Glennette Tilley Turner - A Man Called Horse: John Horse and the Black Seminole Underground Railroad

NATIONAL
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
NETWORK TO FREEDOM

Design motifs: The colors are those associated with the Seminoles. The crossed-arrow design in the corners of the book pages are the emblem used on the scout uniform. The border design and other elements are based on clothing found in archival photos from the Seminole/Miccosukee Archive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Title page image: John Horse, detail

Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for and may be obtained from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-4197-4933-9

eISBN: 978-1-64700-495-8

Text copyright 2021 Glennette Tilley Turner

Edited by Howard W. Reeves

Book design by Sara Corbett

Published in 2021 by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Abrams is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

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FOR THE LATE CHIEF WILLIAM DUB
WARRIOR AND MRS. ETHEL WARRIOR,
CLARENCE L. IRVING SR., JOSEPH A. OPALA,
WILLIE HART, ELSIE P. WALLACE,
JOSEPHINE KAMPER, AND
A. LAVONNE BROWN RUOFF

In the early 1700s, many Lower Creeks broke away from the Upper Creeks and emigrated from Georgia and Alabama to Florida. The breakaway Native American group became known as Seminoles, or runaways. Alongside them was a smaller group of enslaved people called Black Seminoles. They were the descendants of Seminoles, free Blacks, and runaway slaves. Whereas the United States practiced chattel slaveryhumans were treated as property with no rights whatsoeverthe Seminoles practiced a form of slavery that was considered beneficial to them and to the enslaved people.

No type of slavery is good or acceptable, however, the Seminoles used the words owner and slave in a different way from their American neighbors. The Seminoles considered themselves protectors rather than masters. In exchange for this protection, Black Seminoles paid a token share of their harvest to their owners. Otherwise they lived as free people.

CHIEF OSCEOLA. HIS CLOTHES ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF HOW SEMINOLE MEN OF HIS POSITION DRESSED AT THE TIME OF JOHN HORSE.

Many Black Seminoles spoke Gullah, the Creole language spoken in Carolina (later the area of South Carolina) and learned their patrons Muskogean dialect. Those who spoke English and Spanish often served as interpreters and negotiators in discussions with the US government.

Black Seminoles and their enslavers lived in a similar manner: They carried guns, hunted, fished, dressed in Seminole-style clothing, and fought as military allies but maintained their own separate identities, villages, and leadership.

Carolina slaveholders considered Black-Native alliances a massive Underground Railroad operation and were eager to recapture formerly enslaved people. The US government supported them. However, if a former enslaver attempted to reclaim his property, a Seminole owner could convincingly claim to be the new enslaver.

INTRODUCTION

A GOPHER TURTLE, ALSO CALLED A GOPHER TORTOISE

In the fall of 1826, a fourteen-year-old Black Seminole named John Horse arrived at the kitchen of the US Army camp clutching a large fiber sack. He asked if he could speak to Lieutenant Colonel George M. Brooke. John opened the sack and Brooke was delighted to find two large turtles known as gophers. He gladly paid John for them, ordered the cook to put the turtles in a pen, and told John to keep bringing them for a great turtle feast.

John did as requested and brought turtles every day. He had come up with what he thought was an ingenious idea: He sold the turtles to the army during the daytime, retrieved them at night, then sold them back the next day. However, it didnt play out exactly as he had hoped. His ruse was discovered, and Brooke, furious, sent for the boy.

John convinced Brooke that he was only playing a prank on the cookand reassured the colonel that he would bring him as many turtles as he wanted. This explanation diffused Brookes anger. Instead of being punished, John was merely required to supply the turtles he had promised.

The encounter earned John a nicknameGopher John. This would be the first of many seemingly impossible feats he accomplished throughout his life.

KEY LOCATIONS IN
JOHN HORSES LIFE

FORT BROOKE IN TAMPA BAY, 1838, ESTABLISHED IN 1824 BY COLONEL GEORGE BROOKE

1

FLORIDA

THE FIRST SEMINOLE WAR

John was born a Black Seminole in 1812 in Alachua Savanna, west of St. Augustine, Florida. Johns original name was Juan Cavallo or Cowaya, a corruption of the Hitchiti word kaway, meaning horse. It is believed that his father was Seminole tribesman Charles Cavallo. His mother, possibly enslaved by Cavallo, was of African and Native American descent. Her name is unknown.

It was a tumultuous time in history. The War of 1812 raged on, and President James Madison secretly urged a group of planters to seize control of Spanish Florida so that he could annex it to the United States. The planters, although rebuffed by Seminoles, Black Seminoles, free Blacks of St. Augustine, and the Spanish, were still able to march west, leveling two villages, including the one where Johns family lived. Outnumbered, the Seminoles and the Black Seminoles sheltered their families in the swamps. A year later, they emerged cautiously and settled on opposite sides of the Suwannee River. They resumed life as they had in Alachuamindful that a next battle was brewing.