Abraham (Seminole)
Seminole interpreter (1790s–1870s)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abraham, Seminole war-name Souanaffe Tustenukke,[2] called Yobly by some whites,[3] was a 19th-century Floridian who served as an interpreter and lieutenant for "Micanopy, the hereditary leader of the Alachua Seminoles."[4] As of July 1837, he was termed "the principal negro chief" of the Seminoles and by all accounts exerted a great influence on Micanopy, approximately 500 Black Seminoles, and the white Americans with whom he treated and negotiated.[5]
Biography
Abraham was born enslaved in Georgia in the 1790s and died in the 1870s in what is now Seminole County, Oklahoma.[6] He was described as having ties to Pensacola, having traveled to Washington, D.C., and the Indian Territory, and having had "fluent speech and polished manners."[7] He is sometimes described as Micanopy's "chief negro" in parallel with John Caesar, who was deemed "chief negro" to Ee-mat-la.[7] Abraham, sometimes called Negro Abram, was a key participant in the 1837–38 negotiations regarding the end of hostilities in the Second Seminole War, a potential move to the Indian Territory, and the legal status of "Indian slaves" versus "runaway plantation slaves."[8] In 1813, a group of Blacks among the Seminoles established a settlement called Pilaklikaha (Many Ponds), that was renamed Abraham's Old Town after 1826 to honor Abraham, The Interpreter, who became a leader. The town was home to 100 people in who grew "fields of rice, beans, melons, pumpkins, and peanuts" and managed herds of cattle and horses; American troops burned Peliklakaha to the ground in 1836.[9] Pilaklikaha was located about halfway between what is now Withlacoochee State Forest and Orlando.[9]