The Exiles of Florida. Giddings Joshua Reed
– Lower Creeks join Seminoles – Georgia demands their surrender – Chiefs refuse – Georgia complains – President refuses to Interfere – Another Invasion of Florida – Towns burned; Cattle stolen – Troops withdrawn from Amelia Island – Public attention directed toward our Northern frontier – Lord Cockrane enters Chesapeake Bay – Issues Proclamation to Slaves – Dismay of Slaveholders – Slaves go on board British ships – Several vessels enter Appalachicola Bay – Col. Nichols lands there with Troops – Gathers around him Exiles and Indians – Builds a Fort, arms it, and places Military Stores in Its Magazines – Treaty of Peace with England – Provision in regard to Slaves taken away during War – Claimants of the Exiles encouraged – Col Nichols delivers Fort to the Exiles – Their plantations, wealth, and social condition – Our Army – General Gaines represents Fort as in possession of Outlaws – Plans for its destruction – Correspondence – General Jackson’s order – Col. Clinch’s Expedition – Met by Sailing-Master Loomis and two gun-boats – Fort blown up – Destruction of human life – Negroes captured and enslaved – Property taken – Claimed by Governor of Florida – First Seminole War commenced.
When Mr. Madison assumed the duties of President (March 4, 1809), the Exiles were quietly enjoying their freedom; each sitting under his own vine and fig-tree, without molestation or fear. Many had been born in the Seminole country, and now saw around them children and grand-children, in the enjoyment of all the necessaries of life. Many, even of those who fled from Georgia after the formation of that colony, had departed to their final rest; but their children and friends had been comparatively free from persecutions since the Treaty of Colerain, in 1796. Discarding all connection with the Creeks, and living under protection of Spain, and feeling their right to liberty was “self-evident,” they believed the United States to have tacitly admitted their claims to freedom. With these impressions, they dwelt in conscious security, believing no further attempts would be made to reënslave them. Mr. Madison had penned the memorable Address of Congress to the people of the United States, published near the close of the old Confederation, in which was reiterated, in glowing language, the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence; and in the Convention that framed the Constitution, he had declared “it would be wrong to admit, in that instrument, that man can hold property in man.”
The people of Georgia were not satisfied with the existing state of things. They were greatly excited at seeing those who had once been slaves, in South Carolina and in Georgia, now live quietly and happily in the enjoyment of liberty, with their flocks and their herds, their wives and their little ones, around them; but they were on Spanish soil, protected by Spanish laws. The only mode of enslaving them was, firstly, to obtain jurisdiction of the Territory; and the annexation of Florida to the United States was, accordingly, urged upon the Federal Government.
Spain had acquired her American territories by conquest, and was too proud to part with them. An excitement, however, was raised in favor of its annexation; and this anxiety to secure the slave interests of the South, soon extended to Congress, and infused itself into the Executive policy of the nation. A law was passed by the two Houses, in secret session, and approved by the President, for taking possession of Florida. Gen. Mathews, a slaveholder of Georgia, was appointed Commissioner for that purpose. A few malcontents were found in the northeastern part of the Territory; their numbers were increased by men of desperate fortunes from Georgia; and an insurrection was proclaimed by the Acting General. Mathews, commanding the insurgents, took possession of Amelia Island, and of the country opposite to it on the main land. The Spanish Government, on learning the outrage, remonstrated with our Executive, who disavowed the acts of Mathews, whom he recalled; and proceeded to appoint General Mitchell, the Governor of Georgia, to act as Commissioner, in place of Mathews.
Mitchell, however, continued to hold military possession of the island and part of the main land, and, in fact, continued to carry forward the policy which Mathews had inaugurated. These things occurred while our nation was professedly at peace with Spain, and constituted a most flagrant violation of our national faith.
The Executive of Georgia, apparently entertaining the idea that his State was competent to declare war and make peace, raised an army, which, under the command of the Adjutant General, entered Florida with the avowed intention of exterminating the Seminoles, who had so long refused to surrender the Exiles; while the real object was the recapture and reënslavement of the refugees. The Creeks of the Lower Towns, however, took sides with the Seminoles, in opposing this piratical foray of slave-catchers. The army having penetrated a hundred miles or more into Florida, found itself surrounded with hostile savages. Their supplies were cut off; the men, reduced almost to a state of starvation, were compelled to retrace their steps; and with great loss the survivors reached Georgia. But they robbed those Spanish inhabitants who fell in their way of all their provisions, and left them to suffer for the want of food. Nor were the Georgians satisfied with taking such provisions as were necessary to support life; they also took with them a large number of slaves, owned by Spanish masters, with whom they resided.21
The people, and the authorities of Georgia, were greatly incensed at the Creek Indians, who had assisted the Seminoles in defending themselves; and the Governor of that State demanded of the chiefs a surrender of those individuals who had thus offended against the sovereignty of that commonwealth. The chiefs refused to deliver up their brethren, and the Governor complained to the President of this disregard of slaveholding comity by the Creeks.
The Federal authorities appear to have felt very little interest in the matter, and Georgia determined to redress her own grievances. The Legislature of that State, deeming their interests neglected by the Federal Government, passed resolutions declaring the occupation of Florida essential to the safety and welfare of their people, whether Congress authorized it or not; and they passed an act for raising a force “to reduce St. Augustine and punish the Indians.”
Under this declaration of war by the sovereign power of Georgia, another army was raised. Hunters, trappers, vagabonds, and men of desperate fortunes, were collected from that State, from East Tennessee, and from other Southern States, to the number of five hundred; and Florida was again invaded. This expedition was more successful, in some respects, than the first. They burned two or three of the smaller Seminole towns, destroyed several cornfields that had been planted by the Exiles, and drove back to Georgia large herds of cattle, which they had stolen from the negroes; yet the principal object of the Expedition failed: They were unable to capture an individual, or family, of the Exiles. There were no Spanish inhabitants in that part of Florida from whom they could capture slaves, and they were compelled to return without human victims, but with the loss of several individuals of their own party. Thus, after a struggle of more than two years (ending May, 1813), the State of Georgia found itself unable to conquer Florida or the Seminoles, or to capture the Exiles. Further prosecution of the war was given up, the troops were withdrawn from Amelia Island, and peace was restored.
This extraordinary proceeding, on the part of Georgia, appears to have excited very little attention at the time; probably in consequence of the more important operations that were then being carried forward, upon our Northern and Northwestern frontiers. Harrison at Tippecanoe, and at Maumee; and Scott and Van Rensselaer at Queenston, and along the Niagara frontier, were gallantly confronting the British army, aided by powerful allies from the various neighboring tribes of savages; and so greatly was the attention of the people of the Northern States absorbed in these operations, that they were scarcely conscious of the slave-catching forays carried on by the State of Georgia. Indeed, during these operations, the public men of that State were among the most vehement advocates for a strict construction of the Federal Constitution, and for maintaining the American Union.
These transactions upon our Southern frontier, called attention of British Ministers to the Seminoles and the Exiles. A hostile fleet entered Chesapeake Bay, under Lord Cochrane, who issued a proclamation inviting all persons (meaning slaves), who desired to emigrate from the United States, to come with their families on board his Britannic Majesty’s ships of war; assuring them of the privilege of entering his Majesty’s naval service, or of settling with their families, as free persons, in either of the British West India Islands. This proclamation was widely circulated, and spread very general
The claims of these ancient Spanish inhabitants for indemnity against these robberies, have been pressed upon the consideration of Congress for the last twenty-five years, and were recently pending before the Court of Claims. When the bill for their relief was under discussion before the House of Representatives, In 1843, Hon. John Quincy Adams presented a list of some ninety slaves, for the loss of whom the owners claimed compensation from the United States. But the discussions which arose on private bills were not at that time reported; and neither this exhibit, nor the speech of Mr. Adams, are to be found in the Congressional Debates of that day.