Moultrie Creek, 1823, Article VII: Seminoles made to catch "absconding slaves" (Moultrie Creek, Sept. 18, 1823)

SUMMARYMoultrie Creek, 1823, Article VII: Seminoles made to catch "absconding slaves" (Moultrie Creek, Sept. 18, 1823) [Connections: Tallahassee & Orlando, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDThe Treaty with the Florida Tribes (7 Stat. 224) confined the nations to a central reservation and required the chiefs "to be active and vigilant in the preventing the retreating to, or passing through" it "of any absconding slaves, or fugitives from justice," and "to use all necessary exertions to apprehend and deliver the same to the agent." Article X records the chiefs' request that "one mile square, embracing the improvements of Enehe Mathla, at Tallahassee" go "in fee simple" to Col. Gad Humphreys. The Additional Article set aside "for the use of Nea Mathla and his connections, two miles square." US commissioners: William P. DuVal, James Gadsden, Bernard Segui

PATTERNThe US needed a treaty clause to pry the nations apart from people escaping slavery, which shows how tightly they were joined

LENS (WW9)You only write a law to split two peoples if they are living as one

OPENHow often Article VII was enforced; the page says enforcement was uneven

SOURCETreaty with the Florida Tribes of Indians, 1823 (Oklahoma State University, Kappler), 7 Stat. 224; Treaty of Moultrie Creek (Wikipedia).