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.Giddings, Joshua R. (Joshua Reed)
Philosophy
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.
Giddings, Joshua R. (Joshua Reed)
Maroons; Seminole War, 1st, 1817-1818; Seminole War, 2nd, 1835-1842
"Mr. GIDDINGS. I rise for a different purpose than that of
expressing my approbation of the amendment which has just been
read. I ask the especial attention of gentlemen to some
interrogatories which I desire to propound for the purpose of
obtaining information; and that the information may go to the
country, I will observe, that I desire to have the experience of
the able Chairman of the committee on Indian Affairs (Mr. Johnson
of Arkansas), to obtain this intelligence. According to reliable
information which I received in the summer of 1850, these Creek
Indians, to whom attention has been turned, with force and
violence, seized from seventy to one hundred free persons of color
in the Indian Territory, or at least those claiming to be free, and
enslaved, sold and transported them to the State of Louisiana,
where they are now in servitude as slaves. I will state that this
was done in violation of the treaty entered into in 1845, and in
subversion of our solemn faith, entered into with these negroes
during the Seminole War, in 1837. The official information upon
this subject is in the Indian Department, where it has been
received; and from which that we have not been able to obtain any
intelligence by resolution, although a resolution for that purpose
has been in my desk since the first day of the session. The
questions I desire to propound to those gentlemen are--First, Is it
a fact that those persons of color were seized and sold into
slavery; and, second, by what claim of right or pretended title did
these Creek Indians enslave and sell those people?
"Mr. JOHNSON. I have no official knowledge in the matter at all.
Then as to the knowledge I have obtained incidentally, I do know
that there has been a great contest in relation to a portion of
these Creek Indian negroes; I do know that the matter has been
looked into here in the Executive Departments; I do know that the
matter has never been before the House at all, unless it has
strangely escaped my notice; I know it has not been before my
committee; I know the Attorney General of the United States has
declared his opinion as to the title of these negroes: I think
there were seventy of them, though it might have been more or less.
So, then, I have no official information on the subject to which
the gentleman alludes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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