Endangered Alliance

The African-Seminole alliance had flourished during two wars against the United States. Now, during peace, it was falling apart. According to John Horse, even the government subagent to the Seminoles "urged the Indians … in open council, either to sell or make slaves of them again." Micanopy and Coacoochee were still friends of the blacks, but could these chiefs stave off the Creek influence?

Fearing the worst, blacks besieged the Army with efforts to establish their legal freedom. They brought scraps of paper, memories of military promises, ancient receipts. "The records of Fort Gibson and of the Seminole agency," writes Littlefield, "reveal the desperate struggle of many blacks to safeguard against a return to slave status."