The Black Seminoles who once RULED Florida !

 Slave rebellions in general are often never brought up and have become a very taboo subject when it comes to the mainstream media. Many times, this is in order to maintain the dominant narrative that enslaved Foundational Black Americans did nothing in order to free themselves and therefore if it wasn’t for good White folks we would still be in shackles and chains today. However, as stated earlier this couldn’t be anywhere further from the truth, as there are a number of documented slave rebellions to prove otherwise. Yet, what many people don’t know is perhaps the greatest and most successful one of them all is never spoken about. The Seminole Wars often get reclassified as strictly a war between whites and Indians, when in fact it was undoubtedly a negro war. When the first Seminole war, or sometimes known as the Florida war, broke out in 1812 it was led by General Andrew Jackson who later became the 7th President of the United States.

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Interestingly enough when looking back on his accounts of the war he always referred to it as an “Indian and Negro War”. To add to that in 1835, when the Second Seminole War broke out, American Commander, General Jesup, informed the War Department that, "This, you may be assured, is a Negro and not an Indian war"; but why was this a Negro war? Because the Black Seminoles knew if they were to lose Florida and allow it to become part of the United States they would be put back on plantations again. Therefore, when the time came, they fought long and hard; one U.S. Congressman of the period commented that these black fighters were "contending against the whole military power of the United States." The Black Seminoles scared the U.S. army so much that when the Army did finally captured members of the Black Seminoles, officers refused to return them to slavery fearing that these seasoned warriors, accustomed to their freedom, would wreak havoc on the Southern plantations. [1] As a result after years of fighting in the second Seminole War General Jesup finally gave in and signed what is known as the “Jesup proclamation of 1838” which effectively gave the Black Seminoles their freedom, making it the first time in the U.S. former slaves had fought for and successfully won their freedom

                                                     -500 Amazing Facts about the Negro Vol. I

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