Editing Seminole Wars (section)

===Background===
{{main|Seminole#Origins}}
[[Spanish Florida]] was established in the 1500s, when Spain laid claim to land explored by several expeditions across the future southeastern [[United States]]. The [[Columbian exchange|introduction of diseases]] to the [[indigenous peoples of Florida]] caused a steep decline in the original native population over the following century, and most of the remaining [[Apalachee]] and [[Tequesta]] peoples settled in [[Spanish missions in Florida|a series of missions]] spread out across north Florida. [[Spain]] never established real control over its vast claim outside of the immediate vicinity of its scattered missions and the towns of [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]] and [[Pensacola]], however, and [[British subject|British settlers]] established several colonies along the Atlantic coast during the 1600s. After the establishment of the [[Province of Carolina]] in the late 17th century, a series of raids by British settlers from the [[Carolinas]] and their Indian allies into Spanish Florida devastated both the mission system and the remaining native population.

British settlers repeatedly came into conflict with Native Americans as [[Thirteen Colonies|the colonies]] expanded further westward, resulting in a stream of refugees relocating to depopulated areas of Florida. A majority of these refugees were [[Muscogee|Muscogee (Creek) Indians]] from Georgia and Alabama, and during the 1700s, they came together with other native peoples to establish independent chiefdoms and villages across the [[Florida panhandle]] as they coalesced into a new culture which became known as the Seminoles.<ref name="brief">{{cite web |title=A Brief History of the Seminole People of Florida |url=https://museumoffloridahistory.com/explore/exhibits/previous-exhibits/seminole-people-of-florida/seminole-history/ |website=museumoffloridahistory.com |publisher=Florida Museum of Natural History |access-date=2023-01-03 |archive-date=2023-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103002726/https://museumoffloridahistory.com/explore/exhibits/previous-exhibits/seminole-people-of-florida/seminole-history/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Beginning in the 1730s, Spain established a policy of providing refuge to [[Fugitive slaves in the United States|runaway slaves]] in an attempt to weaken the [[British America|British]] [[Southern Colonies]]. Hundreds of Black people escaped slavery to Florida over the ensuing decades, with most settling near St. Augustine at [[Fort Mose]] and a few living amongst the Seminole, who treated them with varying levels of equality.<ref>Mahon p. 19</ref> Their numbers increased during and after the [[American War of Independence]], and it became common to find settlements of [[Black Seminole]]s either near Seminole towns or living independently, such as at [[Negro Fort]] on the [[Apalachicola River]].<ref>Mahon p. 19, 20</ref> The presence of a nearby refuge for free Africans was considered a threat to the institution of [[chattel slavery]] in the southern United States, and settlers in the border states of [[Mississippi]] and [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] in particular accused the Seminoles of inciting slaves to escape and then stealing their human property.<ref name="Mahon p. 20">Mahon p. 20</ref> In retaliation, plantation owners organized repeated raids into Spanish Florida in which they captured Africans they accused of being escaped slaves and harassed the Seminole villages near the border, resulting in bands of Seminoles crossing into U.S. territory to stage reprisal attacks.<ref>Mahon p.20</ref>