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145-495: The Matheson History Museum building, formerly an American Legion Hall and officially opened as a museum in 1994, houses the bulk of the museum complex's exhibitions and programs. The front of the building has a gift shop and a recreation of the Matheson Dry Goods Store that used to exist on Alachua Avenue (now University Avenue). The main gallery consists of a permanent display of local and Florida history along

290-469: A starchy flour similar to arrowroot , as well as mashing corn with a mortar and pestle to make sofkee , a sort of porridge often used as a beverage, with water added— ashes from the fire wood used to cook the sofkee were occasionally added to it for extra flavor. They also introduced their Gullah staple of rice to the Seminole, and continued to use it as a basic part of their diets. Rice remained part of

435-674: A $ 56 million federal settlement, a judgement trust, originally awarded in 1976 to the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma and the Seminole Tribe of Florida (and other Florida Seminoles) by the federal government. The settlement was in compensation for land taken from them in northern Florida by the United States at the time of the signing of the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823, when most of the Seminole and maroons were moved to

580-752: A Seminole on the Dawes Rolls of the early 20th century, which excluded about 1,200 Freedmen who were previously included as members. Excluded Freedmen argue that the Dawes Rolls were inaccurate and often classified persons with both Seminole and African ancestry as only Freedmen. The District Court for the District of Columbia however ruled in Seminole Nation of Oklahoma v. Norton that Freedmen retained membership and voting rights. The Spanish strategy for defending their claim of Florida at first

725-464: A contingent of regular army troops south towards St. Augustine. Upon hearing of Mathews' actions, the government became alarmed that he would provoke war with Spain. Secretary of State James Monroe ordered Matthews to return all captured territory to Spanish authorities. After several months of negotiations on the withdrawal of the Americans and compensation for their foraging through the countryside,

870-476: A fort, it was constantly in some form of danger and did face the dangers many other early European colonies had. It was notably devastated in 1586, when English sea captain and sometime pirate Sir Francis Drake plundered and burned the city. Later sometime in 1599 a fire would burn down the Franciscan monastery that was present and the southern part of St. Augustine and a few months later on September 22, 1599,

1015-527: A hurricane would hit destroying much of the town. Although St. Augustine faced many hardships the Spanish decided to maintain the town and the colony as a way to counteract English expansion in the Americas and to help protect Spanish ships. Catholic missionaries used St. Augustine as a base of operations to establish over 100 far-flung missions throughout Florida. They converted 26,000 natives by 1655, but

1160-480: A mass escape in 1849 to northern Mexico , where slavery had been abolished twenty years earlier. The black fugitives crossed to freedom in July 1850. They rode with a faction of traditionalist Seminole under the chief Coacochee , who led the expedition. The Mexican government welcomed the Seminole allies as border guards on the frontier, and they settled at El Nacimiento  [ es ] , Coahuila . After 1861,

1305-638: A point on or north of Tampa Bay.) Peoples in southern Florida depended on the rich estuarine environment and developed a highly complex society without agriculture. At the time of first European contact in the early 16th century, Florida was inhabited by an estimated 350,000 people belonging to a number of tribes. (Anthropologist Henry F. Dobyns has estimated that as many as 700,000 people lived in Florida in 1492). The Spanish Empire sent Spanish explorers recording nearly one hundred names of groups they encountered, ranging from organized political entities such as

1450-480: A population of 300 while a 1689 census found there was 1,444 people that lived there. Another done in 1736 found 1,409 residents. By 1763 the population of St. Augustine was larger than Williamsburg, Virginia or any other town in the southern British colonies with the exception of Charleston, South Carolina . African slaves used primarily for labor were first introduced to Spanish Florida as early as 1580, when officials asked for permission to import slaves to bolster

1595-523: A reservation in the center of the territory. This was before removal west of the Mississippi. The judgement trust was based on the Seminole tribe as it existed in 1823. Black Seminoles were not recognized legally as part of the tribe, nor was their ownership or occupancy of land separately recognized. The US government at the time would have assumed most were fugitive slaves, without legal standing. The Oklahoma and Florida groups were awarded portions of

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1740-422: A result, the black Seminoles born to slave mothers were always at risk from slave raiders. Historian Ray Von Robertson conducted oral interviews with sixteen Black Seminoles from 2006 and 2007 and found that Seminole cultural influences were incorporated into their daily lives in practices such as food ways, herbal medicine, and language. Black Seminoles cooked and ate fry bread, sofkee , and grape dumplings. By

1885-546: A revolt in 1656 and an epidemic in 1659 proved devastating. Construction on Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine would begin in 1672 and finish in 1695. Another fort, named Fort Matanzas would be built in 1742 to defend St. Augustine's entrance from the Matanzas Inlet . The total population of St. Augustine during the Spanish period has some degree of uncertainty but several census were taken. A 1675 census found it had

2030-403: A shape as a peninsula. The emergent landmass of Florida was Orange Island , a low-relief island sitting atop the carbonate Florida Platform which emerged about 34 to 28 million years ago. When glaciation locked up the world's water, starting 2.58 million years ago, the sea level dropped precipitously. It was approximately 100 meters (330 ft) lower than present levels. As a result,

2175-620: A shared threat. Thus, a majority of Florida residents were Loyalists , and both East and West Florida declined to send representatives to any sessions of the Continental Congress . Governor Patrick Tonyn raised four black militia units to protect East Florida. Enslaved blacks who fought for the British Crown were promised freedom. However, due to the passing of stricter slave codes and the efforts of slave owners, few of those who fought were granted their freedom. During

2320-523: Is likely that the peoples living in those areas at the time of first European contact were direct descendants of the inhabitants of the areas in late Archaic and Woodland times. The cultures of the Florida panhandle and the north and central Gulf coast of the Florida peninsula were strongly influenced by the Mississippian culture , producing two local variants known as the Pensacola culture and

2465-524: Is now Orlando. The paleo-Indian culture was replaced by, or evolved into, the Early Archaic culture . With an increase in population and more water available, the people occupied many more locations, as evidenced by numerous artifacts. Archaeologists have learned much about the Early Archaic people of Florida from the discoveries made at Windover Pond . The Early Archaic period evolved into

2610-496: Is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in any U.S. state. It is second oldest only to San Juan, Puerto Rico , in the United States' current territory. From this base of operations, the Spanish began building Catholic missions . All colonial cities were founded near the mouths of rivers. St. Augustine was founded where the Matanzas Inlet permitted access to the Matanzas River . Other cities were founded on

2755-500: Is usually given credit for being the first European to sight Florida in 1513, but he may have had predecessors. Florida and much of the nearby coast is depicted in the Cantino planisphere , an early world map which was surreptitiously copied in 1502 from the most current Portuguese sailing charts and smuggled into Italy a decade before Ponce sailed north from Puerto Rico on his voyage of exploration. Ponce de León may not have even been

2900-799: The American Revolutionary War , Florida Loyalists fighting for the English Crown participated in raids against the Patriot forces in South Carolina and Georgia. Continental forces attempted to invade East Florida early in the conflict, but they were defeated on May 17, 1777, at the Battle of Thomas Creek in today's Nassau County when American Colonel John Baker surrendered to the British. Another American incursion into

3045-630: The Apalachee , with a population of around 50,000, to villages with no known political affiliation. There were an estimated 150,000 speakers of dialects of the Timucua language , but the Timucua were organized as groups of villages and did not share a common culture. Other tribes in Florida at the time of first contact included the Ais , Calusa , Jaega , Mayaimi , Tequesta , and Tocobaga . The populations of all of these tribes decreased markedly during

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3190-582: The Atlantic slave trade in 1807 , in 1818 Britain declared that African slaves or slaves who arrived in the Bahamas from outside the British West Indies would be manumitted . In 1833 Britain abolished slavery throughout its Empire. They have been sometimes referred to as "African Indians or Black Indians", in recognition of their history. In 1900, Seminole Freedmen numbered about 1,000 on

3335-560: The Board of Trade that "it has been a practice for a good while past, for negroes to run away from their Masters, and get into the Indian towns, from whence it proved very difficult to get them back". When British colonial officials in Florida pressed the Seminole to return runaway slaves, they replied that they had "merely given hungry people food, and invited the slaveholders to catch the runaways themselves". In 1763 , Spain traded Florida to

3480-748: The Calusa before heading back to Puerto Rico. From 1513 onward, the land became known as La Florida . After 1630, and throughout the 18th century, Tegesta (after the Tequesta tribe) was an alternate name of choice for the Florida peninsula following publication of a map by the Dutch cartographer Hessel Gerritsz in Joannes de Laet 's History of the New World . Further Spanish attempts to explore and colonize Florida were disastrous. Ponce de León returned to

3625-660: The Comanche . After the close of the Texas Indian Wars, the scouts remained stationed at Fort Clark in Brackettville, Texas . The Army disbanded the unit in 1914. The veterans and their families settled in and around Brackettville, where scouts and family members were buried in its cemetery. The town remains the spiritual center of the Texas-based black Seminoles. In 1981, descendants at Brackettville and

3770-641: The Creek or Mikasuki-speaking Seminole. The Native Americans used them as translators to advance their trading with the British and other tribes. Together, in Florida, they developed Afro-Seminole Creole , identified in 1978 as a distinct language by the linguist Ian Hancock . Black Seminoles and Freedmen continued to speak Afro-Seminole Creole through the 19th century in Oklahoma. Hancock found that in 1978, some Black Seminole and Seminole elders still spoke it in Oklahoma and in Florida. After winning independence in

3915-496: The Creek Nation , many of whom were slaveholders. The Creek tried to re-enslave some of the fugitive black slaves. John Horse and others set up towns, generally near Seminole settlements, repeating their pattern from Florida. In the west, the black Seminoles were still threatened by slave raiders. These included pro-slavery members of the Creek tribe and some Seminole, whose allegiance to the blacks diminished after defeat by

4060-598: The Creek Wars . By a process of ethnogenesis , the Native Americans formed the Seminole. 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

4205-514: The Creek people who absorbed other groups, developed as a distinct tribe in Florida during the 18th century through the process of ethnogenesis . They have three federally recognized tribes: the largest is the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma , formed of descendants since removal in the 1830s; others are the smaller Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida . Spanish conqueror and explorer Juan Ponce de León

4350-699: The Fort Pierce Reservation , a 50-acre parcel taken in trust in 1995 by the Department of Interior for the Tribe as its sixth reservation. Descendants of Afro Seminoles, who identify as Bahamian, reside on Andros Island in the Bahamas in an Area called Red Bay. A few hundred refugees had left in the early nineteenth century from Cape Florida to go to the British colony for sanctuary from American enslavement. After banning its participation in

4495-619: The Fort Walton culture . Continuity in cultural history suggests that the peoples of those areas were also descended from the inhabitants of the Archaic period. In the panhandle and the northern part of the peninsula, people adopted cultivation of maize. Its cultivation was restricted or absent among the tribes who lived south of the Timucuan -speaking people (i.e., south of a line approximately from present-day Daytona Beach, Florida to

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4640-663: The Kikongo language . Other African words spoken by black Seminoles are from the Twi , Wolof , and other West African languages. Initially living apart from the Native Americans, the maroons developed their own unique African-American culture, based in the Gullah culture of the Lowcountry. Black Seminoles inclined toward a syncretic form of Christianity developed during the plantation years. Certain cultural practices, such as " jumping

4785-675: The King's Road connecting St. Augustine to Georgia . The road crossed the St. Johns River at a narrow point, which the Seminole called Wacca Pilatka and the British named "Cow Ford", both names ostensibly reflecting the fact that cattle were brought across the river there. The British government gave land grants to officers and soldiers who had fought in the French and Indian War in order to encourage settlement. In order to induce settlers to move to

4930-633: The Kingdom of Great Britain for control of Havana , Cuba, which had been captured by the British during the Seven Years' War . It was part of a large expansion of British territory following the country's victory in the Seven Years' War . Almost the entire Spanish population left, taking along most of the remaining indigenous population to Cuba. The British divided the territory into East Florida and West Florida . The British soon constructed

5075-787: The Mobile District of West Florida to the Mississippi Territory in May 1812. The surrender of Spanish forces at Mobile in April 1813 officially established American control over the area, which was eventually divided between the states of Alabama and Mississippi . In March 1812, a small independent band of Americans took control of Amelia Island on the Atlantic coast. They declared that they were now an independent republic free from Spanish rule in what would become known as

5220-551: The Patriot War . The revolt was organized by General George Mathews of the U.S. Army, who had been authorized to secretly negotiate with the Spanish governor for American acquisition of East Florida. Instead, Mathews organized a group of frontiersmen in Georgia, who arrived at the Spanish town of Fernandina and demanded the surrender of all of Amelia Island. Upon declaring the island a republic, he led his volunteers along with

5365-467: The Province of Carolina , raided throughout Florida. They burned villages, wounded many of the inhabitants and carried captives back to Charles Towne to be sold into slavery . Most of the villages in Florida were abandoned, and the survivors sought refuge at St. Augustine or in isolated spots around the state. Many tribes became extinct during this period and by the end of the 18th century. Some of

5510-605: The Seminole people in Florida and Oklahoma . They are mostly blood descendants of the Seminole people, free Africans , and escaped former slaves , who allied with Seminole groups in Spanish Florida . Many have Seminole lineage, but due to the stigma of having mixed origin, they have all been categorized as slaves or Freedmen in the past. Historically, the Black Seminoles lived mostly in distinct bands near

5655-617: The South Carolina Lowcountry to Spanish Florida seeking freedom. Over centuries, the Africans in the Lowcountry and Sea Islands gradually formed what has become known as the Gullah culture of the coastal Southeast, with its own Creole language. Under a 1693 edict from King Charles II of Spain , the black refugees received liberty in exchange for defending the Spanish settlers at St. Augustine . The Spanish organized

5800-549: The "Free and Independent Republic of West Florida" on September 23. (None of it was within what is today the state of Florida.) Their flag was the original " Bonnie Blue Flag ", a single white star on a blue field. On October 27, 1810, most of the Republic of West Florida was annexed by proclamation of President James Madison , who claimed that the region was included in the Louisiana Purchase and incorporated it into

5945-543: The 1800s, to describe the African Americans as "vassals and allies" of the Seminole. The traditional relationship between Seminole Blacks and natives changed in the course of the Second Seminole War when the old tribal system broke down and the Seminole resolved themselves into loose war bands living off the land with no distinction between tribal members and Black fugitives. That changed again in

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6090-554: The 1817–1818 campaign against the Seminole Indians by Andrew Jackson that became known later as the First Seminole War . Jackson took temporary control of Pensacola in 1818, and though he withdrew due to Spanish objections, the United States continued to effectively control much of West Florida. According to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams , this was necessary because Florida had become "a derelict open to

6235-610: The 1920s . A diverse population, urbanization, and a diverse economy would develop in Florida throughout the 20th century. In 2014, Florida with over 19 million people, surpassed New York and became the third most populous state in the U.S. The economy of Florida has changed over its history, starting with natural resource exploitation in logging, mining, fishing, and sponge diving ; as well as cattle ranching , farming, and citrus growing . The tourism, real estate, trade, banking, and retirement destination businesses would develop as economic sectors later on. The foundation of Florida

6380-529: The American naturalist William Bartram visited the area, he referred to the Seminole as a distinct people. He believed their name was derived from the word "simanó-li", which according to John Reed Swanton, "is applied by the Creeks to people who remove from populous towns and live by themselves.". William C. Sturtevant says the ethnonym was borrowed by Muskogee from the Spanish word cimarrón , supposedly

6525-528: The Apalachee eventually reached Louisiana, where they survived as a distinct group for at least another century. The Spanish evacuated the few surviving members of the Florida tribes to Cuba in 1763 when Spain transferred the territory of Florida to the British Empire following the latter's victory against France in the Seven Years' War . In the aftermath, the Seminole , originally an offshoot of

6670-557: The Bahamas at that time. He went ashore on Florida's east coast during the Spanish Easter feast, Pascua Florida , on April 7 and named the land La Pascua de la Florida. After briefly exploring the land south of present-day St. Augustine , the expedition sailed south to the bottom of the Florida peninsula, through the Florida Keys , and up the west coast as far north as Charlotte Harbor , where they briefly skirmished with

6815-403: The Bahamas, the black Seminoles developed a village known as Red Bays on Andros , where basket making and certain grave rituals associated with Seminole traditions are still practiced. Federal construction and staffing of the Cape Florida Lighthouse in 1825 reduced the number of slave escapes from this site. The Second Seminole War (1835–42) marked the height of tension between the U.S. and

6960-421: 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. In terms of spirituality, the ethnic groups remained distinct. Seminole historian Susan Miller explained that Black Seminoles did not participate in Seminole ceremonies such as

7105-421: The Black Seminoles flourished. US Army Lieutenant George McCall recorded his impressions of a Black Seminole community in 1826: We found these negroes in possession of large fields of the finest land, producing large crops of corn, beans, melons, pumpkins, and other esculent vegetables.... I saw, while riding along the borders of the ponds, fine rice growing; and in the village large corn-cribs were filled, while

7250-403: The Black former-slaves never wholly adopted Seminole culture and beliefs but were accepted into Seminole society, as seen by the skin tone in the pictures of the early 1900s. They were not considered Native American by the middle of the 20th century. Most Black former-slaves spoke Gullah , an Afro-English-based creole language . That enabled them to communicate better with Anglo-Americans than

7395-464: The British North American colonies. They settled in a buffer community north of St. Augustine, called Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose , the first settlement made of free black people in North America. During this period, the British (including their North American colonies) repeatedly attacked Spanish Florida, especially in 1702 and again in 1740, when a large force under James Oglethorpe sailed south from Georgia and besieged St. Augustine , but

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7540-455: The British authorities in St. Augustine. Their descendants survive to this day, as does the name New Smyrna. In 1767, the British moved the northern boundary of West Florida to a line extending from the mouth of the Yazoo River east to the Chattahoochee River (32° 28′ north latitude), consisting of approximately the lower third of the present states of Mississippi and Alabama . During this time, Creek Indians migrated into Florida and formed

7685-523: The Charlotte Harbor area in 1521 with equipment and settlers to start a colony, but was soon driven off by hostile Calusa, and de León died in Cuba from wounds received in the fighting. Pánfilo de Narváez 's expedition explored Florida's west coast in 1528, but his violent demands for gold and food led to hostile relations with the Tocobaga and other native groups. Facing starvation and unable to find his support ships, Narváez attempted return to Mexico via rafts, but all were lost at sea and only four members of

7830-417: The Dosar Barkus Band, are represented on the General Council of the Nation. Other centers are in Florida , Texas , the Bahamas , and northern Mexico . Since the 1930s, the Seminole Freedmen have struggled with cycles of exclusion from the Seminole Tribe of Oklahoma. In 1990, the tribe received the majority of a $ 56 million judgment trust by the United States, for seizure of lands in Florida in 1823, and

7975-404: The European-American patriarchal system. But, under the South's adoption of the principle of partus sequitur ventrem in the 17th century and incorporated into slavery law in slave states, children of slave mothers were considered legally slaves. Under the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, even if the mother escaped to a free state, she and her children were legally considered slaves and fugitives. As

8120-425: The Florida peninsula not only emerged, but had a land area about twice what it is today. Florida also had a drier and cooler climate than in more recent times. There were few flowing rivers or wetlands . Paleo-Indians entered what is now Florida at least 14,000 years ago, during the last glacial period . With lower sea levels, the Florida peninsula was much wider, and the climate was cooler and much drier than in

8265-423: The Freedmen have worked to gain a share of it. In 1999, the Seminole Freedmen's suit against the government was dismissed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ; the court ruled the Freedmen could not bring suit independently of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which refused to join on the claim issue. In 2000 the Seminole Nation voted to restrict membership to those who could prove descent from

8410-410: The Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River. Because of harsh conditions, many of both peoples died along this trail from Florida to Oklahoma, also known as The Trail of Tears . The status of black Seminoles and fugitive slaves was largely unsettled after they reached Indian Territory. The issue was compounded by the government's initially putting the Seminole and blacks under the administration of

8555-401: The Haile Homestead in 1856). It was home to James Douglas Matheson and his wife, Augusta Florida Steele Matheson, daughter of Florida pioneer Augustus Steele, founder of Hillsborough County and Cedar Key. Their son, Christopher Matheson, was Gainesville's longest-serving mayor. Chris's widow, Sarah Hamilton Matheson, initially deeded the house to the Alachua County Historical Society, of which she

8700-427: The Indian Bureau. That made the poorly educated Freedmen easy marks for white settlers migrating from the Deep South." Numerous Seminole Freedmen lost their land in the early decades after allotment, and some moved to urban areas. Others left the state because of its conditions of racial segregation. As US citizens, they were exposed to the harsher racial laws of Oklahoma. Since 1954, the Freedmen have been included in

8845-433: The Little River community of Oklahoma met for the first time in more than a century, in Texas for a Juneteenth reunion and celebration. Afro Seminole descendants continue to live in Florida today. They can enroll in the Seminole Tribe of Florida if they meet its membership criteria for blood quantum : one-quarter Seminole ancestry. About 50 black Seminoles, all of whom have at least one-quarter Seminole ancestry, live on

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8990-560: The Middle Archaic period around 5000 BC. People started living in villages near wetlands and along the coast at favored sites that were likely occupied for multiple generations. The Late Archaic period started about 3000 BC, when Florida's climate had reached current conditions and the sea had risen close to its present level. People commonly occupied both fresh and saltwater wetlands. Large shell middens accumulated during this period. Many people lived in large villages with purpose-built earthwork mounds , such as at Horr's Island , which had

9135-416: The Native American Seminoles. Some were held as slaves, particularly of Seminole leaders, but the Black Seminole had more freedom than did slaves held by whites in the South and by other Native American tribes, including the right to bear arms . Today, Black Seminole descendants live primarily in rural communities around the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma . Its two Freedmen's bands, the Caesar Bruner Band and

9280-474: The Oklahoma reservation, about one-third of the total population at the time. Members were registered on the Dawes Rolls for allocation of communal land to individual households. Since then, numerous Freedmen left after losing their land, as their land sales were not overseen by the Indian Bureau. Others left because of having to deal with the harshly segregated society of Oklahoma. The land allotments and participation in Oklahoma society altered relations between

9425-428: The Revolution, American slaveholders were increasingly worried about the armed black communities in Florida. The territory was ruled again by Spain, as Britain had ceded both East and West Florida . The US slaveholders sought the capture and return of Florida's black fugitives under the Treaty of New York (1790) , the first treaty ratified under the Confederation. Wanting to disrupt Florida's maroon communities after

9570-411: The Revolution, the Seminole allied with the British, and African Americans and Seminole came into increased contact with each other. The Seminole held some slaves, as did the Creek and other Southeast Native American tribes. During the War of 1812 , members of both communities sided with the British against the US in the hopes of repelling American settlers; they strengthened their internal ties and earned

9715-413: The Seminole Busk ritual. Participation in spiritual practices required matrilineal descent within a Seminole clan. The Seminole followed the nativistic principles of their Great Spirit . Black enslaved people had a syncretic form of Christianity brought with them from the plantations and developed a Pan-African culture that was expressed in writing, language, religion , and social structure. In general,

9860-414: The Seminole and Black Seminole people owned large quantities of Florida land. In some cases, a portion of that Florida land is still owned by the Seminole and black Seminole descendants in Florida. In the 19th century, the Black Seminoles were called "Seminole Negroes " by their white American enemies and Estelusti ("black People"), by their Native American allies. Under the comparatively free conditions,

10005-405: The Seminole and Freedmen, particularly after the 1930s. Both peoples faced racial discrimination from whites in Oklahoma, who essentially divided society into two: white and "other". Public schools and facilities were racially segregated. When the tribe reorganized under the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, some Seminole wanted to exclude the Freedmen and keep the tribe as Native American only. It

10150-422: The Seminole and the other Five Civilized Tribes supported the Confederacy during the American Civil War, in 1866 the US required new peace treaties with them. The US required the tribes emancipate any slaves and extend to the freedmen full citizenship rights in the tribes if they chose to stay in Indian Territory. In the late nineteenth century, Seminole Freedmen thrived in towns near the Seminole communities on

10295-475: The Seminole generally lived in their own communities. In exchange for paying an annual tribute of livestock, crops, hunting, and war party obligations, Black prisoners or fugitives found sanctuary among the Seminole. Seminoles, in turn, acquired an important strategic ally in a sparsely-populated region. They elected their own leaders, and could amass wealth in cattle and crops. Most importantly, they bore arms for self-defense. Florida real estate records show that

10440-597: The Seminole tribe. When representatives from thirteen North American colonies declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, many Floridians condemned the action. East and West Florida were backwater outposts whose populations included a large percentage of British military personnel and their families. There was little trade in or out of the colonies, so they were largely unaffected by the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765 and other taxes and policies which brought other British colonies together in common interest against

10585-658: The Seminoles, and also the historical peak of the African-Seminole alliance. Under the policy of Indian removal , the US wanted to relocate Florida's 4,000 Seminole people and most of their 800 black Seminole allies to the western Indian Territory . During the year before the war, prominent white citizens captured and claimed as fugitive slaves at least 100 black Seminoles. Anticipating attempts to re-enslave more members of their community, black Seminoles opposed removal to

10730-452: The South, and free black people and fugitive slaves, who in the 19th century became allied with the Native Americans as Black Seminoles . Florida was under colonial rule by Spain from the 16th century to the 19th century, and briefly by Great Britain during the 18th century (1763–1783). Neither Spain nor Britain maintained a large military or civilian population. It became a territory of

10875-667: The Southeast at the same time. In Florida, they developed the Afro-Seminole Creole , which they spoke with the growing Seminole tribe. Following the Treaty of Paris signed in 1763 at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War , Spanish Florida was ceded to the Kingdom of Great Britain . The area remained a sanctuary for fugitive slaves from the Southern colonies , as it was lightly settled. Many slaves sought refuge near growing Native American settlements. In 1773, when

11020-756: The Spanish-allied Apalachee Indians (the Apalachee massacre ) opened Florida up to slave raids , which reached to the Florida Keys and decimated the native population. The Yamasee War of 1715–1717 in the Carolinas resulted in numerous Indian refugees, such as the Yamasee, moving south to Florida. In 1719, the French captured the Spanish settlement at Pensacola. The border between the British colony of Georgia and Spanish Florida

11165-446: The US in the war. Officers of the federal army may have tried to protect the black Seminoles, but in 1848 the U.S. Attorney General bowed to pro-slavery lobbyists and ordered the army to disarm the community. This left hundreds of Seminoles and black Seminoles unable to leave the settlement or to defend themselves against slavers. Facing the threat of enslavement, the black Seminole leader John Horse and about 180 black Seminoles staged

11310-627: The United States government to remove the Indians from their lands in Florida. Many settlers in Florida developed plantation agriculture, similar to other areas of the Deep South. To the consternation of new landowners, the Seminoles harbored and integrated runaway black slaves, and clashes between whites and Indians grew with the influx of new settlers. Black Seminoles The Black Seminoles , or Afro-Seminoles , are an ethnic group of mixed Native American and African origin associated with

11455-458: The United States in 1821. Two decades later, on March 3, 1845, Florida was admitted to the Union as the 27th U.S. state. Florida is nicknamed the "Sunshine State" due to its warm climate and days of sunshine. Florida's sunny climate, many beaches, and growth of industries have attracted northern migrants within the United States, international migrants, and vacationers since the Florida land boom of

11600-649: The United States on March 30, 1822. The U.S. merged East Florida and West Florida (although the majority of West Florida was annexed to Territory of Orleans and Mississippi Territory ), and established a new capital in Tallahassee , conveniently located halfway between the East Florida capital of St. Augustine and the West Florida capital of Pensacola. The boundaries of Florida's first two counties, Escambia and St. Johns , approximately coincided with

11745-583: The United States. The black Seminole Scouts (originally an African American unit despite the name) played a lead role in the Texas-Indian Wars of the 1870s, when they were based at Fort Clark, Texas , the home of the Buffalo Soldiers . The scouts became famous for their tracking abilities and feats of endurance. Four men were awarded the Medal of Honor , three for an 1875 action against

11890-503: The United States. The transfer was negotiated as part of the Adams–Onís Treaty , which also settled several boundary disputes between Spanish colonies and the U.S. in exchange for American payment of $ 5,000,000 in claims against the Spanish government. The treaty was signed in 1819 and took effect in 1821, and the United States formally took possession of Florida on July 17, 1821. Florida Territory became an organized territory of

12035-625: The War of 1812, General Andrew Jackson attacked the Negro Fort , which had become a black Seminole stronghold after the British had allowed them to occupy it when they evacuated Florida. Breaking up the maroon communities was one of Jackson's major objectives in the First Seminole War (1817–18). Under pressure, the Native American and black communities moved into south and central Florida. Slaves and black Seminoles frequently migrated down

12180-470: The West. In councils before the war, they threw their support behind the most militant Seminole faction, led by Osceola . After war broke out, individual black leaders, such as John Caesar, Abraham, and John Horse , played key roles. In addition to aiding the natives in their fight, black Seminoles recruited plantation slaves to rebellion at the start of the war. The slaves joined Native Americans and maroons in

12325-416: The backwoods of Georgia and South Carolina . Though technically not allowed by the Spanish authorities, the Spanish were never able to effectively police the border region, and a mix of American settlers, escaped slaves, and Native Americans would continue to migrate into Florida unchecked. The American migrants, mixing with the few remaining settlers from Florida's British period, would be the progenitors of

12470-565: The black Seminoles in Mexico and Texas had little contact with those in Oklahoma. For the next 20 years, black Seminoles served as militiamen and Native American fighters in Mexico, where they became known as mascogos , derived from the tribal name of the Creek – Muskogee . Slave raiders from Texas continued to threaten the community but arms and reinforcements from the Mexican Army enabled

12615-430: The black people who pioneered Florida were Gullah people who escaped from the rice plantations of South Carolina (and later Georgia). As Gullah, they had developed an Afro-English based Creole, along with cultural practices and African leadership structure. The Gullah pioneers built their own settlements based on rice and corn agriculture. They became allies of Creek and other Native Americans escaping into Florida from

12760-499: The black volunteers into a militia ; their settlement at Fort Mosé , founded in 1738, was the first legally sanctioned free black town in North America. Not all the slaves escaping south found military service in St. Augustine to their liking. More escaped slaves sought refuge in wilderness areas in northern Florida, where their knowledge of tropical agriculture—and resistance to tropical diseases—served them well. Most of

12905-676: The black warriors to defend their community. By the 1940s, descendants of the Mascogos numbered 400–500 in El Nacimiento de los Negros, Coahuila , inhabiting lands adjacent to the Kickapoo tribe. They had a thriving agricultural community. By the 1990s, most of the descendants had moved into Texas. Throughout the period, several hundred black Seminoles remained in the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma). Because most of

13050-528: The blacks if they surrendered and agreed to removal to Indian Territory. John Horse was among the black warriors who surrendered under this condition. Due to Seminole opposition, however, the Army did not fully follow through on its offer. After 1838, more than 500 black Seminoles traveled with the Seminoles thousands of miles to the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma; some traveled by ship across

13195-477: The boundaries of West and East Florida respectively. The free black and Indigenous slaves, Black Seminoles, living near St. Augustine, fled to Havana, Cuba to avoid coming under US control. Some Seminole also abandoned their settlements and moved further south. Hundreds of Black Seminoles and fugitive slaves escaped in the early nineteenth century from Cape Florida to The Bahamas , where they settled on Andros Island . As settlement increased, pressure grew on

13340-402: The boundaries. The Spanish wanted the expanded northern boundary Britain had made to West Florida, while the new United States demanded the old boundary at the 31st parallel north . This border controversy was resolved in the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo when Spain recognized the 31st parallel as the boundary. Just as most residents of Spanish Florida had left when Britain gained possession of

13485-413: The broom " to celebrate marriage, hailed from the plantations; other customs, such as some names used for black towns, reflected African heritage. As time progressed, the Seminole and blacks had limited intermarriage, but historians and anthropologists have come to believe that generally the black Seminoles had independent communities. They allied with the Seminole at times of war. The Seminole society

13630-496: The building into a library and archives for the museum's local history collections. The Matheson Library & Archives was completed in 2017. It houses the Matheson History Museum's collections, including local and Florida artifacts, books and vertical files with images and information on a variety of topics in local and Florida history. Florida history The history of Florida can be traced to when

13775-485: The building to Orlando investors, and from 1982 to 2009 it was a Melting Pot fondue restaurant. Originally operated by Hope Meucci, it was one of the first Melting Pot fondue restaurants in the nation. The Matheson History Museum received a $ 300,000 historic preservation grant from the Florida Department of State , Division of Historical Resources, along with contributions from private donors, to transform

13920-426: The colony suffered major losses primarily due to insect-borne diseases and Native American raids. Most crops did not do well in the sandy Florida soil. Those that survived rarely equaled the quality produced in other colonies. The colonists tired of their servitude and Turnbull's rule. On several occasions, he used African slaves to whip his unruly settlers. The settlement collapsed and the survivors fled to safety with

14065-663: The constitution of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. They have two bands, each representing more than one town and named for 19th-century band leaders: the Cesar Bruner band covers towns south of Little River ; the Dosar Barkus covers the several towns located north of the river. Each of the bands elects two representatives to the General Council of the Seminole Nation. In 1870, the U.S. Army invited black Seminoles to return from Mexico to serve as army scouts for

14210-626: The countries came to an agreement, and Amelia Island was returned to the Spanish in May 1813. A similar filibuster action took place in September 1817, when the Scottish veteran and con-man Gregor MacGregor led a private force and captured Amelia Island and declared it part of the Republic of the Floridas . By December 1817, the United States seized the island. The unguarded Florida border

14355-435: The country, as gambling revenues and federal land payments have given Native Americans something to fight over." In 2000, Seminole Freedmen were in the national news because of a legal dispute with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma , of which they had been legal members since 1866, over membership and rights within the tribe. The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma held the black Seminoles could not share in services to be provided by

14500-496: The creation of the artifacts. The findings are controversial, and funding has not been available for follow-up studies. As the glaciers began retreating about 8000 BCE , the climate of Florida became warmer and wetter. As the glaciers melted, the sea level rose, reducing the land mass. Many prehistoric habitation sites along the old coastline were slowly submerged, making artifacts from early coastal cultures difficult to find. There were islands throughout Florida as far south as what

14645-420: The cultivation of sugar cane, indigo, and fruits, as well the export of lumber. As a result of these initiatives northeastern Florida prospered economically in a way it never did under Spanish rule. Furthermore, the British governors were directed to call general assemblies as soon as possible to make laws for the Floridas and in the meantime they were, with the advice of councils, to establish courts. This would be

14790-470: The destruction of 21 sugar plantations from Christmas Day, December 25, 1835, through the summer of 1836. Historians do not agree on whether these events should be considered a separate slave rebellion ; generally they view the attacks on the sugar plantations as part of the Seminole War. By 1838, U.S. General Thomas Sydney Jesup tried to divide the black and Seminole warriors by offering freedom to

14935-472: The diet of the black Seminoles who moved to Oklahoma. In addition, the language of the black Seminoles is a mix of African, Seminole, and Spanish words. The African heritage of the black Seminoles, according to academics, is from the Kongo , Yoruba , and other African ethnic groups. African American linguist and historian, Lorenzo Dow Turner documented about fifteen words spoken by black Seminoles that came from

15080-450: The early 19th century, maroons (free Black people and freedom seekers ) and the Seminole were in regular contact in Florida, where they evolved a system of relations unique among North American Native Americans and Black people. Seminole practice in Florida had acknowledged slavery, though not on the chattel slavery model then common in the American south. It was, in fact, more like feudal dependency and taxation since African Americans among

15225-681: The east wall, with the remainder of the space devoted to rotating temporary exhibitions. The back of the building contains the Mary Ann Cofrin Exhibit Hall, where additional temporary exhibitions are on display. Originally owned and built by the Matheson family, from which the museum takes its name, this house was built in 1867 and is the third oldest house in Gainesville (the Bailey House was completed in 1854 and

15370-589: The enmity of American general Andrew Jackson . Spain had given land to some Muscogee (Creek) Native Americans. Over time the Creek were joined by other remnant groups of Southeast American Native Americans , such as the Miccosukee , Choctaw , and the Apalachicola , and formed communities. Their community evolved over the late 18th and early 19th centuries as waves of Creek left present-day Georgia and Alabama under pressure from white settlement and

15515-430: The expedition survived. Hernando de Soto landed in Florida in 1539 and began a multi-year trek through what is now the southeastern United States in which he found no gold and lost his life. In 1559 Tristán de Luna y Arellano established the first settlement in Pensacola but, after a violent hurricane destroyed the area, it was abandoned in 1561. The horse, which the natives had hunted to extinction 10,000 years ago,

15660-409: The first Paleo-Indians began to inhabit the peninsula as early as 14,000 years ago. They left behind artifacts and archeological evidence. Florida's written history begins with the arrival of Europeans; the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in 1513 made the first textual records. The state received its name from that conquistador , who called the peninsula La Pascua Florida in recognition of

15805-479: The first Spaniard to go ashore in Florida; slave traders may have secretly raided native villages before Ponce arrived, as he encountered at least one indigenous tribesman who spoke Spanish. However, Ponce's 1513 expedition to Florida was the first open and official one. He also gave Florida its name, which means "full of flowers". A dubious legend states that Ponce de León was searching for the Fountain of Youth on

15950-524: The first introduction of much of the English-derived legal system which Florida still has today, including trial by jury , habeas corpus , and county-based government. A Scottish settler named Dr. Andrew Turnbull transplanted around 1,500 indentured settlers, from Menorca , Majorca , Ibiza , Smyrna , Crete , Mani Peninsula , and Sicily , to grow hemp , sugarcane , indigo , and to produce rum . Settled at New Smyrna , within months

16095-516: The houses were larger and more comfortable than those of the Native Americans themselves. Historians estimate that during the 1820s, 800 blacks were living with the Seminoles. The Black Seminole settlements were highly militarized, unlike the communities of most of the slaves in the Deep South. The military nature of the African and Seminole relationship led General Edmund Pendleton Gaines , who visited several flourishing black Seminole settlements in

16240-422: The island of Bimini, based on information from natives. On March 3, 1513, Juan Ponce de León organized and equipped three ships for an expedition departing from " Punta Aguada ", Puerto Rico. The expedition included 200 people, including women and free black people. Although it is often stated that he sighted the peninsula for the first time on March 27, 1513, and thought it was an island, he probably saw one of

16385-507: The largest permanently occupied community in the Archaic period in the southeastern United States. It also has the oldest burial mound in the East, dating to about 1450 BC. People began making fired pottery in Florida by 2000 BC. By about 500 BC, the Archaic culture, which had been fairly uniform across Florida, began to fragment into regional cultures. The post-Archaic cultures of eastern and southern Florida developed in relative isolation. It

16530-465: The museum and maintained jointly by the Matheson History Museum and the City of Gainesville, Sweetwater Park is free and open to the public. Purchased by the museum in the summer of 2014, this building was originally a tabernacle church built in 1933. From 1976 to 1980 retired cardiologist and Matheson co-founder Dr. Mark Barrow and his wife, Mary, operated an antique store in the building. In 1982 they sold

16675-576: The museum changed its name to the Matheson History Museum. The Matheson House contains original furniture, artwork and artifacts from antebellum and Victorian era Florida. Donated to the museum in 1993, the Tison Tool barn houses the extensive tool collection of John Mason Tison Jr. Originally located on Tison's property, it was entirely deconstructed and rebuilt on the museum grounds. It displays historic tools from various industries ranging from lumber to electrical engineering. Located directly behind

16820-488: The new territory when the Seminole were obliged to settle on fixed lots of land and take up settled agriculture. Conflict arose in the territory because the transplanted Seminole had been placed on land allocated to the Creek , who had a practice of chattel slavery. There was increasing pressure from both Creek and pro-Creek Seminole for the adoption of the Creek model of slavery for the Black Seminoles. Creek slavers and those from other Native groups, and whites, began raiding

16965-450: The newly formed Territory of Orleans . Some leaders of the newly declared republic objected to the takeover, but all had deferred to arriving American troops by mid-December 1810. The Florida Parishes of the modern state of Louisiana include most of the territory claimed by the short-lived Republic of West Florida. Spain sided with Great Britain during the War of 1812 , and the U.S. annexed

17110-421: The occupancy of every enemy, civilized or savage, of the United States, and serving no other earthly purpose than as a post of annoyance to them". After Jackson's incursions, Spain decided that Florida had become too much of a burden, as it could not afford to send settlers or garrisons to properly occupy the land and was receiving very little revenue from the territory. Madrid therefore decided to cede Florida to

17255-408: The peninsula to escape from Cape Florida to the Bahamas . Hundreds left in the early 1820s after the United States acquired the territory from Spain, effective 1821. Contemporary accounts noted a group of 120 migrating in 1821, and a much larger group of 300 African-American slaves escaping in 1823, picked up by Bahamians in 27 sloops and also by canoes. Their concern about living under American rule

17400-400: The period of Spanish control of Florida, mostly due to epidemics of newly introduced infectious diseases , to which the Native Americans had no natural immunity . Beginning late in the 17th century, when most of the indigenous peoples were already much reduced in population, peoples from areas to the north of Florida, supplied with arms and occasionally accompanied by white colonists from

17545-440: The population known as Florida Crackers . Ignoring Spanish territorial claims, American settlers, along with some remaining British settlers, established a permanent foothold in the western end of West Florida during the first decade of the 1800s. In the summer of 1810, they began planning a rebellion against Spanish rule which became open revolt in September. The rebels overcame the Spanish garrison at Baton Rouge and proclaimed

17690-405: The population of the Seminole Nation in Indian Territory, about one-third of the total. By the time of the Dawes Rolls , there were numerous female-headed households registered. The Freedmen's towns were made up of large, closely connected families. After allotment, "[f]reedmen, unlike their [Native] peers on the blood roll, were permitted to sell their land without clearing the transaction through

17835-967: The present day. Fresh water was available only in sinkholes and limestone catchment basins, and paleo-Indian activity centered around these relatively scarce watering holes. Sinkholes and basins in the beds of modern rivers (such as the Page-Ladson site in the Aucilla River ) have yielded a rich trove of paleo-Indian artifacts , including Clovis points . Excavations at an ancient stone quarry (the Container Corporation of America site in Marion County ) yielded "crude stone implements" showing signs of extensive wear from deposits below those holding Paleo-Indian artifacts. Thermoluminescence dating and weathering analysis independently gave dates of 26,000 to 28,000 years ago for

17980-574: The reservation. Most had not been living as slaves to the Native Americans before the war. They lived —as their descendants still do— in and around Wewoka, Oklahoma , the community founded in 1849 by John Horse as a black settlement. Today it is the capital of the federally recognized Seminole Nation of Oklahoma . Following the Civil War, some Freedmen's leaders in Indian Territory practiced polygyny , as did ethnic African leaders in other diaspora communities. In 1900 there were 1,000 Freedmen listed in

18125-467: The same area was repelled at the Battle of Alligator Bridge on June 30, 1778. The two Floridas remained loyal to Great Britain throughout the war. However, Spain, participating indirectly in the war as an ally of France, captured Pensacola from the British in 1781. The Peace of Paris (1783) ended the Revolutionary War and returned all of Florida to Spanish control, but without specifying

18270-514: The sea with similar inlets: Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Pensacola, Tampa, Fort Myers, and others. On September 20, 1565, Menéndez de Avilés attacked Fort Caroline, killing most of the French Huguenot defenders. Two years later, Dominique de Gourgue recaptured the settlement for France, this time slaughtering the Spanish defenders. St. Augustine became the most important settlement in Florida. Little more than

18415-699: The source as well of the English word maroon . This was used to describe the runaway slave communities of Florida and of the Great Dismal Swamp on the border of Virginia and North Carolina, on colonial islands of the Caribbean, and other parts of the New World . But linguist Leo Spitzer, writing in the journal Language , says, "If there is a connection between Eng. maroon , Fr. marron , and Sp. cimarron , Spain (or Spanish America) probably gave

18560-471: The territory depopulated and unguarded. North Florida continued to be the home of the newly amalgamated black–native American Seminole culture and a haven for people escaping slavery in the southern United States. Settlers in southern Georgia demanded that Spain control the Seminole population and capture runaway slaves, to which Spain replied that the slave owners were welcome to recapture the runaways themselves. Americans began moving into northern Florida from

18705-585: The territory in 1763, the impending return to Spanish control in 1783 saw a vast exodus of those who had settled in the area over the previous twenty years. This included many Loyalists who had fled there during the American War of Independence and had caused East Florida's population to swell considerably if temporarily. Spain's reoccupation of Florida involved the arrival of some officials and soldiers at St. Augustine and Pensacola but very few new settlers. Most British residents had departed, leaving much of

18850-582: The two new colonies reports of the natural wealth of Florida were published in England. A large number of British colonists who were "energetic and of good character" moved to Florida, mostly coming from South Carolina , Georgia and England, though there was also a group of settlers who came from the colony of Bermuda . This would be the first permanent English-speaking population in what is now Duval County , Baker County , St. Johns County , and Nassau County . The British built good public roads and introduced

18995-560: The verdant landscape and because it was the Easter season, which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida (Festival of Flowers). This area was the first mainland realm of the United States to be settled by Europeans, starting in 1513. Since then Florida has had many waves of colonization and immigration, including French and Spanish settlement during the 16th century, as well as entry of new Native American groups migrating from elsewhere in

19140-407: The western borders of the Spanish claim. In 1702, Governor of Carolina James Moore and allied Yamasee and Creek Indians attacked and razed the town of St. Augustine, but they could not gain control of the fort. In 1704, Moore and his soldiers began burning Spanish missions in north Florida and executing Indians friendly with the Spanish. The collapse of the Spanish mission system and the defeat of

19285-478: The word directly to England (or English America)." Florida had been a refuge for fugitive slaves for at least 70 years by the time of the American Revolution . Communities of black Seminoles were established on the outskirts of major Seminole towns. A new influx of freedom-seeking black people reached Florida during the American Revolution (1775–83), escaping during the disruption of war. During

19430-546: The workforce in and around St. Augustine. However, due to restrictions by the Spanish crown, the population of African slaves in Florida remained relatively low until around the period of British control in 1763. Throughout the 17th century, English settlers in Virginia and Carolina gradually pushed the boundaries of Spanish territory south, while the French settlements along the Mississippi River encroached on

19575-667: Was a founding member, and later to the Matheson Historical Center (now the Matheson History Museum). Sarah Matheson, who died in 1996, was one of the original board members and founders of the museum and was also an early president of the Alachua County Historical Society. The society originated in 1967 and later merged with the museum under the new name of Alachua County Historic Trust: Matheson Museum, Inc. In 2014,

19720-546: Was an increasing source of tension late in the second Spanish period. Seminoles based in East Florida had been accused of raiding Georgia settlements, and settlers were angered by the stream of slaves escaping into Florida, where they were welcomed. Negro Fort , an abandoned British fortification in the far west of the territory, was manned by both indigenous and black people. The United States Army would lead increasingly frequent incursions into Spanish territory, including

19865-455: Was based on a matrilineal kinship system, in which inheritance and descent went through the maternal line. Children were considered to belong to the mother's clan , so those born to ethnic African mothers would have been considered black by the Seminole. While the children might integrate customs from both parents' cultures, the Seminole believed they belonged to the mother's group more than the father's. African Americans adopted some elements of

20010-399: Was based on forcing the local Indian tribes into a mission system. The Native Americans in the missions were to serve as a militia to protect the colony from incursions from the neighboring colony of South Carolina . However, due to a combination of raids by South Carolinan colonists and newly introduced European diseases to which the Indians had no immunity, Florida's native population

20155-474: Was located in the continent of Gondwana at the South Pole 650 million years ago (Mya). When Gondwana collided with the continent of Laurentia 300 Mya, it had moved further north. 200 Mya, the merged continents containing what would be Florida, had moved north of the equator. By then, Florida was surrounded by desert, in the middle of a new continent, Pangaea . When Pangaea broke up 115 mya, Florida assumed

20300-608: Was never clearly defined, and was the subject of constant harassment in both directions, until it was ceded by Spain to the U.S. in 1821. The Spanish Crown , beginning with King Charles II in 1693, encouraged fugitive slaves from the British North American colonies to escape and offered them freedom and refuge if they converted to Catholicism. This was well known through word of mouth in the colonies of Georgia and South Carolina, and hundreds of enslaved Africans escaped to their freedom, which infuriated colonists in

20445-505: Was not until the 1950s that the black Seminole were officially recognized in the constitution. Another was adopted in 1969, that restructured the government according to more traditional Seminole lines. It established 14 town bands, of which two represented Freedmen. The two Freedmen's bands were given two seats each, like other bands, on the Seminole General Council. There have been "battles over tribal membership across

20590-479: Was not unwarranted. In 1821, Andrew Jackson became the territorial governor of Florida and ordered an attack on Angola , a village built by black Seminoles and other free blacks south of Tampa Bay , on the Manatee River. Raiders captured over 250 people, most of whom were sold into slavery. Some of the survivors fled to the Florida interior and others to Florida's east coast and escaped to the Bahamas. In

20735-408: Was quickly decimated. After the local Native Americans had all but died out, Spanish authorities encouraged Native Americans and refugee slaves from the Southern colonies to move to their territory. The Spanish hoped that the increased number of inhabitants of Spanish Florida would be effective defense in case of potential raids by American colonists. As early as 1689, enslaved Africans fled from

20880-552: Was reintroduced into North America by the European explorers, and into Florida in 1538. As the animals were lost or stolen, they began to become feral. In 1564 , René Goulaine de Laudonnière founded Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville , as a haven for Huguenot Protestant refugees from religious persecution in France. Further down the coast, in 1565 Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded San Agustín ( St. Augustine ) which

21025-496: Was unable to capture the Castillo de San Marcos . The 1755 Lisbon earthquake triggered a tsunami that would have struck Central Florida with an estimated 1.5-meter (4 ft 11 in) wave. Creek and Seminole Native Americans, who had established buffer settlements in Florida at the invitation of the Spanish government, also welcomed any fugitive slaves who reached their settlements. In 1771, Governor John Moultrie wrote to

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