Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
However, as the 18th century unfolded, Muscogee and other tribes from the north mi-
grated into Florida, driven by or enlisted in the partisan European feuds for New World
territory. These tribes intermingled and intermarried, and in the late 1700s they were
joined by numerous runaway African American slaves, whom they welcomed into their
society.
At some point, these independent, fugitive, mixed peoples occupying Florida's interior
were dubbed 'Seminoles,' a corruption of the Spanish word
cimarrones,
meaning 'free
people' or 'wild ones.' Defying European rule and ethnic category, they were soon con-
sidered too free for the newly independent United States, who brought war to them.
