Our Land Before We Die: The Proud Story of the Seminole Negro

by Jeff Guinn

In Our Land Before We Die , Jeff Guinn traces the little-known history of the runaway slaves who fled to the Florida Everglades to live alongside the Seminole Indians. Deeply rooted in tribal oral history, and based on extensive interviews with descendants, this book describes the incredible circumstances of a people who sought shelter in the shadow of a tribe whose land and welfare already hung in the balance. And yet, in their tireless journey-from Florida to Indian Territory in Oklahoma; on the seven-hundred-mile flight from persecution that took them across the Rio Grande into Mexico; and then back across the Rio Grande to Texas-they never surrendered the hope of one day attaining land of their own. Our Land Before We Die brings to life the largely forgotten history of a courageous people and the descendants for whom this story is their only legacy.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Native Americans

384 pages, Paperback

Published January 13, 2005

About the author

Jeff Guinn is a former journalist who has won national, regional and state awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, and literary criticism.

Guinn is also the bestselling author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction including, but not limited to: Go Down Together: The True Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde (which was a finalist for an Edgar Award in 2010); The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral - and How It Changed the West; Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson; and The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple.

Jeff Guinn is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. He appears as an expert guest in documentaries and on television programs on a variety of topics.

Guinn lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

Reviews

[Theophilus (Theo) · Rating 5 out of 5]

An untold story of the Seminole Negros (or black Seminoles) of Florida who were dispossessed of their land in Florida when the Seminoles finally ended their war against the United States and agreed to accept land in Oklahoma. The Seminole Negros were not included in the deal. They were moved part of the way from Florida only to Texas. They were given no land in Oklahoma nor in Texas. Some of them were employed by the army in Texas as scouts (and promised land in exchange for their srvice) because of their demonstrated fighting and tracking skills during the Seminole war. After the last Comanches and Apaches were subdued or killed off the scouts were summarily discharged. No land. They were left to starve or move on someplace else, but no land was designated for them to move to or settle on. Some of the black Seminoles emmigrated to Mexico and their descendants remain there today. Many of them settled in the area of Bracketville, Texas, just east of Del Rio and their descendants are still there. This is all a true story. Jeff Guinn tells their story through interviews with their descendants and from military records. I visited the area in 2008 and went to the Seminole Negro cemetery right outside of Bracketville. Visiting cemeteries is not everyone's idea of a vacation, but after reading this book, I couldn't help but be moved looking at all of the old tombstones, including 4 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. It is a lonely spot and the Medal of Honor graves are maintained by the non-commissioned officers from a nearby Air force base. A touching story that many Americans probably wished would remain untold. a hard to find book, but well worth the time to find it, and read it.

[Joe Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard book to “like” because this is a history of a dark, shameful period, and many decades of unfulfilled & broken promises. It is certainly worth one's time. If potential readers are like me, information about runaway slaves and the Seminole tribe is superficial at best making this book is a real education. The author combines oral history with research to provide an interesting and upsetting history of the Black Seminoles. Not only is this a history of the Black Seminoles seeking to find land they can call their own to truly be free, it is also a history of heroism and survival; and of the struggle to find and maintain group identity in the contemporary world. The writing reveals the author’s great respect for the individuals he interviewed and listened to and for the heritage of the Black Seminoles.

[Patrick J. Baier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Herculean task

My accolades to Miss Charlie in the herculuean task of passing the history of a long, long forgotten of a group of people that contributed to the United States.
Miss Charlie is swimming up river against today's technology. Try as she is, Miss Charlie is steadfast in her determination in passing on the history to the next genetation.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall I found this book interesting because it is a piece of history that I never knew anything about.
As with other of Guinn's books I find it occasionally it gets bogged down in to much detail and a bit of repetitiveness, but overall there are a lot of very interesting stories and characters.

[David A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out fine but quickly was simply booring. I quit it.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much has occurred in American History that there isn't enough time to learn everything. At best people learn the major US events and perhaps some regional history, but that is it. Fortunately, a passing comment about Black Seminoles was made during the FSU/Oregon football game that lead me to this book. Being from the Midwest, my knowledge of the southern states was limited to the Civil War and the Confederacy. That being said, I'm culturally and historically enriched by knowing the history of this amazing, an wildly mistreated, group of people.

Guinn mixes the rich storytelling traditions of Miss Charles and Willy Warrior, with information from other historians and historical documents. Starting from the very early, and vague, history of the first escaped slaves to join the Seminoles in Florida, through the perpetual mistreatment of generations to come, the story is compelling and heartbreaking.

It is history like this that needs to be taught. It is shameful the way that the American government treated this group, and many other nonwhite groups, in the past. That shame needs to be taught so that the we as a society can learn from it, and figure out that our differences are make us truly amazing. I'm thankful that Mr. Warrior and Miss Charles shared the story of their people so that it can live on, not only for their people, but also everyone else as well.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine read. I highly recommend it. It is the story of the Seminole Negroes--runaway slaves who went to Florida while it was owned by Spain and lived with the Seminole Indians. The US, of course, brought in its might and moved the Seminoles to what is now Oklahoma. Many of the Negroes went to Mexico, where they helped the Spanish and the Mexican fight the Indians and keep the Americans out. The Americans persuaded them to come back to Texas to help the US fight the Indians in the frontier. Most of them lived in Bracketville, Texas, near Ft. Clark. The US was duplicitous and once the Negroes served their purpose dismissed them without land or money. Many became cowboys and some worked for my father and grandfather on our ranch in Val Verde County, Texas. A well written book.

[Lachinchon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that this isn't a good book and well worth reading, but eventually page after page of broken promises, lies, ill-treatment and impoverishment begin to wear the reader down. The truly great and heroic deeds are overshadowed by the unending tale of woe. I checked on the internet after finishing this book and was glad to see that the Seminole Indian Scout Cemetery Association is still active.