Anyone who has taken American history in school or watched a western movie probably knows that the United States spent a lot of time, money, and manpower on “subduing the savages” during Westward Expansion. But long before some of the most infamous western battles like Custer’s Last Stand, the longest, costliest, and most deadly of Indian wars occurred in Florida.
Let me set the stage. It was the early 1800’s, and Spain still owned Florida, although their grip was weakening. Americans had settled on both sides of the Florida/Georgia border. Seminoles Indians inhabited the territory only a little further south. Some lawless Americans took forays into Seminole areas to steal cattle and horses from the Indians. In retaliation, the Seminoles crossed the border into Georgia to commit raids on settlers there. In addition, a good number of slaves, escaped from southern plantations, lived among the Seminoles, and slave catchers often ventured into Florida's wilds to pursue them. Pirates and British opportunists would also traverse the Florida peninsula, causing whatever trouble they could between Americans and Seminoles.
This was the exact recipe that created the tensions leading to the Seminole Wars, also known as the Florida Wars. The Seminole Wars consisted of three periods of fighting, the second one being the longest, costliest, and most deadly Indian war I alluded to above. But let’s look at them in order.
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| Andrew Jackson State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory http://floridamemory.com/items/show/128711 |
The First Seminole War erupted when American General Edmund Gaines took the Miccosukee chief Neamathla captive in 1817 in order to stop the Indians from offering safe haven to escaped slaves. To avenge his capture, the Miccosukee, Seminole, and Creek tribes banded together to attack a military transport traveling along the Apalachicola River. Thirty-five soldiers and six women died in the attack. President James Monroe tapped war hero Gen. Andrew Jackson to go in and subdue the Indian forces, and in eleven weeks in the Spring of 1818, Jackson and his 3500 men did just that. They destroyed many Indian settlements west of the Suwanee River and captured the only two Spanish settlements in West Florida—St. Marks and Pensacola. After all of this, the fighting began to calm. Spain saw the truth that they were no longer able to hold onto Florida and ceded the land to the United States through a treaty in 1821. The Indians were shuffled off to a reservation in Central Florida where conditions were less than ideal.
Andrew Jackson became President in 1829, and the next year, he signed the Indian Removal Act, which said that all Indians living east of the Mississippi must move to the new Indian Territory (current day Oklahoma). The Seminoles were later forced to sign the Treaty of Payne’s Landing in 1832, giving up their claim to their Florida homes, and taking up residence in Indian Territory. They were given three years to comply. When the American military returned to enforce the treaty in 1835, the Seminoles were ready to defend their homes.
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| Sorrow of the Seminoles--Banished from Florida State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory |
In December of 1835, Seminole and black warriors burned sugar plantations along the St. Johns River. On December 28th, Seminole leader Osceola killed a government Indian agent and his associate outside of Ft. King (Ocala) at the same time a band of warriors massacred a column of 108 soldiers traveling between Ft. Brooke (Tampa) and Ft. King. The Second Seminole War had begun.
This war lasted from 1835 until 1842, and it pitted some 3000 Seminole and black warriors against four U.S. Generals and 30,000 troops. The Seminoles were masters of guerilla fighting and used the thick scrub and Florida swamps to their advantage. In addition, the heat, insects, and disease prevalent during Florida summers prolonged the fighting for years because the U.S. troops would pull out of the fight until weather conditions became more tolerable in the fall. But this pull-out each year gave the Seminoles time to recuperate and regroup, so when the forces returned, they were ready for more fighting. The war finally ground to an end when American forces began to employ captured black and Seminole warriors as guides to hidden Seminole encampments where they killed or captured many of the Indian forces. No treaty was ever signed, but peace was called in August 1842 when over 4000 Seminoles were forcibly removed to the Indian Territory. More than 1500 soldiers lost their lives, most to disease. Some 30,000 citizen soldiers also perished in the fighting. The final price tag for the war was $30 million. (To put that in perspective, the proposed budget for the federal government in 1836 was $25 million).
This hugely costly war wasn’t the last of the Seminole uprisings. Chief Billy Bowlegs led one more war starting in 1855. It was a two-and-a-half year conflict that pitted the remaining 350 Seminoles against the American settlers and military. But in the end, Billy Bowlegs realized he couldn’t stop the tide of settlers and accepted $8000 to move to Indian Territory with 165 of his people. At the last war’s end, less than 200 Seminoles remained in Florida.
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| Seminole Chickee State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory http://floridamemory.com/items/show/159015 |
Let’s hear from you. Have you ever visited an Indian reservation? Which reservation? What was your experience like?
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Jennifer
Uhlarik
discovered the western genre as a pre-teen, when she swiped the only “horse”
book she found on her older brother’s bookshelf. A new love was born. Across the
next ten years, she devoured Louis L’Amour westerns and fell in love with the
genre. In college at the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of
the Old West. Armed with a B.A. in writing, she has won the 2012 CWOW Phoenix
Rattler, 2012 ACFW First Impressions, and 2013 FCWC contests, all in the
historical category. She is also the winner of the 2013 Central Florida ACFW
chapter's "Prompt Response" contest. In addition to writing, she has been a
schoolteacher of English, literature, and history, as well as a marketing
director. Jennifer is active in American Christian Fiction Writers and lifetime
member of the Florida Writers Association. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with
her husband, teenaged son, and four fur children.