APPENDIX C BLACK SLAVERY IN THE CHEROKEE NATION Those of European descent were not the only Black slave owners in America. Rarely spoken of and never taught in schools were the so-called civilized American Indian tribes who also held ownership of extremely large numbers of slaves. The Mississippi Cherokees had been relocated to the Oklahoma territories in 1838 and 1839, via the “Trail of Tears" (In the 1830s and 1840s, the United States government forcibly removed the Five Civilized Indian Tribes from their homes in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Their removal opened the lands to white settlers and planters). By 1860 they were still slave owners and owned over 4,600 Black slaves, the Choctaws owned 2,344, the Creeks owned 1,532, the Chickasaws owned 975, and the Seminoles owned 500.
The Seminoles differed from the other Indian nations. They never practiced chattel slavery. They protected escaped slaves and claimed them as their own “property” to protect them from slave catchers. These protected slaves lived in separate villages but sometimes intermarried with the Seminoles. They adopted the Seminole dress, worked their land, and gave livestock and crops to the Seminoles in return for protection. These former slaves also formed military alliances with the Seminoles and carried rifles and knives. The Cherokees and Creeks complained about the influence the Blacks living with Seminoles had on their own slaves. They lived in such proximity, it allowed their slaves to observe and desire the lifestyle of these freed Blacks.
Cherokees depended on Negro slaves as a bridge to white society as English interpreters and translators but were just as cruel or even more brutal than their White counterparts, who for centuries held this title. The Cherokee slaves farmed cotton and other crops, but some worked at the landing where steamboats docked.
APPENDIX C BLACK SLAVERY IN THE CHEROKEE NATION A SLAVE ESCAPE Tuesday, November 15, 1842: A group of slaves escaped for Mexico, where Vicente Guerrero had issued a decree abolishing slavery in 1829 (President Vicente Guerrero issued Mexico’s abolition decree on September 15, 1829. The Mexican government reiterated the abolition of slavery without exception on April 5, 1837). This was a daring move for freedom because most slave catchers were hired Indians who knew the terrain and could track slaves far more easily than anyone else. The slaves locked their masters and overseers in their houses and cabins and stole supplies. More than twenty-five slaves, most of them coming from Joseph Vann’s plantation (Joseph Vann was a White slaveholder who operated a public ferry. His plantation was in Webbers Falls, close to the Cherokees), met up near the port town. They moved on to the Creek Nation where ten more slaves from wealthy Creeks joined them. When the escape was discovered, about forty Cherokees and Creeks took weapons and canines to hunt them down. They were difficult to catch because they had stolen horses, mules, and blooded racehorses for their escape. Within a few days, the Indians caught up with the slaves about ten miles beyond the Canadian River in the Choctaw territory. Both sides fought, and both sides suffered casualties. The slaves held their position for two days, but the Indians killed two of them and captured twelve others. The Cherokees and Creeks went back home to get reinforcements. They were loaned twenty-five pounds of gunpowder for the militia.
The remaining slaves kept moving toward the Red River and increased their numbers when they met up with and killed two slave hunters, James Edwards, a White man, and Billy Wilson, a Delaware Indian. They had in their possession slaves who escaped the Choctaw Nation, one man, two women, and five children.
APPENDIX C BLACK SLAVERY IN THE CHEROKEE NATION A SLAVE ESCAPE (CONTINUED) Monday, November 21, 1842: The Cherokee Militia Captain, John Drew, was authorized to capture the escaped slaves. He took eighty-seven well-armed men in his command with him.
Saturday, November 26, 1842: They had arrived at the site of the battle between the slaves, the Creeks, and the Cherokees. Drew and his men continued on the trail and found the dead bodies of the slave hunters, Edwards and Wilson. Drew and his men found the trail again and two days later found the runaway slaves about seven miles north of the Red River. The slaves who fought the Cherokees and Creeks surrendered to Drew. All were caught except two that were away hunting. The captured slaves were returned except for five who were held for the murders of the two slave catchers