1866 – Cherokee Nation Delegates to the U.S. Government to Negotiate Citizenship for Their Black Slaves
The perception and image of the American Indian is the most enduring myth in American history. The noble savage living in peace and at one with Nature conquered by the avaricious European invaders. The native tribes, particularly on the Great Plains, from North Dakota to Texas, were proud warriors by tradition and culture. They were fierce and inclined to enslave their defeated opponents for centuries before settlers arrived from the Old World. The Apache and Comanche were on the plains before the Five Tribes (Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw and Seminole) were forced on a death march to the Oklahoma Territories. Before these tribes were defeated, they fought the white man in brutal battles and gave as good as they got.
The Cherokee became plantation owners in eastern Indian Nations and were reputed, along with the Creek and Choctaw to own nearly 5,000 black slaves. In 1842, the largest slave revolt among the Native American tribes occurred on a Cherokee plantation.
The Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation occurred in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) when a group of twenty-five enslaved blacks, mostly from the Joseph Vann plantation, attempted to escape to Mexico where slavery was abolished. The revolt began on November 15, 1842, when the Vann plantation fugitives gathered with slaves from other plantations near Webbers Falls in the Cherokee Nation.
The fugitives burglarized a store, taking horses, mules, several rifles, ammunition, and supplies for their escape to Mexico. Once Cherokee officials discovered the escape, they sent a search party to bring them back. As the fugitives made their way southwest from the Cherokee Nation, they were joined by ten escaped slaves from plantations in the Creek Nation. The Creeks joined the Cherokees in pursuit of the fugitives, confronting them near the Canadian River. A battle ensued with two fugitives killed and twelve captured. The remaining twenty-one escaped and continued to head for Mexico while their Cherokee and Creek pursuers returned to their nations for reinforcements.</blockquote>
Drew and his men captured the fugitives (by then numbering thirty-one), and brought all of them back to Webbers Falls by December 7. After an investigation, the Cherokee Nation Council ordered five fugitive slaves to be held at Fort Gibson pending trial for the murders of Wilson and Edwards. After the trial they were executed. The council ordered the remaining fugitives to be returned to their Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw owners. The Cherokee slave revolt was the largest slave rebellion in the Indian Territory and the only one that involved fugitives from different Indian nations.
As the Civil War ended, the tribes in Oklahoma expelled their black slaves after petitioning the federal government for guarantees of their citizenship. This is one of the least known stories in America’s rich and often violent history.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.