Emancipation

Jesup’s emancipation under the war powers created controversy. As Black Seminoles started to emigrate west in 1838, slaveholders attempted to advance legal claims on them. Both the Secretary of War and the Commissioner of Indian Affairs supported the claimants, writing to the army on behalf of agents seeking to “recover” Black Seminoles for slaveholders. In the face of this high-level intervention, army officers showed firm resolve, steadfastly supporting freedom for the maroons. When asked to help an agent gain title to a group of Black Seminoles who had surrendered, General Zachary Taylor, though himself a slaveholder, refused, writing that he could not “for a moment consent to meddle in this transaction,” which would tend to reduce the Black Seminoles “from a comparative state of freedom to that of slavery.” When the same claim resulted in a court case in New Orleans, no less than General Edmund Gaines defended the Black Seminoles. Gaines offered a spirited justification of their legal status as prisoners under control of the army according to the laws of war. The judge rejected Gaines’ arguments, but the claimants dropped the case on appeal and the maroons reached the Indian Territory.