Native American History: The Early Rainbow Coalition

Born and raised in Florida and the Seminoles were the first real American Indians that I had ever seen in my life. Happy to recycle this information a friend on a now-defunct social network shared with me as part of the November celebration for Native American Heritage Month. 

“On Christmas day 1837, 176 years ago, the Africans and Native Americans who formed Florida’s Seminole Nation defeated a vastly superior U.S. invading army bent on cracking this early rainbow coalition and returning the Africans to slavery. …”

Read more:  “Christmas Day Freedom Fighters: Hidden History of the Seminole Anticolonial Struggle” by William Loren Katz: http://bit.ly/1bqgtzD


(Image: Attack of the Seminoles on the blockhouse. Image: WikiCommons.)

An abandoned British fort from the war of 1812 was once occupied by a group of escaped slaves who found refuge and acceptance among the local tribes. The fort and the Spanish control of Florida offered some defense but the U.S. government sent an expeditionary military raid to terminate the outlaw colony. In the summer of 1816, the fort on the Apalachicola River was destroyed and nearly all its inhabitants.

WARRIORS FROM BONDAGE
30″ X 48″ Oil Painting by Jackson Walker of the attack of Negro Fort on the Apalachicola River, 1816. Jackson Walker Florida Artist, Florida History Paintings, Military History Paintings, Legandary Florida, US History, Florida Landscape Paintings