Abraham was born
enslaved in Georgia in the 1790s and died in the 1870s in what is now
Seminole County, Oklahoma. 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." He is sometimes described as Micanopy's "chief negro" in parallel with
John Caesar, who was deemed "chief negro" to
Ee-mat-la. 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." 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. Pilaklikaha was located about halfway between what is now
Withlacoochee State Forest and
Orlando. ==References==