Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-08-13
SLAVES AMONG THE sEMJStylES.
A''d'ans in the Florida Everglades Who
Holt Negroes i'm Rondape.

Holt Negroes in Bondage.
In certain of the more southern
parts OF Florida negroes are held in as
strict bondage as ever they were before
the great wal in any part of the coun-
Try, says a Tampa (Fla.) correspondent
OF the st. Louis Globe Democrat.
slavery survives, however, only among
the lew remnants of the Seminole tribe
VINO still have their homes in the woods
and everglades south and east of the
C~aloosahatchie River. There there
are many families of the red men who,
though perfectly inoffensive SO far as
the whites are concerned, maintain a
dignitied independence of the general
laws n administer their own affairs
in a way strongly reminiscent of patri-
archa! traditions. They live princi-
pally by the chase and upon the fish
OF which all Florida waters, lakes.
streams, and seas, are extremely proli-
nc; and for vegetable food they depend
upon small patches of ground cleared
here and there, as fancy may dictate,
from year to year. The cultivation Of
these patches among the poorer mem
bers OF the tribe is carried on by their
women, but the more prosperous of
the Indians have their negro slaves,
upon whom they devolve all the hard
labor. OF cultivation, as we'll as the few
items of mental drudgery incipent to
their simple method of living.
1t is curious to observe the degree of
pride these Seminoles take in the fact
that they are shareholders. They are
perfectly aware that the white people
OF the country are forbidden to hold
slaves; that every negro throughout
the South who once had to pay obedi-
ence to q bondmaster has been freed:
but they don't seem to understand that
either emancipation proclamations and
enactments or constitutional amend
ments have any application to them
and their 'niggers." Hence they re-
gard themselves as q race of beings
more highly privileged than the whites
) -aristocrats who alone are recognized
as having tights Of property in an in
ferior race! Nor is there apparent
among them the faintest suspicion that
their assumed rights can be questioned
by the law. Slave. owning and slave
trading among themselves is conducted
as openly and with as much confidence
as ever it was in South Carolina or Ala
bama thirty OF forty years ago, and
even when they visit the towns to ex'
change their peltries for powder,
clothing, cfockery, and other nee.
essaries. they occasionally take
with them their black bondsmen,
partly to perform any laborious
duty that may happen to become neces,
sary, but partly also to enhance theil
appearance Of dignity and Importance
Only a few weeks ago one of this class.
a full-blooded Indian, claiming the
rank of a Seminole chief, came to Tam.
pa to buy stores, bringing with him {
young negress whom he pointed te
with pride as his own property, re
marking at the time: me big chief
heap bigger than white man, white mar
no slave, only Seminole have slave.
Several people of Tampa, both white
and colored, tried to interest them.
selves on behalf of the black girl, hop
ing to induce her to assert her right t.
freedom and to remain in the city
where a home would have been provi3
ed for her. But she knew no language
but Seminole, and all efforts to make
her understand were fruitless. She
took fright, too, at the well-meanine
efforts, and, breaking from those who
would have persuaded her, fed to her
master, and, taking hold OF his skirts
could not be induced to detach he1
hold all the time he remained in Tampa
1t is but fair to add that since that sin
gular event news has been received
hat the chief has promoted the poo
girl from the position of slave to wife
an honor which she, of course, has t,
share with two OF three others.