Indian Wars: Seminole Wars

The First Seminole War (1817–18)

Almost from its inception, the United States had coveted Spanish Florida. During the Revolution and again in the War of 1812, Florida had been a staging ground for British incursions into the southern states. In addition, runaway slaves from southern plantations sought refuge in Florida. Lawless elements from Georgia raided Seminole villages, often resulting in violent retribution by the Seminoles. Spain, too weak to defend its vast New World empire, could do little to control or protect those living along the border with the United States.

Following the War of 1812, tensions continued to mount along the border. On November 30, 1817, the Seminoles [Page 364]retaliated for an attack on one of their villages, killing 35 soldiers and at least 6 civilians who were attempting to ascend the Apalachicola River. Shocked by the killings, the government ordered Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson to invade Florida. Jackson, along with many officials in Washington, viewed the incursion as more than a retaliatory raid upon the Seminoles. They saw the war as an opportunity to eliminate what had become a refuge for runaway slaves, as a means to expel a lingering British influence, and as a possible way to wrest Florida from Spain. Backed by a large force of regulars, militia, volunteers, and Indian mercenaries, Jackson quickly drove the Seminoles from their homes in north Florida.

Jackson then convened a military tribunal that led to the execution of two British subjects who had been taken prisoner during the war. He then moved west, capturing Pensacola on May 27, 1818—in violation of an order not to attack any Spanish installations. These actions led to diplomatic confrontations with both England and Spain and to a congressional investigation of Jackson's actions. During the hot debate throughout the country about civilian control over the military and the character of American foreign policy, Jackson's strength as a political force soon became obvious.

Spain ceded Florida to the United States in 1819 in exchange for the American relinquishment of its tenuous claim to Texas and the assumption of $5 million of claims by American citizens against Spain. In September 1823, the Seminoles signed the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, forcing them onto a four-million acre reservation in central Florida. In 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which called for the removal of all Native American groups residing east of the Mississippi to new lands in the West. In 1832 the Seminoles were pressured into signing the Treaty of Payne's Landing, which spelled out the details of their removal. Denying the legality of the treaty, the Seminoles refused to gather for emigration. Jackson, then president of the United States, would consider no alternative to their removal.

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