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Africans and Seminoles: From Removal to Emancipation
Because Seminoles held slaves in a confusing system that was markedly dissimilar to white society's, the federal government was challenged to identify which blacks in Florida were free and which were not. As claims by slave owners and slave hunters fell into conflict, the Seminoles' more relaxed form of enslavement threatened the overall institution. This discord was intensified by the Second Seminole War, in which slaves united with Seminoles to fight against the United States. In exchange for capitulation, America offered the coalition unfettered freedom in Indian Territory. In Florida the two societies were so closely linked that, when the government implemented its program of removal, Seminoles and African Americans were transported to Oklahoma together.
However, once on their new lands, Seminoles and blacks fell into strife with Creeks, who wanted control over both groups, and with Cherokees and Arkansans, who feared an enclave of free blacks near their borders. These disputes drove a wedge between the Seminoles and their black allies.
Until the Civil War, blacks were hounded by slave claims that had followed them from the East and by raids of Creeks and white slavers from Arkansas. Many blacks were captured and sold. Others fled from Indian Territory and settled in Mexico.
At the end of the Civil War, free blacks and those of African descent who had remained unemancipated were adopted into the Seminole tribe under provisions of the Treaty of 1866. They began their role in the founding of what today is the modern Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. In a preface to this edition, Littlefield explains the continuing significance of this subject.
However, once on their new lands, Seminoles and blacks fell into strife with Creeks, who wanted control over both groups, and with Cherokees and Arkansans, who feared an enclave of free blacks near their borders. These disputes drove a wedge between the Seminoles and their black allies.
Until the Civil War, blacks were hounded by slave claims that had followed them from the East and by raids of Creeks and white slavers from Arkansas. Many blacks were captured and sold. Others fled from Indian Territory and settled in Mexico.
At the end of the Civil War, free blacks and those of African descent who had remained unemancipated were adopted into the Seminole tribe under provisions of the Treaty of 1866. They began their role in the founding of what today is the modern Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. In a preface to this edition, Littlefield explains the continuing significance of this subject.
- GenresHistory
278 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 31, 2022
Africans and Seminoles: From Removal to Emancipation by Daniel F. Littlefield Jr.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2021
In the initial pages of Africans and Seminoles Littlefield described and explained why, by the early 19th century, the Seminoles had developed a much more reciprocal relationship with their African American slaves than their counterparts in the Creek or Cherokee nations did. Over the course of the following chapters he carefully and clearly articulated how that relationship evolved from the time the Seminoles were forcibly removed from their homeland in modern day Florida in 1838 up through the Civil War and into Reconstruction in the 1870’s.
To his credit he accomplished this by applying the methodology one would hope to see in a successful piece of scholarship. First and foremost, he reviewed and integrated information from a wide array of primary and secondary sources. There were notes at the end of each chapter. And a 5 page bibliography that was organized according to the type of source.
Second, the chapters were well organized and focused. Breaking these down into subsections made it all the easier to follow what he was trying to communicate. So did Littlefield’s use of a prose consisting of fairly direct and declarative sentences save for the times when he provided lengthy sentences containing the names of many slaves.
Third, there were 4 maps which greatly helped me to visualize the extent to which the Seminoles living in proximity to the Creeks affected their experiences and decision making and thus their relationships with their African American slaves after Removal to Indian Territory.
Finally, there was a 52 page Appendix for those readers who might want to really drill down into specific names of African American slaves which the Seminoles had at the time of Removal.
To his credit the author accomplished this in slightly more than 200 pages of narrative text. And that was despite the fact the long sentences with slave names in them made for slow going at times. IMHO, more active editing would have eliminated all of those names from the narrative. He could have added another list of these people in the Appendix. For that reason I would rate this a 4 star book. But I will read another one of Littlefield’s books in the future.
To his credit he accomplished this by applying the methodology one would hope to see in a successful piece of scholarship. First and foremost, he reviewed and integrated information from a wide array of primary and secondary sources. There were notes at the end of each chapter. And a 5 page bibliography that was organized according to the type of source.
Second, the chapters were well organized and focused. Breaking these down into subsections made it all the easier to follow what he was trying to communicate. So did Littlefield’s use of a prose consisting of fairly direct and declarative sentences save for the times when he provided lengthy sentences containing the names of many slaves.
Third, there were 4 maps which greatly helped me to visualize the extent to which the Seminoles living in proximity to the Creeks affected their experiences and decision making and thus their relationships with their African American slaves after Removal to Indian Territory.
Finally, there was a 52 page Appendix for those readers who might want to really drill down into specific names of African American slaves which the Seminoles had at the time of Removal.
To his credit the author accomplished this in slightly more than 200 pages of narrative text. And that was despite the fact the long sentences with slave names in them made for slow going at times. IMHO, more active editing would have eliminated all of those names from the narrative. He could have added another list of these people in the Appendix. For that reason I would rate this a 4 star book. But I will read another one of Littlefield’s books in the future.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews