Another Trail of Tears

The effort to relocate the Seminoles was costly and deadly for both sides.

- Mark Boardman

Before the forced removal of Cherokees from their tribal lands between 1836 and 1839—the so-called “Trail of Tears”—another tribe, the Seminoles, bitterly fought relocation.

The Seminole Trail of Tears tracks to 1817, when U.S. troops invaded tribal lands in Spanish-owned Florida, looking for escaped slaves. Troops led by Gen. Andrew Jackson destroyed Seminole villages and crops. The general would be a thorn in the side of the tribe in coming years, especially after Florida became U.S. property in 1819.

The Treaty of Moultrie in 1824 established a Florida reservation for the Seminole, but many lived in their home areas instead. White settlers who wanted the Seminole land pressured the government to remove the tribe.