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John
Horse, also known as Juan Caballo, John Cowaya, or Gopher John was the
dominant personality in Seminole Maroon affairs for half-a-century. He
counseled Seminole leaders, served as an agent of the U. S. government,
and became a Mexican Army officer. He served the Seminole Maroons as
warrior, diplomat, and patriarch, and represented their interests in
Washington D.C. and Mexico City. He fought against the United States,
the French, and Indians and survived three wars, four attempts on his
life, and the grasp of slavehunters.
Little
is known of John Horse’s early years but by 1826 he was
living in his owner’s village near Tampa Bay. During the
Second Seminole War, 1835-42, he initially led Maroons against U. S.
forces in Florida. But offered the promise of freedom, he agreed to
surrender and relocate west with the Seminoles in March 1837. By 1840,
John Horse had married Susan July, the daughter of a Seminole Maroon
guide and interpreter. Fearing that his family, and his fellow Maroons
would be reenslaved, Horse entered into an alliance with disaffected
Seminoles and left Indian Territory in November 1849 for northern
Mexico.
Naming
Horse’s followers Mascogos, the Mexicans in 1852 gave the
Maroons, Seminoles, and a band of Southern Kickapoos separate land
grants at Nacimiento to establish military colonies. In exchange for
land, tools, and livestock, the immigrants agreed to fight against
Apache and Comanche raiders. The Mexican authorities viewed John Horse
as the undisputed head of the Mascogos and referred to him as El
Capitán Juan Caballo.
During
the summer of 1870, John Horse and many of the Mascogos returned to the
United States and settled near Fort Duncan, Texas. In August, the
able-bodied men enrolled in the U.S. Army as a new unit that came to be
known as the Seminole Negro Indian Scouts. John Horse, however, never
served with the scouts. After a failed assassination attempt against
him by white Texans, Horse again led the Mascogos into Mexico. He died
there in 1882 while on a mission to represent them before Mexican
president Porfirio Diaz.
Sources:
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John Horse and the Black Seminoles, The First Black Rebels to
Beat American Slavery
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Daniel F. Littlefield, Jr., Africans and Seminoles: From
Removal to Emancipation (2001)
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Kevin Mulroy, Freedom on the Border: The Seminole Maroons in
Florida, the Indian Territory, Coahuila, and Texas (1993).
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