Page 24 - Our Place in History

Ormond Beach, Florida

First Seminole War

1817-1818

In the early 18th century, bands of Muskogean
speaking Lower Creek Indians migrated to Florida
from Georgia. They became known as the Seminole
(literally "separatists"). Floridian territory was
nominally under Spanish sway; the Spanish
permitted the Seminole to settle there in order to
create a buffer zone between their sphere of
influence and that of the British.

The natives occupied rich lands in northern
Florida that were hungrily eyed by American settlers
in adjacent Georgia, although Florida still belonged to
Spain at the beginning of the 19th century. Another
cause of potential conflict was the Seminole tendency
to provide refuge to runaway slaves.

While the United States was fighting the War of
1812 with Britain, a series of violent incidents
aggravated hostility between the U.S. and the
Seminole.

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