In the early 1700's the peoples of the Creek Confederacy had their villages and farms and ceremonial grounds in French Alabama and the British Province of Georgia and  they had a long standing tradition of travelling to Spanish Florida on annual hunting expeditions. Back then, these 3 colonies had different boundaries than the American states with the same names.

Many communities of the Creek Confederancy in the Province of Georgia were on relatively good terms with the British government in the early 1700's but some of the communities of the Creek Confederacy decided to leave their towns, villages and long-cultivated fields and relocate to the uncrowded wilderness of Spanish Florida where they cleared some of the untamed land to make new fields for their crops and where they built new towns and villages. The leader of these Florida communities was a man named Cowkeeper.

While slavery was legal in the British Province of Georgia, it was illegal in Spanish Florida. This made Spanish Florida a refuge for persons escaping slavery in the British colonies. In 1738 the Spanish Governor Manual de Montiano established the first legally recognized free community of ex-slaves as the northern defense of St. Augustine, known as Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose, or Fort Mose. Otherwise ex-slaves lived in Florida's Spanish communities or integrated into Florida's Indian comunities.

In 1740 the Spanish Florida town of St. Augustine was attacked multiple times by British forces based in the Georgia and Carolina colonies. Although none of the attacks were won by the British forces, the largest and most successful attack was organized by Governor and General James Oglethorpe of Georgia who got Cowkeeper to turn on the Spanish and support the British forces instead.

At the end of the French and Indian War, under the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Paris, Spain turned Florida over to Great Britain. When 13 of the British colonies were fighting the American War of Independence (1775-1783), Florida continued to side with Great Britain. When the British lost the war, Great Britain was forced to return Florida to Spain, under the terms of the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Cowkeeper dies and is suceeded by King Payne. The people in the villages under King Payne become known as the Seminole. Over time, the last remanants of the other Florida tribes eventually unite with the Seminole.

The new county of the United States did not feel any obligation to follow the treaties that Great Britain had made with the Native American nations withing their boundaries. When relations between some of the communities of the Creek Confederacy and the United States broke down, Florida was once again the first choice for relocation when escaping from the Unitied States.