WEBVTT - Part Two: The Battle of Negro Fort: Florida's Maroon Community 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:04.240 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.480 Hello, and welcome to Cool People Did Cool Stuff, the 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:10.039 show where you don't get to be the one who 0:00:10.039 --> 0:00:16.320 decides what's cool. Instead, I the host, Margaret Kiljoy decide 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:20.079 what's cool, which is a strange irony, but there's no 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.520 way around it because no one can start podcasts because 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:28.640 it's illegal and the law and morality are identical. Our 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:30.560 guest today is Jamie Loftus. 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.199 Hi, Jamie Hi, Margaret, dude to my status is starting 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:35.960 a podcast. 0:00:36.040 --> 0:00:38.240 I am currently considered a fugitive. 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:42.360 That's true, but I think but I think it's actually 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.160 I think it's it's worth it to get my little 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:46.839 ideas out into the world. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:51.440 When podcasts are outlawed, only outlaws of podcast. 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:57.160 Me and Dex Shepherd against the world. 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:01.600 That's right. That's why we're all going to get the vests. 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:03.080 But we're not going to tell you what I mean 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:07.280 by that. Instead, I'm going to introduce the producer, Sophie. 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:13.640 That's me, Matron of Crime. I'll take it okay and 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.200 are well now. I just feel bad saying the names 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.880 of everyone involved because they're all doing crime. But Ian 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:23.920 is our audio engineer, and everyone is to say Hi, Ian, Hi, Ian, Yeah. 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:27.959 Hi, Ian, sorry about your recent breaking the law by 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.760 participating in this evil empire. 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:34.160 Oh Jamie, you know you're my partner in crime and 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:35.480 that you're the mastermind. 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:36.720 What are you talking about? 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:37.600 It's true? 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:41.240 What are you jeer? 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:42.200 Behind them? 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:47.279 Yeah, behind all producers. Yes, the theme music was written 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:49.640 for us by someone who will not be named lest 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:51.280 unwoman get in trouble. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:53.279 And it worked. 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:57.280 Thanks proud of that one. Today is part two of 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.880 a two parter, which is the first time that's ever happened, 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:06.000 not the ninety eighth time that's ever happened in part one. Okay, 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:07.800 this time we're talking about Negro for it, which was 0:02:07.840 --> 0:02:11.760 a really amazing maroon community in Florida when it was 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.480 Spanish Florida that the US went and fucked up. In 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:16.720 part one, I talked about how a ton of indigenous 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.720 folks were real mad at the Americans. Right now I 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:21.840 want to talk about what had beens just stolen from them, 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.519 which is to say, I get to talk about everyone's 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:34.400 favorite person, Andrew Jackson. Yeah. If you ever meet someone 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.040 who thinks that Andrew Jackson is a good person, then 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.680 you have met a bad person, or at best, a 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:43.400 terribly badly informed person. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:47.480 Yeah, I would say, don't waste your time trying to 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:48.919 fix them unless I. 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.200 Know, you know, you've only we've only got so much time. 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:55.960 Yeah, it's and if it's like your best friend, no, 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.360 if it's your dad, I don't know whatever. Andrew Jackson 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:01.880 before the War of eighteen twelve, no one really knew 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.799 him outside of Tennessee. He grew up a backwoods guy. 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.880 He wasn't actually poor. He later inherited two hundred acres, 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:10.799 but he grew up backwoods along the North and South 0:03:10.840 --> 0:03:15.040 Carolina border shortly before the Revolutionary War, and he grew 0:03:15.120 --> 0:03:19.240 up hating Indigenous people and British people. And this was 0:03:19.280 --> 0:03:22.640 like his main thing, and like stop clock on the 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:26.960 British thing. But you know whatever. The Revolutionary War had 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.040 killed his mother, his only parent, and two of his brothers, 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.480 so he was really into hating the British. He also 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:35.800 hated Indigenous people because he was a racist piece of 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.800 shit dick. He quickly left the backwoods and became a 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:42.680 Southern gentleman, which of course meant buying and selling people. 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.480 Right come the War of eighteen twelve, he was like, 0:03:46.560 --> 0:03:51.880 let's go kill the Brittain Indians, capture Florida wooo, and 0:03:51.920 --> 0:03:55.880 that was that was his war crime. In eighteen thirteen, 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:58.400 the Muskogee had what was called the Creek Civil War 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:04.240 because they were mostly called the Creek. On one side, 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:07.520 you have the Americanized folks who were, you know, had 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.000 just been like they've been like doing the more settled thing. 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:12.720 They're starting to grow, build plantations, They're really into the 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.840 chattel slavery thing. On the other side, you had the 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.400 Red Sticks who were like, yeah, fuck all that, and 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.480 they would attack forts and kill everyone there except the 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.480 enslaved people who were freed who then joined them. So 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.960 Andrew Jackson just went just like went around and burned 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.080 down every Musgogie village that he could find. 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:34.640 Which like a like a gentleman would, Yeah, exactly. 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:40.039 People tend to conveniently forget that usually everyone on all 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.880 sides of any given war of colonization kills civilians every 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.599 single chance they can get. It's like a hard conversation 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:48.120 to have, so we all try to not have it. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:51.560 Yeah, and all the history books that we get in 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.919 American public schools do not reflect it because it just 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:56.359 complicates things too much. 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:58.760 Yeah, you pick one side to decide that they kill 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.040 civilians and the other side that is the way. 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:04.320 To civilian life, the ultimate complicating factor. 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:09.920 Yeah, totally. But you know, I think that there's a 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:13.400 difference between colonial and anti colonial violence, and you know, 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.719 not to just whatever. Anyway, now I'm accidentally getting into 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:20.120 the modern shit. Most of the Red Sticks died in 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.640 battle against Jackson. They were out number two to one 0:05:22.760 --> 0:05:27.560 at Horseshoe Bend in Alabama. Maybe all die so bravely. Basically, 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:33.560 Andrew Jackson was promoted to major general for massacring all 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.719 these people who outnumbered and then immediately got the Allied 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.440 Muscogee people to sign away twenty three million acres of 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.280 their territory, basically stole it from them. Basically, it was like, yeah, 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:45.520 now you're just gonna give us all the shit because 0:05:45.760 --> 0:05:48.800 we want it. Yeah, any idea how big twenty three 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:50.640 million acres is. It's like one of those numbers that's 0:05:50.640 --> 0:05:53.480 a meaningless number. No, right, I can tell you it 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:55.159 was like a county, and I could tell you it 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:57.000 was like the Eastern seaboards. 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:57.880 Right at Florida. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:00.000 It's about half modern floor. 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:04.480 Okay, twenty three million only half. I mean Florida's big though, 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:04.920 I mean. 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.240 Yeah, that's a big fucking state. You ever like drive 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.200 through Florida and you're like, this is no way. This 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:14.880 is going to feel like driving through Texas that takes years, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.640 but then it does. No it especially be like driving 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:19.120 to Miami. 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.159 It's it's it's gigantic, and also like there's a lot 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.359 of I don't know, it's such a large state that 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.279 I think, like Texas, there's also like regional specificity that 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.240 gets kind of totally. 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.080 So everyone's mad, right, because he just took so much 0:06:36.120 --> 0:06:39.880 fucking land. This terrible loss is why the Brits had 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:43.040 so much luck recruiting indigenous people in the area, because 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:44.960 even those who had been allied with the US had 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:48.360 just been fucked And so it was up to Andrew Jackson. 0:06:48.560 --> 0:06:52.040 Everyone decided, probably including Andrew Jackson, that was up to 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:56.640 him to smash the pesky interracial Army, which to be clear, 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.320 absolutely was planning to go fuck up the US South 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:04.680 and free from American government. That was absolutely their goal. Nichols, 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.880 the Irishman, gave speeches about how they would quote unrivet 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:12.560 the chains of every person still held in slavery. So 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:17.520 they attacked the cool interracial army right their first at 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.400 the Colonial Marines or whatever I said their name, like 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:24.120 eight times. You think i'd remember the core of colonial Marines. 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.320 The first attack on Alabama did not go well for 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:31.200 the British, and grape shot took out Nichols right eye 0:07:31.360 --> 0:07:33.040 and he'll never see out of it again. It will 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:36.280 not stop him from continuing to fight in battles where 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:41.200 he gets bayoneted and doesn't stop. So they were treated 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.640 and they got back to recruiting people. They were like, okay, 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:45.520 well we need more people, and so they helped more 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:50.320 and more people escape slavery. At least they end up 0:07:50.440 --> 0:07:53.440 taking over Pensacola for a minute because it's not really 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:55.400 under American control e there, so it's sort of easy. 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.360 At least two thirds of Pensacola's and slave population was 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:05.200 recruited during this time, and all the slave owners would 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.640 like go and be like, come on, Britz, give us 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:12.320 back our people. And the Brits just laughed and we're like, nah, 0:08:12.800 --> 0:08:17.440 we have guns and shit, you're gonna fuck off now. Okay, 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:21.000 So they're being cool. They're up to some cool stuff. 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:26.160 November eighteen fourteen, Andrew Jackson invaded Pensacola and outnumbered the 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.720 British Florida one. So the multiracial army fled and they 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.199 blew up their fortifications as they went and went back 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:34.480 to the British post, which is the fort that they 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:40.960 had built along the Apalogic Cola River. They grow there 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:43.080 to a force of about fifteen hundred as more and 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.679 more indigenous warriors show up. There's like numbers that go 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.400 all over the place, all the different like estimates where 0:08:49.400 --> 0:08:51.280 they're like, oh, they got three thousand, they got fifteen hundred, 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:52.880 they got one thousand, there's three hundred of them. It's 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.400 like all over the fucking place, the numbers. 0:08:56.960 --> 0:09:01.480 God, okay, And how many like different sources is it 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:01.880 coming from? 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:03.200 Is it just depends. 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:05.520 It just depends. A lot of it is that it 0:09:05.559 --> 0:09:09.680 was very variable by time. And then also a lot 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:16.520 of history doesn't necessarily like stay perfectly linear in how 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.840 they describe these things. You know, I think that it's 0:09:20.880 --> 0:09:23.920 like at its largest. Also, a lot of the sources, 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:26.880 like Americans kept exaggerating the size of this force because 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:30.040 they were like this is the this is armageddon, you know, 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:32.520 and so like there's like ones that are like there's 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:36.319 fifteen thousand of them, but that's like a pro slavery 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.679 American newspaper giving that number. For example, more and more 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.400 indigenous warriors starts showing up, and then they start paying 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:45.960 indigenous slave owners for the freedom of their slaves at 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.400 about a I want to say about thirty dollars ahead, 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.120 which is like way less than market rate. It's sort 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:55.240 of a like we'll pay you to free slaves, but 0:09:55.280 --> 0:09:57.640 we won't pay like white people to free slaves in America. 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:00.120 Those were just going to go capture, you know. On 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:04.079 December twenty fourth, eighteen fourteen, the War of eighteen twelve 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:06.360 was officially over by the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.640 but they didn't have cell phones, so the war raged 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.400 on until news came months and months later that it 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.040 had already ended in a draw because it didn't go 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:18.920 well for either side. Basically both sides just fucked each 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:19.319 other up. 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.320 And it also, yeah, it also didn't just go in 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:28.200 eighteen twelve. But that's that's that's the most that's the 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:29.559 saddest thing in the world to me. 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:31.559 I mean, there's. 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:37.240 In like a casualty of war sense where you like, 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:41.679 if someone you loved was killed after the war had 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:43.520 been resolved, and you found that out later. 0:10:44.720 --> 0:10:46.040 I simply don't know what I would do. 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:52.560 There's like World War One had that a lot, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:10:52.760 --> 0:10:56.640 it's fucking it, is it? It would on either side 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:58.880 like that would kind of fuck me up, you know, yeah, 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:01.840 because then it was like a like, for example, the 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:04.240 Americans are about to pull out their greatest victory in 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:06.920 the War of eighteen twelve, after the war is over, 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.720 the Battle of New Orleans, made famous by a song 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.400 that I don't remember who sings and don't listen too much. 0:11:14.480 --> 0:11:15.000 I don't know. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:20.720 On January eighth, eighteen fifteen, British soldiers attacked New Orleans, 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.559 and Nichols's army was like, yeah, we're gonna lead. We 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:26.280 volunteer to like lead the landing. We're going to go 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.199 fuck these fucking slavers up. But they were told that 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:31.680 they couldn't join. They were basically too valuable to risk, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.520 like they had, you know, the British and other military 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:36.200 plans for them. The Battle of New Orleans was like 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.320 not a huge deal from the British point of view, 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:44.439 and the British army got wrecked, like two thousand dead 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:49.360 to fourteen dead on the American side is what I read. God, 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.200 it's like enough that I'm like, that's fucked. 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:53.760 You know. 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.680 That is because they tried to march through a swamp 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:00.680 at an entrenched position, and they were all so arrogant. 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.199 They were like, we are the most civilized and advanced army. 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:04.400 In the world. 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.880 Of course we're going to wreck this like Motley Force, 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:10.120 you know, right. And Andrew Jackson was in charge of 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.680 defending New Orleans. This is a big This is like 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.040 where is like fame like fucking comes from at the time. 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:18.760 Now he's mostly famous as a butcher. He did the 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:24.560 unthinkable when he defended New Orleans. He armed enslaved people. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.840 He promised people their freedom if they fought for the Americans. 0:12:30.600 --> 0:12:33.960 Then after the battle he did the thinkable, which was 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:36.360 he said not just fucking kidding, your fucking property, not 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:37.640 people giving back the guns. 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:41.120 Often joke that isn't the most Andrew Jackson thing in 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:46.000 the fucking world to do? Is yeah, yeah, promise advancement 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:47.760 to read nag on it later. 0:12:48.240 --> 0:12:51.240 Yeah. One of the most annoying things about reading the 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:55.520 nineteenth century like pro and anti slavery shit, is watching 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.360 all of the people on all sides argue about whether 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.480 or not black people would be any good in a fight, 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.640 and like people refer to Andrew Jackson as like practically 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.720 anti racist in that he like he was like he 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:15.840 respected that black people knew how to fight for whatever. 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:19.559 I hate him and I hate everything about him one man. 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:21.840 Yeah, I can't can't hand it to him for that. 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.720 No, absolutely, exactly, absolutely not. And the fact that that 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:29.040 is a thing that is like constantly brought up, and 0:13:29.080 --> 0:13:30.559 it is a thing that like even like a lot 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.360 of the British are doing during this point, they're like, whoa, Like, 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:38.960 I didn't know that you all were like not racially inferior, 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.280 you know, right. 0:13:41.320 --> 0:13:45.680 Right, Yeah, it's like we didn't know. We assumed that 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:50.959 you were not competent in like it's what a treat, 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:52.320 What a treat to be told that. 0:13:53.160 --> 0:13:56.640 Yeah. So one man who was promised his freedom was 0:13:56.679 --> 0:14:00.640 this guy named James Roberts. During the battle, he killed 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.320 six British soldiers in hand to hand combat, losing a 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:05.880 finger and taking a sword across the face and the process, 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:10.120 and he survived. After the battle, the Americans disarmed him, 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:12.240 stripped him, sent him to prison, and then sent him 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:16.280 to the plantation where he'd come from. He later said quote, 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:18.920 had there been less bravery with us, and he means 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.880 the armed enslaved people, the British would have gained the victory, 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.680 and in that event they would have set the slaves free. 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.440 So that I see now how we in that war 0:14:28.640 --> 0:14:33.960 contributed to fasten our own chains tighter. What about fucking heartbreaking? 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:35.080 Yeah? 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:42.880 Like anyway, no, I mean no, yeah, yeah, I mean 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:47.600 I feel like it just speaks to the the helplessness 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:51.480 of the situation and just that they're like, are ultimately no, 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:57.320 I don't know, there's no good imperial. 0:14:56.760 --> 0:15:00.560 Force to ally with. If he can believe it, in 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.080 this case, there's a better one. 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.600 Everyone who fought for the British not only were they freed, 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.400 but so were their families. Oh wow, Okay, and Andrew 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.920 Jackson after they like after the folks who fight and 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:18.280 then they flee whatever, Andrew Jackson figures that he can 0:15:18.320 --> 0:15:21.360 now show up. He's like, he just crushed the British, right, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.160 So he's like, I'm just gonna show up and be like, yo, 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:27.680 give us back our property. And the British were like, 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.840 now we're good, and once again all the like slave 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.600 owners go and they're like they're like, same deal as 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:38.120 always you can come and not by force ask people 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:40.680 to return to you. And so all these like slave 0:15:40.680 --> 0:15:42.120 owners like showed up and we're like, oh, of course 0:15:42.160 --> 0:15:44.320 they're going to come back. We're gonna like ask nicely. Right. 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:48.200 A few people in this case did end up going back. Basically, 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:50.640 I think that they thought that they might get abandoned 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:52.880 and killed, and they just were looking to their options. 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.240 Almost everyone was like, no chance in fucking hell will 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.760 we do that. One newly freed wagon driver told us 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:03.000 form master, you may carry my head along with you, 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:07.520 but as to my body, it will remain here, like 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:10.520 it's just the time of metal quotes. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:13.520 Basically, yeah, I was like, there's really some bangers in 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:15.480 this story, like one after the other. 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:21.200 Yeah, And they still don't know the war's over. So 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.720 Nichol's army is now thirty five hundred strong and they 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:27.960 get ready to invade and they're gonna just fucking go 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:29.120 fuck up the American South. 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:30.360 The war's over. 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.440 But they're like, let they don't know what s goo. Girls, Well, 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.480 they don't know it, right, right, right? 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:38.640 Do we know how exactly how long after this is, 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:41.560 we're still only like a month or so later. 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:46.480 I don't remember the well, okay, So, like the treaty 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:50.280 was signed, Battle of New Orleans is January eighth, and 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.640 so then like pretty immediately afterwards, right, it's like a 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:55.520 week or two later or something. They're like, we're getting 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:58.480 ready to go do this thing, but then news of 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:00.800 the truth comes before they get chance to do it. 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.680 And so Nichols's army basically it's like never really put 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:07.720 to the test. And you know, so then Spain's like, 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:09.959 all right, great, the war's over. Can we have our 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:15.320 enslaved people back? And Nichols was like nah. And then 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.439 and Spade was like, but there's no legal basis for that, 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:25.080 and Nicholas is like, I don't really care, nick, Nick. Yeah, 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.600 it was hilarious because the deal was that under the 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.240 Spanish territorial law it was okay for slaves escaping the 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.359 US to be freed, but not Spanish slaves, like anyone 0:17:35.440 --> 0:17:36.840 escaping a Spanish owner. 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:37.679 Right, okay. 0:17:37.840 --> 0:17:41.000 And so there's all these slaves with Hispanic last names 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.919 who only spoke Spanish, and Nichols is like, nah, that 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:48.080 guy's American, you know, and they'd be like, no, I 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.760 swear that that's our guy. Nicholas just be like no, 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:54.520 it's not you got Oh also I have a lot 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:55.040 of guns. 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:58.800 Yeah, gigantic bluff. I love it. 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:03.640 Yeah. In the end, Nichols presented each person who had 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.840 fought or was there a certificate of freedom, saying that 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.040 their service in the military meant that they were free, 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:13.280 and that the basically that the Spanish delegates could eat it. 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.359 The Spanish delegates are like there when he's passing out 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:16.200 these certificates. 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:16.840 Sure. 0:18:17.800 --> 0:18:20.400 And he also gave the soldiers all of their wages 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:22.199 for the entire time, which is the whole thing. And 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:26.040 like even the Army of the North and during the 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:29.960 Civil War like decades later, was like real bad at 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.600 paying black soldiers, you know. So he's like, here's all 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:37.080 your money. You can keep the uniform and you are 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.760 officially discharged from service because the war is over. And 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:43.119 these certificates that he gave them kept a bunch of 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:45.080 people free down the line because there's like all this 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:48.800 shit where like because Nichols rules in Britain sucks, you know, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:51.320 and so like later a lot of these freed people 0:18:51.359 --> 0:18:54.159 like go to other British colonies and people are like, no, 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.600 you're not free, and they have to be like, ah, 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:57.879 I'm going to take it to court and I have 0:18:57.880 --> 0:18:59.680 this document and shit, you know, so he made a 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:02.840 fucking paper trail. He based it on nothing. He based 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:05.120 it on I want these people to be free. Here's 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:05.720 a document. 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:08.080 God, that fucking rocks. 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.080 Yeah, totally another A win for the Irish, a win 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:18.240 for fighting Nichols. Yeah, just having an army, a bunch 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:21.480 of guns and a big old lie and actually being 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.520 on the right side of history. And the war ended 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:24.320 a month ago. 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:26.400 Secretly, great, great, great, great great. 0:19:26.760 --> 0:19:31.240 Yeah. And so he tried one less thing, but the 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:35.560 British government didn't go for it. Basically, he was like, 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:40.280 we will absolutely keep this war going if you don't 0:19:40.280 --> 0:19:42.800 give the Muscogee back the land that Andrew Jackson stole, 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.560 those twenty three million acres, we will absolutely go to 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:49.320 war for it. And then Britain was like, no, no, no, 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:51.679 not so much. We're not going to do that. But 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:55.359 they did stand by the emancipation of five thousand enslaved 0:19:55.359 --> 0:20:00.920 people who had escaped to British territory. In April eighteen fifteen, 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.400 Nichols and the rest of the white British unit left. 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.960 They this gets like a little blurry. They had this 0:20:07.040 --> 0:20:09.480 intention to return in six months or maybe a year, 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.720 and maybe it was to like help transport everyone away. 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:14.440 But then other people were like, no, he was never 0:20:14.440 --> 0:20:17.240 planning on coming back, and people like chose to stay 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:19.080 there because they wanted to just live there and keep 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:23.840 the fort and shit. And the reason I want I 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.000 want to like Nichols. And two the other reason I 0:20:27.080 --> 0:20:30.320 kind of trust him about this. He leaves this fort 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:37.280 intact fully armed with hundreds of guns, like eight cannon 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:42.159 powder keg after powder keg, like this is a fully 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.600 he doesn't take any of the food like he as 0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:48.160 far as I can tell, he just right by the people. 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:51.480 The one thing he fucked up is he left a 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:56.640 white guy in charge. Oh he's gonna fuck off soon, 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:57.959 don't worry, Okay. 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.920 I mean I just based on what you just I'm 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.119 tempted to want to give a good faith reading of 0:21:04.200 --> 0:21:07.600 that because other than just like fucking off in the 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.919 middle of the night and like, you know, completely like 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.720 it sounds like there was the intent of some longevity there. 0:21:15.080 --> 0:21:18.640 Yeah, And when he leaves, it transports a ton of 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.399 the formally enslaved people with them when they leave, but 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:24.520 a lot of people stick around, but they leave this 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.959 white guy named Hambly around and they're like, all right, 0:21:28.000 --> 0:21:30.520 this guy's in charge. And he was like he had 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:33.200 been he was local to the area, and he had 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:35.240 been like an important part of a lot of the 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:39.560 conversations with indigenous leaders and stuff, and he had worked 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:41.840 for the trading post that was what used to be 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.960