Precarious lives: Black Seminoles and other freedom seekers in Florida before the US civil war

For a century and a half, late in the American slavery era, some of the men, women, and children who fled captivity found refuge in Florida. Some received sanctuary from the Spanish colonial government, while others joined the Seminoles in the peninsula’s interior. Members of both groups built thriving communities and gained a reputation as formidable warriors. But they came increasingly under threat from pro-slavery interests in a newly independent United States eager to extend its reach in the Americas. Of those who survived the ensuing wars, raids, and repeated forced displacements, most eventually left Florida, either for the Caribbean or for the US west and Mexico. 

Their experience was part of a broader history of maroons (long-term escapees from slavery) in the Americas. This book reviews some highlights of that history, and then focuses on the Florida leg of a long journey to freedom that has become an enduring part of the American legacy.