Key Actors

The number of black allies fluctuated throughout the conflict. Census data indicated 800 Black Seminoles before the war. Of these, officers counted a nucleus of 250 armed black warriors once hostilities began. Plantation runaways quickly augmented the black population, however, making estimates hard to gauge. It is believed that somewhere between 900-1800 blacks were allied with the Seminoles at the heights of the conflict.* The Army counted 500 Black Seminoles by war's end, after hundreds had died, been captured, or returned to plantation slavery.