Slaveholders

Tranquility prevailed for several weeks, but slave traders soon threatened all plans for peace. They swarmed the camps, searching for blacks they could claim, on legitimate or illegitimate grounds. Against Jesup's orders, slavers made sorties into Seminole territory, trying to seize fugitives before they could reach the Army's protection. The slavers had strong allies in government -- in Florida and the South, after all, they were the government. Jesup began to feel their wrath.