Eye for an Eye: The Role of Armed Resistance ... - Freedom Archives

caused great fear in the U .S . military and the white settler population . The African
maroons promised freedom for enslaved Africans who would engage in insurrec-
tion in support of the Red/Black military alliance . The fear of uprising by a "fifth
column" of enslaved Africans on the plantations sometimes paralyzed the U.S .
military from carrying out offensives against Seminole and African maroon
villages. The commander of the Seminole/African military units was Nero, an
African maroon who also served as an advisor to the King and counsellor for the
war chief.
The first Seminole War was initiated by an attack by American troops,
under the command of General Andrew Jackson, on Seminole and African vil-
lages in north Florida in 1817 . The purpose of the American military offensive
was to expand the jurisdiction of the U.S . into Florida, re-enslave the African
maroons and reinforce the security of the plantation system by eliminating Florida
as a haven for African fugitives . This war culminated with few of the Africans
captured, but with the Seminole/African union agreeing to move into central
Florida . The migration of the Seminoles and African maroons not only provided
more land for the plantation system, but a buffer between the plantations of
Georgia and Alabama and liberated territory. In spite of this concession, Seminole
territory in Florida remained as a safe haven for African fugitives from Georgia .
Alabama, and the newly settled plantations of Florida (under U .S . jurisdiction
after 1819).'
As President, slaveowner and advocate of Native genocide, Andrew
Jackson would continue this conflict . In 1830, the U .S . legislature approved the
Indian Removal Act, which made theft of the remaining indigenous land in the