Page 25 - Our Place in History
P. 25
Our Place in History
Second Seminole War
1835-1842
Andrew Jackson's campaign in the First Seminole War
(1817-1818) did not succeed in subduing the Floridian
natives. The United States government would decide later
that removal of all Indians in Florida to the Indian
Territory in the West (present-day Oklahoma) was the
best solution for persistent conflict between the Seminole
and encroaching white settlers. By the terms of the Treaty
of Payne's Landing (1832), the Seminole were supposed
to migrate west of the Mississippi River within 36 months.
By 1834, 3,824 Indians had made the move. The
largest faction of Seminole, led by their chief Osceola
(1804–1838), refused to go. Osceola vowed to fight "till
the last drop of Seminole blood has moistened the dust of
his hunting ground." In response to his resistance,
Osceola was briefly imprisoned. A few months following
his release, he commenced attacks on the Americans.
On December 28, 1835 Osceola murdered Indian
agent Wiley Thompson. On the same December day in
1835, Major Francis Dade and his U.S. soldiers were
ambushed by 300 Seminole warriors near Fort King in
Ocala. These incidents began the Second Seminole War.
The natives retreated into the Everglades, began guerilla
tactics against U.S. forces and fought desperately for
more than seven years.
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