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State of Muskogee | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1799–1803 | |||||||||||
.svg) Flag of the State of Muskogee | |||||||||||
| Motto: Libertad o Muerte (Spanish) (English: "Liberty or Death") | |||||||||||
| Status | Free State | ||||||||||
| Capital | Mikasuke (nearTallahassee) | ||||||||||
| Largest city | N/A | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Spanish,English,Muskogean languages | ||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic,Native American religions | ||||||||||
| Government | Republic | ||||||||||
| Director General | |||||||||||
• 1799–1803 | William Augustus Bowles | ||||||||||
| Legislature | Chamber of Deputies | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Independence declared | 1799 | ||||||||||
• Capture of William Bowles | May 24 1803 | ||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||
• 1799 | 50,000−60,000 | ||||||||||
| Currency | USD | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
TheState of Muskogee was a proclaimedsovereign nation located inFlorida, founded in 1799 and led byWilliam Augustus Bowles, aLoyalist veteran of theAmerican Revolutionary War who lived among the Muscogee, and envisioned uniting the Native Americans of theSoutheast into a single nation that could resist the expansion of the United States. Bowles enjoyed the support of theMiccosukee (Seminole) and several bands ofMuscogee. He envisioned his state as eventually growing to encompass theCherokee, Upper and Lower Creeks,Choctaw, andChickasaw, in parts of present-day Georgia and Alabama.
Born into aMarylandLoyalist family, during the American Revolutionary War, William Bowles was commissioned at age 14 with the rank of Ensign in theMaryland Loyalist Battalion, commanded by James Chalmers. Bowles was sent with the First Battalion of Maryland Loyalists, as part of a provincial garrison stationed atPensacola, where he resigned his commission.[1] He fled north, living among the Muscogee of theTallapoosa andAppalachicola, becoming fluent in the language, takingCherokee andHitchiti Muscogee wives and becoming heir to a Muscogee chiefdom. He led a band of Lower Creek warriors at theBattle at the Village and theBattle of Pensacola in 1781, a period when he developed a lifelong enmity with the Upper Creek chiefAlexander McGillivray. After the war, he relocated to theBahamas, where he was courted by GovernorLord Dunmore, who sought to break the monopoly ofPanton, Leslie & Co. over the Native fur-trade, and allowed him to return to the Muscogee as an agent of a rival company. During this period, he developed his idea of a Native American state. He failed to capture Panton'sSt. Johns store, and became a fugitive from Spanish authorities, spending the next few years betweenNova Scotia,the Bahamas, England, and the villages along the lowerChattahoochee River basin, where he gained support for a free state of Muskogee, assuring the Lower Creeks and Seminoles of British support.
On 16 January 1792, Bowles led a large band of Muscogee warriors who captured and looted thePanton, Leslie, and Co. store in the presidio ofSan Marcos de Apalache. He tried to negotiate with the Spanish for the establishment of a Muskogee state, but the Spaniards captured him instead. The Spanish wanted to remove him as far away from Florida as they could, and imprisoned him inCuba,Madrid, andManila. While being returned to Spain, Bowles escaped and seized command of a ship to Africa, and eventually made his way back to Florida after stopovers in England andNassau to regather his British supporters.
Arriving on theApalachicola Bay in 1799, Bowles made himself "Director General and Commander-In-Chief of the Muskogee Nation", and, on October 31, he issued a proclamation declaring the 1796 treaty between Spain and the United States void because it ignored the Natives' sovereignty over Florida. (Pinckney's Treaty ceded all ofWest Florida above the 31st parallel to the United States.) He denounced the treaties Alexander McGillivray had negotiated with Spain and the U.S., threatened to declare war against the U.S. unless it returned Muscogee lands that he claimed it had taken illegally, and issued a death sentence againstGeorge Washington'sIndian agentBenjamin Hawkins. He defied American planters by welcoming runaway slaves and enjoyed great support among theBlack Seminoles. Bowles had the support of theSeminoles and lower Chattahoochee Creeks because of his generous supply of gunpowder, and of his promises to get more when he captured the Panton-Leslie store at the presidio ofSan Marcos de Apalache.[citation needed]
Spanish attacks forced him to relocate the capital to the Native town ofMiccosukee orMikasuki onLake Miccosukee, northeast of present-dayTallahassee, ruled byMico Kinache, his father-in-law and most powerful ally. Several English adventurers from the Bahamas served as the government administrators. Bowles built a three-ship navy and attacked Spanish ships off the coast of Florida. In August 1800, a Spanish armed force set out to destroyMiccosuke, but was lost in the swamps. On 5 January 1802, Bowles led a large force of Seminoles (Miccosukees), Black Seminoles, fugitive slaves, white pirates, and Spanish deserters from Pensacola, and laid siege to San Marcos, but was forced to retreat after the arrival of several Spanish ships. TheTreaty of Amiens in March 1802 briefly ended hostilities between Britain and France and Spain, and news of this ceasefire left Bowles discredited, the Seminoles (including Kinache) signing a treaty with Spain in August.
By 1803, the U.S. and Spain were conspiring against Bowles, who no longer enjoyed British support.Benjamin Hawkins laid a trap for him at a tribal council at the town ofTuckabatchee, where Bowles was captured and delivered to the Spanish governor in Pensacola. He was imprisoned inMorro Castle in Havana, where he died in 1805. The State of Muskogee demonstrated Spain's inability to control the interior of Florida.
In 1818, the Native American town ofMiccosukee,Leon County, Florida, was destroyed by GeneralAndrew Jackson's army during theFirst Seminole War.
Short mention from official State of Florida web site
30°35′42″N84°02′29″W / 30.5949°N 84.0415°W /30.5949; -84.0415
