The Exiles of Florida

On the sixteenth of April, the troops fell in with Hallec Tustenuggee, who, with some seventy warriors of his own and other bands, was encamped upon an island in the Great Wahoo Swamp, and after an irregular fight of two hours, routed them. The loss was slight on both sides. Our troops had one man killed, and four wounded; the allies three wounded, whom they carried from the field. This was the last battle fought in the Florida War. The Indians scattered in various directions, and in that way evaded pursuit.

Halec Tustenuggee was a most skillful warrior: bold and daring in his policy, yet capable of dissimulation and treachery. He had been the object of pursuit for two years. His unceasing vigilance had enabled him to bid defiance to civilized troops. He was now nearly destitute of powder and provisions, and, as an alternative, professed a desire for peace. He came into the American camp boldly, shook hands with General Worth, and proclaimed his pacific purpose. His professions were treated with great apparent respect. He wanted provisions for his band. They were encamped within three miles of General Worth’s head-quarters, and were fed at public expense. And when the whole band had come within the lines, for the purpose of attending a feast, they were secured as prisoners, and immediately sent to Tampa Bay for emigration; and, on the fourteenth of July, this entire band, consisting of one hundred and twenty persons, embarked for Fort Gibson, by way of New Orleans. They reached their destination in safety; and most of them took up their residence with their brethren, the Seminoles; while others joined the Creeks.

The Federal Executive, having more maturely considered the suggestions of General Worth, at length concluded to accede to his propositions for a pacification with the remaining hostiles in Florida. That officer, having secured Halec Tustenuggee and his band, and sent them West, now dispatched his messengers to those small bands of hostiles which remained, inviting them to hold a council and enter into an arrangement, based upon the condition, that the allies should remain in the southern portion of the Peninsula of Florida, confined to certain limits, and abstain from all acts of aggression upon their white neighbors.

Most of these small bands sent chiefs, or sub-chiefs, to attend the council; and terms of peace were agreed to, and the following General Order was issued:

“ORDER,} Head Quarters Ninth Military Department,}No. 28.} Cedar Key, Florida, August 14, 1843. }

“It is hereby announced, that hostilities with the Indians within this Territory have ceased. Measures are taken to pass the few remaining Indians within certain limits – those in the far south immediately; those west of the Suwanee in a few days, who, meantime, there is every reasonable assurance, will conduct inoffensively if unmolested in their haunts. The lands thus temporarily assigned, as their planting and hunting grounds, are within the following boundaries, to wit: From the mouth of Talockchopco, or Pease Creek, up the left bank of that stream to the fork of the southern branch, and, following that branch, to the head or northern edge of Lake Istokpoga; thence down the eastern margin of that lake to the stream which empties into the Kissimee River, following the left bank of the said stream and river to where the latter empties into Lake Okeechobee; thence down, due south, through said lake and everglades to Shark River, following the right bank of that river to the Gulf; thence along the Gulf shore (excluding all islands between Punta Rosa and the head of Charlotte’s Harbor) to the place of beginning.

“The foregoing arrangements are in accordance with the instructions of the President of the United States.

“By order of Col. WORTH:S. COOPER, A. A. General.”

Most of the troops were now withdrawn from Florida. General Worth retired from the command, and the Florida War was supposed to have ended. It had been commenced with a determination to reënslave the Exiles. That object was, in part, attained. More than five hundred persons were seized and enslaved, between the first of January, 1835, and the fourteenth of August, 1843. Probably one half of them had been born free; the others had themselves escaped from slavery. To effect this object, forty millions of dollars were supposed to have been expended. Eighty thousand dollars was paid from the public treasury for the enslavement of each person, and the lives of at least three white men were sacrificed to insure the enslavement of each black man. The deterioration of our national morality was beyond estimate, and the disgrace of our nation and government are matters incapable of computation. The suffering of the Indians and Exiles amidst such prolonged persecution, such loss of lives and property, we cannot estimate. The friends and families who were separated, the number of those who were made wretched for life, the broken hearts, we will not attempt to enumerate. Nearly one half of the whole number were consigned to the moral death of slavery, and many to that physical death which was dreaded far less than slavery. After wandering in the wilderness thrice forty years, they fell under the oppression, the persecution, the power of a mighty nation, which boasts of its justice, its honor, and love of liberty. We lament the sad fate of those who died in that struggle; but with deeper anguish, and far keener mortification, we deplore the unhappy lot of those who were doomed to drag out a miserable existence, amidst chains and wretchedness, surrounded by that moral darkness which broods over the enslaved portion of our fellow-beings in the Southern States.

There are yet remaining in Florida a few descendants of the pioneer Exiles. They are intermarried with the bands of “Billy Bowlegs,” and of “Sam Jones,” sometimes called Aripeka; they are now mostly half-breeds, and are rapidly becoming amalgamated with the Indian race.

Besides these, there are a number of Spanish Refugees, or colored people who fled from Spanish masters and took up their residence with those called “Spanish Indians.” These did not engage in the war until 1840: nor did they then engage in any of the battles with our army; they contented themselves with plundering ships wrecked on their coast, and the foray upon Indian Key. They refused to send delegates to the council summoned by General Worth, to establish terms of pacification. They live independent of the white people, subsisting mostly on fish and the natural products of the soil, holding very little intercourse with either white men or other Indians. Descendants of Exile parents, they have the complexion and appearance of pure Spaniards; but they are rapidly blending with the Indians, and forming a mixed race.

These different bands, remaining in Florida, and aggregating into a distinct people, have on several occasions since 1843, given evidence of implacable hostility to the whites. And at the time of writing this narrative, they are engaged in open war; while the Government of the United States is endeavoring to secure peace in the same manner and upon the same terms on which General Worth obtained it, in 1843. Their future history may, hereafter, occupy the pen of some other historian.

CHAPTER XXII.

HISTORY OF EXILES CONTINUED

Character of Abraham – His knowledge of the Treaty of Payne’s Landing – Its stipulations – General Jessup’s assurances – Confirmed by other Officers of Government – Disappointment of Exiles on reaching Western Country – They refuse to enter Creek jurisdiction – Creeks disappointed – General Cass’s policy of reuniting Tribes – Agent attempts to pacify Exiles – Hospitality of Cherokees – Discontent of all the Tribes – Seminoles loud in their complaints – Hostilities apprehended – Conduct of Executive – Agents selected to negotiate another Treaty – Treaty stipulations – Attempts to falsify history – Executive action unknown to the people.

1844

The Exiles were now all located on the Cherokee lands, west of the State of Arkansas. They had been removed from Florida at great expense of blood and treasure; but they were yet free, and the object of the Administration had not been attained. Conscious of the designs of the Creeks, the Seminoles and Exiles refused to trust themselves within Creek jurisdiction. They were tenants at will of the Cherokees, whose hospitality had furnished them with temporary homes until the Government should fulfill its treaty stipulations, in furnishing them a territory to their separate use.

Abraham was, perhaps, the most influential man among the Exiles. He had been a witness and interpreter in making the treaty of Payne’s Landing, and had dictated the important provision in the supplemental treaty; he had exerted his influence in favor of emigration; to him, therefore, his people looked with more confidence than to any other individual. In all his intercourse with our officers, he had been assured of the intention to fulfill those treaties; and when he found the Government hesitating on that point, he became indignant, and so did others of his band. But he could only express his indignation to the Agent appointed to superintend their affairs and supply their wants. These complaints were made known to the Indian Bureau, at Washington; but they were unheeded, and the Exiles and their friends lived on in the vain hope that the Administration would at some day redeem the pledged faith of the nation, and assign them a territory for their separate use, where they could live independent of the Creeks, as they had done for nearly a century past.

Nor is it easy for men at this day to appreciate that feeling which so stubbornly sought their enslavement; we can only account for this unyielding purpose, from the long-established practice of so wielding the power and influence of the nation as best to promote the interests of slavery. It is certain, that it would have cost the United States no more to set off to the Exiles and Seminole Indians a separate territory, on which they could live free and independent, than it would to constrain them to settle on the Creek lands, and subject them to Creek laws, and Creek despotism, and Creek servitude.

General Jackson, in 1816, had ordered Blount’s Fort to be destroyed and the negroes returned to those who owned them. To effect this latter object, in 1822, he proposed to compel the Seminole Indians to return and reunite with the Creeks. If at any time there were other reasons for the frauds committed upon the Exiles and Indians – for the violations of the pledged faith of the nation – it is hoped that some of the officers who acted a prominent part in those scenes of treachery and turpitude, or their biographers, will yet inform the public of their existence.

Settled, as the Seminoles and Exiles now were on the Cherokee lands, all parties concerned were necessarily dissatisfied. The Creeks were disappointed, and greatly dissatisfied at not having the Exiles in their power, and charged our Government with bad faith in not delivering that extraordinary people into their hands. The Cherokees had assured the Seminoles and Exiles that our Government would deal honorably with them, and would faithfully carry out the treaty of Payne’s Landing, with the proviso contained in the supplemental treaty; and they were now greatly dissatisfied at the refusal of the Executive to observe this solemn stipulation; while the Seminoles and Exiles were indignant at the deception, fraud and perfidy practiced upon them.

Complaints against the Government now became general among all these tribes. All had been deceived; all had been wronged; and all became loud in their denunciations of the Government. This feeling became more intense as time passed away. It was in vain that our Indian agents and military officers at the West endeavored to quiet this state of general discontent. The newspapers of that day gave intimations of difficulties among the Indians at the West; they stated, in general terms, the danger of hostilities, but omitted all allusion to the cause of this disquietude.

The Executive appeared to be paralyzed with the difficulties now thrown in his way. He urged upon the Indian agents and military officers to use all possible efforts to suppress these feelings of hostility, which now appeared ready to burst forth upon the first occasion; coolly insisting that, at some future day, the Seminoles and Exiles would consent to remove on to the Creek territory.

At length the danger of hostilities became so imminent, that the Executive deemed it necessary to enter upon further negotiation in order to effect the long cherished purpose of subjecting the Exiles to Creek jurisdiction and consequent slavery. To effect this object it was necessary to select suitable instruments. Four Indian Agents, holding their offices by the Executive favor, were appointed to hold a Council with their discontented tribes, and if possible to negotiate a new treaty with them. It is somewhat singular that no statesman, no person favorably known to the public, or possessing public confidence, was selected for so important a service.

1845

Of course any treaty formed under such circumstances and by such agents would conform to the Executive will. The treaty bears date on the twenty-fifth of January; and we insert the preamble and those articles which have particular relation to the subject matter of which we are speaking. They are as follows:

“Articles of a Treaty made by Wm. Armstrong, P. M. Butler, James Segan and Thomas S. Judge, Commissioners in behalf of the United States, of the first part; the Creek Tribe of Indians of the second part, and the Seminole Indians of the third part:”

“WHEREAS, It was stipulated in the fourth article of the Creek Treaty of 1833, that the Seminoles should thence forward be considered a constituent part of the Creek nation, and that a permanent and comfortable home should be secured for them on the lands set apart in said treaty as the country of the Creeks; and whereas, many of the Seminoles have settled and are now living in the Creek Country, while others, constituting a large portion of the tribe, have refused to make their homes in any part thereof, assigning, as a reason, that they are unwilling to submit to Creek laws and Government, and that they are apprehensive of being deprived by the Creek authorities of their property; and whereas, repeated complaints have been made to the United States Government, that those of the Seminoles who refuse to go into the Creek Country have, without authority or right, settled upon lands secured to other tribes, and that they have committed numerous and extensive depredations upon the property of those upon whose lands they have intruded:”

“Now, therefore, in order to reconcile all difficulties respecting location and jurisdiction; to settle all disputed questions which have arisen, or may hereafter arise, in regard to rights of property; and, especially, to preserve the peace of the frontier, seriously endangered by the restless and warlike spirit of the intruding Seminoles, the parties to this treaty have agreed to the following stipulations:”

“ARTICLE 1. The Creeks agree that the Seminoles shall be entitled to settle in a body, or separately, as they please, in any part of the Creek Country; that they shall make their own town regulations, subject, however, to the general control of the Creek Council in which they shall be represented; and, in short, that no distinction shall be made between the two tribes in any respect, except in the management of their pecuniary affairs; in which neither shall interfere with the other.”

“ART 2. The Seminoles agree that those of their tribe who have not done so before the ratification of this treaty, shall immediately thereafter remove to, and permanently settle in, the Creek Country.”

“ART. 3. It is mutually agreed by the Creeks and Seminoles that all contested cases between the two tribes, concerning the right of property growing out of sales or transactions that may have occurred previous to the ratification of this treaty, shall be subject to the decision of the President of the United States.”

The leading feature of this treaty, is a studied effort to make no allusion to the Exiles, or to recognize their existence in any way. General Jessup, in the articles of capitulation, had expressly stipulated for the protection of the persons and property of the “allies” of the Seminoles; but for half a century efforts had been made to exclude them from the page of our national history, and never was that policy more strikingly illustrated than in this treaty.

As heretofore stated, the Seminoles were said to own some forty slaves; but the Author has been unable to find any hint or intimation that any one of those slaves was claimed by the Creeks: yet efforts were made to falsify the truth of history by representing the four or five hundred Exiles now living with the Seminoles to be slaves to their friends and “allies.”

The next extraordinary feature of the treaty, is the recital of the Creek treaty as binding upon the Seminoles, when they had been no party to it, nor even had knowledge of its existence.

But the third article is that on which both Exiles and Seminoles appear to have relied. Thinking the President would do justice; feeling themselves subject to the power of the Executive, and pressed on all sides to accede to terms of pacification, they signed the treaty as the best alternative that lay before them.

In accordance with the past policy of the Administration, this treaty was withheld from publication. It was of course submitted to the Senate in secret session for approval. It was then amended, and still kept from the public for nearly two years after its negotiation.

NOTE – At the session of Congress, 1845-6, a bill containing, among many other things, an appropriation to carry out this treaty, was reported by the committee on Ways and Means, of the House of Representatives. The treaty itself yet lay concealed in the office of the Secretary of the Senate, where it had been ratified in secret session, and not a member of the House of Representatives had seen it, unless it was the Chairman of the committee of Ways and Means, or other confidential friends of the Executive, to whom it was given for personal examination.

The bill was printed, and the Author seeing this provision, determined to know something of the treaty, before voting money to carry it into effect. For this purpose, he called on one of the Senators from Ohio (Hon. Thomas Corwin), to get a copy of the treaty. Mr. Corwin went with him to the office of the Secretary of the Senate, and after much inquiry, and passing from one clerk to another, a copy was obtained.

When the bill came up for discussion, inquiry was made as to the treaty, its character and object. No member appeared to have any knowledge of it, save the Chairman of the committee of Ways and Means, (Mr. McKay of North Carolina). The Author of this work endeavored to give the House some idea of its origin, and, in the course of his remarks, referred to the manner in which the State of Georgia had been implicated in the persecution of the Exiles. This reference to the State of Georgia awakened the ire of Mr. Black, a Representative from that State, who advanced toward the Author with uplifted cane, as if to inflict personal chastisement, and quite a scène followed, which at the time created some sensation in the country.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE REUNION AND FINAL EXODUS

Difficulties in effecting a reunion of Tribes – Its objects – Exiles and Seminoles move on to Creek Lands – They settle in separate Villages – Creeks demand Exiles as Slaves – Exiles arm themselves – They flee to Fort Gibson – Demand protection of the United States – General Arbuckle protects them – Reports facts to Department – Administration embarrassed – Call on General Jessup for facts – He writes General Arbuckle – Reports facts to the President – President hesitates – Refers question to Attorney General – Extraordinary opinion of that Officer – Manner in which Mr. Mason was placed in office – Exiles return to their Village – Slaveholders dissatisfied – Slave-dealer among the Creeks – His offer – They capture near one hundred Exiles – They are delivered to the Slave-dealer – Habeas Corpus in Arkansas – Decision of Judge – Exiles hurried to New Orleans and sold as Slaves – Events of 1850 – Exiles depart for Mexico – Are pursued by Creeks – Battle – The Exiles continue their journey – They settle near Santa Rosa – The fate which different portions of the Exiles met – Incidents which occurred after their settlement in Mexico – Conclusion.

1846

The Creeks and Seminoles had been separated for nearly a century. They had most of that time lived under separate governments. Each Tribe had been controlled by their own laws; and each had been independent of the other. They had often been at war with each other; and the most deadly feuds had been engendered and still subsisted among them. To unite them with the Creeks, and blot the name of “Seminole” from the page of their future history, in order to involve the Exiles in slavery, had long been a cherished object with the administration of our Government. It was now fondly hoped, that that object would be accomplished without further difficulty.

But at no period had the Seminole Indians regarded the Exiles with greater favor than they did when removing on to the territory assigned to the Creeks. Although many of them had intermarried with the Seminoles, and half-breeds were now common among the Indians; yet most of the descendants of the pioneers who fled from South Carolina and Georgia maintained their identity of character, living by themselves, and maintaining the purity of the African race. They yet cherished this love of their own kindred and color; and when they removed on to the Creek lands, they settled in separate villages: and the Seminole Indians appeared generally to coincide with the Exiles in the propriety of each maintaining their distinctive character.

During the summer and autumn both Indians and Exiles became residents within Creek jurisdiction; and the Executive seemed to regard the trust held under the assignment made at Indian Spring, twenty-four years previously, as now fulfilled. Regarding the Creeks as holding the equitable or beneficial interest in the bodies of the Exiles, under the assignment from their owners to the United States, and they being now brought under Creek jurisdiction, subject to Creek laws, the Executive felt that his obligations were discharged, and the whole matter left with the Creeks.

This opinion appears also to have been entertained by the Creek Indians; for no sooner had the Exiles and Seminoles located themselves within Creek jurisdiction, than the Exiles were claimed as the legitimate slaves of the Creeks. To these demands the Exiles and Seminoles replied, that the President, under the treaty of 1845, was bound to hear and determine all questions arising between them. The demands were, therefore, certified to the proper department for decision. But this setting in judgment upon the heaven-endowed right of man to his liberty, seemed to involve more personal and moral responsibility than was desirable for the Executive to assume, and the claims remained undecided.

The Creeks became impatient at delay; they were a slaveholding people, as well as their more civilized but more infidel brethren, of the slave States. The Exiles, living in their own villages in the enjoyment of perfect freedom, had already excited discontent among the slaves of the Creek and Choctaw Tribes, and those of Arkansas. The Creeks appeared to feel that it had been far better for them to have kept the Exiles in Florida, than to bring them to the Western Country to live in freedom. Yet their claims under the treaty of 1845, thus far, appeared to have been disregarded by the President; they had been unable to obtain a decision on them; and they now threatened violence for the purpose of enslaving the Exiles, unless their demands were peacefully conceded.

The Exiles, yet confident that the Government would fulfill its stipulations to protect them and their property, repaired in a body to Fort Gibson, and demanded protection of General Arbuckle, the officer in command. He had no doubt of the obligation of the United States to lend them protection, according to the express language of the articles of capitulation entered into with General Jessup, in March, 1837. He, therefore, directed the whole body of Exiles to encamp and remain upon the lands reserved by the United States, near the fort, and under their exclusive jurisdiction, assuring them that no Creek would dare set foot upon that reservation with intentions of violence towards any person. Accordingly the Exiles, who yet remained free, now encamped around Fort Gibson, and were supported by rations dealt out from the public stores.