American Indians owned thousands of black slaves

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Summary: In 1860 Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, five tribes held more than 8,000 black slaves. A small elite owned most. Treaties in 1866 ended the practice after the Civil War.

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Not only did some American Indians own black slaves, they continued to hold them after the 13th Amendment became law. The amendment, ratified Dec. 6, 1865, did not apply inside the sovereign nations of Indian Territory. Slavery there ended only with the Reconstruction Treaties of 1866.

Curious about the number of blacks owned by Indians, I turned to the internet to gather information, and here is what I discovered:

When the 1860 census reached Indian Territory

The 1860 federal count was not supposed to inventory slavery west of Arkansas. Enumerators on that frontier listed the holdings anyway. Those schedules remain the best single snapshot of black bondage among five sovereign Indian nations on land that is now Oklahoma.

Who lived there, and who they brought west

The Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations—later called the Five Civilized Tribes—had left the Southeast in the 1830s and migrated to Oklahoma. Indians, of course, brought their belongs with them, including enslaved black Americans. By 1860 more than 8,000 black men and women were held in Indian Territory, about 14 percent of the counted population. For comparison, enslaved people were about 39 percent of the total population of the 11 states that would form the Confederacy.

The 1860 numbers

Holdings were uneven. Cherokee citizens listed 2,511 enslaved people. Choctaw holdings stood at 2,349. Creek owners listed 1,532. Chickasaw owners listed 975, the highest share relative to tribal size. Seminole bondage looked different: fewer formal plantations, more intermarriage, and looser daily control.

Only about 2 percent of tribal citizens owned anyone. A thin layer of mixed-ancestry planters held most of the labor. One Choctaw holder was recorded with more than 200 people. Most owners held fewer than five.

What kind of slavery this was

This was not an older Indian practice of taking captives to replace the dead. It was inherited plantation slavery: cotton, livestock, household work, and written codes that barred literacy and limited movement. Choctaw and Chickasaw farms tracked Southern cotton country most closely.

Creek and Seminole bondage mixed slavery with intermarriage and household ties that the other nations more often outlawed. Removal had already yoked Indian and black families together on the same roads west. Disease and hunger hit both groups. The legal line between them remained.

Why the 13th Amendment did not settle it

Indian Territory sat outside ordinary U.S. statute. The Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, ratified Dec. 6, 1865, did not automatically free people held by tribal citizens. Cherokee lawmakers voted to end slavery in June 1863; few owners complied. Fighting in the territory split the nations. Still, leaders signed with the Confederacy.

Indians were Confederate allies

Few people know that some Confederate units were composed entirely of American Indians.

All five Civilized Tribes officially signed with the Confederacy in 1861. But, none stayed uniformly Confederate. The nations split internally, and some Indians fought for the Union.

Choctaw and Chickasaw moved first and stayed the most consistent Confederate allies. They signed a joint treaty July 12, 1861, and raised mounted units early.

Isaac Stand Watie, the chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1862 to 1866, was Confederate from the start. 1862 he headed the Southern Cherokee government and rose to brigadier general, the only American Indian to hold that rank in the Confederate army. He was the last field general to surrender and the first Indian to become a general.

The 1866 treaties

After Appomattox, Washington required new peace terms. The Reconstruction Treaties of 1866, signed in Washington through that spring and summer, abolished slavery in each nation and set terms for Freedmen. Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole agreements granted broader citizenship rights.

The joint Choctaw-Chickasaw treaty left adoption optional and tied it to land money held in trust. That is, after the war, the United States made the Choctaw and Chickasaw cede their western “Leased District.” In return, Washington held $300,000 in trust. The tribes would get that money only if they passed laws adopting the Freedmen—black people who had lived among them and been held as slaves—and giving those people the same rights as other citizens, including the vote.

Those documents also carved land for railroads and other tribes. Emancipation in Indian Territory therefore arrived in 1866, months after it did in the states, and on a separate legal track.

What the record shows

Wealthy tribal families used black labor to rebuild after removal. Most citizens did not. The 1860 schedules, kept by accident, make that split obvious.

Sometimes I get things wrong. If you notice a significant error, please bring it to my attention in the comment section. While efforts have been made to verify the information presented in this article, some facts, dates, quotations, or interpretations may be inaccurate or incomplete.

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Sources/related links:

https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=SL003
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/12/27/how-native-americans-adopted-slavery-from-white-settlers
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=RE001

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