The Exiles of Florida Part 8

During the summer, the Indians committed various depredations upon the white people, such as stealing horses and killing cattle; but the first open hostilities occurred on the twenty-eighth of December, when two important and b.l.o.o.d.y tragedies took place, which left the country no longer in doubt as to the actual existence of war.

A young and gallant warrior, named Osceola, was the princ.i.p.al actor in one of these scenes. He was the son of an Indian trader, a white man, named Powell. His mother was the daughter of a Seminole chief.

He had recently married a woman said to have been beautiful. She was the daughter of a chief who had married one of the Exiles; but as all colored people by slaveholding laws are said to follow the condition of the mother, she was called an African slave. Osceola was proud of his ancestry. He hated slavery, and those who practiced the holding of slaves, with a bitterness that is but little understood by those who have never witnessed its revolting crimes.

He visited Fort King, in company with his wife and a few friends, for the purpose of trading. Mr. Thompson, the Agent, was present, and, while engaged in business, the wife of Osceola was seized as a slave.

Evidently having negro blood in her veins, the law p.r.o.nounced her a slave; and, as no other person could show t.i.tle to her, the pirate who had got possession of her body, was supposed of course to be her owner.

[Ill.u.s.tration: As.se.he.ho.lar. (known as Osceola, or Powell.)]

Osceola became frantic with rage, but was instantly seized and placed in irons, while his wife was hurried away to slaveholding pollution.[79] He remained six days in irons, when, General Thompson says, he became penitent, and was released.

From the moment when this outrage was committed, the Florida War may be regarded as commenced. Osceola swore vengeance upon Thompson, and those who a.s.sisted in the perpetration of this indignity upon himself, as well as upon his wife, and upon our common humanity.

The Exiles endeavored to stimulate the Indians to deeds of valor. In general council, they decreed that the first Seminole who should make any movement preparatory to emigration, should suffer death. Charley E.

Mathler, a respected chief, soon after fell a victim to this decree.

Osceola commanded the party who slew him. He had sold a portion of his cattle to the whites, for which he had received pay in gold. This money was found upon his person when he fell. Osceola forbade any one touching the gold, saying it was the price of the red man's blood, and with his own hands he scattered it in different directions as far as he was able to throw it.

But his chief object appeared to have been the death of General Thompson. Other Indians and Exiles were preparing for other important operations; but Osceola seemed intent, his whole soul was absorbed, in devising some plan by which he could safely reach Mr. Thompson, who was the object of his vengeance. He, or some of his friends, kept constant watch on the movements of Thompson, who was unconscious of the danger to which he was exposed. Osceola, steady to his purpose, refused to be diverted from this favorite object. Thompson was at Fort King, and there were but few troops to protect that fortress. But Indians seldom attempt an escalade, and Osceola sought an opportunity to take it by surprise. With some twenty followers, he lay secreted near the fort for days and weeks, determined to find some opportunity to enter by the open gate, when the troops should be off their guard.

Near the close of December, a runner brought him information that Major Dade, with his command, was to leave Fort Brooke on the twenty-fifth of that month, and that those who intended to share in the attack upon that regiment, must be at the great "Wahoo Swamp," by the evening of the twenty-seventh. This had no effect whatever upon Osceola. No circ.u.mstance could withdraw him from the b.l.o.o.d.y purpose which filled his soul.

On the twenty-eighth, in the afternoon, as he and his followers lay near the road leading from the fort to the house of the sutler, which was nearly a mile distant, they saw Mr. Thompson and a friend approaching.

That gentleman and his companions had dined, and, on taking their cigars, he and Lieut. Smith, of the Second Artillery, had sallied forth for a walk, and to enjoy conversation by themselves.

At a signal given by Osceola, the Indians fired. Thompson fell, pierced by fourteen b.a.l.l.s; Smith received about as many.[80] The shrill war-whoop followed the sound of the rifles, and alarmed the people at the fort. The Indians immediately scalped their victims, and then hastened to the house, where Mr. Rogers, the sutler, and two clerks, were at dinner. These three persons were instantly ma.s.sacred and scalped. The Indians took as many valuable goods as they could carry, and set fire to the building. The smoke gave notice to those in the fort of the fate that had befallen the sutler and his clerks. But the condition in which the commandant found his troops, forbade his sending out any considerable force to ascertain the fate of Thompson and his companion. Near nightfall, a few daring spirits proceeded up the road to the hommock, and brought the bodies to the fort; but Osceola and his followers had hastened their flight, not from fear of the troops, but with the hope of joining their companions at Wahoo in time to engage in scenes of more general interest.

General Clinch had foreseen that hostilities were unavoidable, and, as early as the fifteenth of November, had sought to increase the number of troops at Fort King by such reinforcements as could be spared from other stations. For this purpose, he ordered Major Dade, then at Fort Brooke, near Tampa Bay, to prepare his command for a march to Fort King. The distance was one hundred and thirty miles, through an unsettled forest, much diversified with swamps, lakes and hommocks. No officer nor soldier could be found who was acquainted with the route, and a guide was indispensable: yet men competent to the discharge of so important a trust were rarely to be found, for the lives of the regiment might depend upon the intelligence and fidelity of their conductor.

At this point in our history, even before the commencement of general hostilities, we are led to the acquaintance of one of the most romantic characters who bore part in the stirring scenes of that day. On making inquiry for a suitable guide, the attention of Major Dade was directed to a colored man named Louis. He was the slave of one of the old and respectable Spanish families, named Pacheco, who resided in the vicinity of Fort Brooke. Major Dade applied to the master, Antonio Pacheco, for information concerning his slave, and was a.s.sured that Louis, then near thirty years of age, was one of the most _faithful_, _intelligent_, and _trustworthy_ men he had ever known. He had also been well bred, was polite, accomplished, and learned. He read, wrote, and spoke, with facility, the Spanish, French, and English languages, and spoke the Indian, and was perfectly familiar with the route to Fort King, having frequently traveled it.

Pleased with the character and appearance of Louis, Major Dade entered into an agreement with the master for his services in conducting the troops through the forest to Fort King, at the rate of twenty-five dollars per month, and stated the time at which the service was to commence. The contract was made in the presence of Louis, who listened attentively to the whole arrangement, to which he of course gave his own consent.

Louis Pacheco was too enlightened to smother the better sympathies of the human heart. He was well informed, and understood the efforts that were making to reenslave his brethren, the Exiles. With many of them he had long been acquainted; he had witnessed the persecutions to which they had been subjected, the outrages heaped upon them, and now saw clearly the intention to subject them to slavery among the Creeks. He had spent his own life thus far in servitude, and, although his condition was regarded with envy by the plantation servants around him, he yet sighed for freedom.

Blessed with an intellect of no ordinary mould, he reflected deeply upon his condition, and determined upon his course. Hostilities had not yet commenced, and he was in the daily habit of conversing with Indians, and often with Exiles. He was well acquainted with the character of each, and knew the men to whom he could communicate important information with safety. To a few of the Exiles, men of integrity and boldness, he imparted the facts that Dade, with his troops, would leave Fort Brooke about the twenty-fifth of December, for Fort King, and that he, Louis, was to act as their guide; that he would conduct them by the trail leading near the Great Wahoo Swamp, and pointed out the proper place for an attack.[81]

This information was soon made known to the leading and active Exiles, and to a few of the Seminole chiefs and warriors. The Exiles, conscious that the war was to be waged on their account, were anxious to give their friends some suitable manifestation of their prowess. They desired as many of the Exiles capable of bearing arms as could a.s.semble at a certain point in the Great Wahoo Swamp, to meet them there as early as the twenty-seventh of December, armed, and prepared to commence the war by a proper demonstration of their gallantry.

Information was sent to Osceola and his followers, inviting them to be present. They were lying secreted near Fort King, too intent upon the death of Thompson to turn their eyes for a moment from their victim.

However, many other chiefs and warriors a.s.sembled at the time and place designated, in order to witness what they supposed would be the first scene in the great drama about to be acted. Their spies detached for that purpose, arrived at their rendezvous almost hourly, bringing information of the commencement of Dade's march, the number of men forming his battalion, and their places of encampment each night.

In the evening of the twenty-seventh, their patrols brought word that Dade and his men had arrived within three miles of the point at which they intended to attack them. Of course every preparation was now made for placing themselves in ambush at an early hour, along the trail in which it was expected the troops would pa.s.s. The scouts reported that precisely one hundred and ten men const.i.tuted the force which they expected to encounter, and the official report fully confirms the accuracy of their intelligence. The Exiles looked to the coming day with great intensity of feeling. More than two hundred years since, their ancestors had been piratically seized in their own country, and forcibly torn from their friends--from the land of their nativity. For a time they submitted to degrading bondage; but more than a century had elapsed since they fled from South Carolina, and found an asylum under Spanish law in the wilds of Florida. There their fathers and mothers had been buried. They had often visited their graves, and mourned over the sad fate to which their race appeared to be doomed. For fifty years they had been subjected to almost constant persecution at the hands of our Government. The blood of their fathers, brothers and friends, ma.s.sacred at "Blount's Fort," was yet unavenged. They had seen individuals from among them piratically seized and enslaved. Their friends, residing with E-con-chattimico and with Walker, had been openly and flagrantly kidnapped, and sold into interminable servitude, where they were then sighing and moaning in degrading bondage. In looking forward, they read their intended doom, clearly written in the slave codes of Florida and the adjoining States, which could only be avoided by their most determined resistance. If they behaved worthy of men in their condition, their influence with their savage allies would be confirmed, and they would be able to control their action on subsequent occasions. Every consideration, therefore, tended to nerve them to the work of death which lay before them.

In the meantime, their victims were reposing at only four or five miles distant in conscious security. Their encampment had been selected according to military science. The men and officers were encamped in scientific order. Their guards were placed, their patrols sent out, and every precaution taken to prevent surprise. They had seen service, and cheerfully encountered its hardships, privations, and dangers, but had no suspicion of the fate that awaited them on the coming day.

At early dawn, the men were paraded, the roll called, and the order for regulating the day's march given. They were then dismissed for breakfast, and at eight o'clock, resumed their march, and proceeded on their way in the full expectation of reaching their destination by the evening of that day.

But the insidious foe had been equally vigilant. They had left their island encampment with the first light of the morning, and each had taken his position along the trail in which the troops were expected to march, but at some thirty or forty yards distant. Each man was hidden by a tree, which was to be his fortress during the expected action. A few rods on the other side of the trail lay a pond of water, whose placid surface reflected the glittering rays of the morning sun. All was peaceful and quiet as the breath of summer.

Unsuspicious of the hidden death which beset their pathway, the troops entered this defile, and pa.s.sed along until their rear had come within the range of the enemies' rifles, when, at a given signal, each warrior fired, while his victim was in full view and unprotected. One-half of that ill-fated band, including the gallant Dade, fell at the first fire.

The remainder were thrown into disorder. The officers endeavored to rally them into line; but their enemy was unseen, and ere they could return an effective shot, a second discharge from the hidden foe laid one-half their remaining force prostrate in death. The survivors retreated a short distance toward their encampment of the previous night, and, while most of the Exiles and Indians were engaged in scalping the dead and tomahawking those who were disabled, they formed a hasty breastwork of logs for their defense. They were, however, soon invested by the enemy, and the few who had taken shelter behind their rude defenses were overcome and ma.s.sacred by the Exiles, who conversed with them in English, and then dispatched them.[82] Only two individuals beside Louis, the guide, made their escape. Their gallant commander, his officers and soldiers, whose hearts had beat high with expectation in the morning, at evening lay prostrate in death; and as the sable victors relaxed from their b.l.o.o.d.y work, they congratulated each other on having revenged the death of those who, twenty years previously, had fallen at the ma.s.sacre of "Blount's Fort." The loss of the allied forces was--three killed and five wounded.

After burying their own dead, they returned to the island in the swamp long before nightfall. To this point, they brought the spoils of victory, which were deemed important for carrying on the war. Night had scarcely closed around them, however, when Osceola and his followers arrived from Fort King, bringing intelligence of the death of Thompson and Lieutenant Smith, together with the sutler and his two clerks.

There, too, was Louis, the guide to Dade's command. He was now _free_!

He engaged in conversation with his sable friends. Well knowing the time and place at which the attack was to be made, he had professed necessity for stopping by the way-side before entering the defile; thus separating himself from the troops and from danger. Soon as the first fire showed him the precise position of his friends, he joined them; and swearing eternal hostility to all who enslave their fellow men, lent his own efforts in carrying forward the work of death, until the last individual of that doomed regiment sunk beneath their tomahawks.

The ma.s.sacre of the unfortunate Dade and his companions, and the murder of Thompson and his friends, at Fort King, occurred on the same day, and const.i.tuted the opening scenes of the second Seminole War.

[Sidenote: 1847.]

We bespeak the indulgence of the reader, while we digress from the chronological narration of events which followed consecutively upon this opening of the second Seminole War, in order to give a short sketch of some incidents which occurred in Congress, and were connected with the employment of Louis, and his subsequent service with the enemy.

Twelve years after the ma.s.sacre of Dade's command, Antonio Pacheco presented his pet.i.tion to Congress, setting forth that he had been the owner of a valuable slave named Louis; that he hired him as guide to Major Dade to conduct his command from "Fort Brooke" to "Fort King;"

that at the time of Dade's defeat, Louis had been _captured by the Indians_, and by them had been subsequently surrendered to Major General Jessup, and by that officer sent to the Indian country, west of the Mississippi, whereby he became lost to his owner, who, therefore, prayed Congress to grant him full indemnity for his loss.

Among the proofs accompanying this pet.i.tion was a letter from General Jessup, setting forth that, after Louis had been employed to act as guide, he had kept up a correspondence with the "Seminole negroes,"

informing them of the intended march of Major Dade, etc. He also represented Louis as a man of extraordinary intellect and learning, declaring that he regarded him as a _dangerous_ man; that he would have had him tried and hanged, instead of sending him West, if he had found leisure to attend to it; that from prudential motives he had sent him to the Indian country; and stated that he was worth a _thousand dollars_.

The case was most interesting in its character. Louis was probably the most dangerous enemy of the United States at that time in Florida. With his intelligence, he must have felt an inveterate hostility to the Government and the people, who robbed him of his most sacred right to liberty. Probably his former master and family were in greater danger from his vengeance than any other persons. He had surrendered to General Jessup as prisoner of war with arms in his hands; had been treated--very properly treated--as a prisoner of war: therefore, the master called on the people of the nation to pay him a thousand dollars for protecting him, his family, friends and nation from the fury of his own slave; and General Jessup and many Northern Representatives exerted their personal and political influence to sustain the claim.

The pet.i.tion and accompanying papers were referred to the committee on Military Affairs, a majority of whom were known to be favorable to the interests of slavery. At the head of it was the Hon. Armisted Burt, of South Carolina, a man of intelligence and influence. He appeared devoted to the interests of the "peculiar inst.i.tution."

[Sidenote: 1848.]

Having examined the case, he presented it to the consideration of the committee, and a majority at once agreed to sustain a bill giving to the owner a fair compensation for the loss of his slave. The Chairman agreed to draw up a report sustaining the bill, and present it to the committee the next morning.

Hon. John d.i.c.key, of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, now deceased, was also a member of the committee. He boarded at the same house with the author of this narrative. While at tea that evening, Mr. d.i.c.key remarked, that his committee were about to report a bill to pay for this slave, and said, if he were familiar with the subject, he would draw up a minority report against the bill. A gentleman sitting at the table remarked, that other gentlemen, who were familiar with the subject, would doubtless feel willing to lend him any aid in their power. All however agreed, that an evening was too short a time to draw up a suitable report on so important a question; yet it was known that slaveholders controlled the action of the House, and they showed no courtesy to those opposed to the "peculiar inst.i.tution," and would of course grant no time to draw up a minority report. After tea, Mr. d.i.c.key and another gentleman retired to a room by themselves, and before sunrise the next morning, had completed the report, which now appears among the House Doc.u.ments, Thirtieth Congress, first session, numbered 187, filling sixteen heavy octavo pages of printed matter. At ten o'clock the committee met, and, having listened to the report of their Chairman, they were called on to hear that of Mr. d.i.c.key, which took distinct and unmistakable grounds against the right of men to hold their fellow-beings as _property_, under the Federal Const.i.tution. This case furnishes the first instance in which the records of the nation show a minority report from any committee _against_ slavery. Mr. d.i.c.key, having taken his position, stood firmly upon the doctrines he had avowed in his report; and the other members of the committee took their choice between the report of Mr. Burt and that of Mr. d.i.c.key.

General Dudley Marvin, of New York, General James Wilson, of New Hampshire, and Hon. David Fisher, of Ohio, signed the report of Mr.

d.i.c.key; while the four Democratic members, all of whom resided in the slave States, signed that of Mr. Burt. So far as the committee were concerned, the five Democratic members a.s.sumed the position now occupied by that party, to wit, that under our Federal Const.i.tution, man may hold, sell and transfer human beings as property; while the four Whig members based their action upon the doctrine now occupied by the Republican party--that, under our Federal Const.i.tution, men cannot be transformed into brutes; nor can one man hold _property_ in another.

The reports of the majority and minority were printed, and attracted attention among the members; but the bill did not come up for discussion until the next session. On the twenty-third of the following December, the committee of the whole House, in pa.s.sing through its calendar of private claims, reached this case. Mr. d.i.c.key led off in a short, but well-arranged argument, sustaining his report. His remarks were so well directed and so pertinent, that, near the close of his speech, Mr. Burt called him to order, for _discussing the subject of slavery_. Upon the conclusion of Mr. d.i.c.key's remarks, General Wilson of New Hampshire obtained the floor, and the House adjourned.

The bill did not come up again for discussion until the twenty-ninth.

Before going into committee on that day, Mr. Rockwell, of Connecticut, Chairman of the committee on Claims, offered a resolution closing debate on this bill at half-past one o'clock, allowing but one hour and a quarter for the discussion of this important question, which now agitates the whole Union; but it was regarded at that time as meritorious in any member to prevent agitation of the subject of slavery, and the resolution pa.s.sed with little opposition. When the House resolved itself into committee of the whole, Mr. Wilson, of New Hampshire, delivered his views, sustaining the report of the minority of the committee; making the question distinctly to depend upon the right of men to hold property in men, under the Federal Const.i.tution.

Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, followed in a few remarks, taking strong ground in favor of the principle, that slaves are _property_, to the same extent that horses and cattle are property. Mr. Cabel, of Florida, followed in a few words to the same point. Here the time for closing the debate arrived; but Mr. Burt, having reported the bill, held the right to speak one hour, under the rules, in reply to those who opposed its pa.s.sage. He had evidently expected the bill would pa.s.s without serious opposition, and had become somewhat excited by the difficulties with which he had to contend; confident however of final success, he at once declared the only question to be, that of _property in human flesh_.

Many Northern men were unwilling to meet this bald question. Mr.

Collamer, of Vermont, interrupted Mr. Burt, inquiring, if there were not other questions of law involved? Burt replied, with some degree of arrogance, that he would "leave no other loop-hole for gentlemen to escape." This supercilious bearing of Mr. Burt greatly delighted some Northern members, while it appeared greatly to embarra.s.s others; but his speech was the last, and, there being no opportunity for reply, every thing gave promise of a triumphant victory to the slaveholders.

After the conclusion of this speech, the vote was taken in committee, where no record was kept, and stood for the bill _seventy_, against it _forty-four_--the majority being even greater than the slaveholders expected. The bill was then reported to the House, and Mr. Crowell, of Ohio, moved to lay it on the table, and called for the yeas and nays; and the recorded vote stood, ayes _sixty-six_, noes _eighty-five_--being a majority of nineteen in favor of the claim. The bill was then ordered to a third reading without division.

Soon as this result was announced, the Author moved a reconsideration of this vote. The reconsideration being a privileged question, he held the floor, and was proceeding to deliver his views, but gave way for an adjournment.

[Sidenote: 1849.]

On the sixth of January, the bill again came up in the regular order of business, and Mr. Giddings concluded his remarks. He endeavored to meet the arrogance of Mr. Burt, clearly and as fully as his abilities would permit. He accepted the challenge thrown out by that member, that he would leave no other loop-hole for gentlemen to escape, than by meeting the question of _property in human flesh_. To this point he directed his remarks, attempting to show the doctrine of Mr. Burt to be opposed to the Declaration of Independence, to the Const.i.tution of the United States, to civilization, to the dictates of our common humanity.[83]

When he concluded his remarks, he withdrew his motion to reconsider, in order to test the sense of the House on the pa.s.sage of the bill, which would be the next question in order.