er
than conquered, Florida became an American province, and two years
thereafter (1845) a slave State in the Union.

The extinction of the brave Seminole Indians left no _race_-friend
of the poor enslaved negro. Untutored as they were, they knew what
freedom was, and, until 1861, they were the only people on the
American continent to furnish an asylum and to shed their blood
for the wronged African.

Florida, as a slave State, was a factor in establishing a balance
of power, politically, between the North and South.

As the war between the United States and Great Britain (1812-15)
did not grow out of slavery, nor was it waged to acquire more slave
territory, nor did it directly tend to perpetuate slavery where
established, we pass it over.

(37) W. G. Summer's _Andrew Jackson_, ch. iii.

(38) In 1821 at Indian Springs, Florida, a forced treaty was
negotiated with the Creek Indians for part of their lands by which
the United States agreed to apply $109,000 of the purchase price
as compensation to Georgia claimants for escaped slaves, and $141,000
for "_the offsprings which the females would have borne to their
masters had they remained in bondage_."--_Rise and Fall of Slavery_
(Wilson), vol. i, 132,454.

(39) _Osceola_, or _As-Se-He-Ho-Lar_ (black drink), was the son
of Wm. Powell, an English Indian-trader, born in Georgia, 1804, of
a daughter of a Seminole chief. His mother took him early to
Florida. He rose rapidly to be head war-chief, and married a
daughter of a fugitive slave who was treacherously stolen from him,
as a slave, while he was on a visit to Fort King. When he demanded
of General Thompson, the Indian agent, her release, he was put in
irons, but released after six days. A little later, December,
1835, he avenged himself by killing Thompson and four others outside
of the fort, thus inaugurating the second Seminole war. He hated
the white race, and his ambition was to furnish a safe asylum for
fugitive slaves.

Surprises and massacres ensued for two years, Osceola showing great
bravery and skill, and _not_ excelling his white adversaries in
treachery. He fought Generals Clinch, Gaines, Taylor and Jesup,
of the U. S. A. Jesup induced him (Oct. 21, 1837) under a flag of
truce to hold a parley near St. Augustine, where Jesup treacherously
caused him to be seized, and the U. S. authorities (treating him
as England treated Napoleon) immured him in captivity for life,
hopelessly, at Fort Moul