Escaped slaves became Spanish Florida's first settlers. They joined refugees from the Creek Nation and called themselves Seminoles which means runaways. Intermixing became so common that they were soon called Black Seminoles. The black Seminoles struck frequently against slave plantations and runaway slaves swelled their ranks. The U.S. government launched three massive war campaigns against the Seminole nation over a period of 40 years. The second war alone cost the U.S. government over 40 million dollars and 1500 soldiers. The Seminoles eventually signed a peace treaty with President Polk which was violated in 1849 when the U.S. Attorney General ruled that black Seminoles were still slaves under U.S. law.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
197 p, In Miami, Lieutenant Gutierrez investigates gruesome, ceremonial killings by Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean cult. To solve the case he joins forces with a student who is writing a thesis on the subject. By the author of The Cuban-American Experience.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Journal Title Details:
39(2) : 196-210
Notes:
Reviews several books on slavery. Silver, Trade and War: Spain and America in the Making of Early Modern Europe, by Stanley J. Stein and Barbara H. Stein; Black Society in Spanish Florida, by Jane Landers; Gobernar Colonias, by Josep M. Fradera.;
Colburn,David R. (Author) and Landers,Jane (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
1995
Published:
Gainesville: University Press of Florida
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
392 p, Africans participated in all the Spanish explorations and settlements in Florida, as they did throughout the Spanish Americas. In Florida they helped establish St. Augustine and the free black community of Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose. Africans and African Americans fought in the many conflicts that wracked Florida, including the three Seminole Wars and the Civil War. Despite the oppressions of slavery and segregation, black Floridians struggled to establish their own communities, combat racism and economic deprivation, and negotiate the terms of their labor. Against overwhelming odds, they helped develop communities like Jacksonville, Tampa, and Miami, and they served as the critical labor force for the state's citrus, agricultural, and timber industries. For centuries, however, their heritage has been ignored. These twelve essays examine the rich and substantial African American heritage of Florida, documenting African American contributions to the state's history from the colonial era to the late twentieth century. (www.upf.com);
"There was no trial. No formal accusations. They just dumped all of the prisoners like animals into a cage," [Jan Mapou] recalls. "they stripped us and then crammed 14 of us into a small cell. We had no idea if we would ever see our families again. We had no idea if we would even be alive from one second to the next." Tell no one "When I first started working with Jan Mapou and the Sosyete Koukouy, I knew very little about the meanings of the daces I was performing," says Nancy St. Leger, who is now the dance troupe's choreographer. "Mapou opened me up to the significance of each dance. He didn't want the dance troupe to perform anything we didn't understand." "What Mapou is promoting through his work is not just Haitian culture but what Haitian culture represents," says [Yves Colon]. "He keeps alive those ideas of beauty, harmony and black pride which are all a part of what Mapou believes is Haitian culture.
