Black Seminoles
Afro-Seminole Creole was first identified in 1978 by Ian Hancock, a linguist at the University of Texas. Before that, no one in the academic world was aware of its existence. ASC arose when enslaved Gullah speakers from the South Carolina and Georgia coastal region, later called "Black Seminoles," escaped from slavery on rice plantations and fled into the Florida wilderness. This process began in the late 1600s, and continued into the 1830s. In Florida, the Black Seminoles built their own independent communities, but established a close partnership with the Seminole Indians. That alliance helped protect both groups during the First and Second Seminole Wars.