Traditionally, the Afro-Seminole people, also referred to as Black Seminoles, speak a creole language, which is a dialect of Gullah spoken by Black Seminoles in scattered communities in Oklahoma, Texas, and Northern Mexico. This distinct creole language developed when Black Seminoles and Seminoles lived together in Florida in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Historically, they are the descendants of free blacks and escaped slaves – maroons – who allied with Seminole groups in Spanish Florida. Traditionally, they lived in distinct bands; some were slaves of particular Seminole leaders, but they experienced more freedom than in white society, including the right to bear arms. As such, their culture replicated a mixture of African, Native American, Spanish, and slave traditions.

Presently, the Afro-Seminole people have assimilated into the broader Seminole Native American culture, taking on their forms and language. Others, years earlier, began migrating to other countries, such as the Bahamas.

View Enlarged Map of this People Group