The three Seminole wars were brought on by U.S. territorial expansion, Native factions resisting the U.S. policy of removal, and slavery. There was constant turmoil on the Florida border. Slaves seeking freedom slipped across from Georgia and Alabama. Parties of slave catchers roved in Spanish North Florida. The Spanish government could not maintain order.

In November, 1817 a military conflict erupted when General Edmund Gaines attempted to take Chief Neamathla into custody. The fusillade that ensued is considered the start of the First War. Four months later, President Monroe sent General Andrew Jackson into the tangle. Monroe knew the General could seize Florida given the chance. Jackson, with 3,500 men, half of them Creek Warriors, invaded West Florida. In eleven weeks, 9 March - 24 May 1818, he destroyed Indian settlements and fighting power west of the Suwannee River. He also captured the only two Spanish settlements in West Florida: St. Marks and Pensacola. His conquest ended the First War and convinced Spain that she had lost control of the Territory. Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. in 1819.

With this transfer, the future of the Seminoles in Florida was in jeopardy. The Seminoles were a loose aggregation of bands: Hitchiti, Coweta, Miccosukee, Hilibi, Eufaula, Uchi, and others. All migrated to Florida from the river valleys of Georgia and Alabama beginning in the early 1700's and a second migration between 1812 and 1820. White encroachment after 1819 drove them to military action again in 1835. Joined now by escaped slaves known as Black Seminoles, they ravaged the plantations along the St. Johns River, and on 28 December killed the Indian Agent and associates outside of Ft. King and also wiped out a column of 108 American soldiers marching to the relief of Ft. King. Thus began the Second Seminole War.

Osceola, a Seminole warrior, provided leadership until he sickened late in 1837. This leadership was shared variously between Wildcat, Alligator, Jumper, Halleck, Billy Bowlegs and Sam Jones (Abiaka). The United States sent its top four generals against the Seminoles, and each left Florida with his reputation diminished.

The fourth of them, Major General Thomas S. Jesup, claiming treachery on the part of the Indians, began to capture their leaders any way he could. Most notorious was his seizure of Osceola under a flag of truce on 27 October 1837. Jesup also succeeded in splitting the black warriors away from the Seminoles.

Colonel Zachary Taylor commanded at the principal pitched battle, close to Lake Okeechobee on Christmas Day 1837. His casualties were high, twelve percent of 1,032 men, but he emerged a national hero and a Brigadier General.

The last two U.S. commanders of the Second War, Walter K. Armistead and William Jenkins Worth, relied on small detachments guided by captured blacks and Indian prisoners to penetrate the Everglades and discover the Indian hideouts. Blacks or Indian prisoners guided them to the remaining Seminole hideaways. There they destroyed what was left of Seminole subsistence. Band after band of the Seminoles, ragged, hungry and short of ammunition, finally surrendered. In August 1842, the U.S. declared the action at an end. During seven years of war, it had committed every regiment of the Army to the struggle, with a loss of some 1500 men, most of them to disease. Thirty thousand citizen soldiers were involved, many of whom perished. In the end over 4,000 Seminoles were forcibly emigrated to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma at a cost of nearly $15,000  and the life of  one soldier for every two Indians removed.  Remaining in Florida were approximately 350 Seminoles living south of Lake Okeechobee.

White encroachment continued, driving the Seminoles to fight once more. Led by Billy Bowlegs they attacked a military camp on 20 December 1855, beginning what is known as the Third Seminole War. This was followed by fifteen months of guerilla warfare. The last skirmish took place on 5 March 1857. Chief Bowlegs, certain that the cause was lost, accepted $8,000 to migrate, taking with him 165 followers. About 120 Seminoles remained behind. The U.S. declared this war at an end on 8 May 1858. Descendents of the remaining Seminoles still live in Florida and claim the rights of a sovereign nation. Members of the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma are descended from Seminoles expatriated during the war era.

Today, Florida's Seminole and Miccosukee peoples are organized into two federally recognized tribes. Against all odds, these courageous people are thriving on seven reservations across the state.

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