Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Cimarrones africanos e indios en la frontera española con los Estados Unidos. El caso de los Seminoles negros de La Florida

2003; Pontifical Xavierian University; Volume: 7; Issue: 15 Linguagem: Inglês

2248-6992

Jane Landers,

Cuban History and Society

Translation from english: German Mejia Pavony This essay explores Andrew Jackson's bloody victories over Red Stick Creeks and Seminoles of Florida and triumph of the White man's republic, with a particular interest in participation of persons of African descent. The people who would become Seminoles moved into Florida from Georgia and Alabama in eighteenth century to fill vacuum created by exodus or extinction of Florida's indigenous nations. Initially Seminoles were staunch allies of British, but in late eighteenth century, Chief Payne and Payne’s successors, Micanopy and Bowlegs, reshaped Seminole foreign policy and became allies of Spanish government. Under their leadership Seminoles also accepted into their lands many slaves who had run away from United States and who lived in a sort of feudal arrangement with their masters and intermarried with them. These blacks recognized that Anglo rule would return them to slavery, so they, too, became fierce enemies of Americans and allies of Spaniards. For about a half century black and blood Seminoles struggled to maintain their autonomy on volatile Southern frontier, but United States was firmly committed to an expansionist foreign policy. Its interventions were motivated by territorial ambition, by lingering fear that Britain would displace weakened Spanish regimes in Southeast, and by racial politics. The very success of Spanish/ Indian/black alliance, in effect, ensured further intervention by Americans. The War of 1812 and simultaneous Creek War of 1813-14 evolved into a long-term effort to push Creeks, Seminoles, and blacks out of their settlements in western and central Florida, and eventually to drive out Spaniards as well. Jackson led first Seminole War in 1818 and in 1821, when United States acquired Florida, as governor of new territorial government he began removal of fugitive Creeks, Seminoles, and free blacks from peninsula.