The first slaves of African descent who set foot on what is now the United States of America ( USA ) was in Florida.

Not the first people of African descent who came to this land; but the ones who were slaves.

Because men of African descent had earlier visited this country; but they were free men.

Some were sailors and others were soldiers who came with Spanish explorers.

So that story about the first people of African descent coming to the Americas in 1619 to Jamestown Virginia , is false .

The first slaves of African descent went to the Spanish territories; not to the English colonies.

Our history of the USA consistently leave out the early history of the Spanish, and the French in our country.

Only the history of the English and England is taught in our schools.

Saint Augustine, Florida

The first slaves of African descent in our country, went to Florida.

They were slaves of the Spaniards who established the city of St Augustine, in Florida.

St Augustine is the first city established, in what is now the United States of America.

St Augustine was established in 1565.

Many years before the first English colony was Founded in Jamestown, Virginia in 1607.

Many of the Spanish slaves ran away from St Augustine.

They went into the interior of Florida.

Some went to live among the tribal members of the Miccosukee while others built homes in close proximity to the many Miccosukee settlements in the interior of Florida.

Some intermarried into the tribe and others established African style villages.

The Spanish called these runaway slaves Cimarron .

Later the British mispronounced the name of Cimarron and changed the spelling to Seminole .

Say Cim-ah-ron a few times yourself; and notice how it can sounds like Sem-ah-nole 🙂

Also the English and later the Americans, erroneously started referring to the Native Miccosukees as Seminoles.

Right now many people in our country believe that the Native Americans in Florida are called Seminoles; and not Miccosukee

Importation of African slaves outlawed in the USA, in 1808

Later when the importation of African slaves was outlawed in the USA ( in 1808) slave traders from the southern USA started raiding Florida; trying to enslaves the descendants of the Cimarrons, who had ran away from the Spanish over 100 years before.

They saw Florida as a new source for slaves because of the 1808 law.

Many members of the Native American * Creek Tribe , who lived in Alabama and Georgia; had adopted the ways of the Europeans.

Many Creeks had become Christians and had established European styles towns.

They had completely adopted the ways of the European people.

Some of them also owned slaves, who were of African descent.

In the early 19th century, they began to claim that the Native Americans called Seminoles had been members of their tribe.

They claimed that these Seminoles had run away to Florida, along with some of their African American slaves.

This was a legal scheme concocted by those involved in the business of slavery.

They wanted to establish legal reasons for their raids into Florida.

They wanted to enslave the descendants of the original Cimarrons.

Many of the descendants of these original Cimarrons, had never experienced slavery.

The majority of their ancestors had been free from slavery since the 16th century.

So the Creek along with the Caucasian slavers decided to go to Florida and bring their so-called slaves back.

Seminole Wars

Even before an official war began, between the so-called Seminoles and the US government; there had been raids into Florida, by slavers and their Creek allies.

The Miccosukee warriors fought alongside the descendants of the Cimarrons to repel the slavers and their Creek allies..

The slavers and their Creek allies were driven back to the USA.

Later on a steady stream of slaves in the southern states of the USA, started running away to freedom in Florida.

The had heard that people who looked like them, were living there free from slavery.

They also knew that the Spanish government in Florida,would not aggressively try to find them, nor to send them back to the USA.

Then the slave dealers in the USA, along with the slave masters who had recently lost their runaway slaves; began to put pressure on the US government to send troops into Florida.

Thus began the first of 3 Seminole wars. These wars ended in 1858

Spanish Florida became the first foreign territory that the USA invaded after independence from Britain.

The Miccosukee with their African brethren fought valiantly to repelled the invaders.

In one historic letter written by an American soldier to his family; he stated, “they told us that we came here to fight Indians, but many of the people we are fighting are Negroes.”

Above sketch was said to have been made, by one of the American soldiers who was in the battle.

After three so-called Seminole wars, an agreement was reached and the Miccosukee tribe members and the descendants of the Cimarrons were rounded up and sent out West.

The American government had tried without success to separate the descendants of the Cimarrons from the Miccosukee tribal members.

But the tribal leaders had strongly refused.

It was reported that Chief Osceola’s wife was of African descent.

So the tribal members and the descents of the Cimarrons were rounded up and forced to leave their ancestral homeland.

But many of them had hidden in the swamps of Florida where they stayed hidden and was never sent out west to Texas and the Oklahoma Territory.

Later in the West, some of the African (Seminoles) became Indian scouts for the US military against so-called hostile tribes like the Apache.

Seminole scout

Many, many years later it was found that many Miccosukees had not migrated and they had hidden in the swamps undetected for many years.

Among some of the tribe members today you can still see traces of their African ancestry in their features.

RACISM AMONG NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES

Why are there so many Native American communities now, all across America who are denying the close relationship many of their ancestors had with people of African descent ?

They want to deny membership of their tribe to people who are mixed and have a strong appearance of African ancestry.

A gathering of Algonquin tribal member in RI in 1925

None of these tribes today have any problem accepting the Caucasian looking people who claim to have Native American ancestry.

Many tribal members have now been influenced by racism and the Hollywood depiction of Native Americans.

Usually Caucasian actors portraying Native Americans.

Many US Native Americans, now perceive themselves as looking more like Caucasians than the way their ancestors looked.

Not just Native Americans with African ancestry; but many of these Northern American tribes even refuse to acknowledge the Native Americans from Mexico, Central America or South America as being members of their own racial group.

Many of the so-called illegal immigrants coming from those places to the USA, are also Native Americans.

The Native Americans in the USA, weaken their position by not acknowledging the numerical superiority that they have.

They must embrace their people from the bottom of South America, all the way up to Alaska.

I believe that Native Americans (including the ones with mixed blood) are the largest racial group on this continent.

The Native Americans have been divided (into Spanish, English) and have been deceived into believing that they are a minority.

In fact they are the majority in the Americas.

AFRICANS INTERMINGLING WITH NATIVE AMERICANS

From the 17th century there have been intermingling between Africans and Native Tribes.

Especially the Native communities from the Eastern and Southern parts of America.

In fact many heroic African Americans were mixed with Native American.

Crispus Attucks was half Native American. was half Native American.