Page 52 - John Anderson

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were still unsettled in Florida, looking for a place to be. Florida had
just become a Territory of the United States in 1821 and Indian
migration was certainly a major issue at the time.
The Cherokee had long called western Georgia home and the
Cherokee Nation continued in their enchanted land until 1828. It was
then that the rumored gold, for which De Soto had relentlessly
searched, was discovered in the North Georgia Mountains.
The discovery of gold conveniently provided another reason to take
Indian lands. The Seminoles and their Black allies (run-away slaves)
resisted this forced relocation and many held their ground in the
territory of Florida by waging war against the planters and settlers
throughout the territory.

The Seminoles were a loose
aggregation of former Creek
Indian bands known as the
Hitchiti, Coweta, Miccosukee,
Hilibi, Eufaula, Uchi, and
others, including a large
number of runaway slaves and
their descendants. All had
migrated to Florida from the
river valleys of Georgia and
Alabama beginning in the
early 1700s, followed by a
second migration between
1812 and 1820. Soon after
the United States assumed
control of Florida in 1821, the
Seminole bands were forced
to sign a treaty that confined
them to a reservation in
central Florida. Conditions
were poor in the new
reservation and pressure
continued to mount for the
Seminoles to surrender their black allies. In 1830 President Jackson
signed the Indian Removal Act, which called for all Native Americans

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