NACIMIENTO, COAHUILA – Although they’d never been enslaved, after the Seminole Indian Wars in the mid-1800s, Black Seminoles were pursued by slave catchers when they were forced to leave Florida and join the infamous Trail of Tears.
But even after finally reaching Indian Territory in Oklahoma, their descendants said the slave catchers didn’t give up.
“Because they were African as well as Native American,” said Corina Toralba Harrington, a Black Seminole descendant. “They were free, but they had to fight to keep that freedom.”
The promise of land they’d been made never materialized, said Jerry Fay, president of the Seminole Scout Cemetery Association. Their cemetery is in Brackettville, west of San Antonio.
Not only were some being sold off, Fay said Black Seminoles were with other Indians who didn’t want them on their land.
“So a group of us started to come to Mexico,” Fay said.
Since Mexico had outlawed slavery, Fay said 700 Black Seminoles embarked on a harrowing second Trail of Tears.
“The Indians and the Texas Rangers would harass them,” Fay said. “They’d have to travel at night. That was the safest.”
Eventually, their journey ended about two hours southwest of Piedras Negras, across from Eagle Pass.
Once they arrived, Fay said another group went to Mexico City to ask the government to allow them to stay.
Fay said the Mexican government agreed that the Black Seminoles could stay, but only if they protected settlers against Indian raids.
“We knew the Indian ways. We knew how to fight. We knew how to track,” Fay said.
However, as payment, Fay said, “Our ancestors asked for land, so that’s how we got Nacimiento.”
Originally known as El Nacimiento de los Negros, the name recognized this would be the birthplace of Blacks in their new country.
After the Civil War, when word finally reached Nacimiento that the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed, there was reason to celebrate.
“We are cheering that our brothers and sisters in Texas are finally free,” said Dr. Maria Hammack, assistant professor of African American History at Ohio State University.
For them, Juneteenth began as a day of solidarity, especially since Hammack said many of the Black Seminoles in Mexico still had family in the U.S.
“Everybody was free,” Hammack said. “Both sides of the family could celebrate freedom.”
Harrington, one of the descendants, said Juneteenth is often called “El Diez y Nueve,” or the 19th, in Mexico.
“The name itself does not have any reference to freedom. It’s el dia de los negros, the day of the Black people,” said Dr. Hammack. “It’s a celebration of identity, of family, of culture.”
Harrington said it remains that to this day with a cabalgata, or trail ride, on their prized horses, as well as music and traditional foods at an outdoor gathering.
She said the Casa de la Cultura de Nacimiento is open to promoting and preserving its history for future generations.
Harrington said it’s important they remember that “they came from strong, brave people.”