Primary Source

My next identity paper will take place in 1860s through 1880s. So I found a primary source of Florida during the period just before the war broke out. This one will entail a lot of detail about the civil war and its effects on Florida families and especially the effects against women and the children if I can find enough articles. This article written by R. K. Call who wrote what was happening and the people around in great detail. The article speaks of a unanimous decision towards the union during an election in Gadsen County. The article describes the people present and what they were voting for and the land. It also discusses the anniversary of a victory in Mississippi by Jackson in the second part.

http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/212527

Primary Source

I plan on using many primary sources many of them text documents but maybe a few that are more abstract. For example when talking about the civil war period I might refer to a proof of succession document. Florida drafted this up shortly after Lincoln was elected. Florida did indeed secede from the United States. This document was instrumental in Florida history and general Civil War history. This document and others will help make my second narrative tie into historical facts of the time period. I also plan on using other tools such as historical journals and newspapers if available.

I can't figure out how to upload it besides posting a link:http://www.floridamemory.com/onlineclassroom/floridacivilwar/documents/

Primary Source Doc.

A PRAYER FOR OUR ENEMIES.

O GOD, we beseech Thee, forgive and pardon our enemies, and give us that measure of Thy grace, that for their hatred we may love them; for their cursing we may bless them; for their injury we may do them good; and for their persecution we may pray for them. They have laid a net for our steps, and they have digged a pit before us; Lord, we desire not that they themselves should fall into the midst of these, but we beseech Thee keep us out of them, and deliver, establish, bless and prosper us for Thy mercy's sake in Jesus Christ our Saviour, to whom with Thee and the Holy Spirit, we desire to consecrate ourselves and our country, now and forever, imploring Thee to be our GOD, and to make us Thy people. Amen.

This is from a book called Prayers Suitable for the Times in Which We Live. My identity is a French and Catholic woman, who in this period will probably devote herself to the service of wounded soldiers in the Civil war as its effects are felt in the Florida territory. Her religious nature will be a driving force behind her work and she will pray often with the soldiers.

Racial Tensions and the Seminole-U.S. Conflict

Racial tension is at the heart of the Seminole- U.S. conflict. The Seminoles were coerced into changing the fundamentals of their lifestyle to match mainstream European ideals of culture and economy. The first to readily accept this “modernization” were the mixed blooded peoples; Mestizos quickly became the wealthiest of the Native American population in Florida. The U.S. government supported these people and their adaptation to white society and often used them as mediators for the Natives, so that when the Seminoles decided to resist white influence, they turned on the mixed-bloods who represented the changes to their society. Mestizo plantations were razed, their livestock slaughtered, and their families tormented. They represented for the Seminoles the antithesis of the classic ideologies they wished to revert back to.

Racial tension and its contributions to Seminole-U.S. conflict

There are many racial tensions that contributed to the conflicts between Seminoles and U.S. Seminoles were a band of Native Americans that had some African slave influence there fore slavery and the understanding that slaves can’t own land or property caused this inferior view that the Americans had against African slaves that leads to a racial tension that we still see for a long time and still see sometimes today. The Native Americans and Americans were a similar situation in that Native Americans were seen as savages. Americans and Indians had complications over values, beliefs, and of course land these all are leading factors of tension between races. They try to introduce the natives to this better way of life, the European way, and in return want their removal from the land they could populate. They look down on their beliefs by offering up their own they teach them about property and ownership and this causes natives who still know the old ways to want to revolt against this change and loss of their freedom and civilization that they knew. All these factors are related to races because all three races have their own values and culture that they follow that don’t coincide in a way that benefits both sides.

Seminole US Conflict Race relations

Racial tension contributed to Seminole-US conflict relations in a significant way. All three cultures, the white Americans, black Americans, and Native Americans have different cultural norms. One of the problems in the relations between white Americans and Native Americans is property. White Americans would try to take Native American property. Whites would also try to coerce Native Americans to concede their land. The Native Americans also had a tense relation with the black Americans. For example Native Americans would own slaves. All in and all Native Americans pretty much got the short end of the stick. They were the ones who lost lands to the white Americans were close to wiped out by presidents like Andrew Jackson.

Is there a shared culture between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in Florida?

Is there a shared culture between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in Florida? I believe if they shared any culture at all, it was strictly through the reason they lived there; and that was either through farming, ranching, or trade. The standard of living varied extremely separating the rich from the poor on a very wide scale. There is a culture of "Floridian Living" but a culture that resembles the three together; I believe there isn't. Some parallels can be made, but in respect to how Europeans lived and how Native Americans lived is in most ways completely opposite. As time progressed and proximity of living spaces lessened, sharing of technologies did occur, but Native American assimilation was seen as inevitable. As for africans, free or not, life was tough. If free, the promise of owning land and having a family presented a stress free life. If not free, the constant threat of losing a family member to slave trade and back breaking work posed health issues. If I were placed in this time period, I have absolutely no idea how I could handle the fact that someone owns another person. This idea of stripping the identity and personal freedom of another just doesnt sit well with me.

Is there a shared culture between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in Florida?

Although Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans all had their own separate and equally distinct cultures in Florida during the frontier period, they also had minutely shared cultural aspects which most often arose due to the blending of the races. Africans and Natives shared the most culture throughout the period. Although some Natives owned slaves, they generally accepted blacks into their society, even allowing them to achieve and maintain upper positions in the community. Blacks and Natives intermarried and blacks adapted to Native culture, including their languages and other societal practices. Natives and Europeans also sexually integrated at times creating a race of Mestizos that embodied both Euro and Native cultures. This group of mixed-race individuals often sought European goals and goods such as the accumulation of material wealth and land but maintained much of the cultural heritage of their Indian ancestors.

Is There a Shared Culture Between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans in Florida?

I don’t see a shared culture between the three. There are similarities between them such as a belief in a higher being: for the Indians the taker and giver of breath, for Europeans there is one God, and some African tribes belief in entities in all living creatures. There is also the idea of oppression, like what drove original settlers to America and then in turn oppression of Africans as slaves and fighting over land with Native Americans. You can take all these into account but culture to me is a basis of societal practices, beliefs, and customs in relations to life which all these three have differences such as the way of life of Native Americans is this shared land and communal life where as we discussed the clans decide the fate of the member who has done wrong which is unlike in European society where everything is based off of what you own and the ability to own property and connections to other people. Africans seem to just keep to their tight nit family units. With all these similarities and differences I can see a likeness to each other in aspects but not a full culture. The fact that later the ideas of the Europeans begin to spread through the Native Americans and Africans shows a more blended and similar culture where practices of owning land, cattle, and beliefs transition does make a new blended culture but to begin with they are very different.