an agricultural and military alliance that challenged slave-hunters and then U.S. troops. Some
African families lived in separate villages, others married Seminóles, and the two peoples with a
common foe shaped joint diplomatic and military initiatives. Africans, with the most to lose, rose
to Seminole leadership as warriors, interpreters, and military advisors.”
“The two races, the negro and the Indian, are rapidly approximating; they are identical in interests and
feelings,” said U.S. Major General Sidney Thomas Jesup at the time. “Should the Indians remain in
this territory the negroes among them will form a rallying point for runaway negroes from the adjacent
states; and if they remove, the fastness of the country will be immediately occupied by negroes.”
What Katz calls “the first foreign invasion launched by the new U.S. government” was the 1816
assault on the Seminole Nation… an assault met with fierce resistance. After Spain sold Florida
to the U.S. in 1819, America's full military might was put to work reclaiming the land from both
former slaves and their indigenous co-inhabitants. In a scenario that would presage future U.S.
interventions in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Iraq, roughly 4,000 black and Indian fighters
effectively utilized hit-and-run guerrilla tactics against more than 200,000 U.S. Army troops.
“Because they fought on their own soil, Seminole forces ran circles around the numerically and
technologically superior U.S. armies,” Katz says. “U.S. officers violated agreements, destroyed
crops, cattle and horses, and seized women and children as hostages. They tried to racially divide
the Seminole Nation. Nothing worked and resistance only stiffened.”
Although the sheer numbers would eventually bring defeat to the brave Red and Black Seminoles,
African families lived in separate villages, others married Seminóles, and the two peoples with a
common foe shaped joint diplomatic and military initiatives. Africans, with the most to lose, rose
to Seminole leadership as warriors, interpreters, and military advisors.”
“The two races, the negro and the Indian, are rapidly approximating; they are identical in interests and
feelings,” said U.S. Major General Sidney Thomas Jesup at the time. “Should the Indians remain in
this territory the negroes among them will form a rallying point for runaway negroes from the adjacent
states; and if they remove, the fastness of the country will be immediately occupied by negroes.”
What Katz calls “the first foreign invasion launched by the new U.S. government” was the 1816
assault on the Seminole Nation… an assault met with fierce resistance. After Spain sold Florida
to the U.S. in 1819, America's full military might was put to work reclaiming the land from both
former slaves and their indigenous co-inhabitants. In a scenario that would presage future U.S.
interventions in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Iraq, roughly 4,000 black and Indian fighters
effectively utilized hit-and-run guerrilla tactics against more than 200,000 U.S. Army troops.
“Because they fought on their own soil, Seminole forces ran circles around the numerically and
technologically superior U.S. armies,” Katz says. “U.S. officers violated agreements, destroyed
crops, cattle and horses, and seized women and children as hostages. They tried to racially divide
the Seminole Nation. Nothing worked and resistance only stiffened.”
Although the sheer numbers would eventually bring defeat to the brave Red and Black Seminoles,
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