African slaves and indigenous peoples of the southern United States and northern Mexico were subjected to harsh and racist treatment by both European and American white colonizers. Due to the marginalization of enslaved Africans and Native Americans, the question of how they responded to this oppression has hardly been explored by historians. Scholars have written extensively about the separate lives of both of these groups of people, including their interactions with white Europeans, but less is known about how these two groups interacted with each other. Historians have noted that the first appearance of white Europeans preceded African slaves by only about a decade. The first African slaves to arrive in the Americas occurred around 1502, and, perhaps most significantly, the first record of slaves escaping to Indian villages occurred in 1503. Using primary documents such as government records, as well as visual evidence such as maps and surveys combined with the secondary evidence provided by the following articles, one can see how African slaves often escaped to Native American villages and lived alongside each other in response to their white oppressors. Furthermore, when these peoples united, the society became more beneficial not only to Africans and Amerindians, but in some cases also to Europeans. This article will focus on the social history of Africans and Indians in Florida and how these people lived in conjecture with each other, as well as how they worked for and resisted white oppressors. In addition to considering these groups and their internal forces, this article will also examine the external forces that shaped how these people lived, particularly the Seven Years' War and the three Seminole Wars. ...... middle of paper ...... refuge on a continent of oppression. The constant change of ownership in Florida allowed for the observation of different European powers and the emergence of the American government. To recall for a moment a commonplace cliché, it has often been said that those who write history shape it, but Florida's story is much better observed by those who could never tell it. The societies created in Florida were the shining beacon of what interactions between whites, blacks, and reds could be. Slavery, war, and economics shaped how the people of Florida lived, but the marginalized could still thrive. Slaves and Indians could become respectable individuals and even powerful leaders. The history of interactions in Florida provides an interesting approach to American history as it is one of the most diverse and still unknown chapters.