The First
Seminole War
1817
In 1781, the American colonies won their independence from
Britain. As settlers began to come to the Southeast, they pushed the native
tribes out of their homelands into northern Florida. The settlers brought
slaves that often escaped into Spanish controlled Florida and lived with the
Native Americans where they felt protected. The steadily pushing settlers
often engaged in skirmishes with the tribes. This continued until the start
of the First Seminole War.
In 1817, the United States government declared war on the tribes in Florida
and the First Seminole War began. The government claimed that they were fighting
to capture runaway slaves, but the true goal was to push the Spanish out of
Florida & open the territory for American settlers. At Old Town (present
day Tallahassee) the U.S. Army and Colonel Andrew Jackson first met tribal
armies led by Billy Bowlegs. The tribes were out manned and out gunned and
the tribes were quickly defeated. Those not killed or taken prisoner escaped
into the swamp.
The First Seminole War convinced the Spanish that they had no chance of holding
Florida, so in 1821 Spain sold the land to the United States. The Spanish
had tried to convert the tribes to Catholicism, and in many parts the Spanish
and natives had intermarried. The U.S. simply wanted the tribes out of their
new land.
In 1823, 70 tribal chiefs met with Governor William P. DuVal in St.Augustine.
The chiefs agreed to move to a reservation in central Florida. In return the
government recognized the Seminole as a separate Indian nation. The treaty
also promised that the U.S. government would give the Seminole farming equipment,
cattle, protection from settlers, and a yearly payment of money.
The land that they moved to was poorly suited for farming and did not have
the wild game and plants that they needed for food. The Seminole were soon
going hungry and were being attacked by settlers looking for escaped slaves.
When Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the removal of the Seminole
off their lands was inevitable. The Seminole declared that they would not
move West and in 1835, defiant warriors made two attacks on U.S. troops starting
the Second Seminole War.