02/03/2025
The article that started it all As we embark on Black History Month we would like to share the history behind the name. The history of the Mascogo begins some 1,300 miles away from their current homeland in the swamps and woods of north-central Florida.
Spanish Florida had been a haven for escaped slaves from the north from as far back as the late 1600s. Those fleeing the sugar and cotton plantations of the Carolinas and Georgia found a new life in the wilderness of this backwater of the Spanish Empire. Sometimes the slaves would strike out on their own or join groups of other escapees living in the wilds of this mostly undeveloped colony of Spain. More frequently, though, escaped slaves would approach native villages asking for help in what was to them a strange, new land. The natives, collectively known as Seminole to outsiders, would often accept these runaways under certain conditions.
Mainstream history books would assert that these escapees became slaves of the Seminole in exchange for shelter and safety. A modern-day reexamination of this relationship likens it more to the feudal system in medieval Europe than to the slavery of the plantations in the English colonies and later the fledgling United States. Former black slaves would be given land and assistance by the Seminole, including protection, if necessary, in exchange for a form of tribute, which may have included labor, but more often took the form of a portion of the harvest or a predetermined amount of hand-crafted goods. Source:
