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ABSTRACT
The extent of the multi-ethnic integration of the Seminoles remains a cause of debate in both Florida history and the wider field of Indigenous studies. This article argues against the notion that the Black experience among the Seminoles prior to the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) was homogenous and considers the role of those who experienced the restrictions of enslavement: the Estelusti. Through a synthesis of published observations and archival evidence on the Seminoles, this paper highlights that the varying treatment of the Estelusti is a means of understanding the barriers to coalescence in the Native South.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the following for providing invaluable feedback during the drafting process of this article: Joy Porter, John Oldfield, Charles Prior, Emma Butcher and Beth Wilson. The invaluable feedback of the editors and reviewers at ANCH is also greatly appreciated. Thanks are also extended to Andrew Frank for helping identify a source used in this article. Funding that was indispensable for the completion of this article was provided by the University of Hull, the British Association of American Studies (BAAS), and British American Nineteenth Century Historians (BrANCH).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
Edward Mair is a Lecturer in American History at Bishop Grosseteste University, and a recent PhD graduate of the University of Hull.
Notes
1 Mayne Reid, Osceola the Seminole, 110.
2 Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 435–6; Giddings, The Exiles of Florida, 3–5; Coe, Red Patriots, 15; Kokomoor, “A Re-assessment of Seminoles, Africans, and Slavery on the Florida Frontier,” 236.
3 Kai, “Black Seminoles: the Maroons of Florida,” 149.
4 See Weik, “A Historical Archaeology of Black Seminole Maroons in Florida,” 15; Weisman, “The Plantation System of the Florida Seminole Indians and Black Seminoles during the Colonial Era,” 141.
5 Gad Humphreys to Acting Governor McCarty, 6 September 1827 in The Territorial Papers of the United States: The Territory of Florida, 1824–1828, 911. Hereafter referred to as TP.
6 William Simmons notes this term in his list of Seminole vocabulary and has since been adopted in Seminole historiography. See Simmons, Notices of East-Florida, 98; Harper, “English/Seminole Vocabulary,” 22.
7 Daniel Littlefield’s 1977 study was the first major study to use the term “Estelusti” for Black Seminole. See Littlefield Jr., Africans and Seminoles, 4.
8 Lockley, “The King of England’s Soldiers,” 27.
9 Smithers, Native Southerners, 65.
10 Beck, Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South, 210.
11 Ibid., 7.
12 Frank, “Red, Black, and Seminole,” 58.
13 Porter, The Black Seminoles, 5.
14 Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country, 243. See also: Littlefield, Africans and Seminoles, 8; Johnston, “Resisting a Genetic Identity,” 263; Weisman, “Nativism, Resistance, and Ethnogenesis of the Florida Seminole Indian Identity,” 205.
15 Clavin, Aiming for Pensacola, 38. See also Wright Jr., Creeks and Seminoles, 99; Saunt, A New Order of Things, 211.
16 See Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade; Beck, Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South; Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire.
17 Rushforth, Bonds of Alliance, 18.
18 Spoehr, “Kinship System of the Seminole,” 39; MacHardy, “The Seminoles,” 148. The Calusa and Timucua Indians resided in Florida before the Seminoles, but it is unwise to draw connections between these previous societies and the Seminoles, as they were not ancestors of the Seminoles. As Scott Weidensaul explains of Indian societies in Florida: “Calusa? Timucua? These are hardly names that ring a familiar bell with most Americans today … you are more apt to think of the Seminole- a group actually descended from members of the Creek Confederacy in Georgia and Alabama, who didn’t migrate to Florida until the early eighteenth century.’ See Weidensaul, The First Frontier, 58.
19 Frank, “Taking the State Out,” 11.
20 Frank, “Creating a Seminole Enemy,” 279.
21 Beck, Chiefdoms, Collapse, and Coalescence in the Early American South, 17–18.
22 Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, 183–4.
23 Ibid., 184.
24 Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade, 29.
25 Swan, “Seminolies,” 259–60.
26 Kai Black Seminoles: the Maroons of Florida,’ 147.
27 Shoemaker, A Strange Likeness, 139.
28 For the origin myth of polygenesis told by Neamathala and the hunters at St. Augustine, see: Anon, Narrative of A Voyage to the Spanish Main, 174; McKenney and Hall, History of the Indian Tribes of North America, 38–9. For a broader understanding of nineteenth-century Seminole views on race in their oral tradition, see: Dundes and Irving, “Washington Irving's Version of the Seminole Origin of Races," 262; Sturtevant, “Seminole Myths of the Origins of Race,” 80–6; Saunt, Black, White, and Indian, 61.
29 Anon, “Some Comments of the Seminole in 1818,” 42–4.
30 See Anon, “Number, Character, Dress, Employment and present state of the Seminole Indians,” 309.
31 Johnson, “Slavery,” 225.
32 Missall and Missall, The Seminole Wars, 11.
33 Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought, 516; See also Walker and Rosewood, The Wild Wild West in the Deep South, 6.
34 Santos-Granero, Vital Enemies, 47.
35 Kai, “Black Seminoles: the Maroons of Florida,” 150.
36 Starna and Watkins, “Northern Iroquoian Slavery,” 46.
37 Archibald Clarke to David Brydie Mitchell, 8 August 1812. [p. 1] in Box 2. The Governor David Brydie Mitchell Papers. Hereafter referred to as GDBMP.
38 Landers, Black Society in Spanish Florida, 168.
39 Kingsley, A Treatise on the Patriarchal System of Society, 20. For more on Kingsley’s plantation, including the Seminole raid, see Schafer, “Zephaniah Kingsley’s Laurel Grove Plantation, 1803–1813,” 99–120.
40 John Innerarity to John Forbes, 2 November 1814. Reel 19. 1582. Panton, Leslie and Company Papers. Hereafter referred to as PLCP.
41 Little is known about the provenance of this document, but it is to be assumed that Mitchell commissioned it, as it ended up in his collection of papers. Furthermore, we can ascertain that it was made around the Patriot War, due to its mention of Kingsley’s plantation, and of Payne as a headman of multiple towns, since Payne was killed in 1812 during the conflict. See “Description, Strength and Situation of the Seminoles” [pp 1–2]. Box 3. GDBMP.
42 “Governor White’s talk to the Indians,” 18 July 1800, Pennsylvania Gazette. 3rd September 1800.
43 Junta de Guerra to Governor White, 19 July 1800. Reel 117. 1800–2. The East Florida Papers.
44 Clavin, The Battle of Negro Fort, 121.
45 Landers, Black Society in Spanish Florida, 99.
46 Dade’s Massacre was a surprise attack by the Seminoles against a U.S. division led by Major Francis L. Dade. The massacre was the flashpoint of the Second Seminole War. See Amos, The Life of Luis Fatio Pacheo.
47 Mulroy, Freedom on the Border, 11.
48 A. Arbuthnot to the commanding officer at Fort Gaines, 3 March 1817. Reel 21. 0416. PLCP.
49 Edmund Doyle to Capt. Spencer and Robert Gamble, 6 April 1815. Reel 20, 288–90. PLCP.
50 Deposition of Antonia Leonardy, recorded by Joseph S. Sanchez, March 31 1835. [pp. 1–3].MS 147, Box 3. “1835, January-June”. Indian Affairs – Florida Seminoles Collection. Hereafter referred to as IAFSC.
51 Silverman, Thundersticks, 8.
52 Saunt, A New Order of Things, 211.
53 Horatio Dexter to William Duval, 20 August 1823. [p. 10]. Box 1. “Horatio Dexter, 1823,” Edward T. Keenan Papers. Hereafter to be referred to as ETKP.
54 Ibid., 8–10.
55 Weisman, “The Plantation System of the Florida Seminole Indians and Black Seminoles during the Colonial Era,” 145.
56 John R. Bell to Thomas Metcalfe, 1822. [pp. 464–465]. Box 22. TP.
57 Cusick, “King Payne and His Policies,” 42.
58 Weisman, “The Plantation System of the Florida Seminole Indians and Black Seminoles during the Colonial Era,’” 141.
59 Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire, 253.
60 West, Family or Freedom, 8; Stevenson, Life in Black and White, 179.
61 Simmons, Notices of East-Florida, 50; Dexter to Duval, 20 August 1823. [p. 6]. Box 1. ETKP.; Potter, The War in Florida, 45.
62 Clavin, The Battle of Negro Fort, 49.
63 Vignoles, Observations Upon the Floridas, 135.
64 “Petition to Judge Smith by Samuel Cook,” August 1825. [p. 474]. Box 23. TP.
65 Abraham Eustis to the Secretary of War, 23 July 1822. [p. 496]. Box 22. TP.
66 See Covington, “Trade Relations between Southwestern Florida and Cuba: 1600-1840,” 117–19.
67 Milanich, The Timucua, 164.
68 Weisman, Like Beads on a String, 79–80.
69 “Official Report of the Marquis De Caso Calvo, upon Indian Relations, and the indemnity of Panton,” 22 September 1800. Reel 13. 0610. PLCP.
70 Williams, The Territory of Florida, 214.
71 White and Pickell, “The Journals of Lieutenant John Pickell, 1836-1837,” 163.
72 Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade, 29. See also Patterson, Slavery and Social Death, 38.
73 Cameron, Captives, 3.
74 Seminole Chief John Hicks to Indian Agent Gad Humphreys, 14 January 1829 in In Their Own Words: Missall and Missall, eds., 12.
75 Kenneth Porter has tracked the often confusing history of the Mikasuki King, who was recorded with various names by white observers. See Porter, “Origins of the St. John’s River Seminole: Were They Mikasuki?,” 43–4.
76 Simmons, Notices of East-Florida, 47.
77 John C. Casey, 11 July 1838 in Negroes, &c., captured from Indians in Florida, &c., 120.
78 Porter confirms this connection. See Porter, “Origins of the St. John’s River Seminole: Were They Mikasuki?,” 39–44.
79 Cohen, Notices of Florida and the Campaigns, 78–9.
80 Missall and Missall, The Seminole Wars, 134; Sprague, The Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War, 216.
81 12 September 1837, The Army and Navy Chronicle. Volume 4.
82 This is an account from a soldier during the early days of the Second Seminole War, and we must acknowledge that there would be anti-Indian bias present in his account. However, it is apparent from the account that the insights he makes about the Seminoles originate from the Black Seminole interpreters who had defected to the United States Army and were attached to his unit. It is thus likely that this is an observation that he gleaned from one of these informants. See Pearcy and Atkinson Humphreys, “Andrew Atkinson Humphreys’ Seminole War Field Journal,” 214.
83 Deposition of Antonia Leonardy. [p. 2]. Box 3. “1835, January-June,” IAFSC.
84 See. Jordan, ‘Afro-Virginians’ Attitudes on Secession and Civil War, 1861,” 99.
85 17 March 1836, The Pennsylvanian.
86 Johnston, “Resisting a Genetic Identity,” 264.
87 “John Milton v. Econchattamicco, District of West Florida,” J.A. Cameron, 12 April 1831. [p. 467] in American State Papers: Military Affairs, Volume VI.
88 The superintendent was William P. DuVal, the former governor of the Florida Territory. Unfortunately, DuVal’s report appears to be lost. See John Eaton to William P. DuVal, 7 May 1830. [p. 3]. Box 3. “1830, January-June,” IAFSC.
89 Elbert Herring to General R. K. Call, 26 March 1835. [p. 1]. Box 3. “1835, January-June,” IAFSC.
90 Giddings, The Exiles of Florida, 98–9; Monaco, The Second Seminole War and the Limits of American Aggression, 189.
91 See Porter, “Osceola and the Negroes,” 235–9; Porter, “The Episode of Osceola’s Wife: Fact or Fiction?,” 92–8.
92 Weisman, Like Beads on a String, 130.
93 15 May 1837; The Army and Navy Chronicle, Volume 4.
94 Rosen, Border Law, 104–5.
95 Jarvis, “An Army Surgeon’s Notes of Frontier Service, 1833–48,” 285.
96 Prince, Amidst a Storm of Bullets, 92–3.
97 White and Pickell, “The Journals of Lieutenant John Pickell, 1836–1837,” 159.
98 Leitch Wright, Creeks and Seminoles, 251.
99 Wasserman, A People’s History of Florida 1513–1876, 11–12.
100 Lancaster, Removal Aftershock, 2.
101 Landers, “A Nation Divided?,” 115.
102 Giddings, The Exiles of Florida, 5.
103 Bartl, “Native American Tribes and Their African Slaves,” 165.