Andrew Jackson and the massacre at "Negro Fort"

  The year is 1814, the United States military was in the midst of fighting two wars on two very different fronts. Facing off in the north against a familiar enemy, The British (who were also fighting in the Napoleonic Wars at the same time) in the War of 1812; and aiding the Lower Creeks in their Civil War against the Red Stick Creek in the south. The Red Sticks started off the war on a hot streak after defeating the Americans at the Battle of Burnt Corn. However, their luck changed after the arrival of the then Major General Andrew Jackson, who quickly won the battles of Tallushatchee and Talladega. The Red Sticks, who were on the ropes, got their aid from the British coming off of their Victory during the Napoleonic Wars. In April of 1814,  the British established an outpost on the Apalachicola River. This Outpost has been known by various names at various times such as, Prospect Bluff, British Post, and before it was destroyed, Negro Fort. 

After the end of the War of 1812, the British withdrew from the fort. They deliberately left all of their weapons and ordnance in the hope that the locals would use them to defend themselves from the U.S. whenever the U.S. would ultimately attempt to re-enslave them. Many of the Red Sticks and Seminoles left and fled into southern florida to other Native American Settlements. The Slaves options were obviously not as good as the Natives. Their closest option was Angola, which was a prosperous settlement of up to 750 freed slaves, but was almost 350 miles away in southern Florida. Some of those who chose to stay were members of the disbanded Corp of Colonial Marines. This was a British Army regiment that was made up of escaped slaves whose freedom was granted when they fell into British hands. The force itself sparked controversy; it was seen as a psychological and military threat to the slave-owning society of the United States. Through the end of 1814 and into 1815, the fort became a growing community of escaped slaves from Georgia and the then Mississippi Territory. It would go on to become the largest community of freed slaves in North America before the U.S. Civil War. 

As is par for the course in America, all good things come to an end. To the U.S., the fort was seen as a "beacon of light to restless and rebellious slaves" and "a direct threat to the slave-holding interests rapidly flocking to the newly opened lands in what is today Mississippi and Alabama". In April 1816, General Jackson informed the governor of West Florida, José Masot, that if the Spanish did not eliminate the fort, he would. The governor response was that he did not have enough forces to take the fort, which did Jackson no good. On April 16. 1816, General Jackson ordered General Edmund Pendleton Gaines to "take care of the situation" because, in Jacksons words, the fort "ought to be blown up", it was only fomenting "rapine and plunder", and he should "return the stolen negros and plunder to their rightful owners'. If you needed any more evidence that Andrew Jackson was a scumbag, he then wrote to West Florida's military governor Mauricio de Zúñiga, again asking for the Spanish to deal with the fort after Masot offered no help. Jackson "informed" Zúñiga that there were "Secret practices to inveigle Negroes from the frontier citizens of Georgia as well as from the Cherokee and Creek nations of Indians are still continued by this Banditt and the Hostile Creeks. This is a state of things which cannot fail to produce much injury to the neighboring settlements and incite Irritations which may ultimately endanger the peace of the nation and interrupt that good understanding that so happily exists between our governments". Jackson insisted on the "return to our citizens and the friendly Indians inhabiting our Territory those Negroes now in the said fort and which have been stolen and enticed from them." This conduct "will not be tolerated by our government and if not put down by the Spanish Authority will compel us in self Defence to destroy them". Zúñiga replied to Jackson on May 26, 1816 by stating that he could not act unless he received orders from his Captain General and that the necessary supplies were needed to raid the fort. Jackson decided he could take matters into his own hands. 

The first step in Jackson and Pendletons plan was to move forward with the construction of Fort Scott.  Pendleton directed Colonel Duncan Lamont Clinch to construct Fort Scott on the Flint River, just north of the Florida/Georgia Border. Gaines intention was to supply Fort Scott with supplies from New Orleans by using the apalachicola river which happened to go right passed "Negro Fort". This plan would allow the U.S. Army to keep an eye on both the fort and the Seminoles that were in the area, who would hamper the U.S.'s dream of conquering Florida for the next 40 years. The catch would be that if the supply ships were fired on by the fort that would give Jackson the excuse he was looking for to completely destroy the fort and all who were inside. Obviously, a massive scumbag move by Jackson and U.S. Army to bait the freed slaves into attacking them just so they could up and destroy the fort and not have to justify their reasoning but, that's what you get when you let scumbags decide a plan of action. 

Which leads us to, July of 1816. Pendleton's supply fleet was en route to Fort Scott from the apalachicola river. On July 20, Colonel Clinch took a force of 100 American soldiers and about 150 Lower Creek warriors and departed Fort Scott but stopped short of firing range realising they would need the support from the artillery on the gunboats. Then on July 27 with the Supply fleet nearing the fort Clinch again headed out with his column, skirmishing with the defenders before they regrouped back into the fort. The two gunboats accompanying the supplies took up positions across the river from the fort awaiting the attack they knew would come. Seeing the U.S. gunboats across the river sent those inside the fort into a frenzy. The cannoneers inside began to fire on the two gunboats, but the untrained cannoneers sent their shots helplessly into the river nowhere near the armies boats. The U.S. had been given their opportunity and unfortunately jumped on it, unleashing shot and shell at the helpless defenders until a round of ''hot shot'' (a cannonball heated until it's glowing red) landed in the forts powder magazine. The explosion leveled the fort, instantaneously killing 250 of the 350 people known to be in the fort with many more dying from their injuries soon after. Many of the 350 people killed that day were women and children. The explosion itself was so loud that it was heard almost 100 miles away in Pensacola. It's been called "the single deadliest cannon shot in American history" wiping out 350 lives for the simple reason that they were free in a country that wanted to keep them enslaved. Pendleton described the explosion in his own words "The explosion was awful and the scene horrible beyond description. You cannot conceive, nor I describe the horrors of the scene. In an instant lifeless bodies were stretched upon the plain, buried in sand or rubbish, or suspended from the tops of the surrounding pines. Here lay an innocent babe, there a helpless mother; on the one side a sturdy warrior, on the other a bleeding squaw. Piles of bodies, large heaps of sand, broken glass, accoutrements, etc., covered the side of the fort... Our first care, on arriving at the scene of the destruction, was to rescue and relieve the unfortunate beings who survived the explosion".  After the dust settled the U.S. troops and Creeks charged what was left of the fort capturing the surviving defenders. Of the three that survived two of them were executed at Jackson's orders, the other survivor a Choctaw Chief was handed over to the Creeks who ended up scalping him.

This wouldn't be the first atrocity committed by the U.S. Army in their conquest of Florida and it certainly wouldn't be their last.