LIVING HISTORY
was dead and minus a scalp. Some pioneers also got scalped.
Suddenly, no cabin in the wilderness was safe; and every big
coastal plantation south of 6t. Augustine was attacked and
destroyed.
When federal reinforcements under Maj. Francis Dade
were massacred out in the middle of nowhere, the war began
in earnest. Settlers were murdered in gruesome ways that
evoked tremendous panic. For safety, all the pioneers had to
hole up in crummy, makeshift stockades scattered around the
upper half of Florida.
JACKSON INSULTS MILITIAS
President Jackson lost patience with the men of Florida for
not putting down the uprising with their militias. He invited
14
them to go get shot by the ,ndians so their wives could
remarry better husbands. As an added insult, the president
boasted that, old and crippled as he was, he could take an
army of 50 women down to Florida and whip every Seminole
in three weeks. ,nstead, -ackson gave -esup the onerous task.
“This is a service which no man would seek with any other
view than the mere performance of his duty,” Jesup said
prophetically, as quoted in the Niles Weekly Register of March
11, 1837. “Distinction, or increase of reputation is out of the
Tuestion and the diculties are such, that the best concerted
plans may result in absolute failure, and the best established
reputation be lost without a fault.”
By the time the main action reached the Treasure Coast,
Seminole leaders had pretended to give up several times.
Surrendering always helped them get more supplies from the
government, including the gunpowder they needed for hunt-
RICK CRARY
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