{{Short description|Seminole interpreter (1790s–1870s)}} {{use mdy dates|date=February 2025|cs1-dates=ly}}{{use American English|date=February 2025}} [[File:Billy Bowlegs, Chocote Tustenuggee, Abram, John Jumper, Fasatchee Emanthla, and Sarparkee Yohola.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Refet to caption|Hand-colored etching based on a daguerreotype made in New York in 1852 of Seminole leaders Billy Bowlegs, Thlocklo Tustenuggee, Abram, John Jumper, Fasatchee Emanthla, and Sarparkee Yohola.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=SE-1716 (Photographic Copy) & SE-1350 |title=Enduring Beauty Seminole Art & Culture from the Collection of I.S.K. Reeves V & Sara W. Reeves |date=2018 |pages=15–16 |type=Exhibition |url=https://omart.org/images/uploads/pdfs/Enduring_Beauty_Edited_Catalogue_Complete_Final.pdf |publisher=Orlando Museum of Art |location=Orlando, Florida}}</ref>]] Abraham, Seminole war-name '''Souanaffe Tustenukke''',{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=320}} called '''Yobly''' by some whites,{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=61}} was a 19th-century Floridian who served as an interpreter and lieutenant for "Micanopy, the hereditary leader of the Alachua Seminoles."{{Sfnp|Watson|2010|p=166}} As of July 1837, he was termed "the principal negro chief" of the Seminoles and by all accounts exerted a great influence on Micanopy, approximately 500 Black Seminoles, and the white Americans with whom he treated and negotiated.{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=65}}
== Biography == Abraham was born enslaved in Georgia in the 1790s and died in the 1870s in what is now Seminole County, Oklahoma.<ref name="Satterwhite-2013">{{Cite news |last=Satterwhite |first=C. Scott |date=2023-12-18 |title=Abraham, Veteran of Negro Fort and Seminole Wars, Is Dead |url=https://www.pnj.com/story/news/history/black-history-month/2023/12/18/righting-the-past-abraham-veteran-of-negro-fort-seminole-wars-dies/71932360007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240209034343/https://www.pnj.com/story/news/history/black-history-month/2023/12/18/righting-the-past-abraham-veteran-of-negro-fort-seminole-wars-dies/71932360007 |archive-date=2024-02-09 |access-date=2024-12-10 |newspaper=Pensacola News Journal |location=Pensacola, Florida |language=en-US |issn=1946-6137 |lccn=sn87062269 |oclc=33669261 |series=Righting the Past Obituary 25}}</ref> He was described as having ties to Pensacola, having traveled to Washington, D.C., and the Indian Territory, and having had "fluent speech and polished manners."{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=243}} He is sometimes described as Micanopy's "chief negro" in parallel with John Caesar, who was deemed "chief negro" to Ee-mat-la.{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|p=243}} Abraham, sometimes called '''Negro Abram''', was a key participant in the 1837–38 negotiations regarding the end of hostilities in the Second Seminole War, a potential move to the Indian Territory, and the legal status of "Indian slaves" versus "runaway plantation slaves."{{Sfnp|Porter|1971|pp=50–59}} In 1813, a group of Blacks among the Seminoles established a settlement called Pilaklikaha (Many Ponds), that was renamed Abraham's Old Town after 1826 to honor Abraham, The Interpreter, who became a leader. The town was home to 100 people in who grew "fields of rice, beans, melons, pumpkins, and peanuts" and managed herds of cattle and horses; American troops burned Peliklakaha to the ground in 1836.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Curtis |first=Marcus |date=2023-09-14 |title=Pilaklikaha |url=https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/421b855f73be4cf2b3a6cd77131e8192 |access-date=2025-02-02 |website=ArcGIS StoryMaps |language=en}}</ref> Pilaklikaha was located about halfway between what is now Withlacoochee State Forest and Orlando.<ref name=":0" />
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== {{ref begin|indent=yes}} * {{cite book |last=Porter |year=1971 |first=Kenneth W. |author-link=Kenneth Wiggins Porter |title=The Negro on the American Frontier |series=The American Negro, His History and Literature |location=New York |publisher=Arno Press |lccn=77135872 |oclc=153515 |isbn=978-0-405-01983-8 }} * {{Cite web |last=Watson |first=Samuel |date=2010 |title=7. Seminole Strategy, 1812–1858: A Prospectus for Further Research |url=https://academic.oup.com/florida-scholarship-online/book/28981/chapter-abstract/241190293?redirectedFrom=fulltext |pages=155–180 |doi=10.5744/florida/9780813035253.003.0007}} in {{Cite book |title=America's Hundred Years' War: U.S. Expansion to the Gulf Coast and the Fate of the Seminole, 1763–1858 |publisher=University Press of Florida |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-8130-4514-6 |editor-last=Belko |editor-first=William S. |location=Gainesville, Florida |lccn=2010024271 |oclc=801840927 |id={{Project MUSE|19493|type=book}}}} {{ref end}}
== Further reading == * {{Cite journal |last=Porter |first=Kenneth |date=1946 |title=The Negro Abraham |url=https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol25/iss1/5/?utm_source=stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol25/iss1/5&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages |journal=Florida Historical Quarterly |volume=25 |issue=1 |issn=00154113 |via=University of Central Florida Libraries}}
Category:1790s births Category:1870s deaths Category:Black Seminole people Category:People of the Seminole Wars Category:Fugitive American slaves Category:Rebel slaves Category:African-American military personnel Category:People enslaved in Florida