Seminole Wars Authority

In our last episode, we reviewed how three years of the Seminole Wars Authority podcast have told the story of Seminole resistance to U.S. Government removal efforts. In this episode, we place the podcast in the context of the Foundation’s Frank Laumer Library for Seminole Wars Studies, the Laumer Library for short. We will discuss the themes presented – Black Seminoles, Crackers, Soldiers, Seminoles – among the collection’s two th...

This episode marks an anniversary for the podcast: Three full years’ worth of the Seminole Wars Authority.

We have done as we said we would do when we set out on this long march. We canvassed far and wide for authorities in possession of the knowledge about the Seminole Wars. Some are historians, John Missall and Jesse Marshall and Chris Kimball. Some are professors, Dr. Jim Cusick and Dr. Joe Knetsch, among many others. Some are a...

In the middle of August each year at St. Francis Barracks in St. Augustine, two elegant mules pull a caisson symbolically carrying the remains of the soldiers who had died in the Second Seminole War.

The procession they lead commemorates the first re-interment of soldiers in Aug. 15, 1842. The commanding officer in charge of military operations in Florida, U.S. Army Col. William Worth, declared an end to hostilities and called for ...

In our previous episode, Jesse Marshall gave listeners an overview of newspaper coverage of the Seminole Wars, reviewing their accuracy given the physical and technical constraints of the era. In this episode, Jesse relates the value of these newspapers’ accounts for informing the American public about what actions and activities their government engaged in on their behalf in the Seminole Wars.

Jesse lays out a mixed bag: some news...

A popular conceit for a newspaper is that it is the purported “first draft of a history.” Newspapers informed the public. But they also tended to reflect the public’s opinion. And that opinion for waging the Seminole Wars waned overtime, as did newspaper coverage.

How did local and national newspapers present the Seminole Wars in print? Was the war always front-page news? How did the war’s placement compare to other events of its ...

In 1812, during the East Florida Patriot War incursion against Spanish territorial rule, 15-year-old Louisa Fatio barely escaped when Seminole attacked and partially burned her family's beautiful New Switzerland plantation on the St. Johns River. Louisa was the granddaughter of Francis Philip Fatio, co-founder and later sole owner of the 10,000-acre New Switzerland plantation, west of St. Augustine.

Frantically searching for safety...

A soldier of the Second Seminole War would have led an austere life at remote Army outposts in Florida. Among the few pleasures in his life might have been playing with a deck or cards or dice and getting square meals. What might have had the greatest impact on his morale, however, was the ability to receive and send mail to loved ones back home.

If he was stationed at Fort King, near present day Ocala, he might have sent his pers...

Listeners to this podcast already know that Fort Pierce is a reservation for the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Previously, guest Rollie Gilliam told us about its origins as a home for Black Seminole. In this episode, living historian Jim O’Dell joins us to describe the military origins of Fort Pierce, his hometown.

A U.S. Navy veteran, Jim stepped into the part of playing U.S. Army Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Pierce to present ...

The annual Fort Cooper Days battle commemoration returns March 18 and 19 at Fort Cooper State Park in Inverness. This battle featured militia and volunteers fighting off a Seminole attack in the second of those wars.

A militia captain, rising from the ranks of private to sergeant and then officer, is Howard “Butch” Nipper Junior. He is a proud third generation Florida Cracker and he portrays a Florida Cracker who picks up his musk...

This podcast has featured numerous living historians describing life of Florida’s forebears in the 19th century, whether they be soldiers of the Seminole Wars era, or Seminole, or sutlers, settlers, or crackers. More than one young person witnessing this spectacle has wondered, how can I do what they are doing?

In this episode, Kathleen Ramirez and Will Baker-Palenik tell us how. At a special event Saturday, April 15, Fort King par...

Last week, John and Mary Lou Missall joined us to discuss the novels they’ve written with the Seminole Wars as its setting. In this week’s episode, they return to discuss The Seminole Struggle, their comprehensive general history of the U.S. Government’s near half-century determination to remove Seminole permanently from Florida in the 1800s.

Spoiler alert: the Seminole struggled to resist but in the end the government failed to re...

Over the past quarter century, John and Mary Lou Missall have published a number of books, both histories and novels and some soldier letters about the Seminole Wars. These have been well received. The Seminole Struggle – or as some call it, a reckless waste of blood and treasure -- may be the definitive one-volume history of that long conflict between 1817 – some say even earlier – and 1858.

Along the way, they’ve published a book...

The sands of time, nature, and settlement have ravaged the terrain where Soldiers and Seminole battled each other in Florida in the 1800s.

In South Florida, of course, this is true -- but with a twist. In some cases, modern buildings have been constructed atop archaeological sites that had not been previously excavated -- and without disturbing the ground foundation intrusively. That provides the opportunity for archaeological inve...

We continue our discussion with “new recruits” to the Seminole War living history hobby. Marcus Acosta is a buddy of Ethan Parks, last week’s guest. The two portray Army privates of the 1830s and have “fought” and “died” together on the reenactment stage – but all for a good cause. That cause is honoring the people who fought -- and some who perished -- on these Florida battle sites. Both do this through service representing young ...

In the 1830s, the US Army actively recruited young people from ages 16 up to 23 or so as privates to fill its ranks. In time, the duty that service entailed led to assignment in Florida. It was a miserable duty, where there was a war raging between the US government and the Seminole Indians. Soldiers barely able to shave became the instrument to fight the Seminole and remove them to the Oklahoma territory. 

Jump ahead two centuries...

This week we explore cultural art depicting Gullahs, Seminoles, and Black Seminoles or Seminole Maroons. Our guest is artist Johnny Montgomery, a descendant of Gullahs who were forcibly removed from West Africa and shipped in bondage to America.  He is a proud American with no hyphens.

But he is also quite proud of the Gullah people he descended from, growing up eating healthy portions of eel, crab, and grits. He said eating alliga...

Here’s a little known fact: A Seminole was responsible for the request that brought the British military into the Gulf Coast region during the War of 1812 and set the stage for the famous Battle of New Orleans. [see video series here: https://twoeggflorida.com/1812 or https://youtu.be/t7_dfEWBNYc] Then Chief Thomas Perryman was the Seminole.

You remember that battle, right? General Andrew Jackson and a ragtag force established impr...

Digging deeper. If there is one central element that binds this community of Seminole Wars historians, it is the passionate desire to dig deeper to find the truth. We examined this with recent guests. Jim Flaherty, Rick Obermeyer, and Jeff Snively are long-time practitioners of this historical craft as citizen scholars. And so is Chris Kimball.

In the early days of the public internet – the long-past 1990s -- Chris set up a site to...

As we close this year of 2022, lest old acquaintances be forgotten, we look back at those who were part of the Seminole Wars living history community but who are no longer with us or able to be active. This close-knit community of interest comprises academic historians, for sure. It also hosts large numbers of public historians, the people we call citizen scholars. No paper chase for them to publish or perish. They research for the...