Second Exodus

Creek and Seminole slaveholders in the Indian Territory feared Coacoochee would inspire yet another mass exodus of blacks. Creek chief Roly McIntosh was one of the territory’s wealthiest slaveowners. Like the corrupt subagent Duval, McIntosh stood to profit from the capture and sale of Black Seminoles. And like Duval, he was prone to writing letters of complaint to Gen. Belknap and other military commanders:

Now he [Coacoochee] come back with enticing news and want to carry his people in that nation; and the negroes, he told them if they emigrate to that country, they will all be freed by the government. This is good news to the negroes. I am told some are preparing to go…. Wild Cat [Coacoochee's name in English] held council with his people—bad this talk with them.

McIntosh ordered the arrest of Coacoochee and sent agents after him, but ultimately the Creeks allowed him to leave unhindered. The wily Seminole chief may have kept them at bay with reports of a large force of Indian allies south of the Canadian River. Coacoochee induced 40 men and their families—perhaps 100 people in all, most of them black—to leave the territory. Given the 180 people riding with Jim Bowlegs, these refugees would have added considerably to the exodus. But the fugitives were about to encounter a major obstacle.