Back to main trail

In his history of the Black Seminoles, whom he called the "Exiles," the antislavery activist Giddings described the Articles of Capitulation as an undisputed policy victory for the black rebels:

"Under these articles, the Exiles were to enjoy that security for which they had contended for a century and a half. It was for this that their ancestors left South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida; to attain it, they were willing to leave the graves of their fathers -- the country in which they had lived during many generations. Abraham now entered upon the work of inducing all his brethren, both Indians and negroes, to go to the Western Country, where they could be free from persecutions."