Contents

Introduction / 5

Spanish Colonialism and Indigenous Uprisings / 15

Spanish Florida: A Refuge of Freedom / 49

American Intrusion:

Manifest Destiny, Land Theft, and Slavery Expansion / 77

The First Seminole War:

The Real 300 Was At the Suwannee River / 111

Containment and Enslavement:

Whites Expand Their Hold of the Florida Territory / 141

“A Negro, Not an Indian War”:

The Second Seminole War / 171

Achieving Freedom on the Field of Battle:

The First Emancipation Proclamation / 214

“A Backwoods Revolution Against Capitalism” / 243

The Discontent:

General Slave Resistance in Antebellum Florida / 279

“Renewing the Cry of Bread or Blood”:

Class Conflict in Confederate Florida / 316

“An Active War for their Liberation”:

Slave Defection in Confederate Florida / 340

Slavery with a Human Face:

The Struggle over Land, Labor, and Freedom / 380

The End of Reconstruction: Reversing Democracy / 425

References / 475