Osceola

Osceola (1800?-1838), Seminole leader, born near the Chattahoochee River, in Georgia. His father was a British trader and his mother the daughter of a Creek chief. His mother took him to live in northern Florida while he was still very young, and there he became a leader of the Seminoles heading the opposition to the cession of tribal territories to the United States.

Osceola was the recognized leader of the faction of Seminoles that strongly objected to negotiating with the U.S. government in 1835 for the westward migration of the tribe. As a result of his opposition Osceola was briefly imprisoned. A few months after his release he began attacks on the Americans, precipitating large-scale warfare between the Seminoles and the United States. In 1837 he was seized while conferring under a flag of truce with the American military commander and was imprisoned first at Saint Augustine, Florida, and then at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, where he died. See Seminole Wars.