Ep. 0023: How the United States Acquired Florida (the First Seminole War)
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This is the little-known story of how Florida became a part of Team America. (Spoiler: It wasn’t totally voluntary…)
Join Prof CJ as he discusses:
- The background to the war: what was going on in Florida leading up to the war, & who the Seminoles were, including the so-called ‘Black Seminoles’
- Why the United States coveted Florida almost from day one of getting its independence
- The destruction of the so-called “Negro Fort” by American forces in 1816
- The immediate issues that led to fighting beginning in late 1817, culminating in Andrew Jackson’s invasion of West Florida in 1818
- How Jackson exceeded his orders (which just allowed him to retaliate against hostile Indians), and went so far as to seize Spanish installations and execute two Brits who were found in the area
- Secretary of State John Quincy Adams’ successful negotiation of a treaty in 1819 formally transferring Florida (East and West) to the US without provoking war or major retaliations from either Spain or Britain
- How, even after the American takeover of Florida, Americans continued to see the Seminoles as a major problem, one that would be ‘dealt with’ beginning in the 1830s with the Second Seminole, which was much larger and costlier than the First, and which we’ll cover next episode
- The troubling precedent set for the American Republic by Jackson’s actions in this undeclared war
Ep. 0024: The Second Seminole War
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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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