African and Native Americans in Early America: 1600–1865

Introduction: Two Minorities, One Colonial System

When discussing the experience of minorities in early America, it is tempting to fall into one of two extremes: either imagining that European colonizers treated all minorities equally, or concluding that their experiences were so different that no meaningful comparison can be made. Like most things in history, however, the truth is far more complex. Although the same religious, political, and economic ideologies motivated Europeans' treatment of both Native Americans and Africans, the effects were mixed. In some instances Native Americans were subjected to the same brutality and disregard as those Africans caught up in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but more frequently European colonizers attempted to treat Native Americans as something closer to equals in order to manipulate them into favorable actions, such as trade alliances or military support.

Furthermore, the experiences of Native Americans and Africans in America prior to 1865 occasionally intersected in striking ways, most notably in the "maroon" outposts made up of runaway slaves and free Native Americans that appeared along the southern coast. By comparing and contrasting the history and struggles of Native Americans and African Americans from roughly 1600 to 1865, one can see how Europeans' desire to colonize the Americas produced a complex system of alliances and conflicts that simultaneously reinforced racial and ethnic divides between Europeans and others while strengthening bonds of solidarity between Native Americans and the forcibly imported Africans.

Native Americans as European Proxies

By the time European colonizers began arriving in large numbers during the seventeenth century, the Native American population in the mid and southern Atlantic region had been decimated by plague. The communities that remained were only a fragment of what they had previously been. As a result, those who did survive were no longer part of the robust, regional society that had existed only decades earlier, but were rather the scattered survivors of a near-apocalyptic devastation.

Almost immediately, the European powers establishing themselves on the eastern seaboard attempted to co-opt the Native Americans for their own purposes, well beyond whatever advantage was gained in terms of supplies. There are certain well-known instances of close, mutually beneficial cooperation between Native Americans and early colonists, but these tend to be the exceptions that prove the rule. In most cases, interactions between Native Americans and early colonists were exploitative and manipulative: colonists either attempted to swindle Native Americans out of their property and power, or pitted tribes against each other in low-level proxy wars.

To see how fully European powers viewed Native Americans as merely pawns in larger imperialist efforts, one need only examine the military use to which they were put by both British and Spanish colonists. When the Spanish first colonized Florida, they attempted to use the Apalachee and Timucua as an unofficial military force to protect their frontier against the British, who held colonies further north, while the British supported the Creek and Yamasee in an effort to expand their own colonial reach southward.

Unfortunately, the Apalachee and Timucua were not immune to European diseases, and by 1715 they had been almost entirely wiped out. In response to a war between the Yamasee and British colonists in what would eventually become South Carolina, and growing dissatisfaction with British trade practices, a number of Creeks began to migrate southward into areas previously inhabited by the Apalachee and Timucua. The Spanish were only too happy to welcome another group of Native Americans who might serve as a buffer against the British.

The British eventually took control of the South and pushed the Spanish out of Florida, but the largest casualties throughout the conflict had been suffered by Native Americans, through a combination of violence and disease. The use of Native Americans as proxies for European powers continued well into the eighteenth century, with the most famous example being the so-called French and Indian War. The name is something of a misnomer, as it was actually fought between the British and the French, with Native Americans serving as important French allies and proxies. The war lasted nearly a decade, and beyond British or French losses, it was ultimately a war the Indians lost, as they were treated with a kind of brutality and near-genocidal indifference by both the British and the French who nominally supported them.

Although Native Americans were valuable allies because of their knowledge of the terrain and skill in guerrilla warfare, they were largely expendable resources who never benefited from the imperial wars in which they were engaged. Even when they aided the Continental Army during the American Revolution — fighting against the British on the frontier — they suffered brutality and violence well beyond that experienced by either British or American colonists.

The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and African American Experience

At the same time that the Spanish and British were pitting the Apalachee, Timucua, Creek, and Yamasee against each other in a proxy war over the southern American colonies, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was in full operation. Having begun in the early sixteenth century, it only reached its full scale near the dawn of the seventeenth, as European colonies required an ever-larger workforce to maintain their vast agricultural plantations.

Of the over twelve million Africans — mostly from coastal Western and Central Africa — who were captured, enslaved, and shipped across the globe, roughly five percent found themselves in the British North American colonies, including what would become the southern United States. These enslaved people were crucial to the success of the early colonies, because their agricultural economies could only advance through the exploitation of extremely cheap labor, the kind that only the slave trade could supply.

Though it should need no elaboration why slavery represents one of the greatest hardships ever imposed on African Americans, it is nevertheless important to recognize the brutality, cruelty, and complete disregard with which these people were treated, if only to ensure that the horrors of the slave trade never recede from public consciousness. Enslaved people were packed by the hundreds into cargo holds with literally no room to move, and upon arrival they were sold to plantation owners with little or no consideration for family ties or tribal affiliations. Those who were fortunate enough to escape were usually either hunted down, tortured, and frequently murdered, or forced to make their way to areas where slavery was outlawed — and even then they constantly risked being captured and returned.

Conclusion: Shared Oppression and Unlikely Alliances

Though the history and experiences of African Americans and Native Americans are different in obvious ways — their geographical origins, and the degree of respect or humanity afforded to them by European colonists — they also shared important similarities that allowed for unique kinship and communities to form. While Native Americans were occasionally treated with just enough respect to be made to fight or trade in the service of European imperial success, African Americans were treated as entirely less than human, bought and sold to sustain the economic order. However, in certain cases the brutality and devastation wrought by European colonists produced unexpected alliances, as previously disparate groups found themselves reliant on each other for protection and stability.

The maroon communities in the South, and particularly in Florida, are one such example: runaway slaves and Seminole Native Americans found natural allies in each other because of their shared distrust and rejection of the European powers who had done nothing but exploit and brutalize them. Comparing and contrasting these distinct yet occasionally convergent experiences allows one to better understand and appreciate the complex interaction of ideology, society, and individual agency that shaped the early United States — an interaction whose legacy continues to influence the country to this day.