Let the show begin...

One thing I love about participating in this internship is I not only get to help the staff and researchers of the Florida Historical Society, but I also learn new and fascinating aspects of history. This week I have been going through vertical files that have no finding guide, so I have no clue as to what I may encounter. I started this internship not knowing anything about Florida history (as a 20 year resident I am not proud of this). I came across a folder about slavery and learned that not only were African Americans victims of slavery but Native Americans were as well! I was honestly surprised to learn this fact. One newspaper article in particular caught my attention. It was from Jacksonville 1946 and mentions Indian warriors kept as military prisoners in St. Augustine at Fort Marion ( now named Castillo de San Marcos). The lieutenant in charge, Richard Henry Pratt, decided he wanted to show off his Indian prisoners and display their "wild and primitive" nature by making them participate in a bullfight. The more theatrical, the better. The star of the show was Tsen-T'ainte better known as White Horse. He closed the show by killing the bull and ripping out and eating its kidney. This story is so interesting to me because I always imagined slavery as being chained up and forced to cook or clean, but to put on a show of this nature is surprising. I chose to share this finding because it is a part of history that is not spoken of and many people might be as surprised as I was to learn this eccentric historical fact.
Below is a picture of the newspaper article I found