Weik (2009) - FLORIDA - African-Native American.

Int J Histor Archaeol (2009) 13:206238 DOI 10.
1007/s10761-009-0079-9
The Role of Ethnogenesis and Organization in the Development of African-Native American Settlements: an African Seminole Model
Terrance M. Weik
Published online: 18 April 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009
Abstract Archaeological research on a nineteenth-century settlement called Pilaklikaha addresses gaps in the theory of African-Native American everyday life, community composition, and social relations. By integrating analyses of human organization and cultural transformation, it is possible to construct dynamic sociocultural scenarios for African Seminole settlements that existed in what became Florida. In this region, residents and visitors encountered diverse world views that originated in Africa and the Americas. African Seminole cultural beliefs and practices were the product of both newly created and ancestral traditions. The ways that these beliefs were practiced affected a broad range of exchanges in the spheres of kinship, spirituality, ceremonialism, politics, economics and anti-slavery resistance. Within these realms, people of African and Native American descent recognized the importance of autonomy, cooperation, and alliance. Keywords Ethnogenesis . Maroons . Transformation . African-Native Americans
Introduction The manner by which settlements are established, perpetuated, and changed is a central issue in history and anthropology. In the case of eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury African Seminole communities in Florida, this issue is complicated by the need for reconciliation of views that emphasize social organization and ethnogenesis. A more balanced theory of African Seminole sociocultural development is possible when we consider both regional transformations and local attempts to create stability and order. The heavy emphasis on cultural change in recent studies of Maroons and Native Americans has created gaps in the discourse regarding the perpetuation of these societies. These issues are addressed through archaeological analyses of sociocultural organization, transformation, and interaction related to a settlement called Pilaklikaha
T. M. Weik (*) Department of Anthropology, University of South Carolina, 317 Hamilton Hall, Columbia, SC 29208, USA e-mail: weik@gwm.sc.edu
Int J Histor Archaeol (2009) 13:206238
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(18131836). Military and government records, maps, and travelers accounts provide glimpses of these cultural processes and their manifestations in the realms of demography, political economy, kinship, and spirituality (Carter 1962; Williams 1962). By examining ethnography and material culture, undocumented beliefs and practices receive some of the attention that they deserve in explanations of African Seminole societies. African Seminole (otherwise known as Black Seminole or Seminole Maroon) is used in this article for a number of reasons. There are and were tangible aspects of both African and Native American heritage in African Seminole populations. African Seminole individuals such as a man called John Horse had both African and Native American ancestry. African Seminole transcends the racializing label Black (negro), a reduction of diverse African cultural heritages. Although Blackness has been historically reclaimed (e.g., Black Power), it does not explicitly acknowledge the biological and cultural African connections that contributed to African-Native American belief and physiology. Many of the members of African Seminole societies were formerly enslaved. Ogunleye (1996) offered self-emancipated Africans as an alternative label for terms she felt were derogatory, such as maroons, runaways, and fugitives (also see Price 1979). The Spanish word cimarron has been used since the sixteenth century to refer to wild animals that escaped to the mountains. Cima means peak in Spanish, and cimarron (maroon in English) could be literally translated as one who lives in the mountains. Some descendants of formerly enslaved African rebel communities, such as those in Jamaica, proudly claim maroon heritage, while descendants in other places reject the word as a term of self-identification. African Seminole is preferable to terms like Maroon or self-emancipated African, because it reflects multiple, interconnected, and newly created heritages and relations that resulted from African-Native American contact. Not all AfricanSeminole populations should be equated with Maroons or freed blacks, for they also included people of African descent who lived under some form of servitude to Native Americans. However, African-Seminole settlements such as Pilaklikaha were not mere subcultures or outliers of Seminole Indian or slave societies. Another key terminological issue is the toponymy and etymology of African Seminole settlements. Pilaklikaha will be used in what follows instead of Abrahams Old Town, a term employed by later chroniclers. Pilaklikaha does not invoke male-centric, top down ideas about society. This is not to diminish Abrahams significance in African Seminole history. The Florida Armed Occupation Act (1842) established a system of land distribution to Euro-American settlers. Various permits (e.g., Robert Williams, #79) mention Abrahams Old Town, and link it to a location on current maps where field work has been conducted (Whitner 1849). The Pilaklikaha (river?) and Palatlakaha Prairie are mentioned in this same set of records, and the latter term is on modern topographic maps. Pilaklikaha may have emerged from either African or Native American origins. It could be a product of Muskogean (Creek) linguistic derivation, from opilwa lako laiki, big swamp site. It has been previously suggested that the Kongo word pakalala (a defensive posture) may have inspired the settlement name. By 1770, there existed the Seminole town Pilatka (B. Weisman, pers. comm.). More recent writings emphasize a greater interest in Seminole Indian linguistic roots (Mulroy 1993,
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2004). Ultimately, Pilaklikahas meaning and origins do not have to be addressed in a monogenetic conceptualization (Weik 2007, pp. 316317). It may have resulted from similar words originating in both African and Native American populations. In order to explain the establishment of the African Seminole society at Pilaklikaha, attention has been given to both physical features and dynamic processes of the emerging society. These historical developments have been connected with the practices and beliefs that facilitated communal organization and socialization. African and Native American resistance to Euro-American influence may have expressed itself differently in the belief systems and organizing principles of African Seminole settlements such as Pilaklikaha versus those of some Muskogean or Seminole neighbors. African Seminole acquisition and use of information, goods, and services have been examined in ways that cross-cut traditional compartmentalized fields of social analysis, such as economics and spirituality. Socio-cultural creation, destruction, and transformation are explored at different scales to link actions with beliefs.
Previous Approaches to African Seminole Societies The formation, change, and functioning of particular African-Native American settlements is not well understood, in part, because past studies have focused on regional or family scales of analysis concerning cultural identity, intercultural relations, borderland politics, and slavery (Bateman 1990 pp. 124, 2002 pp. 227 257; Brooks 2002; Jones 2001; Miles and Holland 2006; Riordan 1996, pp.2544). Archaeologists explicit discussions of African and Native American interactions at colonial period sites have been largely limited to debates such as the contributions of these two populations to the development of creole society. The case of colonowares is instructive (Singleton and Bogard 2000). This plain, hand-built pottery was constructed by African and Native American techniques. It often exhibited European or plain forms. The African Seminole and Garifuna are the only people of African and Native American heritage whose settlements have been explored by archaeologists (Bullen and Bullen 1972; Burger 2005; Fewkes 1922, pp. 1012, 35281; Herron 1994; Boteler-Mock and Davis 1997, pp. 810; Weik 2002; Weisman 1989, p. 174; http:// www.lookingforangola.com/home.asp). Thus far, Pilaklikaha is the most intensively excavated African Seminole settlement, compared to other known sites at Boggy Island (Florida), Angola (Florida), Fort Clarke (Texas), and Nacimiento (Mexico) (Fig. 1). Africans who lived in Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and other Native American territories deserve more attention by archaeologists (White 2001 pp. 550 551; G. Waselkov, pers. comm.). Two problems that must be avoided in a study of a specific African Seminole historic settlement are the assumption that archaeological sites are isomorphic with the space inhabited by a certain society, and the idea of a homogeneous, bounded community. These challenges are addressed by shifting inquiry between individual acts and group relations, by considering ancestral (and descendant) analogues and idiosyncratic sources for beliefs, and by oscillating the focus from local to regional contexts. Places and material culture are viewed as derivatives of and catalysts for human experiences and
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Fig. 1 African Seminole populations and sites
meanings across time and space (Ashmore 2002, pp. 11721183; Beaudry et. al. 1991). The creation of landscapes is another theoretical thread that helps to constitute and connect different parts of this paper. Settlements and the intervening countrysides are not randomly inhabited or used. They are not merely the backdrop for human action. Space is socially constituted and constituting. While a full landscape analysis is beyond the scope of this paper, the concept of landscape will inform the analysis in places. Scholarship on African-Seminole societies in Florida has followed the late Kenneth Porter s perspective, emphasizing Seminole Negro life in independent settlements (Porter 1971, 1996; Milligan 1974, pp. 418). Porter argued that their autonomy derived from their abilities to wield weapons, farm, and select their leaders. He also argued that African-Seminole opportunities were not diminished by a semi-feudal relationship that they had with the Seminole Indians. Other approaches to African and Seminole settlements recognize their mutable community membership, sociocultural newness, mobility, and ability to manipulate borderland politicsin a word ethnogenesis (Mulroy 1993; Sturtevant 1971). Core features of African Seminole communities include various descent systems, central and west African naming practices, and mixed subsistence strategies. African Seminole were set off from their Seminole Indian neighbors by unique social, economic and political activities. Following creolization theory, their religion was a mix of Anglo and Spanish Christianity, Seminole Indian religion and African spirituality. Kevin Mulroy (2004, pp. 465477) argues that Seminole Maroon cultural distinction was reinforced by marriage, which rarely happened between Africans and Seminole Indians. In a small number of cases, women and men, whether they were of Native American or African descent, married, crossing the race and cultural distinctions that past and present observers have ascribed to them. The rather slim documentation that is available for many locales suggests that these marriages did not result in bicultural offspring receiving rights and obligations prescribed by Seminole Indian clans (Porter 1996). Oral history from the early twentieth-century
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Seminole suggests that bicultural (or biracial) unions and offspring were not encouraged in Florida Seminole communities (Jumper and West 2000). Research at Pilaklikaha represents one of the latest installments in a growing discourse on the development of free African communities in Florida (Weik 1997). Historians and archaeologists have collaborated on Fort Mos (17381740, 1752 1763), where Africans who escaped from enslavement in the Carolinas allied with Spanish colonists from St. Augustine, Florida (Deagan and Landers 1999, pp. 272 273). The institutions of marriage, religion, colonial government, and the Spanish colonial military were central organizing factors at Fort Mos. The significance of Spanish religious influences, such as god-parentage, was also reflected in archaeological remains such as rosary beads and a religious medallion. Archaeologists found that Fort Moss inhabitants became self-sufficient by relying primarily on wild fauna for food. It remains to be seen if similar material evidence exists at the Negro Fort, where Maroons, free people of African descent, and Native Americans allied with the British on the Florida panhandle (18121816) (Griffin 1950; Millet 2002; Poe 1963). Free Black towns in the Spanish Americas were not burdened by the colonial rules that confined the administration and construction of European or Native American communities. Afro-Spanish collaboration did not preclude tensions. Fort Moss residents occasionally clashed with Spanish authorities over their participation in African practices (Landers 1990). While previous writings on African-Seminole societies have laid important groundwork by describing general features, social relations with Seminole Indians, and settlement locations in Florida, most studies, outside of an analysis of Angola (also called Sarrazota), have not focused attention on the life history of any specific location (Brown 1990; Mulroy 1993; Porter 1996; Weisman 1989). Another goal of this paper is to illustrate the diversity of experiences, social formations, and world views that existed across Florida African Seminole settlements. The emphasis of ethnogenesis theory on cultural heterogeneity, and processes of destruction, formation, change, and fissioning is relevant here because it counters static, synchronic tendencies that have plagued historical applications of the culture idea (Hill 1996). Transformation is a core feature of my approach because of the effective way it has been used to invoke balance between cultural continuity and change, pre-existing traditions and creolization (Armstrong and Kelly 2000; Gomez 1998; Levine 1993). Transformations of Africans and Native Americans led to the creation of African Seminole places, beliefs, and social relations.
African Seminole Geography From the earliest colonial timessome would argue earlier (Van Sertima 1992) Africans and Native Americans engaged one another in slavery and freedom (Forbes 1993; Willis 1963). Africans interacted with Native Americans by joining their societies, uniting with them in newly formed settlements, and by allying with them against colonial forces (Perz 2000; Price 1979). This contact has been discerned by archaeological research at Maroon settlements in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica, where some sites bear Native American pottery and names (Agorsah 1994; Orser 1996; Weik 2004). Conversely, Africans and Native Americans served colonial armies in their assaults on indigenous and African communities.
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Africans played a variety of roles in Floridas history (Landers 1999). The sixteenth-century Spanish expeditions that crossed Florida included Africans who encountered indigenous people such as the Calusa (DuBois 1915). By 1602, a royal report described 56 Africans at St. Augustine, Florida. As in other American slave societies, Africans probably worked alongside Native Americans at St. Augustine (Chatelain 1941; Miles 2002). Free Blacks and Mulattos, especially male traders or soldiers, also inhabited St. Augustine. Outside of Spanish colonial settlements, Africans worked on European ranches, where they came into contact with various Native Americans. In the seventeenth century, an African helped a Timucuan woman to escape from a mission in north Florida (Hann 1992). From the Carolinas, Africans fled by boat and land to Florida, where the Spanish colonial government granted amnesty to Catholic converts and military enlistees (Meaders 1975, p. 288). During the eighteenth century, Africans encountered Seminole Indians, a group who migrated away from their more northern Muskogean kin because of the prospects of peace, the deer-skin trade, and subsistence opportunities in Florida (Sturtevant 1971; Weisman 1989, 1999). From the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries, interactions between Africans and Seminole Indians took different forms, including marriage, slavery, alliance, kidnappings, conflicts, and friendships (Boyd 1958; Rawick 1976). The impact of Seminole Indian socio-political practices and beliefs on residents of Pilaklikaha should not be underestimated. Native Seminole groups were quite independent, asserting their autonomy spatially in matrilineal, dispersed clan camps (Craig and Peebles 1974; Weisman 1989). Some Seminole were organized like chiefdoms, in hierarchical societies that were ruled by a chief, who was advised by a council of elders from different clans, as well as some warriors. Like their Muskogean predecessors, some Seminole created towns with squaregrounds, central meeting places composed of four ceremonial structures. It is unclear whether many African Seminole in Florida participated in Seminole tribal councils the way that their descendants did in twentieth-century Oklahoma, but their role as interpreters at Florida treaty negotiations is reason further to consider this hypothesis. The issue of how slavery and freedom were realized in Seminole territory is complicated by a diversity of observations and relationships. Many Euro-American observers saw all African Seminole as slaves of white or indigenous slaveholders. Other Euro-American observers saw the African Seminole as relatively free, or as influential in Seminole Indian international affairs. The Euro-American documents that comprise the most accessible descriptions of relations in Seminole territory must be used with caution (Weik 2007, pp. 313). Most chroniclers only spent short periods visiting African and Indian Seminole settlements. Many carried Eurocentric views, which held that Africans were inherently servile. Other observers owned slaves, and may have seen places like Pilaklikaha as new opportunities to acquire both land and slaves. These chronicler criticisms do not negate the fact that there were cases of Creek and Seminole slavery which were coercive like American chattel slavery (Cohen 1964; Weik 2002, pp. 161; B. Weisman, pers. comm.). However, it would be simplistic to assume that all cases of African and Native American slavery were the same as American chattel slavery, in terms of the types, amounts, and restrictions of their labor requirements (Littlefield 1977; Miers and Kopytoff 1977). There was no
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consensus among Southeastern Indians about African or Native American servitude (Saunt 1998). Many Native American and African forms of servitude involved prisoners of war. However, there were sometimes opportunities for social mobility or integration into the slaveholders kinship structures. William Bartram noted that the Seminole freed children of Yamasee Indians who they had enslaved in the eighteenth century (Landers 1999, p. 68). Free people of African descent may have found Seminole territory an appealing alternative to the racism of Euro-American slave societies, although not all Muskogeans or Seminole eschewed denigrating views of Africans (Wright 1986, p. 78). Evidence for labor, ownership and sales records need to be examined systematically, before claims can be made about the proportion of African Seminole who were enslaved or free. Pilaklikaha was one of many places in Florida where people of African descent lived during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the eighteenth century, thousands of Africans and Muskogeans lived along the Apalachicola and Flint rivers. Later in the 1700s, African Seminole settlements formed in the Alachua Prairie, an area ruled by Seminole leaders such as Cowkeeper and his successor King Payne (Porter 1996, p. 5). From the late eighteenth century onward, slavery expanded in Florida (Rivers 2000). The chaos of the American Revolution and the British policy of freeing some slaves as a war tactic, swelled the ranks of Africans in Seminole territory. Decades later, the African Seminole leader Abraham escaped from Pensacola and joined the British-African-Native American alliance at the Negro Fort (Porter 1971). In 1813, invading Georgian militia forced Paynes African Seminole to flee to the Suwannee River and to the Tampa area settlements such as Angola (Brown 1990, p. 6, 2005). A group of Creek Indians that assisted the United States military in destroying the Suwannee River African and Seminole settlements in the 18171818 war, took some African Seminole captives north to Coweta. Some African Seminole eluded U.S. forces by sailing to the Bahamas, where their descendants live today (Goggin 1946; Howard 2002; Vignoles 1977). During the 1820s, a north Florida (Alachua) overseer complained that some of his captive laborers escaped to Georgia (Charles 1825). From northern and west-central Florida, Africans and Seminole made their way to Pilaklikaha. African Seminole mobility is exemplified by Abraham, who became a leader at Pilaklikaha. He made trips to Washington D.C., various parts of Florida, and Oklahoma, as a part of Seminole Indian delegations to whom U.S. Indian removal proponents offered land. At the conclusion of the Second Seminole War (18351842), African Seminoles left Florida, and began a series of migrations that led them to Oklahoma, Texas, and Mexico (Mulroy 1993; Porter 1971). While a set of dynamics is proposed for an African Seminole society, it is one of many sociocultural scenarios for people of African descent who resisted slavery in Florida (Fig. 2). Thus, generalizations about African Seminole living in separate towns must be qualified to account for cases where Africans and Seminole lived together (examples of this type of generalization appear in Brown 2005; Howard 2002, pp. 1819; Mulroy 2004; Porter 1996; Weik 2002, pp. 168; 2005, p. 5). In the towns of Apilshopko and Apilchapoocha, negroes comprised approximately 40% and 60% percent, respectively, of residents (Boyd 1958, p. 82). Angola represents another end of the spectrum, where African rebels were the only inhabitants (Brown 1990).
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Fig. 2 African Seminole, Maroon, and other settlements in Florida
Archaeology at Pilaklikaha The archaeological record of the location that became known as Pilaklikaha, covers centuries of human habitation. The place was first inhabited by pre-colonial Native Americans who produced lithics and Pasco Plain pottery (Weik 2002, p. 24). These remains relate to the poorly-known, pre-colonial, Central-Florida borderlands, on the fringes of Safety Harbor (1,100400 years ago) and St. Johns archaeological cultures (1,000500 years ago). The stratigraphic distribution of the lithics underlays and overlaps African-Seminole period remains. Seminole and other Native Americans produced stone tools such as gunflints through the early nineteenth century (Johnson 1997; Neill 1977, p. 15). It is worth considering whether stone tool production and use at Pilaklikaha was continuous from antiquity to the Seminole period or confined to precolonial times. In a later section, this paper will explore the possibility that African and Indigenous Seminole recycled or created some of the lithics that were excavated at Pilaklikaha. Some of the pottery and stone tools recovered from Pilaklikaha may have been used during the colonial period by central-Florida societies such as the Guacozo, Ocale, Mayaca or Jororo (Milanich 1995, p. 65). Maroons were not reported in this region of Florida in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. However, Africans did escape as far south on Floridas east coast, joining the indigenous Ays (or Ais) by 1603. Pilaklikaha is located in a cow pasture, on a country road in Sumter County, central Florida. The site is on an elevated oak hammock (hill), on the northern edge
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of a boot-shaped ridge. Natural and man-made depressions and ponds ring the location. Historic descriptions and a depiction of the town suggest that it was located on a hammock. The soils of this hammock, and much of Sumter county, consist of quartz sand, clayey sand and clay. These components range from several feet to nearly 100 ft (30.5 m) below the surface (United States Department of Agriculture 1988, p. 6). Jumper Creek, named for a Seminole Indian, former counselor to chief Micanopy, is near the site. (see Potter, 1966, p. 456). Micanopy was a hereditary indigenous Seminole ruler, though historians claim he did not have a strong impact on Seminole Indian politics. He lived at both Pilaklikaha and another settlement called Okehumpke (about 10 mi [16.1 km] north of Pilaklikaha). The first African Seminole occupation of Pilaklikaha probably occurred after north Florida Seminole settlements were destroyed by invading Georgia and Tennessee militia, between 1813 and 1818. Mean ceramic dating done on pottery from Pilaklikaha suggests a date of 1811 (Weik 2002). Pilaklikaha is less than 10 m (16.1 km) from the Dade Battlefield State Historic Site, where African and Seminole forces ambushed a U.S. military unit in 1835. African Seminole from central Florida may have assisted in the Dade Massacre at the battlefield because they feared that U.S. troop activities near their settlements would result in their enslavement. Not long afterward, in 1836, General Abraham Eustiss troops destroyed Pilaklikahas abandoned houses (Brown 1990, p. 42; Eustis 1836). J. H. Williamss homestead, visible on an 1840s surveyor map and an Armed Occupation Act claim, was built on fields that may have been cleared by inhabitants of Pilaklikaha. Post-African Seminole-period Euro-American settlement is also evident in excavated artifacts such as flat glass, an 1843 penny, and stoneware crock fragments (Weik 2002, p. 112). Since the mid-nineteenth century, the land has been used for farms, a nursery, and railroads. Building materials, ceramics, and other remains from a mid-twentiethcentury resident who lived on the western, adjacent property overlap with Pilaklikahas African Seminole-period remains. Since the 1990s, archaeological research has been conducted at Pilaklikaha. A masters thesis identified over a hundred specimens from the surface of the site, including many items of the type examined in this paper: European ceramics, Native American pottery, glass, stone flakes, glass beads, and metal objects (Herron 1994). A pedestrian survey conducted by Bill Steele, who explored the site and its surroundings for the Miami Historical Conservancy, confirmed that the property south of the main study area of this paper did not have any Seminole period artifacts (Carr and Steele 1993; B. Steele, pers. comm.). Visibility was good during the pedestrian survey that the author conducted on the southern, neighboring property in 1999, as large areas were plowed (Weik 2002). Shovel test pits placed on this adjacent southern property, produced no African-Seminole period artifacts. No remains were recovered in the southern, neighboring property by any surveys, except for an outlying, single, surfacelevel, black glass shard. Previous surveys (B. Steele, pers. comm.) as well as a surface inspection conducted by the author suggest that the adjacent, western property had few artifacts of the Seminole period. During 1998, this western property was sold to a new owner who denied access for further archaeological research. Systematic and judgmental surface and subsurface samples were taken of the archaeological record at Pilaklikaha, during field seasons from 1998 to 2002, as well as during brief field visits in 2005 and 2006 (Weik 2002). Pedestrian surveys that
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were conducted on properties within a mile radius of Pilaklikaha, did not locate any additional sites. Prior to field work, a Cartesian grid was established on the main study area. The grid was aligned according to a numbering system that centered on the datum, which was placed at the coordinates 2,000 north, 2,000 east (2000N2000E). The main distribution of material remains at Pilaklikaha was subjected to over 200 shovel test pits (30 cm squared and 50100 cm deep). Based on the content of these shovel test units, 23 larger judgmental test units (11 m, 12 m, and 22 m) were excavated individually or in contiguous units (Fig. 3). Some gaps exist on the shovel test grid because tree stumps, clay, or rock prevented excavation. Over 1,000 artifacts were recovered that relate to the African Seminole occupation at Pilaklikaha (Weik 2002, pp. 112139). It is difficult to determine how much of the artifact distribution represents house floor or yard areas, as features such as postholes were found in few of the test units. The features that were found varied in depth from less than 1 cm to 20 cm deep. No definite midden or welldefined Seminole-period ground layer was evident from plan or profile maps, photos or visual inspections of the excavated site stratigraphy. Test excavation units demonstrated that thin sheets of scattered artifacts exist from ground surface to a depth of 60 cm below surface. Building remainssandy-clay daub, wrought-iron nails, and brick fragments make up less than 5% of all artifact fragments that were recovered. The very small number of wrought iron nails at the site may indicate that metal fasteners were used in some building construction. Most of the brick fragments in the test units were tiny, and distributed in the first or second excavation levels (010 and 1020 cm below surface), but not in close association with the features. Most larger brick bats, which appeared to be modern, were found in the first excavation level (010 cm below surface). Documents suggest that African Seminole residents lived in large cabins
Fig. 3 Test excavation blocks and Herrons (1994) surface collection area
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and Seminole Indian thatch-roof chickees, constructed without metal fasteners (Downs 1995; Simmons 1973; Waselkov and Braund 1995; Weisman 1989). We should not rule out the possibility of African inspiration for timber, daub, and thatch houses. According to one Tennessee volunteer who served in a military unit that helped destroy Abrahams town, the settlement had small, pine houses, containing beef and other items in the rafters (Irwin 1836, p. 33). A number of adjacent blocks were excavated in 10 cm levels, next to the most western shovel test unit (2000N1979.8E), because it was the unit that contained the greatest amount of African Seminole period artifacts. Test Units 2000N1981E and 2002N1981E contained the clearest examples of features (Fig. 4). Soil stains illustrate their alignment, which could indicate the corners and walls of a structure. Unfortunately, the property fence line and a tree prevented exploration of these features in the northeast and western directions. Artifacts such as sand-tempered and brushed earthenware pottery, blue-edged pearlware, and green glass were embedded in some features. The nails that are depicted appeared to be wrought or cut, but high levels of corrosion made it hard to be sure of their date or morphology. Generally, the features and artifacts were most evident from 1925 cm below the surface. Artifacts such as a bead, lithic flakes, green bottle glass, and ironstone or
Fig. 4 Test excavation block
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whiteware pottery emerged in the test units at the same level as features, as well as slightly above or below them. A number of faint soil stains, some with charcoal, emerged in test units, such as in the middle of the southern half of test unit 2000N1983E. These stains quickly disappeared, within millimeters of their first discovery. A feature in test unit 2000N1985E was more shallow than the others (15 20 cm below the surface). It was unique because of its highly gritty consistency and its uneven depth, ranging from 1 cm to 3 cm thick. The features in different test units (see Fig. 4) were discernable to the naked eye (using a Munsell chart) but they did not emerge clearly in photos (Weik 2002, pp. 130137). The distribution and content of the archaeological record at Pilaklikaha has been affected by a variety of factors. The settlement was destroyed by the U.S. military in 1836. According to General Abraham Eustis (1836) On my reaching Pilaklikaha, I found the villages abandoned, and no sign of their having been occupied for several weekscattle and ponies however were abundant in the neighborhood. The houses and fences were burnt by my order. It is not clear from Eustiss report why he referred to multiple villages, as opposed to one settlement. A later section of this paper will address neighboring settlements. African Seminole residents probably removed many things of value as they evacuated Pilaklikaha. Modern land use has created major archaeological disturbances. For example, agricultural (e.g., plowing) and road building (paved and dirt) activities have altered a major strip of the highest, most level parts of the site. Most artifacts and features were well within the plow zone (Weik 2002). These alterations may be one reason that relatively few postholes, trash pits, or other features were found at Pilaklikaha. In addition, disturbances were created by two small stands of large oaks that demarcate the western and eastern edges of the hammock. A slight depression forms a shallow pool of standing water, in the central-eastern portion of the hammock, during rainy summers. Similar issues and post-depositional processes characterize Seminole Indian sites (Weisman 1989, pp. 137142). Shovel test and surface finds are a primary form of evidence for the spatial extent of the main activity areas of Pilaklikaha (Fig. 5). Positive shovel tests are defined as units containing artifacts most likely to indicate African-Seminole material culture. Positive, in this instance, means that at least one diagnostic artifact was present in the unit. Brushed and Sand-tempered earthenwares, creamwares, pearlwares, whitewares, green bottle glass, lead shot, and pipe fragments are items most indicative of African Seminole occupation. Fourteen percent of the shovel tests bore artifacts that are classified as positive. Ironstone, white and brown stoneware, and porcelains were excluded from the shovel test map, as well as from Herrons (1994) surface finds that are noted on the shovel test map. The exclusions have been made because of the possibility that these modern Euro-American ceramics were produced into the twentieth century, and may have been used by nineteenth- or twentiethcentury residents of the hammock. Twelve percent of the shovel tests contained ironstone, stoneware, or porcelain, which are distributed mostly on the southernmost test units of the 1990E and 2020E lines, or on the eastern end of the hammock. The surface finds identified in the 19982002 fieldwork and in Herrons (1994) study, confirm this generalization about modern Euro-American pottery distributions. The distribution of positive shovel test units at Pilaklikaha, suggest that the main archaeological remains are concentrated in a 5,000 m2 area on the western half of the
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Fig. 5 Shovel test excavation units and Herrons (1994) surface finds
hammock. However, outlier artifact fragments (e.g., lead fragments, dark green bottle glass) on the eastern end make it likely that the whole hammock was used by African and Indigenous Seminoles. The most extensive concentration of African Seminole-period artifacts is in the far western corner of the study area grid, and on the 2,030, 2,060, and 2,100 east lines. Herrons surface findsbrushed and sandtempered plain indigenous pottery, and pearl, cream, annular and white waresseem to aggregate on the southern ends of these three east lines. Together, the positive surface find and shovel test locations seem to hint at lines or arcs that surround areas relatively free of artifacts. Depressions, sinkholes and drainages, situated within 50 100 m of the African Seminole habitation area, probably limited much past expansion or peripheral habitation. The standing water that is depicted (see Figs. 4 and 5) was only present during a very wet summer visit (2006). A visit to Pilaklikaha during a wet season provides one with an appreciation for how inundated the land can get, down slope from the archaeological remains (Fig. 6). These hydrologic features probably served a moat-like defensive function, like the Withlacoochee Cove did on a macro scale. The environment was also conducive to rice agriculture, which fed residents at Pilaklikaha (McCall 1974). Pilaklikahas archaeological record has not produced the specific structural remains that would suggest clear-cut spatial signatures of social differentiation, ceremonial space, or other aspects of human organization. The gaps and clustering are difficult to generalize from because the area encompassing them has not been excavated as a continuous block (see Figs. 3, 5). For instance, the shovel test units were conducted at 10 m intervals. The site map is based on a variety of test excavation strategies and recovery techniques that do not collectively guarantee uniformity in artifact and feature distribution. However, only a small portion of the total human occupation area has been excavated. Therefore, future testing could
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Fig. 6 Pilaklikahas main concentration of physical remains and local environment
further clarify the overall settlement layout of Pilaklikaha, and its range of architectural forms and sizes. Field research could also determine whether the remains represent a single, generation-long occupation of many houses, or a more intricate process of building and demolition, immigration and emigration. It is possible that Pilaklikaha was occupied seasonally or during intermittent occupations, as were other African Seminole towns (C. Brown, pers. comm.; Kersey 1981). The sole painting of Pilaklikaha suggests that there were over ten structures that resembled log-cabins by 1836 (Fig. 7). This depiction was one of several sketches from the U.S. war with the Seminoles that was advertised in the Charleston Mercury on July 11, 1836, under the title Illustrations of Florida. The depiction was drawn by J. F. Gray (1836), a South Carolina soldier who volunteered for service in Florida. According to the Charleston Mercury, the picture was to be engraved by Mr. W. Keenan. Besides the simple mention of houses, General Eustis described the presence of fences at Pilaklikaha (Weik 2007, p. 327). Micanopy lived in a twostory house at Pilaklikaha (Cohen 1964). Contrary to Grays depiction, which suggests that structures covered the hammock, archaeological remains are concentrated on high ground in the western section of the rise. This discrepancy is probably the result of the shallow clay and limestone deposits on the east part of the hammock, which prohibited building in this less-well-drained area. It is not known exactly how much effort that Gray put into trying to replicate the actual sizes and distribution of buildings. The structures, people and animals are drawn in a simplistic manner. Grays depiction is a part of a series of images that portray mundane and dramatic images of the war (see commentary by Bird 2005,
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Fig. 7 Burning of Pilak-Li-ka-ha by Gen. Eustis (Gray 1836)
<http://www.johnhorse.com>). The depiction may have been intended to showcase U.S. victory more than preserve a realistic memory of the final moments in the life history of Pilaklikaha. A description of Pilaklikaha suggests that it was laid out like the towns in a civilized country (Irwin 1836, p. 33). It is possible that this quote connoted that there was some kind of symmetry, as a number of European and U.S. towns featured rectilinear layouts. African Seminole may have based their ideas about the social organization of space on African compounds that they inhabited before becoming enslaved (Weik 2004, pp. 4042). It would seem that those people who had memories of life in slave rows would not have sought to recreate a rigidly defined community. Depictions and descriptions of Maroon towns in the Americas suggest that they had both rectilinear and unaligned settlement layouts (Weik 2004, p. 42). The Muskogean squareground is another possible spatial arrangement that may have been manifest at Pilaklikaha (Weik 2004, p. 42). Powells Town, located 13 mi (20.9 km) west of Pilaklikaha, makes for a good archaeological comparison that speaks to the relationship between sociocultural organization and space. Weisman (1989, p. 142147) argued that the Powells Town site was constructed in a manner similar to Muskogean towns or indigenous Seminole domestic compounds, which featured a central squareground or space surrounded by four structures. Powells Towns central square, which is devoid of artifacts, is surrounded by four main clusters of surface and subsurface artifacts. The fact that no features (e.g., postholes) were found adjacent to the artifact clusters at Powells town leaves room for speculation about the structures exact positioning. However, the overall site plan conforms to the general artifact distribution that one would expect for a layout of human activity remains that surround a central open area. There may be multiple reasons why artifacts were scarce in the central area of Powells town. Cleanliness, which may have motivated residents to perform regular yard sweeping (as in African American historic places), was both a virtue and a pragmatic means of minimizing refuse that might attract vermin or wild animals. There may have also been political and
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spiritual reasons why this area was devoid of artifacts. More will be said on this theme and Weismans interpretation of it, later in this paper.
Demographic Features of an African Seminole Settlement There are few eyewitness descriptions of specific African Seminole Towns. The Seminole Indians did not freely disclose information about African Seminole. U.S. government agent John Logan discovered this type of resistance to documentation when he was denied information for an 1830 census (Bell 1952). During the 1820s, George McCall and Horatio Dexter made the most extensive descriptions of Pilaklikaha (Boyd 1958; McCall 1974). There are other possible sources of information about this settlement, such as the lists of negro prisoners from the Second Seminole War that the U.S. military sent to Congress that span the period 183638 (United States 25th Congress 1838). These lists feature the names of captives along with their presumed town, owner, or nation. Ninety-nine African Seminoles are listed with chief Micanopy as their owner. These African Seminoles linked to Micanopy, and listed on the government inventories of prisoners, almost match exactly in number the 100 runaways from Georgia that McCall claimed lived at Pilaklikaha in the 1820s (McCall 1974). Many runaways escaped from Georgia to Florida on well-worn routes through the Okefenokee Swamp (Nelson 2005, pp. 2439). Two other figures for Pilaklikaha160 by Dexter (Boyd 1958) and 75 in Lieut. Yanceys Notes (United States Indian Affairs 18241853)are worth considering. These different population counts may have resulted from different estimation methods, errors, speculation, or actual population fluctuations. Nonetheless, it is possible that the prisoner lists represent at least some of Pilaklikahas former inhabitants. However, it is hasty to assume that all of the African Seminoles that were identified as Micanopys slaves on the congressional documents resided at Pilaklikaha (United States 25th Congress 1838). The population estimate of 99 that was derived from the list is a snapshot, not a full account of all the people who resided or interacted there over time. If we were to consider the number on these government lists that were not born when McCall and Dexter passed through Pilaklikahathe individuals who were born after 1823then it would be necessary to account for at least 40 other individuals that were not there during the days that McCall and Dexter visited the settlement. Some leaders mentioned by McCall are not on the lists. Several people on the lists are not matched with their spouse(s) or mate(s). The missing mates may have resided at Pilaklikaha temporarily or lived at another settlement. Likewise, Micanopy, his two wives, and other African Seminole lived at both Pilaklikaha and a nearby settlement called Okehumpka (Boyd 1958). This type of trans-settlement migration was also common in other indigenous and Maroon communities (Bateman 1990; Perz 2000; Worth 2000). An examination of the African Seminole list suggests that the population was undergoing growth (generated from United States 25th Congress 1838). Almost 56% of the population was female, in contrast to the high male-to-female ratio that impeded reproduction among Maroon societies in their formative stage. Fifty-five percent of the residents were less than 15 years old, and 1/3 of the population was
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less than10 years old. Children probably contributed economically, as they did on plantations, Seminole Indian settlements, and later tenant farms (King 1995; Weisman 1999, p. 108). The average age of these African Seminole is 18.6 years, closer to the average age of female (19) rather than male (26) runaways in the South. The average age of nineteenth-century Florida runaways was 29 (Franklin and Schweninger 1999; Rivers 2000). If 1550 years old is any indication of the period of productive adulthood, then 42 of 99 African Seminoles constituted the parents, soldiers, farmers and leaders of Pilaklikaha. Two elders, who were 55 years and 60 years old, and three unidentified individuals comprised the rest of the list. Names listed on the congressional documents (prisoner lists) present opportunities to hypothesize about identity, cultural affiliation, and traditions (United States 25th Congress 1838). Most (89) of the names on the list appear to have Anglo origins. One name, Ishmael, may be of southwest Asia (Arabic or Judaic) derivation. A young teenager named Wan, probably could trace his name from the Spanish Juan, as did Juan Caballo (John Horse), the famous leader who had an African (or African American) mother and Seminole Indian father (Porter 1996, p. 100; Rivers and Brown 1997). Caballo married the daughter of July, a leader at Pilaklikaha. July is a name of a month, but it may also relate to African practices of naming people for significant events, ancestors, or times, such as the Akan practice of day-names (e.g., Cudjo) (Mulroy 1993; Turner 2002; Weik 2005). A female on the government lists (United States 25th Congress 1838) named Tena may have been able to trace her name to Africa, from Twi and (or) Kongo languages, based on Lorenzo Turner s (2002) study of Gullah names. Linguistic studies and the long history of African escape from low-country North America to Florida, support my use of comparative data from the Gullah. Turner s detailed twentieth-century investigation of Gullah language and names was one of the most tangible illustrations of cultural linkages between descendant communities in the United States and their African heritage. Turner s study illustrated how many names had similar forms that could be found in more than one African society. It is necessary to account for the differences between the African societies from which the Gullahs first enslaved ancestors were taken and Turner s African sources, mostly late nineteenth- and twentieth-century ethnographic cases and missionary writings. Historic migrations of ethnic groups, the nature of the slave trade (circulating people through numerous transportation routes, destinations and departure points) and various cultural changes complicate the delineation of the African origins of enslaved people (Lovejoy 1997). Family groupings are visible in this sample of African Seminole prisoners of war (United States 25th Congress 1838). Family size ranged from two to 11. Six families had the modal family size of four individuals. Defining family and kinship is complicated by a variety of issues: the extent to which members are blood or intermarried kin; adoptive, fictive or symbolic kinship; the ways that roles and identities are gendered; the relationship between family and household. Kinship networks have been a primary force in the creation of Black Seminole identities and communities (Bateman 1990, p. 17). Fourteen family units appear on the congressional documents (United States 25th Congress 1838). These records define family units minimally, identifying one or two (mates) adults and any of their children. It appears that there are ten families related
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to at least one other family. Extended family and interfamily ties may have played an important role in fostering linkages across the society, as they did in Oklahoma descendant communities. Husband, wife and children are listed in ten families. Oklahoma African Seminole and Black Carib (Garifuna) communities featured characteristics such as fluid household composition, diverse family forms, and female headed households. The existence of polygamy in African Seminole descendants in Oklahoma precludes a conclusion that Pilaklikahas inhabitants were all monogamous (Bateman 1990, pp. 2627). It is likely that African (central or west) or Seminole Indian polygamy and matrilineality influenced the African Seminole (Miller 1988; Vansina 1990; Wilks 1993). The disruptive impact of enslavement (e.g. rape, sale of kin) must also be factored into an explanation for the diversity and fluidity of family patterns. The model of African Seminole demography and family relations that has been constructed in the preceding paragraphs must be viewed with caution as it is only one of various scenarios that can be constructed from the 25th U.S. Congressional Document (1838) upon which it is based. The congressional record and official military reports are subject to various filters or censors that limit what kinds of information is released for public viewing. It is likely that some of the Anglo names that have been recorded were Anglicized (e.g., Wan was probably the Spanish word Juan). It is also likely that chroniclers only recorded one of many names by which individuals were known to their peers. Chroniclers cultural lenses affected the ways they assigned names to people.
Leadership and Government One way that many societies define rights and responsibilities, and ensure stability is to assign, elect, or allow the self-appointment of leaders. Autonomous African Seminole settlements were probably organized in ways similar to other Maroon societies. Local military and kinship concerns were primary factors in the organization of Jamaican Maroon societies. The Aluku of Guiana participated in more regional clan and chiefdom systems (Bilby 1996). At Pilaklikaha, documented leaders included Abram, July, and August, and a subchief named Billy John. The above-mentioned congressional documents list some other Indian Negro leaders who can be linked to Pilaklikaha (United States 25th Congress 1838). Ino and Ben were important and influential military commanders who were allegedly owned by Micanopy. It is likely that many of the names of the Maroon, African Seminole, and Seminole Indian towns on historic maps refer to leaders (McCall 1974; Mulroy 1993). There is evidence that certain African Seminole leaders had disproportionate influence in their communities. According to historian Kenneth Porter, Abraham was the leader of over 500 African Seminole in Florida (Porter 1971). Abrahams authority derived from his role as the interpreter for chief Micanopy, during the Seminole Indians treaty negotiations with the U.S. government, as well as from his role as a religious and military leader. Around 1818, Captain Hugh Young (U.S. military engineer) described Neros Town, an African Seminole settlement on the Suwannee River (Young 1953). Young concluded that the leader at that town ruled
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only through the respect and affection of his peers. Youngs comments suggest that it may have been hard for Pilaklikahas leaders to impose authoritarian rule over residents, as many had escaped slavery to be free of violence and coercion. In light of the other influential leaders mentioned above, there is no reason to assume that only one African Seminole led affairs at Pilaklikaha. Decentralized, settlement-based governments with numerous leaders would have been beneficial for different communities. If a leader was killed, captured, or bribed by enemies, others could lead resistance maneuvers. Conversely, if leadership failed and collective strategies were not implemented, the group would have faced starvation, capture, or death. In Florida, Native American and African leaders, soldiers, and interpreters were captured, and coerced or convinced to aid U.S. troops in finding settlements of other U.S. foes (Porter 1996, pp. 68, 82; Rivers and Brown 1997). However, as one officer noted, certain guides became unreliable, escaping at the first opportunity (McCall 1974). It is possible that factions developed within the community, based on political and economic interests, family ties, or personal ideologies, as they had within Creek, Seminole and African societies. Interpersonal disputes were also capable of disrupting communities, as in a historical example of an African who lost a competition over a mate, and got revenge by giving colonial authorities the location of the maroon settlement where he had lived. All of the individuals mentioned above as leaders were identified by EuroAmerican chroniclers, whose biases and motives must be considered when assessing leadership at Pilaklikaha. Euro-Americans worked to simplify and manipulate negotiations so that they could convince Native Americans to sell land and move west. Similar colonial tactics were used against the Black Carib and the Cherokee (Fabel 2000). Major gaps exist in our understanding because documents are silent about how people became leaders, thought about leadership, made decisions, and harnessed power at Pilaklikaha. Women are absent from most chronicler s discussions of African Seminoles, except in cases where they and their children were moved to evade U.S. troops, or in cases where women and their children were being held by U.S. troops during wars. Nineteenth-century maps allude to Mulatto Girls town, suggesting female and perhaps biracial leadership existed at some locations (Mulroy 1993). There is little documentation or material expression of Seminole Indian sociopolitical organization at work in African settlements, outside of claims that the African Seminole gave tribute to Seminole Indians. Chroniclers claimed that tribute ranged from 1/3 of livestock and crops at Pilaklikaha, to ten bushels of crops given by African Seminole settlements in general, to 23 bushels given by African Seminole living at Canadian Fork (1840s), Oklahoma (McCall 1974; Porter 1996, p. 112). It is unclear whether these tribute payments were taken from each resident or whether the amounts represented a collective contribution from the whole settlement. Specific evidence for tribute payment has not been closely examined or presented for other African Seminole settlements in Florida. We also need to consider if Africans living in Seminole-controlled towns gave tribute, and if some African slave labor (as Euro-American chroniclers saw it) was considered as tribute by the Seminole Indians. Cultural and historical nuances make it hasty to assume that all African Seminoles gave tribute or gave the same amount. The Native American precedent for tribute in
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the Southeast, like Africa and other places in the world, involved vanquished warriors being forced to provide prestige goods or crops (Dye 1995, pp. 289316; Martin 1991). Further, Muskogean groups gave a portion of their crops to their chiefs periodically, for communal storage or as gifts. During the late eighteenth century, Bartram observed that the Seminole Indians of Alachua had family plots that they cultivated. They gave a small portion of their crops to the public granary (Spellman 1948). Thus, in some cases, African contributions may have not varied greatly from the Seminole Indians contributions to the communal storage sheds (Weik 2002). A final political issue that begs for attention is the extent to which African Seminole towns were integrated within overarching governments. Pilaklikaha (also called Abrahams Old Town) was located within 5 mi (8.0 km) of Abrahams New Town and Charlies town, two African Seminole settlements that archaeologists discovered in archival sources (Carr and Steele 1993). To date, no evidence for regional or multi-settlement African Seminole political integration, such as accounts of meetings which established the Seminole Nation from the three tribes, has been brought to light (McCall 1974, p. 152). African Seminole descendants who lived in different Oklahoma settlements were autonomous. They met in political bodies to discuss issues of their band, their representational unit at Seminole Indian government meetings (Bateman 1991). Conversely, it is possible that Abrahams New Town was founded after an ethnogenetic fissioning event that began at Pilaklikaha. Fissioning was a type of ethnogenetic process that created new cultural groups, as in the case of the Seminole Indians who branched off from ancestral Muskogean populations (Sturtevant 1971).
Exchange, Labor, and the Politics of Economics People of African descent impacted the politics and economics of Florida in various ways (Rivers 2000; Simmons 1973, p. 137). Slavery did not become a primary economic mode in Florida until the eighteenth century (Schafer 1995). The brief transition from Spanish to British colonial rule (176383) and concurrent Anglo immigration brought thousands of enslaved Africans to Florida. Free people of African descent worked as domestics, cowboys, scouts, pilots, and militia (Landers 1999). In the Seminole territory, the economy was shaped by subsistence strategies and various forms of exchange. The indigenous Seminole permanently settled in Florida during the eighteenth century, taking advantage of the colonists demand for animal skins and cattle. Spanish and British colonists allocated gifts of dishes, clothing, food, and manufactures to indigenous Seminoles and their African allies, in exchange for military, economic, and political support (Covington 1960, p. 71; Landers 1999, p. 7273). British traders such as the Panton and Leslie Company operated in Florida during the colonial period. Regional goods have been recovered from archaeological sites such as the trade post called Spaldings Lower Store. EuroAmerican towns such as Micanopy, and older colonial establishments at St. Augustine, St. Marks, and Pensacola were key loci of economic activity (Lewis 1969; Sturtevant 1971). Many of the artifacts that were excavated at Pilaklikaha were probably acquired at urban markets, transitory bartering encounters, or trade posts (Weik 2002, p. 112
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121). However, the dangers of (re)enslavement, may have prohibited some African Seminoles from directly shopping in Euro-American settlements (B. Weisman, pers. comm.). Instead, they could have relied on Seminole Indian middle-men (and women) who visited traders and urban markets. Like the self-emancipated African inhabitants of the settlement called Angola, Pilaklikahas residents also had access to arms, rum, and molasses that were supplied by traders and Spanish fishermen working around Tampa Bay (Boyd 1958, p. 92). The above-mentioned items were sought by indigenous southeastern people, but songs, herbs and ritual knowledge were also much valued in their exchanges. Both African Seminole and Seminole Indians used herbs and wild plants to feed and heal their people (Duffner 1973; McCall 1974, p. 60; Martin 1991; Snow and Stans 2001). By 1818, exchange was dramatically altered in Florida. The U.S. destroyed indigenous Seminole and African settlements in north Florida during the so-called Georgians Patriot Invasion (1813), the First Seminole War (18161818), and the bombardment of Negro Fort (1816). The Spanish conceded to U.S. political control over eastern North America in 1821. As a result, U.S. forts, plantations, and settlers expanded in Florida. Individual and collective conflicts were stimulated by raids, debts, and land disputes. A group of Seminole Indian leaders, aided by their African Seminole interpreters, signed the Moultrie Creek treaty (1823), which ceded millions of acres to the U.S. government in return for money, an agreement to return all new runaways, and their acceptance of a central Florida Seminole Indian reservation (Mahon 1967). A major result was that African and indigenous Seminole communities were prevented from accessing coastal trade networks. The U.S. officials who helped facilitate the treaty hoped to confine the Seminole to areas with such poor agricultural land so that they would become dependent on Euro-Americans for subsistence (Brown 1995, pp. 2122). These forms of attack, containment and pressure may have impacted the way Africans and Native Americans thought about Euro-American cultural items and economic influences. As Weisman (1989, pp. 121122, 130) suggests, the Nativist sentiments that existed in Seminole territory resulted in a rejection of European (American) ceramics by more militant groups such as the followers of Asi Yahola (also called Powell or Osceola). Redstick Creek soldiers and refugees, who fled after their defeat at the hands of the U.S. military (in modern Alabama), infused the ranks of Seminole after 1814. The Redsticks may have helped stimulate the Seminoles to organize their resistance to various forms of European material and martial influence. The Withlacoochee Cove sites, which formed a nucleus of nineteenth-century Seminole resistance around leaders such as Asi Yahola, contained no Euro-American-made ceramics (Weisman 1989, p. 121). Settlements like Asi Yaholas (the archaeological site called Powells Town) differed from many earlier and later Seminole Indian sites, which did employ a much larger proportion of EuroAmerican ceramics (Table 1). The material record at Pilaklikaha does not suggest that European ceramics were prohibited or avoided. Euro-American ceramics that may have been used by the inhabitants of Pilaklikaha made up 44% of all ceramic sherds that were recovered from Pilaklikaha, compared with 51% which were of Seminole or indigenous production. Euro-American and Native American ceramics were distributed across different parts of Pilaklikaha, which may suggest that there were no intra-community differences in ceramic usage that reflected a rejection of Euro-American ceramics
Int J Histor Archaeol (2009) 13:206238 Table 1 African- and indigenous Seminole-period assemblages (from Weik 2002, pp. 134147) Artifact POTTERY Brushed Sand-tempered Pearlware Creamware Annular ware Porcelain Stone Ware Trailed Slipware Whiteware Ironstone OTHER ITEMS Brick Green glass Pipe Rose glass Wrought Nail Lead Bridle Bit Iron Kettle Peach Pits Cow bone Total 71 191 8 21 27 3 0 0 0 0 1,342 0 2 0 0 0 1 1 1 3 1 106 386 164 7 106 3 16 100 1 34 204 0 96 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Pilaklikaha
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Powells Town
(Weik 2002, p. 112121). An important caveat here is that the ironstone, white stoneware, porcelain, and whiteware ceramics that comprise the Euro-American portion of Pilaklikahas ceramics have periods of production that range from the early decades of the nineteenth century until the twentieth century. The nineteenthand twentieth-century inhabitants of the location may have also contributed to the total proportion of Pilaklikahas Euro-American ceramics. The difficulty of interpreting these ceramics is compounded by the fact many are small and undecorated. Therefore, the proportion of Euro-American sherds that were used by African and indigenous Seminole at Pilaklikaha was probably less than the 44% stated above. The issue that then arises, concerns what these artifacts reflect about Pilaklikahas inhabitants attitudes toward their foreign- and indigenous-made objects. Charles Fairbanks (1978) suggested that people of African descent who lived in Seminole territory may have acted as cultural brokers in Florida, because many had been socialized through enslavement, forced to speak European languages and accept Euro-American laws. Native Americans intermarried with Whites and participated in plantation economies (Weisman 2000). Thus, African cultural brokers were not the
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only agents of Euro-American cultural and economic influence. The presence of Euro-American goods at Pilaklikaha is not necessarily indicative of African and Indian Seminole assimilation into Eurocentric beliefs, consumptive patterns, or material preferences. Lightfoot et al. (1998, pp. 199200, 209) have criticized North American colonial and contact period archaeological studies which claim that high ratios of Euro-American to Native American artifacts or the presence of EuroAmerican artifacts indicate assimilation. The foreign items were interpreted through indigenous peoples preexisting world views, motives, and structuring principles (Lightfoot et al. 1998). Wilkie (2000, p. 11) has proposed a similar argument for Afro-Bahamians, that they used African aesthetics to derive meaning from EuroAmerican material culture that they possessed. Similarly, the meanings and uses that any group of African Seminole applied to both European and Native American pottery may have derived from African, as well as European and Native American cultural frameworks. The political transitions that led to U.S. territorial claims on Florida (1821) did not immediately change the role of free and enslaved people of African descent in running a cattle raising system in Florida that had been the main source of the Spanish colonial meat supply (Parker 2000, pp. 150167). An overseer named Reuben Charles managed Moses Levys Pilgrimage Plantation, in northern Florida, during the 1820s. Charles sought runaway and for-sale cattle from Pilacklicaha, which was nearly 100 mi (160.9 km) south of the plantation. In 1825, he instructed his agent concerning cattle purchases: Jumper is now directed to send them [Levys runaway cattle] by Abraham with three or four other cowes for which youll pay what is reasonable (Charles 1825). Cattle raising was one of many activities that constituted the division of labor in African Seminole communities such as Pilaklikaha (Bateman 1991, pp. 6667; Boyd 1958, p. 88; Gallaher 1951; Porter 1996; Weisman 1989, p. 46). African Seminole men hunted, raided plantations, raised livestock, traded, and fought wars. Women were the main farmers and wild food collectors as they were in African, maroon, and Seminole Indian societies. Enslaved women in the Americas often escaped to urban areas more than men, and were merchants in cities. Thus, we should not underestimate their role in obtaining non-local goods at Pilaklikaha. Both women and men may have been potters. It is not possible to tell from documents who were woodcarvers and weavers of items such as baskets. African Seminole engaged in a variety of collective labor activities. They subsisted by communal agriculture (Mulroy 1993). Travelers referred to crops such as groundnuts, beans, melons, and pumpkins. A chronicler claimed that their corncribs were full and that they had livestock (Cohen 1964). Figure 7 features evidence for collective labor, including structures, fencing, and areas cleared of trees. Again, we must always be wary of the artistic license, the intentions, and cultural biases of the soldier who sketched Pilaklikahas landscape. General Eustis (1836), whose troops burnt Pilaklikaha, described houses and walls, which involved group labor. It is hard to say how residents chose or were selected to perform these labor tasks. In classic anthropological and historical scholarship, large-scale public works and surplus-generating agriculture were indicators of government administration, and coerced, compensated, or voluntary labor. Perhaps kinship relations structured African Seminole labor, as they did among Oklahoma descendants (18801920),
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where co-wives and families cooperated in subsistence tasks or during hard times (Bateman 1991, pp. 24, 67). The documentary record of the Second Seminole War, describes other coordinated activities (McCall 1974, p. 403). Lieutenant Henry Prince encountered stone walls built by the negroes that he fought (Prince 1998). The evacuations of women and children from African and indigenous Seminole settlements under attack also hint at group cooperation. In the Americas, Africans and Native Americans conducted effective guerilla warfare against slavers and colonists. Raids on plantations and the U.S. military brought livestock, arms, money and new recruits to African Seminole communities (Mahon 1967; Porter 1943, pp. 390421; Simmons 1973, pp. 117, xxxviii). In one case, a group of African Seminoles was captured who had been supplied with cloth, needles, tobacco, and arms from St. Augustine. Perhaps the tobacco pipe fragments, bullets, and porcelain 4-hole buttons discovered at Pilaklikaha, were acquired through similar raids or underground economic activities involving free or enslaved people (Porter 1943; Usner 1999, pp. 2437). African Seminoles amassed currency and took part in overt cash economies. For example, John Horse accumulated cash from his sale of game and fish to U.S. soldiers. John bartered his game and services to Euro-Americans in exchange for hooks and fishing line. Abraham made a claim for $100 in lost silver coins in the Second Seminole war. It is possible that Euro-American travelers paid cash to their Indian-Negro guides in Florida. It is unclear what proportion of resources or money was acquired through each respective method of resource acquisition (e.g., raids, paid labor, or cattle-dealing). From a broader, comparative perspective, Maroon-European economic exchanges and military alliances occurred from time to time, throughout the Americas (Parris 1983). African and indigenous Seminole people engaged in production and acquisition within the local economy on a scale that allowed them to be self-sufficient. Goods that they made in local settings included things that rarely preserve in the archaeological record, such as baskets, wood spoons, or canoes (Downs 1995; Howard 2002, p. 76; Kersey 1981, p. 171; McCall 1974, p. 222). Pottery is a more durable and common artifact that was used for transporting goods (e.g., honey) to markets, or for domestic (storage, cooking, or serving) and sacred practices. The most abundant artifact category of the African Seminole occupation at Pilaklikaha is a hand-made, sand-tempered, plain or brushed, grey-brown pottery (Fig. 8). This pottery is common in Florida Seminole sites, as well as at those of their Creek ancestors and contemporaries in Alabama and Georgia (Carr and Steele 1993; Waselkov and Smith 2000). Much work remains to be done to understand better the production and distribution of these wares in hundreds of Florida sites. Most low-fired earthenwares at Pilaklikaha with identifiable features appear to have been globular, round-bottomed, small (e.g., 7 cm rim diameter), and thinwalled (58 mm thick) bowls and pots (Weik 2002, p. 112121). Archaeologists have taken notice of the dominance of bowls (and hollow-ware vessels) over plates (and flat wares) in ceramic sub-assemblages across African American sites, and the sole presence of hollow-wares (bowls, jars, and globular pots) in Seminole Indian sites (Goggin 1958; Weisman 1989). Leland Ferguson (1992, pp. 96100) argues that pots on low-country plantations were used to make meat and vegetable stews and rich sauces, that derived from both African and Native American food traditions. Large vessels were used for communal
230 Fig. 8 Punctated, brushed pottery excavated from Pilaklikaha resting on a wrought iron nail
stews and smaller vessels were used for dipping sauces or drinking beverages. He sees colonowares as a creolized, multi-ethnic potting tradition having multiple cultural origins, just as the creolized foodways were a blend of cooking methods, ingredients, and eating conventions from different cultural groups. Similarly, African Seminoles probably employed African, Seminole Indian, and creolized foodways. One traveler observed that indigenous Seminoles and African Seminoles shared a cooking pot of Seminole soffkee, a soup-like dish, containing ingredients such as corn (Weisman 1989, p 123). Another dish was made from the roots of a wild plant called Koonti (Sleight 1953, pp. 4652). This culinary communion has been used as a metaphor for the intimacy of African and indigenous Seminole relations (McCall 1974, p. 222; Porter 1996). While the complexities of African and Native American relations cannot be captured in a pot of soup, food was an important part of human interactions, such as sacred observances and ceremonies.
Communal Socialization and Ceremony Cultural beliefs in rituals and participation in ceremonies were as significant as any other factors that created affiliation, stability, and longevity at Pilaklikaha. African Seminole cultural beliefs were marshaled by creolized Black, African, and Native American residents. Contrary to views that privilege the influence and power of Seminole Indians over African Seminole, is the position that skills, cultural practices and traditions moved in various directions, between African Seminole and Indian Seminole. Like their descendants in Oklahoma, the Florida African Seminole participated in indigenous Seminole culture by speaking their language (as well as that of an Afro-Seminole Creole language), eating a dish called soffkee, burying their dead like Seminole Indians, and taking names. Africans influenced Seminole Indian rice farming, words, stories, and coiled basketry (Bateman 1991, pp. 6667; Opala 1980). Few rites of passage have been discussed for Florida African Seminole. In African and Native American historical contexts, rites marked time and enculturated society members as they took on the responsibilities and identities of their age cohort, engaged deities, and underwent (meta) physical transformations. Black Seminole descendants practiced several marriage forms, including bride capture and a ceremony with the Bible. Jumping-the-broom was probably common among the Florida African Seminole, as it was among African Americans in the South (Mulroy 1993; Porter 1996, p. 147).
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Within family and public spheres, oral traditions-songs, adages, stories, prayers, and genealogies-helped people declare their identity and enact spiritual principles. For centuries, African Seminole, and Seminole and Creek Indian oral traditions have taught history, critical thinking, and morality (Heart and Larkin 1999; Jones 1990; Howard 2002, p. 43; Jumper and West 2000; Porter n.d.; Sturtevant 1954). Seminole healing songs and prescriptive verses have been used to diagnose and cure illnesses. Central and West African and Native American beliefs were familiar to some members of African Seminole populations. Africans and Native Americans recognized divinity in cosmic forces, the environment, and ancestors (Martin 1991; Thornton 2001). Some wore charms and obtained medicine to ensure success during battles and hunting, or to protect themselves from evil spirits and harm (Boyd 1958, pp. 84, 92; Smith 1976, p. 49). For millennia, Central and West Africans built shrines for ancestors and divine spirits (Ray 2000; Thornton 2001). In the Americas, Maroons reconstituted African principles in shrines and ancestral graves, which served as physical markers of genealogy and territorial claims (Agorsah 1994; Bilby 1996). The indigenous Seminoles constructed sacred physic houses and shrines, which they hid during conflicts (Boyd 1958, pp. 84, 92). Priests, herbalists, conjurers, healers, and medicine men (and women) cured ailments and dispensed wisdom in historic Africa and southeastern North America (Hall 1990; Kelton 2004; Thornton 2001). Military engineer Hugh Young observed that there were few prophets in Seminole territory. Besides a man named Francis or Hillishija, there was a negro girl who commenced the process of divination by wrapping herself in a blanket, in which she made singular whistling sounds for several minutes (Young 1953, p. 94). Young said she claimed to communicate about the future with invisible beings. Divination guided Seminoles in major decisions during war (Prince 1998, p. 60). Youngs description matches modern ethnographic and historic descriptions of divination. Modern studies see divination as a system of spiritual guidance, as well as a repository of cosmology, values, and healing traditions (Winkelman and Peek 2004). Oral histories of African Seminole descendants, praise John Horses healing powers, though it is unclear whether he practiced divination (Porter n.d.). One story describes Uncle Monday, a religious and military leader who was said to have performed ceremonies and transformed himself into an alligator (Duffner 1973). Divination was practiced in public ceremonies such as Busks that affirmed world views, defined the social order, and enacted transformative events (Howard and Lena 1984; Hudson 1976, p. 365). Busks (from the Muskogean word poskita, meaning to fast), also known as the Green Corn Ceremonies, are purifying events conducted by southeastern Native Americans. The ceremony celebrated the appearance of new (green) corn, and may have had similarities with historic African first fruit (e.g., yams) ceremonies, such as prohibitions on consuming the newest crops, recognition of divinities, and affirmation of the political order. Seminoles from different settlements came together to celebrate busks for several days during May or June. One Florida W.P.A. oral narrative stated that enslaved plantation workers participated in the Green Corn Dance. African Seminole may have been even more likely to participate in Busks than enslaved Africans (Gomez 1998; Rawick 1976).
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In preparation for the Busk, the indigenous Seminole squareground was swept clean and a layer of white sand spread on it (compare with historic Muskogean practices in Martin 1991). Cleansing rituals were performed, including the destruction of older items such as fires and pots, and the creation of new ones. Historic African and indigenous Seminole pottery use for medicinal preparations or as receptacles for sacred offerings present us with hypothetical spiritual functions for pottery use at Pilaklikaha. Weisman (1989, pp. 111, 1999, pp. 6365) argues that fragments of a globular, brushed pot that were buried in the clean white sand layer at Flying Eagle Ranch were part of a Busk ground. Beads and clay pipe fragments like the ones discovered at sites like Pilaklikaha, were sometimes transformed from secular to sacred by their consecration in medicine bundles, revered elements at Busks. Priests performed divination during Busks, by consulting medicine bundles on the well-being of the community (Hudson 1976; Sturtevant 1954). Medicine bundles contained other items such as crystals, bones, and roots that were used in divination. Medicine bundles had explicit powers that were invoked in reference to war. Ethnographic studies of indigenous Florida Seminole show that some medicine bundles contained spark-generating stone flints. It is worth considering whether stone items found at certain sites (as well as beads and pipes) ever were part of early nineteenth-century sacred bundles or if the presence of stone items in medicine bundles was strictly a twentieth-century practice (compare with Weisman 1989, p. 148). If stone inclusion in bundles was an ancient practice, then we might inquire into whether stone flakes like the kind discovered at Pilaklikaha were part of the lithics produced for historic bundles. Material culture that is evident in excavations and documents should be explored from wider angles that allow consideration of their use in multiple contexts, both mundane and spiritual. Turtle shell rattles, ball sticks, and an Indian fluteitems employed during Buskswere discovered by soldiers who destroyed Pilaklikaha. These items may have been used in syncretic practices, or traditions closer to African or Native American conventions. Many of the afore-mentioned objects could have also been used by African Seminole in mundane ways. Rattles and flutes may have been used for entertainment, along with cracked fiddles and tin pans described at African Seminole gatherings (Cohen 1964, p. 48; Porter 1996, p. 100).
Conclusion Between 1813 and 1836, a small, young, decentralized, self-sufficient community was built at Pilaklikaha. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests that 14 families lived in a cluster of cabins and structures made of timber, daub, and thatch. They did not follow the nineteenth-century, Seminole Indian dispersed homestead model of settlement proposed by various archaeologists working in the Southeast (Weisman 1989, 1999). The intricacies that became apparent from an examination of Pilaklikahas inhabitants suggests that one should be cautious about generalizations concerning such a dynamic and mobile group. One implication is that population estimates for other Maroon and African Seminole towns in Florida must be explored critically, with further examination on their validity and their weaknesses.
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The multiple functions, meanings, and origins that have been raised for traditions and material culture illustrate some of the complexities of daily life. It also has been demonstrated that African Seminole did not simply assimilate into Seminole Indian society or practices. African Seminole names suggest that Pilaklikahas residents were diverse, marked by African, Anglo, Spanish, Middle Eastern, and Seminole Indian traditions. The influence of African culture on Indian and African Seminole societies deserves as much explanatory consideration as the role of Native American cultural beliefs and traditions. Similarly, power was not exercised in simple linear ways in Seminole territory. It is worth considering how African Seminole tribute may have served various functions: acknowledging the power of regional Seminole Indian authority; serving as a communal reserve against lean times; and demonstrating their commitment to a cross-cultural alliance. By asking questions about the processes that affected social features such as leadership, it is possible to juxtapose and consolidate interpretive frameworks that emphasize collectivism or hierarchy. African and indigenous Seminole engaged in collective as well as individual economic activities. It remains to be seen if wealth accumulation had an impact on these small African Seminole societies, in terms of the formation of elites and classes. Regional exchanges allowed African Seminole to perpetuate their society through entrepreneurship. Exchanges also passed medicinal and ritual knowledge that helped encourage social harmony and physical healing. Men and women engaged in international trade and politics, which fostered interdependency between people of African and Native American descent. Euro-Americanswho were their enemies on the macro-levelwere also occasional economic collaborators. Excavated and documented artifacts hint at rarely-recorded African and indigenous Seminole spiritual beliefs and everyday behaviors. Each generation saw the creation, transformation, and destruction of people, material culture and places. Ethnographic and historic studies of African and Native American societies suggest that there were various mechanisms for socializing members of society that deserve much more consideration in future studies: initiations marked transitions through life stages and provided access to sacred societies and knowledge; rituals enacted at shrines venerated spirits and healed individuals (Hilliard 1998, p. 89; Martin 1991). The historic snapshots and ethnographic analogies that were examined deserve greater attention so a more thorough account is made of the variation and similarity that characterized ancestral and descendant populations, and that shaped the contours of African Seminole historical trajectories.
Acknowledgments I would like to thank Peter Schmidt for his comments on this article, and his guidance and institutional support on the wider project. Thanks are also due to Canter Brown for sharing his insights on Florida history, primary sources, and an earlier draft of this essay. I am grateful for Brent Weismans encouragement, intellectual observations, and logistical support over the years. His work on the Seminoles has been an inspiration in many ways. My gratitude extends to the University of Florida Anthropology department for their intellectual and financial support of my research. Special thanks are also due to the faculty and staff at the University of Florida Museum of Natural History, especially, Kathleen Deagan and Gerald Milanich, whose assistance with ideas, grants, lab access, and field equipment were invaluable. Bruce Chappell, Jim Cusick, and their colleagues in the University of Florida Special Collections enriched this paper with their archival assistance. Generous financial support provided by the Florida Division of Historic Resources and the Florida Humanities Council ensured the completion of this research. Uzi Barams comments improved this paper in various ways. Finally, many thanks are
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extended to countless volunteers and laypersons for their interest and participation in the various stages of research that culminated in this essay.
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Int J Histor Archaeol (2009) 13:206238 DOI 10.

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Fig. 1 African Seminole populations and sites

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Fig. 2 African Seminole, Maroon, and other settlements in Florida

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Fig. 4 Test excavation block

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Fig. 6 Pilaklikahas main concentration of physical remains and local environment

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Fig. 7 Burning of Pilak-Li-ka-ha by Gen. Eustis (Gray 1836)

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