Did you know that the last person to surrender on the side of the Confederacy was a Cherokee slave-owner named Stand Watie? He owned a large plantation in Spavinaw Creek in the Indian Territory. #NativeHistory #CivilWar
As staunch slave owners, factions from each of the Five Slaveholding Tribes fought alongside the Confederate army. Their reasons for fighting for the Confederacy were complex, but they were motivated in part to fight for the Confederacy in order to continue owning Black slaves.
On the other hand, Black enslaved people fought for freedom from bondage by fighting with the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Regiment on the Union side of the war.
Chickasaw and Choctaw Natives continued to own slaves after the ratification of the 13th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation. In fact, slaves continued to be owned in Indian Country until 1866, when the Five Slaveholding Tribes were pushed to adopt the Treaties of 1866
These treaties promised an end to enslavement in Indian Territory a year after slaves in the United States were declared free and promised Freedmen equal rights within their tribes of origin.
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