Negro Fort

Since Spain was too weak either to help or hinder Jackson, the general gathered forces for an invasion. Taking a page from history, he enlisted the aid of Creek warriors, offering Coweta Creek chief William McIntosh $50 a head for each American-owned slave he could capture in Florida. The practice of sending Creeks against the Seminole maroons dated back to the Treaty of New York in 1790, with roots in the colonial-era slave trade. For the Black Seminoles, this policy would have lingering, and terrifying, consequences.