Native American – SLAVE OWNERS

Slavery is as old as civilization itself, with every culture and society practicing it while simultaneously falling victim to it. North American Indians were no exception. Various tribes enslaved other tribes, usually through raids and after battles, capturing men, women, and children. Native Americans also captured whites and held black slaves from the colonial period until the end of the Civil War.

Many tribes practiced slavery, but their primary practice was not based upon race. Instead, it stemmed from differences in tribal customs and conflicts over territory and resources. Slaves were frequently taken to replace members who had been killed, especially to serve as laborers. Orphaned children were usually brought up within the tribe as their own without distinction. This was also true of white captives, such as the famous story of Comanche chief Quanah Parker’s mother, who was captured as a young girl, raised as a Comanche, and later unable to assimilate when forcibly returned to white society.

At the same time, many Indian cultures captured or accepted runaway black slaves, though not all tribes treated them the same way. In the Iroquois nation of New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania—comprising the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—it was not uncommon for tribes to be rather ruthless in their raids to capture slaves. Chronicled by the French, these captives often underwent very long, painful, and humiliating torture sessions to break their spirits.

In the mid-1760s, New York requested that treaties with the Huron and Delaware tribes include a requirement to return escaped slaves, yet the records do not reflect that any were actually returned. Those known as the Five Civilized Tribes in the Southeast—the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole—earned this name due to their adoption of European cultural values. These included centralized forms of representative government, conversion to Christianity, education, literacy, intermarriage with whites, and the ownership of black slaves. Much of this cultural assimilation stemmed from the belief that acquiescing to European methods would protect them from persecution and displacement.

Ironically, only the Chickasaw and Choctaw failed to free all the people they held in captivity until 1866, after the Civil War, when the federal government intervened. By the 18th century, many Native Americans owned black slaves, and tribes like the Catawba and Cherokee were notorious for their dislike of blacks, meaning their slaves were not assimilated and instead worked like common laborers under harsh conditions. The Cherokee were also famous for owning the largest number of black slaves purchased from white slave traders during the colonial period, with records showing nearly 600 black slaves owned in 1809.

The Cherokee Constitution did not recognize the children of black women as members of the nation, nor did it recognize formal marriages between their people and black slaves under the Cherokee Act of 1839, which was revised in 1855. Slaves who returned after the Civil War were denied Cherokee citizenship. Although Chief Lewis Downing tried to legally correct this, he was overruled by the National Council, and the Cherokee National Legislature called upon the federal government to remove these individuals. However, a secret abolitionist sect within the Cherokee, known as the Keetoowah Society, ran its own Underground Railroad to protect runaway slaves.

The Chickasaw produced cotton, corn, tobacco, livestock, and upholstery for self-consumption and open-market trade with white Americans, utilizing black slave labor for their agrarian economy. They placed greater value on white-mixed members over black-mixed members, often making white-mixed Chickasaw chiefs while punishing those who had relationships with blacks through fines, whippings, and expulsion.

The Creek Nation had complex interactions with blacks, occasionally protecting runaways while still considering them inferior due to heavy field labor. While some Creeks sold runaways back to white owners, during the 18th century after the American Revolution, most refused to comply with white demands for their return despite bounties. By the 1850s, after the relocation West, an estimated 10 percent of the Creek Nation consisted of black slaves.

The Choctaw in Georgia explicitly banned freed blacks and runaways from settling within their territory or owning land under their 1840 Constitution, though white men could obtain permission to live there. While white men married to Choctaw women and their children could become citizens, blacks and their offspring were strictly denied citizenship and public office. Relations with Christian missionaries also grew abrasive once preachers argued that slavery contradicted Christian values, leading to the missionaries being politely expelled.

Seminoles generally maintained the most relaxed relations with black slaves, welcoming them into their tribes and treating mixed-race children no different than other members, as seen with the father of Medal of Honor recipient Pompey Factor. Still, this was not universal, as Seminoles initially raided plantations for slaves, and runaways frequently joined them for a better life. This dynamic shifted after the First Seminole War when runaways were sometimes returned to avoid white retribution. General Thomas Jesup feared a massive open rebellion during a potential Second Seminole War if black slaves revolted alongside the Seminoles.

Following the conflict, the tribes took their black slaves with them during the forced relocation to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma. Pompey Factor’s family moved west from Florida to Arkansas and eventually Texas. Even on reservations, many Indians retained their slaves. When the Seminoles were placed on Creek lands, clashes erupted because the Creeks practiced chattel slavery while the Seminoles largely did not, leading Creek raids to steal Seminole slaves. This violence prompted Factor’s family and others to escape to Mexico, where slavery was illegal.

This westward push carried chattel slavery into the frontier, setting the stage for deep political conflicts leading up to the Civil War. Yet, it has been documented that many blacks held by Indians fared far better than those owned by white masters. Some tribes, like the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass noted in 1850, offered more kindness in the bosom of the savage Indian than in the heart of a Christian master. White Indian agent Douglas Cooper, disturbed by this equal treatment, even suggested inviting white men to teach tribes how to properly handle enslaved people. In some instances, Native American women even bought male slaves, freed them, and married them so their children would be born free.

Ultimately, the practice of Native American slavery was as diverse as it was common, reflecting the complex cultural landscapes of the frontier and leaving behind a profound, multifaceted historical legacy.