It's Historical Trivia Question Time. Make your submission.

[wnylib]

56. Before Columbus, several tribes had slavery, but it was

usually a temporary condition of servitude brought about in various ways. In some cultures, a person who was destitute would offer servitude in return for support, but eventually earned freedom again. In some cases it was the servitude of captives taken in war until they became acclimated to the language and customs of the new tribe as a tribal member. Then they were accepted as full members.

It was Christian missionaries who introduced race-based, permanent enslavement of Africans as a buy and sell trade. Some tribal members among the Cherokee opposed that slave practice. Before their removal to the West, the Cherokee people wrote a constitution for themselves. They agreed that slavery was wrong, but wealthy, land-owning Cherokee families continued to have slaves. Cherokee slaves were able to intermarry into the tribe and to even hold some offices in tribal government. If they gained their freedom and chose to stay with the tribe, they had full tribal membership. But any form of slavery is still a lack of complete freedom.

I don't remember their names now, but I read that some of the Cherokee tribal leaders said that they believed that their removal and loss of lands was a punishment by their spirit ancestors or the Creator for having allowed slavery. At the time of removal, White society gave Black slaves of the Cherokee an option to stay behind or go with the tribe. Most chose to go with the tribe since their only options were enslavement to Whites or enslavement to the Cherokee. Some chose to stay behind because they had family with White slave owners.

There are many African American of mixed ancestry with Native Americans. Some are due to enslavement among Native tribes like the Cherokee. But some mixed ancestry is due to escaped slaves going to live in tribes where they were adopted as members. That's especially true of the Seminole in Florida.

There were also many Native Americans enslaved by White colonists. In colonies and later, states, Native people captured in war were sold into slavery, often to the Caribbean sugar plantations. In the southern coastal colonies, White slave traders stirred up wars between tribes in order to gain captives to sell locally or to the Caribbean. That was why the Tuscarora tribe in the Carolinas moved north to join the Iroquois League. They were being forced into slavery wars. Tuscarora culture and language are Iroquoian so the League accepted them as their 6th tribal member.