The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1839-12-21

ers (saves.) should like to have yol
advise how should act. dislike TO make any
trouble, or have any difficulty with the white PEG
: pie; but il they trespass on my premises, ant
on m! rights, | must defend myself The best way
can. Please direct me how TO acl it
his matter Douglas and his company hired {
man, who has two large trained dogs for tic pur
pose, 10 come down and take Billy. The man came
bat seeing lie could do nothing alone, has gone OF
somewhere, probably to recruit. lie is from Mo
bile, and follows for livelihood catching runaway
negroes with these large dogs"
BY letter from the United States Attorney, w
find that Pechasse was subsequently "robbed 0
all the negroes he had some six in number"
I AS these robberes were committed on fyiendL1
chiefs, and after the commencement of the Semi
mole war, they excited the attention and alarm o
the officers of Government, and hence probably i
is that official notice was taken of them. They
may give US some idea of the provocaton which
preceded and caused the war. Indeed the docu
ments before us incidentally show, that the " likely
negroes" of the Seminoles now in arms were a:
strongly coveted by the whites, as the slaves o
the friendly Chiefs By treaty made with the
SemnoIes in 1882, the Federal Government with
its usual sociude for the interests of shareholders
assumed the payment Of all claims on the Indians
for " SLAVES and other property to the amount o
! $1,000. A scramble OF course ensucd for the mon
ey, u a voluminous correspondence took place be-
tween the Agent and Secretary of War, respec
ting claims for Indian slaves; & it appears that the
Seminoles had been harrassed for years by the
contrivances of the whites TO rob them of then
slaves. The following is a sample. 1t seems that
a Mrs. Hanna claimed negro woman and Ter
increase, in possession ofthe Seminoles. The claim
had been made known to the war Department. and
so long ago as the Sth March, 1928, the following
mandate had been issued to the Indian agent.
g The Secretary of War directs that you torthoiM
deliver 10 Mary Hanna, widow, or her agent, the
slaves claimed by her, and take bond imposing
the obligation on her 20 abide by such decision as
it may be esteemed proper to seek, in testing the
right of ownership in the property in question.
We have here a specimen of the Justice melted
by our government TO the Indians. woman
claims slave in the possession Of an Indian.
Without the slightest inquiry into the justice Of
The claim, the property is ordered to be wresed
EortlaUiM from the possessor and delivered to the
claimant and then as if in utter mockery, the wo-
man is 10 give her bond 10 abide any decision that
may hereafter be made as to the legality Of her
Iclaim. Who is to obtain this decision? Certain
y not the woman, and should the poor ignorant
Indian 60 to law, where would he look for Mrs.
Hanna and her slaves From some cause not
explained, the wicked and absurd order of the
Secretary was not executed and on the Cd March,
1885, SereU years after, second order from the
Secretary OF War directed the agent to afford
whatever facilities may be in his power, upon the
claim being established By proper proof detore The
competent ri6unal, to have the property restored
to Mrs Hanna Should the reader be struck
with the remarkable moral difference between
these two orders, the explanation is easy-the
office was filled at the time of the first order by a
stakeholder; at the time of the second, by north
ern gentleman. The agent now invest gated The
case and it was discovered that the father of Mrs.
Hanna, about the year 1915, had sold the wo-
man in question, then full grown, TO a Seminole,
for forty steers, and had afterwards, as was alleged
giren the same woman to his daughter: and on
this pretended Gift Mrs. Hanna claimed moi
merely the woman, who had now lived twenty
five years with the Indians, but also all the chill
drcn she had bone within that time
On the 18th of December, 1894, the agent wrote
10 the Secretary, that Seminole woman of the
name of Nelly, Inherited from her father "a con-
siderable number of slaves" that man named
Floyd claims The whole of them by virtue of a
bill Of sale, and that Nelly insists that " Floyd i'm
posed upon her by presenting for signature bill Of
sale for all her negroes, instead of a written au-
thority TO him 10 recover some from hers The
agent adds, he has seen one who pretends that
Floyd paid her for the negroes, and that the uni
vcrsal impression is that she was grossly imposed
upon.
Ircivilized and Christian Shareholders are ready
10 murder, or, to use Mr.. Preston's phrase, to
HANG aboljtionists for questioning their moral
right TO hold property in man we may Judge
what must have been the evaporation of the
Seminoles at these multiplied attempts to rob them
of their slaves.
There is still another mode in which slavery
has operated TO produce and continue the war in
Florida. Although the expulsion of the Semin-
oes from the peninsula was devoutly desired by the
whites, no inclination was felt to send their " likely
negroes" TO the the west of the Mississippi. or
these negroes some were stolen, others claimed
under fraudulent pretexts, and others it was pro-
posed to purchase of their masters. General r.
K. Call addressed letter to President Jackson,
(22d March, 1850 asking leave to purchase ONE
HUNDRED AND FIFTY" of the Seminole negroes
" These negroes" he afdrms, " are violently OPP
posed TO leaving the country. If the Indians are
permitted to convert them into SPECIE, one great
obstacle in the way Of removal may be overcome.
The applicant was informed that no permission
was necessary-there being no legal prohibition
to the Indians selling their slaves. Agents were
Il L