The American Civil War is usually regarded as the war that led to the end of slavery in the United States. But battles over American slavery had been fought long before that.
During the three Seminole Wars, escaped slaves joined the warriors of the Seminole tribe to fight the American government for freedom. For the slaves, it was freedom from the brutality of plantation life. For the Seminoles, it was freedom to keep land that the U.S. government wanted for American settlers.
Many battles of the Seminole Wars took place in South Florida. And for several days in January, a Jupiter-based group is publicly commemorating two of those fights.
“The first war on slavery was not the Civil War, it was the Seminole Wars,” said Guy Bachmann, president of the Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists. His group is responsible for the creation of Loxahatchee River Battlefield Park in Jupiter, which memorializes the last major battles of the Second Seminole War -- and the fighters, black and Seminole, who lost their lives.
“It’s a deeply spiritual, ethereal place out here. There’s no place like it in the state of Florida, and you can sense it,” Bachmann said.
So on Sunday, the Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists joined with the Florida Black Historical Research Project to commemorate the two battles the park is known for.
Powell’s Battle took place Jan. 15, 1838. Seminole fighters handily defeated a small force of American troops who stumbled into a Seminole camp while searching for tribe members to fight.
Nine days later, on Jan. 24, the Americans returned to avenge that defeat. In Jesup’s Battle -- the last face-to-face confrontation of the Second Seminole War -- 1500 American troops defeated 300 Seminoles, who fled into the Everglades.
About half those Seminole fighters were black.
“It’s just an unknown history,” Bachmann said. “But it’s very important.”
The courage of some black fighters earned them the title of Seminole chief. And many married native Seminoles, starting mixed families and further integrating the tribe.
But echoes of black slavery remained.
Anthony Dixon is a Florida A&M University professor and author of the book Florida’s Negro War. At a remembrance on Sunday, Dixon said native Seminoles sometimes claimed black Seminoles as slaves -- to keep them from being recaptured.
“In order to keep their family intact and to keep their community together,” Dixon said, “this was the only way that the U.S. government would leave them alone.”
In some cases, native Seminoles who married blacks had to claim their spouses and children as slaves. And sometimes, relations between black and native Seminoles verged on “separate but equal.”
“It was two nations within a nation,” Dixon said. “Agriculturally they existed with what they called the three farms. There was a Native American field. There was a black Seminole field. And then there was a third field that they called a tribute field.”
The groups worked together in the tribute field. But most of the proceeds from that field went to the native Seminoles “because they were protected from the government at that time,” Dixon said.
Joe Torres is a minister and West Palm Beach resident. He’s black, Puerto Rican and Seminole and says some of his ancestors died fighting in the Second Seminole War. Torres comes every year to the remembrance of Powell’s and Jesup’s battles, in gratitude to all the fighters -- native and black.
“It’s something to be thankful that these troops dedicated their lives and they lost their lives for us,” Torres said. “So every year we come and honor them and give them praise and basically to give them thanks for the life that they have shown to us.”
Jupiter resident Billy Hicks was also at the remembrance ceremony, which he said was the fifth or sixth time he’s attended. Hicks is part Native American -- but his ancestors are Cherokee, not Seminole. Hicks said he comes because he feels a sense of solidarity with the Seminole fighters who died trying to protect their homeland.
“The Cherokees were forced to go to Oklahoma, and that was wrong, too,” he said. “I come out… walk and watch and spend some time. And that gives me closure.”
Hicks said despite a recent stroke, he walks in the park almost every day.
“My kids walked and prayed in this park, in the woods,” he said. “It’s been a special park for us.”
The Loxahatchee Battlefield Preservationists are holding a reenactment of Jesup’s Battle on Saturday, Jan. 28. Loxahatchee Battlefield Park is located at 9060 W. Indiantown Road in Jupiter.