Black Seminoles
The Resistance
You mentioned earlier the tribe called Wash*taw Moor. Was this a Native American tribe and where are they now?
The Wash*taw were direct descendants of the Olmecs who mixed in with
the Malian Moors. The name "Wash*taw" comes from the Wash*ta River
which flows along Northwest Texas and Oklahoma to the Red River, where
the Cheyenne Native Americans lived with the Chawasha, meaning "Racoon
People" . The Washo were a tribe of Negroids who lived above the New
Orleans Bayou and were of Tunican linguistic stock. The name "Wash*taw"
is a derivative of the term "Ouachita" or what is now "Wichita". The
term is a Choctaw term which means "Big Arbor" which represented the
Grass thatched arbor homes that the people lived in.
The Wash*taw was originally from lower Mississippi, Louisiana, and
Alabama (named after Nubian-Sudanese Ali Baba). The tribe was
officially named "Wichita" by the U.S. Government in the Camp Holmes
Treaty of 1835. This tribe were unmistakably a Negroid tribe! The
Wichita were also known as "Paniwassaha" or by the French "Panioussa"
which means "Black Pawnee." French traders from Illinois called them
"Pani Pique" which means "Tattooed Pawnee." The Wash*taw or "Racoon
People" were called Racoons because of their black faces. When
describing the Wash*taw, the French describes the blacks who lived in
large grass houses. The Wash*taw called themselves "Kitikitish" which
is an interpretation of "Raccoon Eyed." The term was later shortened to
"
"
which became a term used in reference to blacks in America. The
Wash*taw were an offshoot of the Pawnee Confederation. When the Moors
came to America, they mixed in with the Wash*taw Native Americans and
became known as "Washo." So the Wash*taw Moors are the so-called "Lost"
tribe of Indians that are spoken of in the history books? Yes! They are
the hidden tribe that were the descendants of the Olmecs and Toltecs of
Mexico. The Wash*taw tribe are also the ancestors to such tribes as
Pawnee, Osage, Creek, Seminole, Cherokee, Catawba, Comanche, Nez Perce,
Tuscarora, Gingaskin, Mattaponi, Powhatten, Micmac, Lumbi, Mandan,
Blackfoot, Natchez, Chickasaw, and many more tribes.
Were the Black Indians ever sold into slavery?
The misconception is that Black Indians were never taken into slavery.
This is not the case. Black Indians were also captured and sold into
slavery along with their African cousins. The land of the Black Indians
were taken. Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi,
Illinois, Florida, Delaware, Tennessee, Kansas, Iowa, Indiana all
belonged to the Wash*taw Moors. The land was invaded by the French and
British. The women were sold as sex slaves and the men were sold into
slavery as "Negros." The U.S. Government even persuaded the red Indian
tribes to own slaves. The Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw
tribes all agreed to slave holding of black Indians and Africans. The
only tribe to resist the idea of slavery was the Seminole tribe. The
Seminoles rejected the idea because they were the descendants of
African explorers who settled in Florida and mixed with Muskogee
refugees who had mixed in with the Spanish. They called themselves
"Runaways." These black Seminoles who settled in the swampy terrain of
Florida established cultivation methods that were identical to that of
the methods of Sierre Leone in Africa. Georgia slave holders were soon
invading Florida looking for runaway slaves and were soon met with
opposition with Seminoles.
The Seminoles tried to live a peaceful life in their own territory but
Georgia militias were preparing to raid Florida looking for African
slaves (many whom had already sought refuge with the Seminoles and
blended in perfectly since both Africans and Seminoles were black.) The
Seminoles, African runaways, and the Spanish all aligned with each
other to fight off the slave holders. In 1739 slave fugitives in St.
Augustine built a fort to protect themselves and the British. Black
Seminoles led the coalition against slavery in the North. Black
Seminoles even planted "spies" posing as African slaves being sold by
Creeks to the British just to gather information. Eventually the red
Seminoles began to join the resistance. This is when the U.S.
Government became worried. The government never anticipated the well
working relationship between the reds and blacks. Georgia slave holders
soon realized that the Seminole Nation could put an end to slavery.
This caused the first Seminole War. Seminoles struck U.S. slave
plantations. When the St. Augustine blacks joined in the Seminole raids
were destructive and the Seminoles could not be stopped. General Andrew
Jackson of the U.S. Military vowed to wipe out the Seminoles. The
Seminoles took control of a British fortress and re-named it "Fort
Negro" which was manned by black Seminole officers. The Seminole army
consisted of 300 Seminole men in which only 34 were red Indians.
African slaves began to join the army the Seminoles seemed
indestructible. With General Andrew Jackson's rank on the line, he
gathered U.S. troops, Marines and sought the assistance of 500 Creek
Indians. Jackson's orders were to kill the Seminoles, blow up the fort
and restore the Africans to their rightful owners. A war erupted after
the Seminoles refused surrender and a cannon ball was fired into the
Fort Negro's ammunition barracks which blew up the fort. In the ruins,
270 Seminoles were dead, 64 were fatally wounded and the leader of the
Seminole resistance, Garcia was captured alive and then executed.
General Jackson kept this incident a secret from the public for 20
years because Jackson never had an official declaration of war signed,
therefore it was considered murder, not war. However, this massacre was
only the beginning of the Seminole resistance and was only the first of
three Seminole wars that would carry on for years. The remaining black
Seminoles relocated to the Tampa Bay area where they nursed their
wounds and prepared for the next battle. The Seminoles this time joined
forced with Chief Billy Bowlegs. Without the U.S. Congress knowledge,
Andrew Jackson went on a rampage throughout Florida burning black
Seminole villages of Fowltown. When James Monroe took the U.S.
Presidency in 1817, Jackson proposed a secret plan to take Florida from
the Seminoles who at the time owned certain territories of Florida.
Jackson soon captured Pensacola and without a declaration of war,
Florida passed into U.S. hands! Another state owned by blacks that the
U.S. captured. Since Florida was officially Spanish territory, the U.S.
paid Spain $5 million for Florida, making Jackson's illegal seizure
appear as a real estate purchase. The U.S. then tried to separate the
black and red Seminoles by trying to convince the Seminole leader King
Hatchy to turn over anyone who had black skin. King Hatchy replied that
he would use force if any government tried to pass through the Seminole
territory and he would not hand over any black Seminoles. To disrupt
racial alliance between blacks and reds, the U.S. promoted slavery
among the Seminoles and tried to convince them that the other "Indian"
nations were also interested in slavery. The Seminoles rejected. The
U.S. then sent in wealthy Creek Indians who owned slaves to persuade
their tribal cousin the red Seminoles to become slave holders. Whites
and Creek Indians were encouraged to raid black Seminole villages for
slaves. Free Seminole men, women, and children were carried off and
sold in southern slave markets as "Negros." Many black Seminoles
relocated further into the swamps and became known as "Maroon." Other
black Seminoles agreed to be taken into slavery as long as they were
able to own their own cattle, horses, hogs, and were treated like
family rather than like their African cousins.
These black Seminoles had equal liberty with whites. These Seminoles
were not considered slaves but they were considered Seminoles who
maintained their African names, dressed in fine Seminole clothing, and
turbans. The remaining Seminoles migrated to Mexico for 20 years and
others migrated to Texas and mixed in with the black tribes of the
Wash*taw.
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