The Seminole Freedmen

Author : Kevin Mulroy
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
Page : 479 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2016-01-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9780806155883

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The Seminole Freedmen by Kevin Mulroy Pdf

Popularly known as “Black Seminoles,” descendants of the Seminole freedmen of Indian Territory are a unique American cultural group. Now Kevin Mulroy examines the long history of these people to show that this label denies them their rightful distinctiveness. To correct misconceptions of the historical relationship between Africans and Seminole Indians, he traces the emergence of Seminole-black identity and community from their eighteenth-century Florida origins to the present day. Arguing that the Seminole freedmen are neither Seminoles, Africans, nor “black Indians,” Mulroy proposes that they are maroon descendants who inhabit their own racial and cultural category, which he calls “Seminole maroon.” Mulroy plumbs the historical record to show clearly that, although allied with the Seminoles, these maroons formed independent and autonomous communities that dealt with European American society differently than either Indians or African Americans did. Mulroy describes the freedmen’s experiences as runaways from southern plantations, slaves of American Indians, participants in the Seminole Wars, and emigrants to the West. He then recounts their history during the Civil War, Reconstruction, enrollment and allotment under the Dawes Act, and early Oklahoma statehood. He also considers freedmen relations with Seminoles in Oklahoma during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Although freedmen and Seminoles enjoy a partially shared past, this book shows that the freedmen’s history and culture are unique and entirely their own.

Author : Kenneth W. Porter
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 349 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2013-05-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813047751

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The Black Seminoles by Kenneth W. Porter Pdf

This story of a remarkable people, the Black Seminoles, and their charismatic leader, Chief John Horse, chronicles their heroic struggle for freedom. Beginning with the early 1800s, small groups of fugitive slaves living in Florida joined the Seminole Indians (an association that thrived for decades on reciprocal respect and affection). Kenneth Porter traces their fortunes and exploits as they moved across the country and attempted to live first beyond the law, then as loyal servants of it. He examines the Black Seminole role in the bloody Second Seminole War, when John Horse and his men distinguished themselves as fierce warriors, and their forced removal to the Oklahoma Indian Territory in the 1840s, where John's leadership ability emerged. The account includes the Black Seminole exodus in the 1850s to Mexico, their service as border troops for the Mexican government, and their return to Texas in the 1870s, where many of the men scouted for the U.S. Army. Members of their combat-tested unit, never numbering more than 50 men at a time, were awarded four of the sixteen Medals of Honor received by the several thousand Indian scouts in the West. Porter's interviews with John Horse's descendants and acquaintances in the 1940s and 1950s provide eyewitness accounts. When Alcione Amos and Thomas Senter took up the project in the 1980s, they incorporated new information that had since come to light about John Horse and his people. A powerful and stirring story, The Black Seminoles will appeal especially to readers interested in black history, Indian history, Florida history, and U.S. military history.

Author : Kevin Mulroy
Publisher : Texas Tech University Press
Page : 260 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 1993
Category : History
ISBN : 0896725162

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Freedom on the Border by Kevin Mulroy Pdf

Under the brilliant leadership of the charismatic John Horse, a band of black runaways, in alliance with Seminole Indians under Wild Cat, migrated from the Indian Territory to northern Mexico in the mid-nineteenth century to escape from slavery. These maroons subsequently provided soldiers for Mexico's frontier defense and later served the United States Army as the renowned Seminole Negro Indian Scouts. This is the story of the maroons' ethnogenesis in Florida, their removal to the West, their role in the Texas Indian Wars, and the fate of their long quest for freedom and self-determination along both sides of the Rio Grande. Their tale is a rich and colorful one, and one of epic proportions, stretching from the swamps of the Southeast to the desert Southwest. The maroons' history of African origins, plantation slavery, European and Indian associations, Florida wars, and forced removal culminated in a Mexican borderlands mosaic incorporating slave hunters, corrupt Indian agents, Texas filibusters, Mexican revolutionaries, French invaders, Apache and Comanche raiders, frontier outlaws and lawmen, and Buffalo Soldiers. What emerges is a saga of enslavement, flight, exile, and ultimately freedom.

Author : Daniel F. Littlefield
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 298 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : History
ISBN : 1578063604

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Africans and Seminoles by Daniel F. Littlefield Pdf

An updated edition of a standard work documenting the interrelationship of two racial cultures in antebellum Florida and Oklahoma

Author : Rosalyn Howard
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Page : 142 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2023-05-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813073095

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Black Seminoles in the Bahamas by Rosalyn Howard Pdf

"An excellent case study of a little-studied and poorly known community experiencing the processes of identity formation and culture change."--Brent R. Weisman, University of South Florida This is the first full-length ethnography of a unique community within the African diaspora. Rosalyn Howard traces the history of the isolated "Red Bays" community of the Bahamas, from their escape from the plantations of the American South through their utilization of social memory in the construction of new identity and community. Some of the many African slaves escaping from southern plantations traveled to Florida and joined the Seminole Indians, intermarried, and came to call themselves Black Seminoles. In 1821, pursued and harassed by European Americans through the First Seminole War, approximately 200 members of this group fled to Andros Island, where they remained essentially isolated for nearly 150 years. Drawing on archival and secondary sources in the United States and the Bahamas as well as interviews with members of the present-day Black Seminole community on Andros Island, Howard reconstructs the story of the Red Bays people. She chronicles their struggles as they adapt to a new environment and forge a new identity in this insular community and analyzes the former slaves' relationship with their Native American companions. Black Seminoles in contemporary Red Bays number approximately 290, the majority of whom are descended directly from the original settlers. As part of her research, Howard lived for a year in this small community, recording its oral history and analyzing the ways in which that history informed the evolving identity of the people. Her treatment dispels the air of mystery surrounding the Black Seminoles of Andros and provides a foundation for further anthropological and historical investigations.

Author : Bruce Edward Twyman
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015050251381

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The Black Seminole Legacy and North American Politics, 1693-1845 by Bruce Edward Twyman Pdf

"The Black Seminole Legacy introduces new insights into Native and African-American relationships. It will fascinate the general, as well as the scholarly, reader."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Angela Y. Walton-Raji
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : African Americans
ISBN : 099981821X

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Freedmen of the Frontier: Selected Creek and Seminole freedmen families by Angela Y. Walton-Raji Pdf

Author : Thomas Anthony Britten
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 156 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 1999
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015048529740

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A Brief History of the Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts by Thomas Anthony Britten Pdf

This volume provides an examination of the Black Seminoles: their history in Florida, the Indian Territory, Mexico and Texas, and their important contribution to the pacification of the Rio Grande frontier. The study places them against the backdrops of African slavery, Indian wars and frontier violence, and, using a host of archival and secondary sources, provides an up-to-date synthesis of these largely unknown people. In addition, the book provides new information, particularly about the scouts' activities in the Big Bend. Working closely with historians employed at the Ft. Clark Historical Society, Britten retraced the scouts' steps along the Rio Grande frontier. It is a major resource for those in frontier-western history, military history and the complex interaction of minority peoples in the west.

Author : Shirley Boteler Mock
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2012-10-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9780806186085

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Dreaming with the Ancestors by Shirley Boteler Mock Pdf

Indian freedmen and their descendants have garnered much public and scholarly attention, but women's roles have largely been absent from that discussion. Now a scholar who gained an insider's perspective into the Black Seminole community in Texas and Mexico offers a rare and vivid picture of these women and their contributions. In Dreaming with the Ancestors, Shirley Boteler Mock explores the role that Black Seminole women have played in shaping and perpetuating a culture born of African roots and shaped by southeastern Native American and Mexican influences. Mock reveals a unique maroon culture, forged from an eclectic mixture of religious beliefs and social practices. At its core is an amalgam of African-derived traditions kept alive by women. The author interweaves documentary research with extensive interviews she conducted with leading Black Seminole women to uncover their remarkable history. She tells how these women nourished their families and held fast to their Afro-Seminole language — even as they fled slavery, endured relocation, and eventually sought new lives in new lands. Of key importance were the "warrior women" — keepers of dreams and visions that bring to life age-old African customs. Featuring more than thirty illustrations and maps, including historic photographs never before published, Dreaming with the Ancestors combines scholarly analysis with human interest to open a new window on both African American and American Indian history and culture.

Author : Anthony Dixon
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 158 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2014-04-01
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0692024964

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Florida's Negro War by Anthony Dixon Pdf

From 1817 to 1858, the United States government engaged in a bitter conflict with the Seminole Nation. This conflict would result in three distinct wars. The Second Seminole War (1835-1842) was conducted under the Indian Removal Policy of the 1830's. This war was a result of the American plantation societies' relentless efforts to enslave the Black Seminole population. The United States government's objective became to return as many Black Seminoles, if not all, to slavery. Evidence proves that the efforts of the U.S. military to place Blacks in bondage were not only a major underlying theme throughout the War, but at various points, the primary goal. It is clear that from the onset of the war, the United States government, military, and state militias grossly underestimated both the determination and the willingness of the Black Seminole to resist at all cost. Thus, this book will not only make the argument that the Second Seminole War was indeed a slave rebellion, but perhaps the most successful one in United States' history.

Author : Jeff Bowen
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 350 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2020-08-21
Category : Reference
ISBN : 1649680384

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Applications for Enrollment of Seminole Newborn Freedmen by Jeff Bowen Pdf

Seminole Freedmen, as they were called, were the only African Americans living among the Five Civilized Tribes who were entitled to tribal allotments. Unlike the other Five Civilized Tribes--which held African Americans as slaves--the Seminole incorporated blacks into their tribe. Since the Curtis Act required the Dawes Commission to "follow tribal customs and usages" in processing applications for allotment, it had to consider any children of a mixed marriage "freedmen rather than citizens by blood . . ."; however, this did not prevent the newborn freedmen from sharing equally with full-bloods in the division of Seminole lands. Under this definition each Seminole newborn freedman was to receive forty acres of Indian Territory. Applications for Enrollment of Seminole Newborn Freedmen, Act of 1905, have been transcribed from National Archive film M-1301, Roll 402. The applications found in M-1301 and transcribed in this series contain more information and establish family relationships not found on the census cards in National Archive film M-1186, the basis for the seminal title Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory [and] Index to the Final Rolls. These transcriptions include all correspondence associated with successful Seminole claimants. Besides the names of all parents and newborns, the applications include the names of doctors, lawyers, midwives, and other Seminole relatives whose identities were divulged as part of the application process, and who attended to the Seminole before and during this time in history.

Author : Tiya Miles,Sharon Patricia Holland
Publisher : Duke University Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : History
ISBN : 0822338653

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Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds by Tiya Miles,Sharon Patricia Holland Pdf

Combines histories of the complex interactions between blacks and Natives in North America with examples and readings of art that has emerged from those exchanges.

Author : Caryn Yacowitz
Publisher : Heinemann Educational Books
Page : 36 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2002-08
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 140340304X

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Seminole Indians by Caryn Yacowitz Pdf

Presents an introduction to the history, social life and customs, and present life of the Seminole Indians.

Author : Susan A. Miller
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : UOM:39015059974264

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Coacoochee's Bones by Susan A. Miller Pdf

"A man born to an elite family, Coacoochee used the power of his status in creative ways, and Miller uses his career to explain his leadership in terms of Seminole knowledge and governmental structure, showing that Coacoochee's concept of leadership was linked as closely to spiritual as to political or military imperatives. Her account offers a more nuanced understanding of the Seminole cosmos - particularly the reality governing Coacoochee's awareness of his own tribe's circumstances - and of long-standing borderlands disputes. She draws on Seminole, American, and Mexican sources to help untangle the histories of various emigrant tribes to the borderlands. She also examines the status of Seminoles today in light of the suppression of Coacoochee's story, including modern Seminole's attempts to recover their lost homeland at El Nacimiento."--BOOK JACKET.

Author : Randal Hall
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 195 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2013-11-21
Category : History
ISBN : 9780812290172

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Race and the Cherokee Nation by Randal Hall Pdf

"We believe by blood only," said a Cherokee resident of Oklahoma, speaking to reporters in 2007 after voting in favor of the Cherokee Nation constitutional amendment limiting its membership. In an election that made headlines around the world, a majority of Cherokee voters chose to eject from their tribe the descendants of the African American freedmen Cherokee Indians had once enslaved. Because of the unique sovereign status of Indian nations in the United States, legal membership in an Indian nation can have real economic benefits. In addition to money, the issues brought forth in this election have racial and cultural roots going back before the Civil War. Race and the Cherokee Nation examines how leaders of the Cherokee Nation fostered a racial ideology through the regulation of interracial marriage. By defining and policing interracial sex, nineteenth-century Cherokee lawmakers preserved political sovereignty, delineated Cherokee identity, and established a social hierarchy. Moreover, Cherokee conceptions of race and what constituted interracial sex differed from those of blacks and whites. Moving beyond the usual black/white dichotomy, historian Fay A. Yarbrough places American Indian voices firmly at the center of the story, as well as contrasting African American conceptions and perspectives on interracial sex with those of Cherokee Indians. For American Indians, nineteenth-century relationships produced offspring that pushed racial and citizenship boundaries. Those boundaries continue to have an impact on the way individuals identify themselves and what legal rights they can claim today.