While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
I suspect "Uncle Sam" was born July 4th, 1776. If
so, he was still a young man, only twenty-eight years old, when Osceola came into the
world. The Red Stick tribe of the Creek Indians had a camp on the bank of the
Chattahoochee. The water of this river is colored by the roots of trees, shrubs, and vines
which grow along its sluggish current, and so it is very black. Osceola's mother, living
near this dark river, named her baby As-sa-he-ola,-black water. Spanish tongues by and by
shortened it to the beautiful and Latin-like name of Osceola. Osceola's mother was the
daughter of a Creek Indian chieftain. His father is said to have been an Indian trader
born in England. There were three children, two girls and the boy. Osceola's mother, the
proud and high-tempered Indian princess, be-came angry for some reason and taking her son
went into the wilderness of southern Georgia and joined her own people, while the father
took his two daughters and passed over to the far West. The princess taught Osceola both
English and her own language, but she had come to hate the white people and did not fail
to bring up her son with the same unkind feelings.
After a time troubles arose between our white
settlers and the Creek Indians in Georgia, and Uncle Sam sent General Jackson with an army
to drive the Indians further South.
At this time Osceola was only fourteen years old; yet he was so
smart and so fierce that he became a leader of his people. Under him they fought hard, and
were driven at last to the middle of Florida, where, not far from one of Uncle Sam's
stockades, called Fort King, the tribe joined the Seminole Indians, who lived there. These
Florida Indians, the Seminoles, were really a part of the Creek nation and spoke almost
the same language. They soon became fond of Osceola, and as their head chief, Micanopy,
was very old, in all fighting Osceola became the real leader. He had two under-chiefs, one
named Jumper and the other Alligator. They were as fierce and hated the white
people as much as he did, and enjoyed doing all he told them to do. As
Osceola grew older he had a fine, manly bearing and a deep, soft, musical voice.
He quickly learned a new language, and he was very skillful in the use of the
bow, though he liked better the white man's rifle with powder and ball. It is
said he
always hit what he aimed at.
For fifteen years Osceola went from tribe to tribe and
from chief to chief all over Florida and other states of the South, wherever he could find
Indians. He always spoke against the white people, saying they were two-faced and would
not treat the Indians with justice and mercy. I believe that Uncle Sam really had a good
feeling for his red children; but the white people were very few in Florida, and they were
afraid of the Indians and wanted to send them away to the West. So they asked Uncle Sam to
send his officers and agents to make a bargain with the red-men. This bargain came about
and was called the "Treaty of Payne's Landing." It was signed at Payne's Landing
on the Ocklawaha River May 9, 1832, by some of the Indian chiefs and by Uncle Sam's white
officers and agents. It was agreed that all the Indians were to go far away beyond the
Mississippi River before the end of the year, and that Uncle Sam should give them $3000
each year and other things which were written in the treaty. Only a few of the Indians
really agreed to go, and Osceola, now twenty-eight years old, was very much against giving
away the Seminole country. He aroused the whole nation, nine tenths of the head men were
with him, and he gathered good warriors, divided them into companies and drilled them.
Osceola called an Indian assembly, and rising to his full height (5 feet 8 inches), took a
strong bow in his right hand and an arrow in his left, and said, "I will not sign a
treaty to give away the Indians' land, and I will kill the chiefs or any followers who
sign it."
Two years passed, and then some Seminole chieftains, who had
gone beyond the Mississippi, returned. They reported against the removal of the Indians,
and the Indian Agent called a meeting of well-known Indians and white men to talk it over.
The old chief, Micanopy, spoke for the Indians, but Osceola sat near and whispered into
his ear what to answer the Indian Agent. Micanopy was old and wanted peace. He, Jumper,
Alligator, and others said they never meant to sign away their land, but only agreed to
send some men to look over the new country before they decided what to do. The meeting
became very excited, and at last Osceola sprang to his feet and defied the agent, saying
in a taunting manner, "Neither I nor my warriors care if we never receive another
dollar from the Great Father." The agent, spreading the treaty upon the table,
remonstrated with Osceola, but the fierce chief drew his long knife from its sheath and
cried: "The only treaty I will execute is with this," and he drove the knife
through and through the paper into the table. Soon after this Osceola had an interview
with Captain Ming of the Coast Survey near Fort King, but he declined every civility and
said, "I will not break bread with a white man." A formal council was arranged,
but here Osceola in a threatening manner seized a surveyor's chain and declared in a loud
voice, "If you cross my land I will break this chain into as many pieces as there are
links in it, and then throw the pieces so far you can never get them together again."
The Indian Agent, in desperation, sent for Osceola and ordered him to sign the papers for
transporting the Indians, but he answered," I will not." When told that General
Jackson, the President, would soon teach him better, Osceola replied, "I care no more
for Jackson than for you."
The Indian Agent knowing that Osceola stirred up his people,
had him put in prison at the fort, but he escaped by making promises to his guards. As
soon as he was free again he began to get his warriors ready for battle. He went from
place to place very fast, hardly stopping for food, till he had a large number of braves
gathered near Fort King. Their knives were kept sharp, but sheathed, and rifles were kept
on hand with enough powder and balls. Five Indians who went to get food were caught and
publicly whipped. Soon after, an Indian was killed; then three white men were wounded and
a white mail-carrier killed. The chief, Emaltha, who was friendly to the treaty, was
assassinated. The war had begun.
It was now 1836 and Osceola was thirty years old. Hearing that
Major Dade, with 110 officers and men, was to pass along the military road from Fort
Brooke at Tampa Bay, Osceola sent Micanopy and Jumper with 800 of his warriors to wait in
ambush for them. It was so well arranged that the whole command except three men were
killed. These three men escaped to Tampa and told the terrible story. Osceola had himself
remained with a small force near Fort King, for he wished to kill the Indian Agent, his
long-time enemy. Lieutenant Smith and the agent were walking quietly toward the sutler's
shop, a half mile from the stockade, when a number of Indians set upon them and both were
killed. The agent was pierced by fourteen bullets and the lieutenant with five. The sutler
and four others were killed, and the store and out-buildings burned. The fire gave the
first alarm at the fort. In the mean-time, Osceola's warriors under Micanopy and Jumper
had been so prompt that the first battle was over before their leader joined them. Then
the dreadful war went on.
Osceola met General Clinch with 1000 regular soldiers at the
crossing of the Withlacoochee River. There were not a thousand Indians, but Osceola
brought them into battle like an experienced general. His men followed his own brave
example and fought with tiger-like ferocity. Osceola is said to have slain forty of our
officers and men with his own hand. The Indians fought till their ammunition was gone, and
then with bows and arrows and knives. After this, Osceola went through many battles, but
he never despaired and never surrendered till the fearful battle came when the Indians
were defeated by General Taylor. Then the waters ran with the blood of Uncle Sam's
quarreling children and Osceola's men were scattered to the four winds. Even then Osceola
would not have been captured but for an act of treachery. He was asked to come to a
conference at a camp not far from St. Augustine. He came with some of his warriors,
trusting to the word of the commander, but he and his companions were at once surrounded
and carried to St. Augustine as prisoners of war. Our officers said it was right to do
this because Osceola had not kept his promises in peace or war, but we do not like to
think that the officers and agents of Uncle Sam broke their word, even if an Indian chief
did not keep his. Though Osceola fought in the Indian way, and hated the treatment that
the white people gave the Indians, still, we know he did not hate the white women and
children, and constantly told his warriors to treat women and children with kindness.
After he was taken to St. Augustine he was in a sad condition.
His spirit was broken by defeat and imprisonment, and he grew feeble as he realized there
was no escape. When he was taken to Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor he knew that he
should never see his own land again. Then he refused food, would see no visitors, and
died, broken-hearted, after a short illness, aged thirty-three. He was a brave enemy, and
respected as he had been by the Indian nation, his manly nature was too proud to be long
under the control of the white man.
1 Of course General Howard never saw Osceola, for he was only a lad when
the Seminole War was fought. But he heard many vivid accounts, at the time, of the bravery
and skill of that fierce Indian warrior, and so a sketch of Osceola fitly opens the
book.-EDIT0R.
