For refusing to accept the terms of the Treaty of Payne’s Landing, Osceola was arrested and imprisoned by General Wiley Thompson. Held overnight in a detention cell at Ft. King, he managed to secure his release by agreeing to uphold the treaty and its stipulations. Satisfied by this sign of capitulation, Thompson released Osceola and allowed him safe passage back to Seminole territory. For Osceola, accepting the terms of the treaty was nothing more than a means of extricating himself from detention. Like many of his contemporaries, Osceola viewed the document as unacceptable and illegal. Moving from town to town, he urged his countrymen to resist the idea of relocation. His campaign spread throughout the Seminole Nation and his popularity blossomed.
Mission to the Seminole Nation
Directing his anger at the American presence and publicly condemning those Seminole leaders who had accepted the terms of the treaty, Osceola campaigned hard against relocation. Throughout the spring of 1835, Osceola’s popularity grew and he soon became the leader of a fringe faction within the Seminole Nation. His ever growing throng of followers went deep into the confines of the Florida wilderness, constructing hidden villages and making plans to strike out against any armed effort to remove them. At Ft. King, General Thompson threatened to instigate rebellion within the individual Seminole communities by supporting the removal of any chief who refused to accept relocation as a reality. A war of rhetoric ensued, with each side drawing the lines over the future of Florida.
Blood Calls Out For Blood
With tensions on both sides threatening to disrupt the internal affairs of the greater Seminole Nation, rhetoric soon gave way to violence. In August of 1835, the first blood was drawn when a standoff between a group of whites and a group of Seminoles ended in gunfire--one Seminole was killed. Next, Private Kinsley Dalton was attacked and killed outside the gates of Ft. King. Striking from their web of concealed villages, Osceola and his followers initiated a guerrilla war against the American presence in Florida. Farms were raided, settlers were chased away, and military supplies were captured. The territorial administration organized a militia of 500 volunteers under the command of General Richard Call and the U.S. War Department prepared to send reinforcements into Florida. In November of 1835, a pro-removal chief named Charley Emathla was killed. On December 28, Osceola and a small war party ambushed and killed Wiley Thompson on the outskirts of Ft. King. The Second Seminole War had begun.
Sources:
Mark M. Boatner III, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. (Mechanicsburg: Stackpole Books, 1994).
Mark C Carnes, Ed. U.S. History. (New York: MacMillan Library Reference, 1998).
Peter Matthiessen, ed. George Catlin: North American Indians. (New York: Penguin Group, 1989).
Marilyn Miller and Martin Faux, American History Desk Reference. (New York: MacMillan, 1997).
Carl Waldman, Atlas of the North American Indian. (New York: Checkmark Books, 2000).
Carl Waldman, Encyclopedia of Native Tribes. (New York: Checkmark Books, 2006).
Join the Conversation