Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-09-30
From the Atlantic Monthly for September.
The Story of the Seminoles.

lumbus Ohio: Folett, Foster Il Co. 1858.
A cruel story this, Mr.. Giddings tells us.
too cruel, but too true. 1t is full of pathetic
and tragic interest and melts and stirs the
heart at once with pity for the sufferers, and
with anger, that sins not, at their mean and
ruthless oppressors. Every American citizen
should read it; for it is an Indictment which
recltes crimes which have been committed in his
name perpetrated by troops and officials in his
service, and all doneat his expense. The whole
nation is responsible at the bar of the world
and before the tribunal of posterity for these
atrocities, devised by mempcrs of its Cabinet
andits Congress, directed by its Presidents, and
executed by its armies and its courts.
So carefully has the truth of this story been
covered up with lies, that probably very few
indeed of the people of the free states have any
just idea of the origin, character and purposes
of the Seminole wars, or of the character of
the race against which they were waged, And
yet there is no episode in American history more
full of romantic interest of heroic struggles and
of moving griofs. We have been taught to be-
lieve that these wars We're provoked by incur
sions of the savages of Florida on the frontier,
and, if the truth could not be concealed, and an
incidental motive Of our war of extirmination
against them was to be found in the sanctuary
which the fugitive slaves of the neighboring
states found in their fastnesses. The general
impression has been that these were mainly run
aways of recent date, who had made their es-
cape from cotemporary masters. How many OF
our readers know that for more than three quar-
ters of century before the purchase of Flori-
da there had been nation of negroes establish
cd there, enjoying the wild freedom they loved,
mingling and gradually becoming identified
with the Indians, who had made it their city
ofrefugo from slavery also? For the slavehol-
ders of Carolina had no more scruples against
enslaving Indians any more than Africans, until
it was discovered that she untamable nature of
the red man made him an improbable and a
dangerous servant. These Indian slaves fled in
to the wilderness, which is now tho state Of
Georgia, pushing their way even to the peninsu-
la at Florida, and were followed, in their fight
and to their asylum, by many of their black
companions in bondage For nearly seventy
five years this little nation lived happy and
contented, till the state of Georgia commenced
the series of piratical incursons into their coun-
try, then Spanish dependency, from which
they were never afterwards free; the nation at
4 lass tsAing up the Shareholders quarrel, and
prosecuting it to the bitter and bloody end.
This whole story is told, by Mr. Giddings.
And most touching picture it is First, the
original evasion of the slave into that pcninsu-
lar Wilderness, which they reclaimed as far as
the supply of their simple wants damanded
They planted, they hunted they multiplied
their cattle, they intermarried with their Indi-
an friends and allies, their children and Their
children's children grew up around them, know
ing of slavery only by traditionary legend
The original founders of the tribe passed away
and their sons and grandsons possessed theil
corn-felds and their hunting grounds in peace
For many years no fears disturbed their security
Under the Spanish rule they were safe and hap.
py. Then comes the gradual gathering of the
cloud on the edges of their wilderness, its first
fitfGl and irregular flashes, till it closes ovel
their heads, and bursts upon them in universal
ruin and devastation This heroic resistance tC
the invasion Of the United States troops follows
sublime from its very desperation. A more un
equal contest was never fought. On one sid,
one of the mightiest powers on earth, with end
less stores of men and money at its beck ant
on the other handful of outcasts fighting fo
their homes, and the liberties lin no metaphor
ical sense) of themselves, their wives and thei
children, and protracting the fight for as man,
years as the American revolution lasted.
Then succeeded the victory of slavery. am
the reduction to hopeless bondage of multitude
who had been for generations free, on claim o
pretended descendants of imaginary owners, b.
the decision of petty government officials, with
out trial or real examination. More than fiv
hundred persons, some of them recent fugitiyes
but mostly men born free, were thus reduced t
slavery at cost to us all of forty millions O
dollars, or eighty thousand llars for each. re
covered slave Then comes their removal t
the Cherokee lands west of Arkansas, unde
the pledge of the faith of the nation, plghte
by General Jessup, its authorized agent, tina
they should be sent to the West, and settled in
vil1ona ta from, thn L. t.
that, in the mean time, they should be protecte
should not be separated nor any Of them sol
to.white men or others" This. however, wa
not II legitimate issue Of war waged solely 70
the reduction of these exiles to slavery an
so the doubts of President Polk as to the con
structon of this treaty were solved by Mr. job
Y. Mason, of Virginia, who was saniwiched i
between two free-state Attorney Generals 70
this single piece of dirty work (of which trans
action see most curious account, Pr. 32S--9 o
this book, } and who enlightened the Presiden
tial mind by the information that, though th
exies were entitled to their freedom, under tn
treaty, and had right to remain tn the town
assigned to them, g the Executive could not il
) any manner interfere to protect them V
The bordering Greeks, who by long slayehol
ding had sunk to the level of the whites aroun
them, longed to seize on these valuable neigh
bors, and, indeed, they claimed rights of prop
erty in them as fugitives In fact for themselves
The exiles were assured by tho President tha
they had the right to remain in their, villages
free from all Interference, or Interruption from
the Creeks Trusting to the plighted word g
5 the head of the nation, they built their hut
. and planted their ground, and began again thei