Black Seminoles: the maroons of Florida

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Maroon communities and slave revolutions in the Black Atlantic world are well known and well documented. Surinam, Jamaica, Cuba, Guyana, Venezuela, Columbia, Haiti, and Brazil had large numbers of enslaved fugitives who fled the plantations, armed themselves, and defended their human right to be free against national and local military forces. Much less is known about the maroon tradition in the United States where there has been a concerted effort to suppress information on slave revolts and maroon activity. The publicized rebellion of Nat Turner and the planned rebellions of Gabriel Prosser and Denmark Vesey that never got off the ground are highlighted, it seems, in order to obfuscate the more successful maroon activities. Tagged as the largest slave rebellion in the United States, the Nat Turner rebellion did not even come close to achieving what some of the revolts waged during the colonial period achieved. There were three epicenters of maroon communities in the United States: the Dismal Swamp of southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, southern Louisiana, and north-central Florida and the Everglades, home of the Seminoles. This paper will examine the Black Seminoles, fugitive slaves who formed a maroon community and became part of the Seminole Confederation that fought three wars against the United States. The Seminole maroons’ century-long defense of their freedom far excelled the courageous revolt of Nat Turner and was by far the largest and longest standing military defense against the United States waged by an African or Indian group.