted a group of 120 migrating in 1821, and a much larger group of 300 enslaved African Americans escaping in 1823.
The Seminoles and slave catchers argued over the ownership of slaves. New plantations in Florida increased the pool of slaves who could escape to Seminole territory. Worried about the possibility of an Indian uprising and/or a slave rebellion, Governor DuVal requested additional Federal troops for Florida, but in 1828 the US closed Fort King.
The term Freedmen refers to descendants of people of African American descent who were enslaved by the Five Civilized Tribes. [1] [2] (They often overlap with those who are descended from those enslaved African descendants who voluntarily joined the Seminole nation, including those who fled from the Seminole Nation, when it adopted the practice of slavery, to Mexico, today known as Mascogos.
In 1845 Marcellus Duval and his brother attempted to obtain all of the Black Seminoles set free in New Orleans, including Luis Fatio Pacheco. After being captured by the Duval brothers, he was enslaved to them until 1865, when slavery ended.