The Seminole Negro

By chance, I picked up a copy of Jeff Guinn's "Our Land Before We Die", the story of the Seminole Negro, and learned a lot about a small group of people with a unique story.

Basically, there were runaway slaves who escaped to Spanish Florida in the early 1800s and would up living near and working with the Seminole Indians there. Their status became precarious when Florida became part of the United States (for obvious reasons), and when the Seminoles, or the majority of them, were moved to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), the Seminole Negroes went with them as part of the tribe. In Indian Territory, the Seminole were forced to live in close proximity to their near relatives, the Creeks, with whom they got along not at all, and everyone was at risk of attack by the warrior Commanche and Apaches. And the Seminole Negroes were also at risk from slavers, who viewed them simply as runaways.

The Seminole Negroes were given the unique opportunity to resettle in Mexico (this was shortly after the U.S. Mexican War, Texas had just become a state, and there was still conflict on the Texas/Mexico border, if they would assist the Mexicans in guarding the border. They went on foot on the 700 mile journey, a story itself filled with danger and hardship, and lived for a period of time outside of this country.

Following the Civil War, the majority of them returned to the United States, being promised their own land in Indian Territory if they would first work as Indian scouts for the Army in Texas. They were settled in Texas and apparently were very successful scouts and fighters for the Americans, but wanted to return north. In the meantime, the Seminoles (whose relationship with the Seminole Negro was, to put it mildly, always troubled) had signed a treaty with the U.S. government to obtain land in what is now Oklahoma, identifying as Seminole those who were members of the tribe, or descendants of members, in 1823, before the Negroes were given tribal membership in Florida.

The Negroes were then stuck in Texas, their services as scouts no longer needed (the Commanches being no longer a danger), and they were evicted from their military base housing and left to fend for themselves.

Descendants of the Seminole Negroes still live in and around Bracketville Texas, and when Guinn, a Ft. Worth journalist, started to write this story almost ten years ago, he had two community elders and one South Texas historian to rely on. By the time he finished, the historian had died, and the 90+ year old matriarch and former school teacher, Miss Charles, had Alzheimers (she died in July of this year). His book, which won a Texas history book prize, is story of the Seminole Negroes to be sure, but also the story of how he got the story.

A very interesting book to read.