Last time, we covered the First Seminole War; this time, we get to the nastier sequel.
The Second Seminole war was the US government’s longest and most expensive Indian War. It also had many parallels to later campaigns in harsh environments against determined guerrilla fighters, and many lessons which, unfortunately, were not learned, as the nation did its best to consign the conflict to the ‘memory hole’ soon after its end. Long before the Philippines War, and even longer before Vietnam, there was this brutal war…
Join Prof CJ as he discusses:
- The 1823 Treaty of Moultrie Creek, which tried to confine the Seminoles to a reservation in central Florida, requiring most of them to relocate, cutting off their access to the coasts, denying their freedom of movement, and requiring them to assist in the capture and return of escaped slaves
- The election of Andrew Jackson as president in 1828, which would have disastrous consequences for Southeastern Indians, including the Seminole
- The Indian Removal Act and subsequent attempts to bribe or dupe the Seminoles into relocating out West
- The rise of Osceola
- The beginning of violence in 1835 with the so-called ‘Dade Massacre’ and assassination of the US Indian Agent Wiley Thompson
- How US General Thomas Jesup captured Osceola by betraying a flag of truce, something even most white Americans found dishonorable
- Osceola’s captivity and death from illness within a few months
- The brutal Battle of Lake Okeechobee on Christmas Day, 1837
- Continued Seminole guerrilla operations and American countermeasures, which sought to grind them down
- The cessation of fighting in 1842, by which time the Seminole population of Florida had been reduced by approximately 94% in 20 years due to death and deportation
- A brief mention of the much smaller Third Seminole War (1855-58)
- Some concluding thoughts about this war from historians who have written about it extensively, and from Prof CJ
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