Abraham (Seminole)
{{Short description|Seminole interpreter (1790s–1870s)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=February 2025|cs1-dates=ly}}{{use American English|date=February 2025}}
File:Billy Bowlegs, Chocote Tustenuggee, Abram, John Jumper, Fasatchee Emanthla, and Sarparkee Yohola.jpg made in New York in 1852 of Seminole leaders Billy Bowlegs, Thlocklo Tustenuggee, Abram, John Jumper, Fasatchee Emanthla, and Sarparkee Yohola.{{Cite book |chapter=SE-1716 (Photographic Copy) & SE-1350 |title=Enduring Beauty Seminole Art & Culture from the Collection of I.S.K. Reeves V & Sara W. Reeves |date=2018 |pages=15–16 |type=Exhibition |url=https://omart.org/images/uploads/pdfs/Enduring_Beauty_Edited_Catalogue_Complete_Final.pdf |publisher=Orlando Museum of Art |location=Orlando, Florida}}]]
Abraham, Seminole war-name Souanaffe Tustenukke,{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=320}} called Yobly by some whites,{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=61}} was a 19th-century Floridian who served as an interpreter and lieutenant for "Micanopy, the hereditary leader of the Alachua Seminoles."{{Sfnp|Watson|2010|p=166}} As of July 1837, he was termed "the principal negro chief" of the Seminoles and by all accounts exerted a great influence on Micanopy, approximately 500 Black Seminoles, and the white Americans with whom he treated and negotiated.{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=65}}
Biography
Abraham was born enslaved in Georgia in the 1790s and died in the 1870s in what is now Seminole County, Oklahoma.{{Cite news |last=Satterwhite |first=C. Scott |date=2023-12-18 |title=Abraham, Veteran of Negro Fort and Seminole Wars, Is Dead |url=https://www.pnj.com/story/news/history/black-history-month/2023/12/18/righting-the-past-abraham-veteran-of-negro-fort-seminole-wars-dies/71932360007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240209034343/https://www.pnj.com/story/news/history/black-history-month/2023/12/18/righting-the-past-abraham-veteran-of-negro-fort-seminole-wars-dies/71932360007 |archive-date=2024-02-09 |access-date=2024-12-10 |newspaper=Pensacola News Journal |location=Pensacola, Florida |language=en-US |issn=1946-6137 |lccn=sn87062269 |oclc=33669261 |series=Righting the Past Obituary 25}} He was described as having ties to Pensacola, having traveled to Washington, D.C., and the Indian Territory, and having had "fluent speech and polished manners."{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=243}} He is sometimes described as Micanopy's "chief negro" in parallel with John Caesar, who was deemed "chief negro" to Ee-mat-la.{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=243}} Abraham, sometimes called Negro Abram, was a key participant in the 1837–38 negotiations regarding the end of hostilities in the Second Seminole War, a potential move to the Indian Territory, and the legal status of "Indian slaves" versus "runaway plantation slaves."{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|pp=50–59}} Abraham founded a settlement called Pilaklikaha (Many Ponds), also known as Abraham's Old Town, that was home to 100 people in 1826 who grew "fields of rice, beans, melons, pumpkins, and peanuts" and managed herds of cattle and horses; American troops burned Peliklakaha to the ground in 1836.{{Cite web |last=Curtis |first=Marcus |date=2023-09-14 |title=Pilaklikaha |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/421b855f73be4cf2b3a6cd77131e8192 |access-date=2025-02-02 |website=ArcGIS StoryMaps |language=en}} Pilaklikaha was located about halfway between what is now Withlacoochee State Forest and Orlando.
References
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Sources
- {{cite book |last=Porter |year=1971 |first=Kenneth W. |author-link=Kenneth Wiggins Porter |title=The Negro on the American Frontier |series=The American Negro, His History and Literature |location=New York |publisher=Arno Press |lccn=77135872 |oclc=153515 |isbn=978-0-405-01983-8 }}
- {{Cite web |last=Watson |first=Samuel |date=2010 |title=7. Seminole Strategy, 1812–1858: A Prospectus for Further Research |url=https://academic.oup.com/florida-scholarship-online/book/28981/chapter-abstract/241190293?redirectedFrom=fulltext |pages=155–180 |doi=10.5744/florida/9780813035253.003.0007}} in {{Cite book |title=America's Hundred Years' War: U.S. Expansion to the Gulf Coast and the Fate of the Seminole, 1763–1858 |publisher=University Press of Florida |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8130-4514-6 |editor-last=Belko |editor-first=William S. |location=Gainesville, Florida |lccn=2010024271 |oclc=801840927 |id={{Project MUSE|19493|type=book}}}}
Further reading
- {{Cite journal |last=Porter |first=Kenneth |date=1946 |title=The Negro Abraham |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol25/iss1/5/?utm_source=stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol25/iss1/5&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=25 |issue=1 |issn=00154113 |via=University of Central Florida Libraries}}
Category:Black Seminole people
Category:People of the Seminole Wars
Category:Fugitive American slaves
Category:African-American military personnel
Category:People enslaved in Florida
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