The Exiles of Florida Part 3

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gopher John, Seminole Interpreter.]

Two British sloops of war and some smaller vessels suddenly appeared in Appalachicola Bay, where they landed a body of troops, under Lieut.

Colonel Nichols, of the British Army, for the purpose of lending support and protection to the Exiles and their Indian allies. He opened communications with them, furnished them with arms and ammunition, and soon drew around him a considerable force of Indians as well as negroes.

His encampment was on the east side of the Appalachicola River, some thirty miles above its mouth. In November, he completed a strong fort on the bank of that stream. Some eight pieces of heavy ordnance were mounted upon its walls, and its magazine was well stored with the material of war.[23] It was evidently intended as a defense against the forays of slave-catchers, who were not expected to bring with them heavy artillery. The plan was well conceived. Even the plundering expeditions authorized by the State of Georgia, would have been unable to make any impression on this fortification. But neither Nichols, nor the Exiles, appear to have antic.i.p.ated the employment of the United States navy in a piratical work, discarded by most Christian nations and people, and allowed to be carried on only upon the African coast.

The British fleet withdrew from the coast of Georgia, and the slaveholders of that State were relieved, for a time, from those apprehensions of slave insurrection which had been excited by the proclamation of Lord Cochrane.

In the meantime the Treaty of Ghent was ratified, and peace restored to the country. In that treaty the interests of Slavery had not been forgotten; and the same stipulations were inserted, in regard to the withdrawal of his Majesty's troops and navy, "without taking or carrying away any negroes or other property of the citizens," which characterized the treaty of 1782. The owners of slaves who had fled from service under the proclamation of Lord Cochrane, now determined to obtain compensation for their loss. This general feeling again aroused the cupidity of those whose fathers had once claimed to own those Exiles, who fled from Georgia some thirty or forty years previously.

In the spring of 1815, Colonel Nichols and his troops withdrew from Florida, leaving the fort, with its entire armament and magazine of military stores, in the possession of the Exiles, who resided in the vicinity. Their plantations extended along the river several miles, above and below the fort.[24] Many of them possessed large herds of cattle and horses, which roamed in the forests, gathering their food, both in summer and winter, without expense or trouble to their owners.

The Pioneer Exiles from South Carolina had settled here long before the Colony of Georgia existed. Several generations had lived to manhood and died in those forest-homes. To their descendants it had become consecrated by "many an oft told tale" of early adventure, of hards.h.i.+p and suffering; the recollection of which had been retained in tradition, told in story, and sung in their rude lays. Here were the graves of their ancestors, around whose memories were cl.u.s.tered the fondest recollections of the human mind. The climate was genial. They were surrounded by extensive forests, and far removed from the habitations of those enemies of freedom who sought to enslave them; and they regarded themselves as secure in the enjoyment of liberty. Shut out from the cares and strifes of more civilized men, they were happy in their own social solitude. So far from seeking to injure the people of the United States, they were only anxious to be exempt, and entirely free from all contact with our population or Government; while they faithfully maintained their allegiance to the Spanish crown.

[Sidenote: 1815.]

Peace with Great Britain, however, had left our army without active employment. A portion of it was stationed along our Southern frontier of Georgia, to maintain peace with the Indians. The authorities and people of Georgia maintained social and friendly relations with the officers and men of the army. By means of Indian spies, the real condition of the Exiles was also ascertained and well understood. What means were used to excite the feelings or prejudices of the military officers against these unoffending Exiles, is not known at this day. Most of the officers commanding in the South were, however, slaveholders, and probably felt a strong sympathy with the people of Georgia in their indignation against them, for obtaining and enjoying liberty without permission of their masters.

General Gaines, commanding on the Southern frontier of Georgia, making Fort Scott his head-quarters, wrote the Secretary of War (May 14), saying, "certain negroes and outlaws have taken possession of a fort on the Appalachicola River, in the Territory of Florida." He a.s.sured the Secretary, that he should keep watch of them. He charged them with no crime, imputed to them no hostile acts. He was conscious that they had taken possession of the fort solely for their own protection; but he styled them _negroes_, which, in the language of that day among slaveholders, was regarded as an imputation of guilt; and _outlaw_ was supposed to be a proper term with which to characterize those who had fled from bondage and sworn allegiance to another government.[25]

For more than a year subsequently to the date of this letter, General Gaines made the Exiles a subject of frequent communication to the War Department. In this official correspondence, he at all times spoke of them as "runaways," "outlaws," "pirates," "murderers," etc.; but in no instance did he charge them with any act hostile to the United States, or to any other people or government.

Of these communications the Exiles were ignorant. They continued in peaceful retirement, cultivating the earth, and gaining a support for themselves and families. In the autumn of 1815, they gathered their crops, provided for the support of the aged and infirm, as well as for their children. They carefully nursed the sick; they buried their dead; they lived in peace, and enjoyed the fruits of their labor. The following spring and summer found them in this enviable condition.

[Sidenote: 1816.]

While the Exiles living on the Appalachicola were thus pursuing the even tenor of their ways, plans were ripening among the slaveholders and military officers of our army for their destruction. A correspondence was opened by the Secretary of War with General Jackson, who commanded the Southwestern Military District of the United States, holding his head-quarters at Nashville, Tennessee. Various letters and communications pa.s.sed between those officers in regard to this "Negro Fort," as they called it.

Power is never more dangerous than when wielded by military men. They usually feel ambitious to display their own prowess, and that of the troops under their command; and no person can read the communications of General Gaines, in regard to the Exiles who had gathered in and around this fort, without feeling conscious that he greatly desired to give to the people of the United States an example of the science and power by which they could destroy human life.[26]

At length, on the sixteenth of May, General Jackson wrote General Gaines, saying, "I have little doubt of the fact, that this fort has been established by some villains for the purpose of rapine and plunder, and that it ought to be blown up, regardless of the ground on which it stands; and if your mind shall have formed the same conclusion, destroy it and return the _stolen negroes_ and property to their rightful owners."[27]

Without attempting to criticise this order of General Jackson, we must regard a fort thus situated, at least sixty miles from the border of the United States, as a most singular instrument for the purpose of "rapine," or plundering our citizens. Nor could General Jackson have entertained any apprehensions from those who occupied the fort. The entire correspondence showed them to be _refugees_, seeking only to avoid our people; indeed, his very order shows this, for he directs General Gaines to return the "_stolen negroes_ to their rightful owners." The use of opprobrious epithets is not often resorted to by men in high official stations: yet it is difficult to believe, that General Jackson supposed these negroes to have been stolen; for, neither in the official correspondence on this subject, nor in the papers accompanying it, embracing more than a hundred doc.u.mentary pages, is there a hint that these negroes were "_stolen_," or that they had committed violence upon any person, or upon the property of any person whatever. They had sought their own liberty, and the charge of stealing themselves, was used like the other epithets of "outlaws," "pirates" and "murderers," to cast opprobrium upon the character of men who, if judged by their love of liberty or their patriotism, would now occupy a position not less honorable in the history of our country than is a.s.signed to the patriots of 1776.

Nor is it easy to discover the rule of international law, which authorized the Executive of the United States, or the officers of our army, to dictate to the crown of Spain in what part of his territory he should, or should not, erect fortresses; or the const.i.tutional power which they held for invading the territory of a nation at peace with the United States, destroy a fort, and consign its occupants to slavery. But those were days of official arrogance on the one hand, and popular submission on the other. The Exiles, or their ancestors, had once been slaves. They now were cultivating the richest lands in Florida, and possessed wealth; they were occupying a strong fortress. Many slaves during the recent war had escaped from their masters, in Georgia, and some were supposed to be free subjects of Spain, living in Florida; and if the Exiles were permitted to enjoy their plantations and property in peace, it was evident that the inst.i.tution in adjoining States would be in danger of a total overthrow. These facts were apparent to General Jackson, as well as to General Gaines and the slaveholders of Georgia.

General Gaines only awaited permission from his superior to carry out the designs of the slaveholders, who had become alarmed at the dangers to which their "peculiar inst.i.tution" was subjected. Upon the receipt of the order above quoted, he detailed Lieut. Col. Clinch,[28] of the regular troops, with his regiment and five hundred friendly Creek Indians, under McIntosh, their princ.i.p.al chief, to carry out the directions of General Jackson. Colonel Clinch was directed to take with him two pieces of artillery, for the purpose of cannonading the fort if necessary.[29]

This commencement of the first Seminole war was, at the time, unknown to the people of the United States. It was undertaken for the purposes stated in General Jackson's order, to "blow up the fort, and _return the negroes to their rightful owners_." Historians have failed to expose the cause of hostilities, or the barbarous foray which plunged the nation into that b.l.o.o.d.y contest which cost the people millions of treasure and the sacrifice of hundreds of human lives.

It was July before the arrangements were fully made by Colonel Clinch and his savage allies for descending the river, with suitable artillery and supplies, to accomplish the object of their mission.[30] The Creeks, having entered into the treaties of New York and Colerain, by which they bound themselves, twenty years previously, to return those Exiles who fled from Georgia, and having failed to perform those stipulations, now cheerfully united with the American army in this first slave-catching expedition undertaken by the Federal Government.

Of these movements the Exiles had been informed by their neighbors, the friendly Creeks; for, among the Lower Creeks, were individuals who at all times sympathized with them, and kept them informed of the measures adopted for their destruction. All the families living on the river and in the vicinity of the fort, fled to it for protection. They had no idea of the advantages arising from scientific warfare; they believed their fortification impregnable. Colonel Nichols had erected it for the purpose of affording them protection, and they had no doubt of its efficiency for that purpose.

Such were the delays attending the journey, in consequence of difficulties in transporting heavy guns and provisions, that the troops did not reach the vicinity of the fort until the twenty-fourth of July.

In the meantime, Commodore Patterson, in pursuance of orders from the naval department, had detailed Sailing-Master Loomis, with two gun-boats, to a.s.sist in carrying out the order of General Jackson.[31]

On the twenty-fourth of July, Colonel Clinch commenced a reconnoisance of the fort. On the twenty-fifth, he cleared away the brush and erected a battery, and placed upon it two long eighteen-pounders, and commenced a cannonade of the fortress. At the time of this investment, there were about three hundred Exiles in the fort, including women and children, besides thirty-four Seminole Indians:[32] yet in the official report of Colonel Clinch, he makes no mention of his fire being returned; nor does he say that any of his men were killed or wounded by the occupants of the fort.

On the twenty-sixth of July, Sailing-Master Loomis, with his command, reached a point on the river some two miles below the fort. Colonel Clinch met him at that place, for consultation, and informed him that his fire had thus far proved ineffectual, and that a nearer approach of artillery by land would be difficult.[33]

Judging from the language used in his official dispatch, Sailing-Master Loomis must have entertained some feelings of distrust towards Colonel Clinch, as they evidently separated in bad temper: yet no officer in the service of the United States ever exhibited greater prudence in his preparations, or more firmness in battle, than Colonel Clinch. He was, however, a man of kind and humane feelings, and high notions of honor.

It has been supposed by many of his friends, that he shrank from the perpetration of the outrage which he had been detailed to commit.[34]

On the morning of the twenty-seventh, Loomis, with his boats, ascended the river and cast anchor opposite the fort, while Colonel Clinch and the Creek Indians took positions so as to cut off retreat by land. The cannonade was resumed, and the land and naval forces of the United States were engaged in throwing shot and sh.e.l.ls for the purpose of murdering those friendless Exiles, those women and children, who had committed no other offense than that of having been born of parents who, a century previously, had been held in bondage. Mothers and children now shrieked with terror as the roar of cannon, the whistling of b.a.l.l.s, the explosion of sh.e.l.ls, the war-whoops of the savages, the groans of the wounded and dying, foretold the sad fate which awaited them. The stout-hearted old men cheered and encouraged their friends, declaring that death was to be preferred to slavery.

The struggle, however, was not protracted. The cannon b.a.l.l.s not taking effect upon the embankments of earth, they prepared their furnaces and commenced the fire of hot shot, directed at the princ.i.p.al magazine. This mode proved more successful. A ball, fully heated, reached the powder in the magazine. The small size of the fort, and the great number of people in it, rendered the explosion unusually fatal. Many were entirely buried in the ruins, others were killed by falling timbers, while many bodies were torn in pieces. Limbs were separated from bodies to which they had been attached, and death, in all its horrid forms, was visible within that doomed fortress.[35]

Of three hundred and thirty-four souls within the fort, two hundred and seventy were _instantly killed_; while of the sixty who remained, only _three_ escaped without injury.[36] Two of the survivors--one negro and one Indian--were selected as supposed chiefs of the allied forces within the fort. They were delivered over to the Indians who accompanied Colonel Clinch, and were ma.s.sacred within the fort, in the presence of our troops;[37] but no report on record shows the extent of torture to which they were subjected.

We have no reliable information as to the number who died of their wounds. They were placed on board the gun-boats, and their wounds were dressed by the surgeons; and those who recovered were afterwards delivered over to claimants in Georgia. Those who were slightly wounded, but able to travel, were taken back with Colonel Clinch to Georgia and delivered over to men who claimed to have descended from planters who, some three or four generations previously, owned the ancestors of the prisoners. There could be no proof of ident.i.ty, nor was there any court authorized to take testimony, or enter decree in such case; but they were delivered over upon _claim_, taken to the interior, and sold to different planters. There they mingled with that ma.s.s of chattelized humanity which characterizes our Southern States, and were swallowed up in that tide of oppression which is now bearing three millions of human beings to untimely graves.

Sailing-Master Loomis informed the Naval Department, through Commodore Patterson, that the value of the property captured in the fort was "not less than two hundred thousand dollars." He also stated that a portion of this property was "delivered over by Colonel Clinch to the Indians who had accompanied him, on the _express agreement that they should share in the plunder_." Another portion of property was held by Colonel Clinch, as necessary for the use of the troops. A list of the articles thus taken is given in the report: it embraces spades, shovels, pickaxes, swords, sword-belts, pistols and muskets. The remainder of the property was taken on board the gun-boats, and held subject to the order of the Secretary of the Navy.[38]

The Governor of Florida demanded, in the name of "his Most Christian Majesty the king of Spain," possession of the property thus captured in the fort; denying the right of either our army or navy to invade the territory of Spain, and take and carry away property from its fortifications.

To this claim Sailing-Master Loomis replied, that the property did not belong to the Spanish crown, but to the Exiles, who were in possession of it, from whom it was taken by _conquest_. This correspondence between his Excellency the Governor of Florida and the Commander of the two gun-boats, was duly transmitted to our Government at Was.h.i.+ngton, and may now be found in our National Archives.[39]

Some twenty-two years subsequent to the capture of this property, and the ma.s.sacre of those who were in possession of it, a bill was reported in the House of Representatives,[40] granting five thousand dollars to the officers, marines and sailors who const.i.tuted the crews of those gun-boats, as compensation for their _gallant_ services. Whether the honorable Chairman of the Naval Committee who reported the bill, or any member of the House who voted for it, was aware of the true character of the services rendered, is a matter of doubt; but the bill pa.s.sed without opposition, became a law, and the people of the United States paid that bonus for the perpetration of one of the darkest crimes which stains the history of any civilized nation.[41]

The official correspondence connected with this ma.s.sacre was called for by resolution, adopted in the House of Representatives, and was communicated to that body at the second session of the fifteenth Congress. But no action appears to have been proposed in regard to it; nor does it appear that public attention was at that time particularly called to this most wanton sacrifice of human life.

In this ma.s.sacre, nearly every Exile resident upon the Appalachicola River, including women and children, perished or was reenslaved. Their homes were left desolate; their plantations, and their herds of cattle and horses, became the property of those who first obtained possession of them. Probably one-third of all the Exiles at that time resident in Florida, perished in this ma.s.sacre, or were reenslaved by Colonel Clinch; yet the atrocious character of the transaction appears to have attracted very little attention at the time. General Jackson was popular as a military officer, and the Administration of Mr. Madison was regarded with general favor. No member of Congress protested against the transaction, or made known its barbarity to the people; while the ablest members taxed their ingenuity, and brought all their rhetoric to bear, in vindication of those concerned in the outrage.[42]

While Mr. Clay and others severely condemned the technical invasion of Florida, as an act of hostility toward the King of Spain, they omitted all reference to this wanton ma.s.sacre of the Exiles: nor have we been able to learn that any member even intimated that the b.l.o.o.d.y Seminole war of 1816-17 and 18, arose from efforts of our Government to sustain the interests of Slavery; or that our troops were employed to murder women and children because their ancestors had once been held in bondage, and to seize and carry back to toil and suffering those who escaped death in that barbarous ma.s.sacre. The officers of Government, and historians of that day, appear to have avoided all reference to the fact, that the people thus murdered had been far longer in the wilderness than were the children of Israel; that they were contending for that Liberty which is the rightful inheritance of every human being.

Indeed, more than twenty years elapsed after this ma.s.sacre, before a distinguished Philanthropist gave to the public the first intimation that such a people as the Exiles had existed.[43]

CHAPTER IV.

GENERAL HOSTILITIES.

The Troops along the Florida frontier become active--The Exiles on Suwanee and Withlacoochee prepare for War--General Gaines's representation of their numbers--Depredations committed during the Spring and Summer of 1817--Ma.s.sacre of Lieutenant Scott and his party--Its Effect upon the Country--Congress not consulted as to this War--General Gaines authorized to Invade Florida--General Jackson ordered to the Field--Mr. Monroe a.s.sumes the Duties of President--His Cabinet--Character of Congress--Public Sentiment in regard to discussion of Subjects connected with Slavery--General Jackson concentrates his Army at Fort Scott--Proceeds to Mickasukie--Battle--Destruction of the Town--Marches to St.

Marks--Indian Chiefs decoyed on board a Vessel--Hanged by order of General Jackson--The Army moves upon Suwanee--Its Situation--Exiles prepare for a decisive Battle--Severe Conflict--General Jackson takes the Town--Captures Indian Women and Children--Burns the Villages of that region--Returns to Pensacola--Capture and Trial of Arbuthnot and Ambrister--Their Execution--Invasion of Florida condemned by some of our Statesmen, and vindicated by others.

The nation having been precipitated into war (1816), the Officers of Government, and the army, at once became active in carrying it on.

Orders were sent to General Gaines, exhorting him to vigilance, caution and prompt.i.tude. He was on the southern frontier of Georgia, where it was naturally supposed the first blow, in retaliation for the ma.s.sacre of Blount's Fort, would fall. His scouts were constantly on the alert, his outposts strengthened, and his troops kept in readiness for action.

The Seminole Indians had lost some thirty men, who had intermarried with the Exiles, and were in the fort at the time of the ma.s.sacre. They entertain the opinion that the souls of their murdered friends are never at rest while their blood remains unavenged; nor could it be supposed that the Exiles would feel no desire to visit retributive justice upon the murderers of their friends. Long did this desire continue, in the minds of the surviving Exiles, until, many years subsequently, their vengeance was satiated, their hands were stained, and their garments saturated, in the blood of our troops.

The surviving Exiles had their princ.i.p.al remaining settlements upon the Suwanee and Withlacoochee rivers, and in the Mickasukie towns. These settlements were on fertile lands, and were now relied upon to furnish provisions for their support during hostilities. Savages are usually impetuous; but the Exiles were more deliberate. Colonel Clinch had returned to Georgia; Sailing-Master Loomis was at Mobile Bay, and no circ.u.mstances demanded immediate action. They gathered their crops, obtained arms and ammunition from British and Spanish merchants, and made every preparation for hostilities. During the summer and autumn of 1816, General Gaines reported slight depredations on the frontiers of Georgia, but in February, 1817, he reported that larger bodies of Indians were collecting in some of their villages; and in one of his letters he stated that _seven hundred negroes_ were collected at Suwanee, and were being daily drilled to the use of arms. This number of fighting men would indicate a larger population of Exiles than is warranted by subsequent information.

[Sidenote: 1817.]

During the Spring and Summer, both parties were in a state of preparation--of constant readiness for war. A few predatory excursions to the frontier settlements, marked the action of the Indians and Exiles, while the army, under General Gaines, often sent parties into the Indian country, without any important incident or effect. The first effective blow was struck in November. A boat was ascending the Appalachicola river, with supplies for Fort Scott, under the escort of a Lieutenant and forty men, in company with a number of women and children. Information of this fact was communicated to the Exiles and Indians resident at Mickasukie, and a band of warriors at once hastened to intercept them. They succeeded in drawing them into ambush, a few miles below the mouth of Flint River, and the Lieutenant, and all his men but six, and all the children, and all the women but one, were ma.s.sacred on the spot. Six soldiers escaped, and one woman was spared and taken to Suwanee as a prisoner. Here she was kept by the Exiles through the winter, and treated with great kindness, residing in their families and sharing their hospitality. She had thus an opportunity of learning their condition, and the state of civilization to which they had attained, as well as their desire to be at peace with mankind, in order to enjoy their own rights and liberties.

[Sidenote: 1818.]