Contrabands during U.S. Civil War
Photograph, 1864, Library of Congress.

After 1858, the Black Seminoles had their greatest impact on U.S. history when their story reached a national audience with the publication of Joshua Reed Giddings' The Exiles of Florida. Their history furnished President Lincoln a legal precedent for the wider emancipation of black militants in 1863.

• Renown in Exile: Book brings fame in U.S.
• War Power: Precedent for emancipation
• Lincoln's Choice: President decides
• Slide with full image credit

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