STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN LAND
SEMINOLES AND AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN FLORIDA
Florida Changes Flags
1565: Pedro Menendez de Aviles established
the first permanent European settlement in
North America at St. Augustine.
1702-04: Led by Colonel James Moore,
Carolinians and their Creek Indian allies
attacked Spanish Florida in 1702 and destroyed
the town of St. Augustine, but could not
capture the fort, Castillo de San Marcos. Two
years later, they destroyed the Spanish
missions between Tallahassee and St.
Augustine, killing and enslaving many Indians.
1719-22 The French captured and occupied
Pensacola.
Florida Changes Flags
1763: The Treaty of Paris ended the French and
Indian War. Britain gained control of Florida in
exchange for Havana, Cuba, which the British had
captured from Spain during the Seven Years’ War
(1756–63). England divided Florida into two
colonies: East and West Florida
1776–83: The two Floridas remained loyal to Great
Britain throughout the War for American
Independence
1783: Spain, allied with France, captured
Pensacola.
1784: The Spaniards regained control of Florida.
Florida Changes Flags
1814-18: General Andrew Jackson led military
expeditions into Florida (see First Seminole
War)
1821: The loss of Spain's American colonies and
its on-going problems with the United States
led to the transfer of Florida to the United
States.
1821: Florida became a U.S. territory. Andrew
Jackson was appointed first Governor of
Florida.
1845: Florida became the twenty-seventh state
of the United States on March 3, 184
Florida Changes Flags
 1861: Florida seceded from the
Union on January 10, 1861. Within
several weeks, Florida joined other
southern states to form the
Confederate States of America.
 1861-65: The Union held Fort
Meyers and Key West throughout
the Civil War.
1865: Ultimately, the South was
defeated, and federal troops
occupied Tallahassee on May 10,
1865.
Seminoles
Seminoles were originally a part of Creek Indian
groups in Georgia and Alabama and were historically
a late arrival to Florida.
The name Seminole was originally derived from the
Spanish word cimarrone, a word used by the early
Spaniards to refer to Indians living apart form the
Spanish missions or any other Spanish-Indian
settlements
Genesis of the Seminoles:
18th Century
1710: With the exception of a few stragglers, the
indigenous people of Florida had been virtually
annihilated from disease and attacks by Europeans.
1740: Muskogee-speaking sedentary farmers began to
settle near present-day Gainesville.
1763: The "Eligio de la Puente" report mentions the
invasion of Creek people, who had overrun all of
peninsular Florida, even reaching Key West. Those who
would later be called the Seminole and Mikasuki
establish themselves in the north-central interior of
Florida.
1765: Muskogee speaking people are referred to as
"Seminolies" in British documents.
African-Americans in Florida:
18th Century
1738: The Spanish established Gracia Real de Santa
Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose), the first free African
community in America, to provide the first defense
against the British.
Approximately 100 Africans lived at Fort Mose, forming
more than 20 households. Together they created a
frontier community which drew on a range of African
backgrounds blended with Spanish, Native American and
English cultural traditions.
As runaways came to St. Augustine some were re-enslaved
or sold back to the English.
1724-28: Formerly ensalved in Carolina, Francisco
Menendez arrived in St. Augustine around 1724. He
became Captain of the Black Militia of St. Augustine and
fought to ensure promises of King Carlos. In 1728, helping
to defend the Northern Florida Frontier from English and
Native American raids, the Black Militia gained the
respect and honor.
1739: The largest slave uprising in the history of North
America took place near Charleston, SC. The Spanish were
blamed .
1740: The British attacked St. Augustine under General
George Oglethorpe. Fort Mose was captured.
African-Americans in Florida:
18th Century
1752: Spaniards rebuilt Fort Mose. Africans established in
St. Augustine, returned to their military/agrarian
lifestyle. Many of the men married Indian women and still
others hunted and traded with Indian allies.
 1784: When the British evacuated Florida, Spanish
colonists and settlers from the newly formed United
States came pouring in. Others who came were escaped
slaves, trying to reach a place where their U.S. masters
had no authority and effectively could not reach them.
1787: More than half of the plantations in Florida had
fewer than four African slaves.
African-Americans in Florida:
19th Century
 1821-45: Territorial status. By 1840 white Floridians were
concentrating on developing the territory and gaining statehood. The
population had reached 54,477 people, with African American slaves
making up almost one-half of the population.
 1821: Andrew Jackson Allen, one of the earliest performers in
America, does a song-and-dance in blackface. He sings a "Negro
dialect" song on the Pensacola stage.
 1831: Stephen Foster, composer of appealing love
songs for the parlor and upbeat songs for minstrel shows, wrote "Old
Folks at Home."
aka “Way Down Upon the Suwannee River”
African-Americans in Florida:
19th Century
1845: Florida entered the Union as a slave state,
balancing the free state status of Iowa
1851: Steven Foster's song, "Old Folks at Home," was
adopted as the official state song by the Florida state
legislature.
THE SEMINOLE WARS
The First, Second and Third Seminole Wars were never
declared wars on the part of the American government.
They were:
A continuation of American policy to contain Native
American populations east of the Mississippi and remove
them to reservations west of the Mississippi, a policy
that culminated in the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Early battles fought over the jurisdiction of runaway
slaves that would eventually escalate into the Civil War.
The Seminole Wars resulted in the removal of nearly four
thousand Seminoles to Oklahoma with a remnant of
approximately three hundred disappearing into the
Everglades
Important Figures: Seminoles
 Neamathla (fl. early 19th c.), leader of the Mikasukis,
chosen spokesman at 1823 Moultrie Creek conference
 Micanopy (c.1795-1848), chief after 1833, ally of
Osceola, removed to Oklahoma in 1838.
 Ote-emathla "Jumper," (fl. 19th c.), a Red Stick Creek,
Micanopy's brother-in-law and sensebearer (advocate).
 King Philip (17? -1840), leader of Mikasuki band and
brother-in-law to Micanopy
 Coacoochee "Wildcat" (1810?- 18?), King Philip's son and
Micanopy's nephew, war-leader, removed to Oklahoma in
1841, whence he led followers, especially the Black
Seminoles to Coahuila, Mexico
Important Figures: Seminoles
 Abraham, Black Indian (fl. 19th c.), interpreter and
advisor to Micanopy
 Halpatter Tustenuggee "Alligator" (fl. 19th c.), Alachua
warchief with King Philip's band
 Osceola or Asi-yaholo "Billy Powell" (1804?-1838), Red
Stick Creek, war-leader of Seminole band
 Holata Micco "Billy Bowlegs" (c. 1810-1864), Seminole
warchief most prominent in Third Seminole War, resisted
emigration to Oklahoma until 1858
 Arpeika or Abiaka "Sam Jones" (1750's?- 1860), Mikasuki
shaman, highly resistant to relocation, he led his followers
into the Everglades
Important Figures: Americans
Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), General, first U.S.governor of
Florida, seventh President of the U.S. (1829-37)
 Francis L. Dade, Army Major who led ill-fated expedition
resulting in Dade Massacre, 1835
 Wiley Thompson, Indian agent in charge of Seminole
removal 1833-35, killed by Osceola
Thomas Sidney Jesup (1788-18 ), commander of the army in
Florida (1836-38)
Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), "Old Rough and Ready,"
commander of the Army in Florida (1838-40)
William Jenkins Worth (1794-1849), commander of the
Army in Florida at end of Second Seminole War (1841-42),
twelfth President of the U.S. (1849-50)
The First Seminole War: 1817-1818
Preceded by years of border disputes along the
Florida-Georgia border
Fort Negro, on the Apalachicola River, built by the
British in 1815 and turned over to a band of runaway
slaves on the British departure, was an obstacle for
the US in the supply route to Georgia.
 General Edmund Gaines (1777-1849) was ordered to
destroy the fort. A hot cannon ball landed in a powder
magazine blowing up the fort and killing 270 of its 344
occupants.
The First Seminole War: 1817-1818
 Neamathla, village chief of Fowltown, reacted by warning General
Gaines that if the Americans tried to cross the border into Florida,
they would be annihilated.
 A gunfight between American soldiers and Neamathla's Seminoles
on November 21, 1817, is considered the opening salvo of the First
Seminole War.
 The War Department ordered General Andrew Jackson to bring the
Seminoles under control.
 On March 9, 1818, Jackson swiftly marched into Florida, despite
opposition in Washington.
 Meeting little resistance, he moved against the Seminole villages
around Lake Miccosukee and captured St. Marks on April 6.
Adams-Onis Treaty: 1821
The First Seminole War, ended with General
Andrew Jackson's (1767-1845) occupation of the
city of Pensacola and the Spanish surrender of
Fort Barrancas to the American army in May, 1818.
His victory led to the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1821
in which Spain ceded the territory of Florida to
the United States.
 The hostilities among the white Americans and
the Seminole and black inhabitants of Florida
continued.
Suggested Solutions to
the “Indian Problem”
1) Total removal of the Seminoles from the peninsula and
relocation to Georgia or to Oklahoma,
2) Concentration of the Seminoles on a reservation in
Florida
3) Full citizenship granted to the Seminoles with each
family receiving a plot of land to break the tribal bond and
promote private enterprise --this suggestion was totally
ignored, and the Seminoles were strongly resistant to
removal.
Moultrie Creek Treaty: 1823
Restricted Seminole settlements to a reservation of four
million acres north of Charlotte Harbor and south of Ocala
with no land within twenty miles of any coast, a stipulation
that would hinder foreign contacts.
 The Seminoles agreed not to make the reservation a haven
for escaped slaves.
 Six small reservations were granted to six north Florida
chiefs, including Neamathla, the elected spokesman for the
tribes at the conference.
 However, almost before the treaty took effect, President
James Monroe was moving towards a policy of general
Indian removal.
Indian Removal Act: 1830
One of the first bills proposed by the newly elected
President Jackson in 1830
 Mandated that that Eastern Indians be encouraged to
trade their eastern land for western land or lose Federal
protection
 After the act was made law on May 28, 1830, pressure was
applied to the Seminoles to conform to the new law.
Payne’s Landing Treaty : 1832
James Gadsden was named special agent to the Seminoles
with the purpose of persuading them to move West.
 In May, 1832, he convened a meeting with the chiefs at
Payne's Landing. The meeting has been the subject of much
political and scholarly controversy as no minutes of the
meeting were kept.
 All that is certain is that a treaty was signed by seven
chiefs and eight subchiefs on May 9, 1832, who agreed to
travel to inspect the lands in Oklahoma, and if they found
them satisfactory, they would agree to move west as a part
of the Creek allocation.
Nearly all of the chiefs whose names were on the treaty
later repudiated it.
Fort Gibson Treaty: 1833
An exploratory party of seven chiefs left Florida
for Oklahoma in October, 1832, and returned to
Fort Gibson, Arkansas, in March, 1833.
 Again there are allegations of coercion and
forged marks on the Fort Gibson Treaty in which
the chiefs agreed that the Seminoles would move
west within three years -- one third of the
population each year.
Opposition to Removal
Replacing Phagan as Indian agent in December, 1833, Wiley
Thompson was put in charge of Seminole removal.
The Indians were encouraged in their reluctance to move
both by white traders and by their Indian-Negro allies and
slaves who had everything to lose if the Seminoles went to
Oklahoma.
Strong opposition to migration emerged, especially from the
war-chief Osceola, who advised condemning any Indian who
favored removal.
Relations deteriorated and skirmishes increased between
the government and Seminoles throughout 1835 culminating
in the outbreak of war in December.
Second Seminole War
1835-1842
 The two most notable incidents occurred on December 28th,
1835, when the Seminoles presented a two-pronged attack.
 Jumper and Alligator with 180 warriors ambushed a relief column
marching from Fort Brooke to Fort King under the command of
Major Francis Dade. Only three of the 108 soldiers escaped
slaughter in the fierce battle that followed.
 Meanwhile Osceola led sixty warriors in an attack on Fort King
with the express purpose of killing Wiley Thompson who had
imprisoned Osceola in chains earlier during the year.
 Unfortunately for the Seminoles, the Dade Massacre pressured
Northerners in Congress to accept Southern proposals for more
troops and equipment.
Second Seminole War
General Jesup had convinced a large number of chiefs and
their tribes to emigrate on the condition that they would be
accompanied by their Negro allies and slaves.
Opposition from landowners and the press led to a
compromise that only those who had lived with the
Seminoles before the outbreak of the war would be
permitted to go.
Over seven hundred Seminoles had gathered at Fort Brooke
north of Tampa by the end of May 1837, including Micanopy,
Jumper, Cloud and Alligator.
On the night of June 2, Osceola and Arpeika surrounded the
camp with two hundred warriors and spirited away nearly
the entire population.
Second Seminole War
Jesup no longer felt any compunction about using trickery to
gain his ends.
In September 1837 King Philip, Yuchi Billy, Coacoochee and
Blue Snake with their followers were captured and
imprisoned them at Fort Marion.
Osceola and Coa Hadjo sent word that they were willing to
negotiate. At the conference near Fort Peyton, Jesup
ordered the truce violated and the Indians were imprisoned.
Osceola
News of Osceola's
capture spread
through the nation.
When he was
transferred to Fort
Moultrie in Georgia ,
George Catlin visited
him and painted his
portrait.
 His death on January
30, 1838, enshrined
him as a martyr to the
Indian cause.
Battle of Lake Okochobee: 1837
 Coacoochee and John Cowaya (or Cavalo), an Indian Negro
leader, escaped from Fort Marion on November 29, 1837,
with sixteen other warriors and two women,
They headed south to join bands led by Jumper, Arpeika,
and Alligator.
 The largest and last pitched battle of the war was fought
on the banks of Lake Okeechobee on December 25, 1837
Colonel Zachary Taylor commanded eleven hundred men
against approximately four hundred Indians.
The Indians finally retreated from the two-and-a-half-hour
battle leaving twenty-six killed and one hundred twelve
wounded and having sustained eleven killed and fourteen
wounded.
Second Seminole War
 In February 1838, further treachery at Fort Jupiter
netted over five hundred Seminoles
 Persuasion and mopping-up operations sent many of the
remaining Seminole leaders, including Micanopy, on the
westward migration.
Jesup's tenure in Florida, which had resulted in the capture,
migration or death of over 2400 Indians, ended in May
1838, when General Zachary Taylor took over command of
the Florida forces.
 Taylor carried out operations against scattered bands of
Apalachicola, Tallahassee and Alachua in northern Florida
and Seminole bands in central and southern Florida.
Seminole Removal
General Alexander MacComb, commanding general of
the army, came to Florida in April 1839, and declared
the war over when he concluded an agreement with the
Seminoles who agreed to withdraw south of the Peace
River by July 15, 1839, and remain there "until further
arrangements were made."
Although a trading post was set up on the
Caloosahatchee River, the Indians learned that they
were not to be allowed to stay in Florida.
Chekika, chief of the Spanish Indians
(descendants of Calusas), led an attack and destroyed
the post in July.
 Col. Harney surprised Chekika in the Everglades and
executed him.
Seminole Removal
 The commands of General Walker K. Armistead and General
William J. Worth saw the final years of the Second
Seminole War.
Following the successful policy of deceiving chiefs who came
to negotiate, most notably Coacoochee, and through
continuing guerilla warfare, the army managed to remove all
but about six hundred of Florida's Indians who were
restricted to a temporary reservation south of the Peace
River when Congress refused to continue to fund any
further campaigns in 1842.
Government
Losses in the
Second Seminole
War
The six and half years of
the Second Seminole War
were more costly than all
of the Indian wars
combined.
The armed forces
sustained 1466 service
deaths and an
indeterminate number of
losses from wounds and
diseases
The conflict cost
somewhere in the
neighborhood of forty
million dollars to the
United States Treasury,
and property losses across
the state were huge.
Government gains from the
Second Seminole War
The Armed Occupation Act brought new settlers
to the interior of Florida which had been made
accessible by the mapping, exploration and roadbuilding that had attended the fighting.
The military had gained skill in guerilla warfare
and an understanding of the need for inter-service
cooperation
The federal government learned to exercise its
power to convert economic power into military
strength.
More Seminole Removal
Between 1842 and the outbreak of the Third Seminole War
in 1855, the Seminoles kept to the reservation
The federal government, determined to remove the
remaining Seminoles:
offered large financial inducements to leave
installed a strong military presence in the territory
brought chiefs, most notably Billy Bowlegs, to
Washington, D.C. to impress them with the power of the
government.
The Seminoles remained adamant in their opposition to
removal until Secretary of War Jefferson Davis declared
that if they did not leave voluntarily, the military would
remove them by force.
Third Seminole War: 1855-1856
“Billy Bowlegs War”
On December 1855, a band of forty Seminoles led
by Billy Bowlegs and Oscen Tustenuggee, attacked a
patrol investigating Seminole settlements in the Big
Cypress Swamp, marking the first skirmish of the
war that was dubbed "Billy Bowlegs War."
It was a war of skirmishes, raids and harrassment
against small settlements, both white and Seminole.
 A treaty signed on August 7, 1856, that granted the
Seminoles over two million acres in Indian Territory along
with a generous financial settlement, was the catalyst to
the end of the conflict in Florida.
Bowlegs and his band left Florida in May and two other
bands left the following February.
The Remnant
Only the Muskogee band led by Chipco,
hidden north of Lake Okeechobee,
and Arpeika's Mickasuki band,
buried deep in the Everglades,
a remnant of 100-300 souls,
remained in relative peace in Florida.
 The Seminoles of Florida call themselves the "Unconquered People,"
descendants of just 300 Indians who managed to elude capture by the
U.S. army in the 19th century.
 Today, more than 2,000 live on six reservations in the state – located
in Hollywood, Big Cypress, Brighton, Immokalee, Ft. Pierce, and Tampa.
 In addition to the Seminole people, Florida also has a separate
Miccosukee tribe.
The Civil War: 1861-65
1861: The independent "nation of Florida" withdrew
from the American Union.
1861: In Pensacola the Army of the Confederate States
of America took Ft. Pickens.
Florida provided an estimated 15,000 troops and
significant amounts of supplies— including salt, beef,
pork, and cotton—to the Confederacy, but more than
2,000 Floridians, both African American and white,
joined the Union army.
The Abolition of Slavery
 1803: Denmark abolishes the slave trade.
 1807: Britain abolishes the slave trade.
 1817: France abolishes the slave trade.
 1818: Holland abolishes the slave trade.
 1820: Spain abolishes the slave trade
 1824: Sweden abolishes the slave trade.
 1833: Slavery itself is finally abolished in the British colonies.
 1833: Slavery is abolished in the West Indies.
 1834: Slavery ends in the Bahaman Islands.
 1835: On June 25, Queen Maria Cristina abolished the slave trade to Spanish
colonies.
 1848: Slavery is abolished in the French colonies.
 1863: African-Americans in Union-occupied areas became free citizens on New
Year's Day with the Emancipation Proclamation.
 1863: Slavery is abolished in the Dutch colonies.
 1873: Slavery is abolished in the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico.
 1880: Slavery is abolished in Cuba.
Reconstruction: 1868-77
The end of the Civil War marked the decline of
Florida’s plantation economy.
1870: Josiah T. Walls served as a state
representative and senator and was Florida's first
African-American in the U.S. House of
Representatives. Jonathan Gibbs filled the office
of secretary of state while fellow AfricanAmericans throughout the state served as
members of city councils.
1876: A School for African Americans was built in
Tallahassee.
1877: Reconstruction ended and removal of
federal troops began the curtailment of the rights
and freedoms exercised by African-Americans.
19th C. Development
1882: The cigar industry in Tampa, Florida created
a unique, multicultural, multiracial urban area.
Afro-Cubans, Cuban-born whites and white
political exiles from Spain immigrated to work in
the cigar factories.
1887: Eatonville was the first black incorporated
municipality in Florida.
African American laborers built Florida’s railroads
and roads, tapped the turpentine and farmed the
sugar-cane fields in the rapidly growing state.
20th Century
Both agriculture and tourism, before airconditioning was commonplace, needed workers
during the winter. Around 1890 blacks from the
Bahamas began arriving in Florida’s lower east
coast for seasonal agricultural work.
Between 1900 and 1920, 10,000 to 12,000–about
one-fifth of the Bahamian population–came to
Florida. By 1920 the foreign-born made up a
quarter of Miami’s population; Bahamian blacks
comprised 16% of the city’s entire population.
Racial Tensions 1920s and 1930s
 Following World War I, Florida, like the rest of the nation,
experienced heightened racial tensions and anti-immigrant
sentiments that led to lynchings and racial persecution.
 An election in 1920 in Ocoee in Orange County ended in a race
riot and deaths.
 in 1923, the entire African-American town of Rosewood was
set fire and residents killed by a white mob.
 During the Great Depression, the low economic and social
status of blacks meant being in the worst position.
World War II
World War II was the last conflict to countenance
segregated military units.
Florida in World War II became almost one big military post
with 172 installations spread throughout the state.
African-Americans from less segregated regions of the U.S.
faced typical Jim Crow rules while on duty in Florida.
German prisoners of war could use facilities from which
American blacks were banned. POWs rode in railroad coach
cars designated "whites-only," while black GIs were sent to
baggage cars.
Famous athletes, such as baseball’s Jackie Robinson and
Hank Aaron, encountered the same racial restrictions during
spring training sessions in Florida.
 After WW II, Florida attracted soldiers
who had been stationed here to return as
residents.
 African-Americans began a fervent voter
registration campaign believing that
change would come in the voting booth. But
change was resisted violently.
 On Christmas Eve 1950, Harry T. Moore,
state leader of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), was killed by a bomb beneath his
bed because of his voter-registration
activities.
 By the early 1960s blacks in Florida cities
joined others throughout the south in
marching to protest segregation and
staging sit-ins at segregated facilities. In
1963 and 1964 Martin Luther King
organized demonstrations in St.
Augustine,celebrating its 400th
anniversary of founding.
Civil Rights
Civil Rights
1964: Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
1965: The Voting Rights Act and the Supreme Court’s "oneman-one vote" ruling and related decisions brought
externally imposed change to Florida’s political and racial
life.
Although Brown vs, Board of Education negated the
separate but equal doctrine in 1954, Florida schools did not
desegregate until the late 1960s when school districts were
drawn by the courts to ensure racial balance.
Following the civil-rights legislation and court actions of the
1960s African-Americans once again returned to elected
positions. In 1968 the first black was elected to the Florida
legislature since Reconstruction.
In 1992 the first African-Americans since Reconstruction
were elected to represent Florida in the U.S. Congress.