July 27, 1816: U.S. forces obliterate 300+ free blacks, Indians at 'Fort Negro'

On July 27, 1816, United States forces obliterated more than 300 runaway slaves, freed blacks, and Indians at 'Fort Negro'. An excerpt from the article:

"Fort Negro," also known as British Fort, was a garrison set up by the British in today's Franklin County 1814 to form a Southern front against the U.S. military that aimed to rid the Southern states and territories of Indians and expand slave territories for Southern plantation owners.

The British had aligned with Red Stick Creeks, Seminoles, freed blacks and runaway slaves against a coalition of U.S. forces and friendly Creeks, and allowed the fort to blossom into a settlement of more than 1,400 blacks and Indians. The British promised freedom in exchange for loyalty.

But when the British pulled out in 1815, most of the Indians departed as well, leaving behind some 300 black men, women and children in the fort, and as many as 1,000 working the surrounding plantations as freedmen.

Word about the community spread throughout the slave communities in the Southern states, and it became a destination for escaped slaves.

This was not acceptable to Southern landowners who sought to expand slavery into Spanish-held Florida, or to Gen. Andrew Jackson and the U.S. Army who were growing irritated with Florida serving as a haven for the Indians they sought to remove to the western territories.

So Jackson ordered the fort destroyed. After sending a small scouting force to provoke an attack, the Army positioned its Creek allies outside the fort and set up gunboats on the Apalachicola River. The defenders of the fort had considerable weapons but were not effective in firing their cannons."