The Seminole Wars started in the year 1818 because the Indian tribes of Florida were giving escaped African slaves refuge in their territory. (Our Black Archaeologist episode #2, ‘Black Seminole Indian Wars’ takes place there). Slaves escaped and fled to Florida during The War Of 1812 with the help of these natives.
With their new African tribe members, known as The Black Seminole Indians, they raided southern slave plantations, burning many of them to the ground and freeing hundreds of other black slaves.
These additions swelled their numbers and brought skills, trades and knowledge handed down to them from their African forebears. And they didn’t waste the skills they acquired during their lives as forced laborers on the plantations.
These ex-slaves played a pivotal part in the Florida Seminole tribes development.
America, wanting to put an end to the plantation raids and also wanting their black human property back, sent an army, lead by the future American president general Andrew Jackson, to subdue the Seminoles in 1818.
There were three major Seminole Wars with skirmishes in between that lasting until 1835 when a peace agreement was signed.
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