Why aren the Black Seminoles themselves better known?
Like the previous question, this one is something of a mystery. Without a doubt, however, America’s legacy of racism has played a major role in the oversight. Had a community of white pioneers accomplished half of the feats that the Black Seminoles accomplished in the 1800s, they would have easily entered the national consciousness. Had a white man accomplished half of John Horse’s feats, he would have certainly become a legend — and in fact several white frontiersmen, like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, did become such legends, on slimmer resumes than John Horse.[26] Societies always crave heroes. Nineteenth-century America craved frontier heroes, men like Boone and Crockett who could embody the country’s desire to move west and even, to a certain extent, market that opportunity. In the 1800s, however, America did not crave heroes who were armed and black. America wanted black Samboes, not black freedom fighters. The existence of the Black Seminoles threatened North and South alike
