AP® African American Studies review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/african-american-studies/units/2/2-17)
Unit 2 · Topic 2.17
2.17 African Americans in Indigenous Territory
As slavery spread across the South, relations between Black and Indigenous people took very different paths. Some freedom seekers found refuge and kinship among the Seminoles and fought beside them, while the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole nations also adopted racial slavery and took enslaved people west on the Trail of Tears.
Key terms
- Black Seminoles
- Second Seminole War
- Trail of Tears
- Indian Territory
- freedmen
Refuge among the Seminoles
Some African Americans who escaped slavery found refuge among the Seminoles in Florida. Many were welcomed as kin and lived in their own towns near Seminole towns, farming and paying a share of crops. They became known as Black Seminoles.
When the US government tried to force the Seminoles west, Black Seminoles fought alongside them in the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). They had strong reasons to fight: removal could mean being seized and enslaved. US commanders saw them as central to the war. The required diary entry by Gen. Thomas Sidney Jesup (1836) records the capture of 41 Black Seminoles.
Two required images from 1863 show Black Seminole leaders. Abraham was an interpreter and adviser to Seminole leaders. Gopher John (also called John Horse) was a leader and interpreter who later led Black Seminoles to safety in Mexico.
Slavery within Native nations
The story wasn't all alliance. Many African Americans were enslaved by people of the five large Native nations of the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek (Muscogee) and Seminole. As these nations faced pressure to adopt white American ways, some wealthy citizens built plantations worked by enslaved Black people.
These nations passed slave codes, formed slave patrols and helped capture Black people who fled for freedom. When the federal government forced them west on the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, Native enslavers took the people they enslaved with them, so Black people suffered removal too.
Hardening racial lines
Writing racial slavery into law within Native nations hardened racial lines. Kinship ties between Black and Indigenous people were cut, and people of mixed Black and Native ancestry lost recognition as members of their communities and were redefined as permanent outsiders.
These conflicts lasted beyond slavery. The required 1869 Arkansas petition for freedmen's rights comes from the years after emancipation, when freedpeople, including those once enslaved in Native nations, pressed for rights and belonging (2.24).
After the Second Seminole War, many Black Seminoles were forced west to Indian Territory with the Seminoles. Facing the threat of being seized by slave raiders there, John Horse led a group to Mexico around 1850, where slavery was illegal. Some of their descendants later served as US Army scouts in Texas, and several earned the Medal of Honor.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Showing complexity
Explain how the expansion of slavery in the South affected relations between Black and Indigenous people. Give two different effects.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Effect 1: alliance and kinship, as with the Black Seminoles in the Second Seminole War.
- Step 2: Effect 2: division, as Native nations adopted slave codes and took enslaved people west.
- Step 3: Show that both were real, not one or the other.
Answer: Model answer: In Florida, many freedom seekers found refuge and kinship among the Seminoles and fought beside them against removal in the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). At the same time, the five large Southeastern nations adopted racial slavery, passing slave codes and taking enslaved Black people with them on the Trail of Tears, which hardened racial lines and cut many Black–Indigenous kinship ties.
Common mistakes
- Telling only one side. Black–Indigenous relations included both alliance and enslavement.
- Thinking only white Southerners held people in slavery. Some citizens of Native nations did too.
- Forgetting that enslaved Black people were also forced west on the Trail of Tears.
On the exam
- This topic rewards nuance. A strong answer shows more than one kind of relationship.
- Connect it to the end of slavery in Indian Territory in 1866 (2.24).
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
3 questions on 2.17 African Americans in Indigenous Territory. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
In 1836, during the Second Seminole War, U.S. general Thomas Jesup recorded the capture of dozens of Black Seminoles. Jesup later wrote that the conflict was more a war of Black people than of Indians. Printed portraits published years later show Black Seminole leaders such as Abraham and John Horse (Gopher John), who served as interpreters and negotiators.
Summary written for this practice set of General Thomas Sidney Jesup's records (1836–1837) and later printed portraits
Black Seminoles fought in the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) mainly to
Abraham and John Horse's roles as interpreters and negotiators show that Black Seminoles
The experience of African Americans among the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole nations differed from that of the Black Seminoles in Florida because many of these nations
0 of 3 answered