Post by blackcrowheart on Nov 15, 2005 11:37:13 GMT -5
November 3
African & Native Americans share a rich history
Kitty Cloud, John Taylor
married in 1907
*From the beginning of U. S. history, American Native
populations and Africans had a historical relationship
of both cooperation and confrontation.
Europeans first enslaved Indians, introducing Africans
to the Americas shortly after. Nicolas de Ovando,
Governor of Hispaniola first mentioned African and
Indian interaction in a report, circa 1503. Indians
who escaped generally knew the surrounding areas,
avoided capture, and returned to help free enslaved
Africans. Europeans feared an Indian/African alliance.
The first slave rebellion occurred in Hispaniola in
1522, while the first on future United States soil
(North Carolina) occurred in 1526. Both rebellions
were organized and executed by coalitions of Africans
and Indians.
Europeans feared communities of escaped Africans,
known as Maroons or quilombos in frontier areas. The
largest of these communities, the "Republic of
Palmores," originated in the 1600s, and at its peak
had a population of approximately 11,000. This
community composed primarily of Africans but including
Indians, contained three villages, spiritual gather
places, shops, and operated under its own legal
system. Its army repelled European military attacks
until 1694.
White reaction to such communities was extreme despite
their limited numbers. Europeans sought to keep the
two peoples separated and, if possible, mutually
hostile. They taught Africans to fight Indians and
bribed Indians to hunt escaped Africans, promising
lucrative rewards. Indians who captured escaped
Africans received 35 deerskins in Virginia or three
blankets and a musket in the Carolinas. Further sowing
division, Whites introduced African slavery into the
Five Civilized Nations in the United States.
The U. S. government ended slavery among Indians by
1776. From pre-Revolutionary times to the Civil War,
the government negotiated treaties with Indian tribes
that included promises by the Indians to return
escaped slaves. However, while harboring many slaves,
they returned none. The most powerful African-Indian
alliance linked escaped Africans who had settled in
Florida, and Seminoles (a word that means "runaway"),
who were fleeing the Creek federation. The Africans
taught the Indians rice cultivation, and the groups
formed an agricultural and military alliance.
In 1816, a U. S. soldier reported that prosperous
plantations existed for fifty miles along the banks of
the Apalachicola River. The African-Seminole forces
repeatedly repelled U. S. slaveholders' posses and the
U. S. Army. The Second Seminole War resulted in 1,600
dead and cost over $40 million. The purchase of
Florida from Spain was the U. S. government's attempt
to eliminate it as a refuge for runaways. Before the
Civil War, many Native American nations on the eastern
seaboard of the United States became biracial
communities.
African-Americans were well represented in the Trail
of Tears. By 1860, the Five Civilized Nations in the
Indian Territory consisted of 18 percent African
Americans. The Seminoles appointed six Black Seminoles
members of its governing council. After the Civil War,
the Buffalo Soldiers, six regiments of African
American U. S. Army troops, helped to end Indian
resistance to U. S. control after the Civil War. The
most significant African-Native American was John
Horse, a Black Seminole Chief who was a master
marksman and diplomat in Florida and Oklahoma and by
the time of the Civil War, the Black Seminole Chief in
Mexico and Texas.
Horse negotiated a treaty with the U. S. government in
1870. On July 4th of that year, when his Seminole
nation crossed into Texas, it was a historic moment:
an African people had arrived together as a nation on
this soil, under the command of their ruling monarch,
Chief John Horse. Today, many African Americans can
trace their ancestry in part to an Indian tribe.
Reference:
African American and Native American History
Princeton Public Library
65 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
609-924-9529
African & Native Americans share a rich history
Kitty Cloud, John Taylor
married in 1907
*From the beginning of U. S. history, American Native
populations and Africans had a historical relationship
of both cooperation and confrontation.
Europeans first enslaved Indians, introducing Africans
to the Americas shortly after. Nicolas de Ovando,
Governor of Hispaniola first mentioned African and
Indian interaction in a report, circa 1503. Indians
who escaped generally knew the surrounding areas,
avoided capture, and returned to help free enslaved
Africans. Europeans feared an Indian/African alliance.
The first slave rebellion occurred in Hispaniola in
1522, while the first on future United States soil
(North Carolina) occurred in 1526. Both rebellions
were organized and executed by coalitions of Africans
and Indians.
Europeans feared communities of escaped Africans,
known as Maroons or quilombos in frontier areas. The
largest of these communities, the "Republic of
Palmores," originated in the 1600s, and at its peak
had a population of approximately 11,000. This
community composed primarily of Africans but including
Indians, contained three villages, spiritual gather
places, shops, and operated under its own legal
system. Its army repelled European military attacks
until 1694.
White reaction to such communities was extreme despite
their limited numbers. Europeans sought to keep the
two peoples separated and, if possible, mutually
hostile. They taught Africans to fight Indians and
bribed Indians to hunt escaped Africans, promising
lucrative rewards. Indians who captured escaped
Africans received 35 deerskins in Virginia or three
blankets and a musket in the Carolinas. Further sowing
division, Whites introduced African slavery into the
Five Civilized Nations in the United States.
The U. S. government ended slavery among Indians by
1776. From pre-Revolutionary times to the Civil War,
the government negotiated treaties with Indian tribes
that included promises by the Indians to return
escaped slaves. However, while harboring many slaves,
they returned none. The most powerful African-Indian
alliance linked escaped Africans who had settled in
Florida, and Seminoles (a word that means "runaway"),
who were fleeing the Creek federation. The Africans
taught the Indians rice cultivation, and the groups
formed an agricultural and military alliance.
In 1816, a U. S. soldier reported that prosperous
plantations existed for fifty miles along the banks of
the Apalachicola River. The African-Seminole forces
repeatedly repelled U. S. slaveholders' posses and the
U. S. Army. The Second Seminole War resulted in 1,600
dead and cost over $40 million. The purchase of
Florida from Spain was the U. S. government's attempt
to eliminate it as a refuge for runaways. Before the
Civil War, many Native American nations on the eastern
seaboard of the United States became biracial
communities.
African-Americans were well represented in the Trail
of Tears. By 1860, the Five Civilized Nations in the
Indian Territory consisted of 18 percent African
Americans. The Seminoles appointed six Black Seminoles
members of its governing council. After the Civil War,
the Buffalo Soldiers, six regiments of African
American U. S. Army troops, helped to end Indian
resistance to U. S. control after the Civil War. The
most significant African-Native American was John
Horse, a Black Seminole Chief who was a master
marksman and diplomat in Florida and Oklahoma and by
the time of the Civil War, the Black Seminole Chief in
Mexico and Texas.
Horse negotiated a treaty with the U. S. government in
1870. On July 4th of that year, when his Seminole
nation crossed into Texas, it was a historic moment:
an African people had arrived together as a nation on
this soil, under the command of their ruling monarch,
Chief John Horse. Today, many African Americans can
trace their ancestry in part to an Indian tribe.
Reference:
African American and Native American History
Princeton Public Library
65 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
609-924-9529