Patriots

At the time of John Horse's birth, the Black Seminoles were isolated geographically, but they were well aware of the political realities of the surrounding world, particularly the American South. Most of the maroons were, after all, refugees and descendants of refugees from chattel slavery. These men and women had personal knowledge of the institution's brutal nature and of their vastly preferable life in Spanish Florida. Unfortunately for them, the slaveholders of Georgia and South Carolina were equally aware of their favorable situation.