Abraham survives as one of the best-known and documented Black Seminoles in Florida history. Like many Florida blacks, he escaped slavery by running away to Seminoles. He served as the counselor, guide, and slave to Chief Micanopy and assisted in negotiating the treaty at Payne’s Landing between the Americans and the Seminoles in 1832. Though later rescinded, the treaty dictated that Black Seminoles would migrate to the west along with Seminole Indians rather than be returned to slavery.

Negro Abraham. Artist N. Orr.
Published in The Origins, Progress and Conclusion of the Florida War by John Sprague.
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1848.
Historical Museum of Southern Florida.
1976-096-1.

Abraham also led Peliklakaha, a Black Seminole and maroon community with over one hundred inhabitants. Reports by U.S. army officials describe Peliklakaha as a prosperous Negro town with fertile fields and comfortable homes. The map to the left describes Army General Eustis’ position near Peliklakaha in 1836, months after the Dade Massacre. Eustis and his men set fire to the town, which had been abandoned months earlier in anticipation of the army’s approach.

Copy of the map of the seat of war in Florida: forwarded to the War Department by Lieut. J. E. Johnson, 4th U.S. Arty., March 20, 1836.
Historical Museum of Southern Florida,
2003-214-1.