Pinehill Plantation - Leon County, Florida. 1880. Black & white photonegative. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 29 Jul. 2019.<https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/7172>.
A tremendous amount can be learned from history by looking at census reports. In the Leon County Census, in addition to the total number of inhabitants and their status as either slave or free, the census includes: the name of the head of the family; the number of white males over 21; the number of white males under 21; the number of white females over 21; the number of white females under 21; and the number of slaves owned by each household. Click here or on the image above to access the Leon County Census of 1821.
The decades between the banning of the international slave trade in 1808 and the abolition of slavery during the Civil War saw the massive and harrowing relocation of approximately 850,000 enslaved men, women, and children. While some enslaved people were moved when their owners relocated to the western frontier, about two-thirds were bought and sold in America’s slave market. They were forcibly uprooted from their homes, separated from their loved ones, and marched and shipped across the South on railroads and steamships.
Click here or on the image above to access maps of the Forced Migration of Enslaved People in the United States between
The full text of Jackson’s speech can be found at the American Presidency Project (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29472) but it would be better to use an excerpt posted by the PBS website for Africans in America (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29472).
NOTE: BOTH OF THESE LINKS ARE BROKEN
With the onset of westward expansion and increased contact with Indian tribes, President Jackson set the tone for his position on Indian affairs in his message to Congress on December 6, 1830. Jackson’s message justified the removal policy already established by the Indian Removal Act of May 28, 1830.
The Indian Removal Act was passed to open up for settlement those lands still held by Indians in states east of the Mississippi River, primarily Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, and others. Jackson declared that removal would “incalculably strengthen the southwestern frontier.” Clearing Alabama and Mississippi of their Indian populations, he said, would “enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power.”
White inhabitants of Georgia were particularly anxious to have the Cherokees removed from the state because gold had been discovered on tribal lands. Violence was commonplace in Georgia, and in all likelihood, a portion of the tribe would have been decimated if they had not been removed.
Removal of the Indian tribes continued beyond Jackson’s tenure as President. The most infamous of the removals took place in 1838, two years after the end of Jackson’s final term, when the Cherokee Indians were forcibly removed by the military. Their journey west became known as the “Trail of Tears,” because of the thousands of deaths along the way.
There are numerous websites that discuss Jackson’s policy and its implementation, which is often referred to as The Trail of Tears. Below is one online exhibit from Michigan State.
An online exhibit from Michigan State.
“Cherokee Map,” Union to Disunion, accessed July 29, 2019, http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/uniontodisunion/items/show/339.
Committee on Indian Affairs, “Bill outlining Indian removal act,” Union to Disunion, accessed July 29, 2019, http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/uniontodisunion/items/show/342.
Treaty of Payne’s Prairie http://www.johnhorse.com/trail/02/a/06.1.htm .
This treaty can also be found at the Oklahoma State website:
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol2/treaties/sem0344.htm
A brief overview of the Seminole Wars can be found at this Florida website: http://www.flheritage.com/facts/history/seminole/wars.cfm
and at these Seminole websites:
https://www.semtribe.com/STOF/history/indian-resistance-and-removal
https://www.seminolenationmuseum.org/history/seminole-nation/the-seminole-wars/
Wood Cut of the First Seminole War, courtesy of the Seminole Nation Museum. https://www.seminolenationmuseum.org/history/seminole-nation/the-seminole-wars/
Courtesy of Seminole Nation Museum. Photo from Third Seminole War.
Prior to 1823, the Seminoles did not negotiate any official agreements with the U.S. government. The Creek Indians of Alabama and Georgia signed treaties with the U.S. in the 1790s-1830s that impacted the Seminoles, but the Seminoles were not principal parties in these deliberations.
The three treaties included here represent the most important agreements between the U.S. and the Seminoles in Florida. The impetuses for all three agreements were ongoing conflicts over land, slavery, and trade. To read more about this, visit the Florida Memory Project by clicking here or on the image above.
Treaty of Fort Gibson
