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
The second article provides compensation for the improvements, and
specifically stipulates, that Abraham and Cudjoe (two Exiles who acted
as interpreters) should receive, each, two hundred dollars.
The third provides for the distribution of blankets and frocks among
them.
The fourth article provides for certain annuities, etc.
The fifth merely stipulates the manner in which the personal property of
the Seminoles shall be disposed of in Florida, and the same articles
supplied them in their new homes at the West.
[Illustration: Negro Abraham.]
The sixth is in the following language: "The Seminoles, being anxious to
be relieved from the repeated vexatious demands for slaves and other
property, alleged to have been stolen and destroyed by them, so that
they may remove to their new homes unembarrassed, the United States
stipulate to have the same properly investigated, and to liquidate such
as may be satisfactorily established, provided the amount does not
exceed fourteen thousand dollars."
The seventh article stipulates that a portion of the Indians should
remove in 1833, and the remainder in 1834.
Two leading features of this treaty attract the attention of the reader.
The first is the removal of the Seminoles; second, their _reunion with
the Creeks_. The Creeks, having paid the slaveholders of Georgia for
their loss of Exiles, had permitted the subject to rest in silence, and,
so far as we are informed, no formal claim had yet been asserted by the
Creeks to seize and hold the Exiles as slaves; but it is evident that
the negotiators of this treaty intended to place the Seminoles, when
settled in their western homes, within the power, and under the
jurisdiction, of the Creeks. Yet it was well known that, from the time
of their separation, in 1750, up to the signing of this treaty, they had
disagreed and, at times, had been in open war with each other. General
Cass, the Secretary of War, as well as the President, must have known
that McIntosh, the principal chief of the Creeks, had accompanied
Colonel Clinch, with five hundred warriors, when he invaded Florida for
the purpose of massacreing the Exiles at "Blount's Fort," in 1816; that
the Creeks shared in that massacre, and had publicly tortured and
murdered one Indian and one negro, whom they styled chiefs. It is
difficult to believe that any man could expect them to live together in
peace, with the recollection of those scenes resting on the mind; nor
has any explanation yet been given, nor reason assigned, for the anxiety
of our officers to place the Seminoles within the power of the Creeks,
except a desire to enslave the Exiles.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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