The Dawson journal., 1886-06-10
SLAVERY IN FLORIDA.
A Remnant of the SeminOles Maintain
Negroes in Bondage.

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st. Louis Globe-Democrat says.
1t will probably be difficult to
convince Northern people that
the peculiar Institution" for the
extinction for which such oceans
OF blood and millions of treasures
We're spent a few years ago, still
has any existence within the bor-
ders of the United States. Never
theless, it is fact that in certain
OF the more Sor thern parts of
Florida negroes are held in as
strict bondage as ever they were
before the great war ia any part
OF the country. Slavery survives,
however, only among the few
remnants Of the Seminole tribe
who still have their homes in the
woods and everglades south and
east of the Caloosahatche river.
There are many families of the
red men who, though perfectly in
offensive so far as the whites are
concerned, maintain dignifed
Independence of the general laws
and administer their own affairs
in way strongly reminiscent of
patriarehal traditions. They live
principally by the chase and upon
the fish Of which all Florida
waters, lakes, streams and seas
are extremely prolific; and for
vegetable food they depend upon
small patches of ground cleared
here and there, as fancy may die
tate, from year to year. The cul-
tivation of these patches among
the poorer members of the tribe
is carried on by their women; but
the more prosperous of the In
dians have their negro slaves, up
on whom they devolve all the
hard labor of cultivation, as well
as the few items of menial drudg-
cry incident to their simple meth
ods of living.
It is curious to observe the de-
gree of pride these Seminoles
take in the fact that they are slave
holders. They are perfectly
aware that the white people of
the country are forbidden to hold
slaves; that every negro through
out the South who once had to
pay obedience to a bond-master
has been freed; but they don't
seem to understand that either
emancipation proclamations and
enactments or constitutional
amendments have any application
to them and their "niggers."
Hence they regard themselves as
q race of beings more highly priv
ileged than the whites aristo-
Gratis who alone are recognized as
having rights of property in an
inferior race. Nor is there appa-
rent among them the faintest sus-
picion that their assured rights
can be questioned by the law,
Slave owning and slave trading
among themselves is conducted
as openly and with as much conf
dence as ever it was in South Car
olina or Alabama thirty or forty
years ago, and even when they
visit the towns to exchange their
peltries for powder, clothing,
crockery and other necessities,
they occasionally take with them
their black bondsmen, partly to
perform any laborious duty that
may happen 10 become necessary,
but partly, also, to enhance their
appearance Of dignity and impor-
Uanoe. Only a few weeks ago one
of this class, a full-blooded Indian,
claiming the rank Of q Seminole
chief, came to Tampa to buy stores,
bringing with him young ne
gress whom he pointed to with
pride as his own property, re-
marking at the time, ''Me big
chief, heap bigger than white
man, white man no slave, only
Seminole have slave. etc. Sew
eral people of Tampa, both white
and colored, tried to interest them
selves on behalf of the black girl,
hoping to induce her to assert her
right to freedom and to remain in
the city, where a home would have
been provided for her. But she
knew no language but Seminole,
and all efforts to make her under
stand were fruitless. She took